Faculty Affiliates

Faculty Affiliates share an interest and enthusiasm for the Center's mission, conduct tourism research activities in conjunction with the Center, serve as thesis advisors and members, and mentor students working on sustainable tourism related research.

Derek Alderman

As a cultural geographer, his main research interests focus on examining the relationship between the politics of place-making and tourism promotion and development, how tourist places and spaces serve as arenas for the negotiation of identity, social power, memory within communities.

Thomas R. Allen

He is fascinated by the revolution in science and technology that allows us to map with unprecedented accuracy and precision as well as to record and analyze spatial patterns and processes. Allen work on problems with a holistic perspective that includes the spatial dynamics of environmental systems.

Okmyung "Paul" Bin

Associate Professor, Department of Economics. Paul Bin's interests lie in the area of assisting communities with the efficient management of coastal resources. He used a unique integration of geospatial data and economic models to estimate the impacts of climate change on North Carolina's coastal recreation and tourism. He is particularly interested in examining how coastal real estate markets respond to risks associated with sea-level rise including coastal flooding, shoreline erosion, and storm damages.

Robert A. Chin

Primary focus has been on the scholarship of learning, which includes experimenting with methods of instructional delivery or the use of instructional technology, adapting pedagogical approaches from widely-differing disciplines, and developing and testing new technical content to prepare students for professions and leadership positions in business and industry.

Bryna Coonin

Coonin's research relates more to libraries and to scholarly communication than to disciplines directly touching upon tourism. Her strength is less in doing research directly on tourism, but in helping others find existing research, and to assist them in producing more of it.

Tom Crawford

Crawford's research investigates human–environment interactions from spatial analytical perspectives that involve linking populations to environments using geospatial data and methods. Recently, He's been working on the impact of migration and development pressure on land use and cover in coastal regions of the southeastern US.

Scott Curtis

Overall, his research interests are in tropical meteorology and global precipitation variability, using remotely sensed satellite data. He has written extensively on predicting and describing the El Niño/Southern Oscillation and its global impacts.

Cynthia Deale

Her research interests include teaching and learning in hospitality and tourism, hospitality and tourism management practices, and service. She has special interests in the scholarship of teaching and learning and sustainable hospitality and tourism.

David Edgell

Dr. Edgell has been dedicated to conducting quality multidisciplinary research focusing on issues relevant to tourism policy and planning, tourism development, sustainable tourism, and tourism management. In these research areas he has produced books, monographs, book chapters, journal articles and other presentations.

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Ashley Egan

I am interested in the development and planning of ecotourism and environmental voluntourism in the context of biologcal and botanical issues, such as invasive and endangered species management, agroforestry or agriculture economic development, or nature center management and program. I would especially like to develop a self-sustaining eci/voluntourism initiative in conjunction with the Great Smokey Mountain National Park, to help eraducate kudzu (Pueraria Lobata), a highly invasive legume species that plagues the southeast U.S

Luci Fernandes

I am a cultural anthropologist whose area of interest is contemporary Cuban history and culture. Since the summer of 2000, I have conducted ethnographic research on various aspects of Cuban society including resource distribution, social networks, and socialist societies in transition. My current research involves a detailed analysis of resource distribution and social networks. I analyze how people make ends meet despite scarcity of goods, restrictions on trade and business, along with the importance of social relations to guarantee the allocation of goods and services.

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Joseph D. Fridgen

The human–environment interface is critical to the sustainable use of resources and amenities in tourism settings and destinations. I am interested in this interrelationship from a perceptual and behavioral perspective as these are related to planning, marketing, and promotion.

Stephanie B. Jilcott

I am interested in partnering with communities to foster healthy and wholesome food systems and physical activity environments conducive to promoting public health, economic development, and environmental sustainability in rural and underserved areas.

Donna J. Kain

My recent work focuses on risk and emergency communication in coastal areas, including tourist destinations, that are affected by severe weather conditions and potential problems related to environmental concerns such as climate change and oil spills. Effective communication helps communities prepare for and cope with emergencies, disasters, and environmental change such as sea level rise.

Craig Landry

He is primarily an applied economist, utilizing empirical and experimental methods. Landry has expertise in natural resource and environmental economics, nonmarket valuation, experimental economics, and, to a lesser extent, behavioral economics.

Daniel J.Marcucci

My research and professional work focuses on the evolution of landscapes and the creation of landscapes and ecoregions as viable,dynamic,and sustainable. My experience is in the area of how to process shape landscapes and how intentional planning and design influence landscape trajectories.

Hunt McKinnon

His current research interests relate to the special needs of older adults and in extending care to them in their homes in lieu of institutional settings such as assisted living facilities or nursing homes. The focus of this research is to determine a menu of services that can be offered to allow the older adult to live in their own homes for as long as possible.

Calvin Mires

Staff Archaeologist, Program in Maritime Studies, Department of History. Calvin Mires's research interests lie in various areas: maritime archaeology, public outreach, and cultural resource management. He is interested in understanding better how the public perceives and values cultural resources and what role different media of public outreach can play in these perceptions.

