Thomas Worthley

As Associate Extension Professor, UConn Extension Forester Tom Worthley provides educational programming to woodland owners, organizations and professionals around the state through programs such as the Coverts Project. He also teaches Dendrology and Forest Management classes for UConn undergraduate students. As chairperson of the UConn Forest Committee, he has some responsibility for UConn Forest land and he mentors and supervises students on the UConn Forest Crew. Actively helping facilitate research projects through "Stormwise" and other initiatives he is examining the potential for wood product value recovery from roadside forest management and other small-scale management activities. Working with non-traditional harvesting methods and local utilization scenarios, perhaps our roadside forests and small-area habitat projects might also become “working lands,” generating local jobs and economic activity. 

Assistant Extension Professor
Middlesex County Extension Center
1066 Saybrook Road
Haddam, CT 06438
(860) 345-4511
email: thomas.worthley@uconn.edu

Robert Fahey, Ph.D.

Dr. Fahey is interested in understanding linkages between the composition, structure, and functioning of forest ecosystems and designing and testing management strategies focused on manipulating these aspects of forests to increase their resilience to a variety of stressors. He works across the spectrum of anthropogenic impacts in forests from urban to rural, and is particularly interested in adapting ecological and silvicultural knowledge to human-dominated landscapes. He is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment at the University of Connecticut and received his B.S. in Natural Resources from Cornell University, M.S. in Forest Science from Oregon State University, and Ph.D. in Forest Ecology and Management from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. 

Assistant Professor (Forest Ecology and Management)
Department of Natural Resources and the Environment
University of Connecticut
U-4087, 1376 Storrs Road
Storrs, CT 06269-014

(860) 486-4169

Email: robert.fahey@uconn.edu

Mayra Rodríguez, Ph.D.

Rodríguez is an urban social ecologist who holds a Ph.D. in forestry and natural resources from Purdue University. Rodríguez helps city agencies and organizations improve natural resource management and address environmental injustice in their communities.

Before coming to UConn, Rodríguez was a postdoctoral research fellow at the Gund Institute for Environment and the Spatial Analysis Laboratory at the Rubenstein School for Environment and Natural Resources at the University of Vermont.

Assistant Extension Educator

* Environmental Justice
* Natural Resource Management

Hartford County Extension Center
Exchange Building - Suite 262

270 Farmington Avenue, Farmington, CT, 06032
(860) 409-9050
Email: mayra.rodriguez@uconn.edu

Robert M. Ricard, Ph.D., CF

Robert (Bob) Ricard is a Senior Extension Educator with the Department of Extension, College of Agriculture, Health, and Natural Resources. Bob came to the University of Connecticut in 1991 to conduct urban forestry outreach education, teaching, and research, which he continues to do. He also is the Coordinator for the UConn Extension Disaster Education Network (UCONN EDEN) teaching and research disaster science and emergency preparedness and previously served as the College’s Land Use and Water Program Team Leader. He has taught Human Dimensions in Natural Resources for the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment and currently teaches a college wide course, Leadership Development in Extension Education.

Bob conducts the Tree Warden School and assists the Tree Wardens’ Association of Connecticut, Inc., which he formed in 1992. Bob created and conducted the Meskwaka Tree Project for volunteers for 23 years. He is co-author of Greening Connecticut Cities and Towns (2005) with Glenn Dreyer and serves on the state Tree Examining Board. Bob holds a Ph.D. in public policy with two master’s degrees in forest genetics and silviculture. He was elected Fellow of the Society of American Foresters in 2005, was awarded the National Technology Transfer Award in 2015 by that organization, and was awarded the UConn Provost Award for Excellence in Extension Education the same year.

Retired Senior Extension Educator

* Urban and Community Forestry
* Human Dimensions of Natural Resources

Hartford County Extension Center
Exchange Building - Suite 262

270 Farmington Avenue, Farmington, CT, 06032
(860) 409-9050
Email: robert.ricard@uconn.edu