Neville Handel

Contact Information: 213 Miller Hall | nhandel@email.unc.edu | (919) 843-9714

Research Interests

Studying the efficacy and potential of habitat corridors to maximize connectivity in a fragmented landscape, focusing particularly on threatened/endangered/declining area-sensitive species and their associated communities, as well as the potential for facilitating successful migration of taxa in the face of global climate change; land use planning and policy; community/stakeholder participation in conservation projects.

About Me

As an Undergraduate at Kenyon College, I majored in Anthropology and took many classes in the liberal arts tradition (Philosophy, Reilgion, English, etc.) Somehow, despite a lifelong interest in nature and protecting the environment, I managed not to take any classes in Biology or the Environmental sciences. Archaeology took me to East Africa and Central America, and I travelled to and around West Africa and Europe before eventually landing in Asheville, NC. While in Asheville I began taking Environmental studies classes at UNCA, spurred on by a stint as a carpenter and seeing the waste and ecological destruction that is common in the construction of new homes. I was hooked and eventually decided that grad school was the appropriate direction to take. The rest is history.

Beyond my academic interests I pass the majority of my time being happily married, playing and appreciating music (a little bit of everything), dealing with the problem of balancing an addiction to disc golf and all of the other responsibilities in my life, hiking and camping, walking the dogs, cooking and eating, and enjoying good beer and wine.