History of the Program

1998-present; a look at the significant events that have shaped the Program.

These major gifts have had significant positive impacts on the Program.

Professor Robert Humston, the Inaugural John Kyle Spencer Director of Environmental Studies, gave a lecture on October 17, 2019, titled "Environmental Optimism is not an Oxymoron".

John Kyle Spencer, a 2013 graduate of Washington and Lee’s Environmental Studies Program, passed away unexpectedly in January of 2016. As a major in both Philosophy and Environmental Studies, John embraced the interdisciplinary nature of Environmental Studies and the myriad learning opportunities the liberal arts curriculum offered him. At the time of his death, John was a graduate student in the Odum School of Ecology at the University of Georgia.