Dr. Patrick Long, Director

Long brings to the Center extensive experience in grappling with the competing requirements of regional development and resource conservation. He comes to ECU from the Leeds School of Business, University of Colorado at Boulder, where he established the nation's first sustainable tourism center. Long will hold tenure in ECU's College of Business and apply a much-practiced interdisciplinary approach in guiding the development of a new MS degree offering in Tourism Management, as well as directing the Center's plans for multi-campus partnerships in sustainable tourism.  He served for a number of years as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the National Rural Tourism Foundation as well as President/CEO of that organization.  His scholarly publications have appeared in Annals of Tourism, Journal of Travel Research, Journal of Sustainable Tourism, Journal of Business Research and Tourism Management, among others.

Vita 

Dr. Huili Hao, Research Director

Huili comes to the Center from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where she completed her doctoral degree in August 2008 in Public Policy with a concentration in urban and regional planning. Her research interests lie in regional development, particularly issues that concern the dynamics of regional growth, development policy, and factors that affect the environmental and economic health of communities and regions. Her recent research focuses on economic, environmental, and social benefits of redeveloping environmentally distressed brownfields sites. For the last three years, she has been a primary researcher working on an EPA-sponsored grant. For this project, she mapped locations of all brownfield sites in Mecklenburg County using GIS and conducted statistical analyses to explore brownfields sites relationships to crime, school performance, poverty, employment, economic outcomes and environmental quality. As Research Director, Huili brings to the Center a combination of technical GIS and statistical skills, integrated project conduction expertise and experience in academic research and student interaction.

Alex Naar, Coordinator, Sustainable Tourism Initiatives

Alex has been recreating in North Carolina since he was a little boy and went to summer camp in the Blue Ridge Mountains. It was there he fell in love with what our state has to offer and began a lifelong commitment to environmental protection. While attending high school in Asheville, Alex became an avid outdoorsman: backpacking in Pisgah National Forest, rock climbing in Linville Gorge, and fishing in the high country. He has provided hundreds of children with various outdoor adventures while serving as a summer camp counselor and program director and continues his interest in summer camp programs and outdoor recreation in North Carolina. He graduated summa cum laude from the University of Colorado at Boulder, where he joined the first generation of trained sustainable business people. While in Boulder he also worked with the Boulder County Government program Partners for a Clean Environment conducting environmental outreach and education with local businesses. Alex is being funded through the ECU Office of Economic Development (OED) and working jointly with the OED, the North Carolina Department of Tourism, Film and Sports Development and the Center for Sustainable Tourism. 

Dr. Cynthia Deale, Western North Carolina Regional Representative

Cynthia Deale is interested in working with communities, businesses, and educational institutions on projects that strive to balance all areas of sustainability in terms of tourism, including economic, environmental, cultural, and social sustainability. She has had an interest in sustainability and tourism for many years and has included students in authentic community outreach, service-learning projects related to sustainable practices in hospitality and tourism business operations and community activities. For example, students in her classes were major organizers and volunteers behind the inaugural Appalachian Growers’ Fair held at the Monteith farmstead in the spring of 2008. The event focused on showcasing local growers, native plants, locally grown and produced food, and local entertainment. As Western Regional Representative, Cynthia brings expertise in sustainability education for community and businesses and will contribute to outreach in the western region of the state in conjunction with the Center.

Lana Williams, Administrative Assistant

Lana Williams is the Administrative Assistant for the Center for Sustainable Tourism.  She brings over 20 years of administrative experience and has been with East Carolina University (ECU) since 2007.  Some of her accomplishments include completing all of the ECU Human Resources Certification Programs including Budget Manager, Leave Clerk, Administrative I & II and Supervisory I & II, all within a year.  Prior to coming to the Center, she worked as the Business Manager for the ECU Police Department.  Lana served honorably for six years in the US Air Force.  She is a native New Yorker but has lived in Eastern North Carolina since 2005.