Ronald L. Mitchelson

Professor and Chair, Department of Geography. Ronald Mitchelson's main research interests focus on examining the relationship between transportation and the location of facilities, e.g., golf courses. He generally finds that the quest for good location generally yields substantial spatially-based inequality. He uses GIS and advanced statistical analysis to provide predictive analyses of facility locations or the volume of flows one might expect.

Karen A. Mulcahy

Her recent involvement towards the development of the Contentnea as a regional tourism destination is a logical progression from my previous efforts. This effort has the potential to provide enormous assistance to this community by drawing in tourists and tourist dollars to support the local economy, developing local businesses and providing employment, and by encouraging the recognition and protection of the tremendous natural and cultural resources of the region.

William Obernour

In general, his research interests include destination image, tourism symbolic capital, sustainable tourism development and practices, travel constraints, tourism quality, travel narratives, and backpackers' journeys. The specific problem statement for his research agenda is to investigate the formation of symbolic capital for destination development which is derived from the destination image and the tourists' perceptions of a journey.

Robert M. O'Halloran

Professor and Chair, Department of Hospitality Management. Robert O'Halloran's interests lie in the development of infrastructure to support tourism through sustainable means. His research focuses on the examination of a market in terms of business decision making and return on investment considering preservation, conservation, recycling, and green initiatives in general for hotels, resorts, restaurants, and other businesses associated with the tourism industry.

Jason Oliver

In the past, the majority of research on marketing environmentally friendly products has focused on why "green" consumers buy "green" products. However, these self-labeled eco-conscious consumers only comprise approximately 5% of the population. I am focused on understanding the other 95% of the population.

Enrique Reyes

Associate Professor, Department of Biology. Enrique Reyes is interested as an applied scientist in exploring opportunities that meet coastal needs for climate-related decision support, enhancing communication with coastal managers and policy makers for more extensive incorporation of human dimensions into existing regional ecosystem models and coastal simulations with the aim to build groundwork for the development of an integrated socio-ecological model.

Nathan Richards

Assistant Professor, Program in Maritime Studies, Department of History. Nathan Richard's research interests lie in a number of areas—archaeological theory, archaeological site significance and site formation, cultural resource management, ship construction, and maritime cultural landscapes. In particular he is interested in the application of high-tech visualization tools for research and cultural tourism development—especially the use of acoustic remote sensing and three-dimensional photogrammetric techniques for these purposes.

Paige P. Schneider

Her interests lie in the area consumer behavior and tourism, specifically adventure and ecotourism. She has over 12 years experience of travel industry management which offers me valuable insight and an understanding of the importance of translating research into practical application for the tourism industry.

Olga V. Smirnova

My research interests focus on the public policy dimensions of urban and regional economic development with the concentration on transportation systems. The transportation infrastructure is especially important for the development at the local level, including the progress of tourism industry.

Catherine F. Smith

I am a specialist in professional communication with general interests in public discourse. I am particularly interested in communication in or with government at any level. Past studies focused on deliberation in Congressional committee public hearings. Recent studies focus on professional and public communication in operations of county emergency management during hurricanes in eastern North Carolina.

Rebecca Sweet

Her research is a qualitative, interpretive research study that examines seminal architecture and design solutions to identify qualities that each work shares according to a prescribed set of criteria. The integration of this body of research led to the definition of a unique framework for interior design entitled Interior Environmental Poetics.

Larry E. Tise

Wilbur and Orville Wright Distinguished Professor of History. Larry Tise's interests lie in the area of advising and assisting academic and community organizations on matters relating to the Wright Brothers and the origins of manned flight. He has researched all aspects of Wright Brothers history and the impact of the Wright Brothers on North Carolina as a tourist destination. He is also an expert on the history of the Lost Colony phenomena—especially efforts to convert the history of the Raleigh colonies into a tourist attraction.

Hans Vogelsong

Dr. Vogelsong has over 10 years of experience researching various facets of outdoor recreation participation and management. Although his most recent projects have centered around social-psychological aspects of coastal and estuarine recreation and tourism, Dr. Vogelsong has directed projects concentrating on a diverse array of applied recreation-related subjects including user conflicts, carrying capacity, human dimensions of resource management, economic impacts, use patterns, satisfaction, user preferences for management alternatives, recreation choice behavior, and minimizing depreciative behavior.

Melvin Weber

He concurs with the research vision of East Carolina University: "The research mission of East Carolina University is to advance knowledge, to encourage creative activity, to solve significant human problems, and to provide the foundation for professional practice through the support of basic and applied research."

Shaun Willson

Instructor, Department of Biology. Shaun Willson has a primary interest in releasing the enormous pool of information regarding sustainability, too often sequestered within academia, and sharing it with the non-academic public through the use of environmentally responsible means. After building a sustainable home and changing his lifestyle to decrease his ecological footprint, his interests turned toward the practical aspects of sustainable lifestyles and behaviors, bridging the gap between the academic research and "sustainability-in-action." His current work focuses on professional and cultural acceptance of (1) a standard definition for sustainability and (2) a method of measurement.