Sustainable Living degree program
Faculty
David Fisher
Associate Professor of Botany
Director of the Sustainable Living program
B.S., North Carolina State University at Raleigh, 1971
M.S., Ph.D., University of Wisconsin, 1975, 1981
David Fisher served as a research scientist at the USDA Forest Experiment Station in Rhinelander, Wisconsin, a Humboldt fellow at the University of Göttingen, Germany, and a researcher in the Botany Department at the University of Wisconsin. Prior to joining the faculty of Maharishi University of Management, he was a professor and researcher at the University of Hawaii. His research on potato breeding has been supported by a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Lawrence (Lonnie) A. Gamble, P.E.
Assistant Professor of Sustainable Living
B.S., Electrical Engineering,
North Carolina State University, 1980
Mr. Gamble is a partner in Abundance Ecovillage in Fairfield, Iowa, a development of 25 homes where power is generated by solar and wind on site, water comes from rain catchment, and edible, useful, and beautiful plants fill the landscape. He is also developing permaculture farms in Iowa and Hawaii. He is on the teaching staff for permaculture courses at La Akea Gardens in Puna, East Hawaii, Bullock Brothers Farm in Orcas Island Washington, and Maharishi University of Management. He is a consultant in the development the University’s Sustainable Living program and is active in community organizing in all areas of sustainable living. He and his wife Valerie grow and sell vegetables locally in Fairfield, Iowa. He has been living for 10 years in a solar and wind powered straw bale home. He has published articles in Home Power Magazine and the proceedings of the American Solar Energy Society. He regularly speaks at conferences and seminars, including the Midwest Renewable Energy Conference, the Iowa Renewable Energy Conference, the American Solar Energy Society conference, and the Ecofair at Maharishi University of Management. Previously, he founded five companies in the areas of telecommunications and renewable energy development. He has a degree in Electrical Engineering from North Carolina State University and is a registered professional engineer. Mr. Gamble is a Licensed Professional Engineer (Maine).
Steve McLaskey
Assistant Professor of Biology and Agriculture
B.S. Maharishi International University, 1989
M.S., Ph.D., Cornell University, 1994, 1997
Steve McLaskey leads the University’s undergraduate program in sustainable agriculture. He manages the organic vegetable garden and permaculture fruit orchard that are used as outdoor laboratories. His efforts are largely responsible for bringing organic food to the campus dining halls and making the University’s food service a model for such large universities as Yale and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Robert Keith Wallace
Professor of Physiology
B.S., University of California at Los Angeles, 1967
Ph.D., University of California at Los Angeles, 1970
Dr. Robert Keith Wallace is recognized as the pioneering researcher in the neurophysiology of higher states of consciousness. His seminal research was published in such prestigious scientific journals as Scientific American, Science, and The American Journal of Physiology. It was Dr. Wallace’s research on the physiology of meditation that opened the door for the study of the relationship between mind and body and its application in the field of behavioral medicine. After receiving his Ph.D. in physiology in 1970 at University of California, at Los Angeles, he did postdoctoral research at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Wallace is the founding president of Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Iowa. Currently a member of the board of trustees, as well as Professor of Physiology, and Co-Director of the doctoral programs in neuroscience and physiology, Dr. Wallace is the author of two books, The Neurophysiology of Enlightenment and The Physiology of Consciousness, and has lectured extensively to large groups in over 50 countries around the world.
Brian Horsfield
Adjunct Professor of Geology
B.S., University of East Anglia, U.K. 1978
PhD, University of East Anglia, U.K. 1984
Following his undergraduate studies in Environmental Sciences, Brian Horsfield specialized in Glacial Geology comparing recent glacial deposits in Scotland with modern analogues in Iceland and Spitsbergen. He has worked in the diamond exploration industry in Canada, South Africa, Australia and Finland, and as a lecturer in Geography and Earth Sciences at Bermuda College. He founded Island Maps, a digital cartography company based in Bermuda, and served as Vice President of Vastu Development Corporation; a company developing 70 acres of land on Salt Spring Island in British Columbia for residences built according to principles of Maharishi Sthapatya Veda.
Michael W. Lerom, M.S.
Assistant Professor of Chemistry
Michael Lerom received his M.S. degree in organic chemistry from the University of Oregon. He worked as a synthetic organic chemist at Stanford Research Institute (now called SRI International) for 13 years and then came to Maharishi University of Management in 1980 to teach General Chemistry and Organic Chemistry courses.
Vicki Alexander
Associate Professor of Law and Government
B.A. Wellesley College, 1972
J.D., Boston University School of Law, 1978
Vicki Alexander began her career working as an associate in a large Boston law firm. Her work extended to include research on crime reduction, health and conflict resolution, including a groundbreaking study on reducing collective tensions at the basis of the Middle East conflict. She is now director of the University’s Institute for Research on Higher States of Consciousness and acts as advisor to the Institute for Science, Technology and Public Policy. She also holds the Charles N. Alexander Chair of Psychology established in her husband’s honor.
David Goodman
Assistant Professor of Management
B.A., McGill University (Canada), 1976
M.B.A., Ph.D., Maharishi International University, 1989, 1996
David Goodman is a board member of the Fairfield Entrepreneurs Association and is a consultant to firms helping them write business plans and raise capital. He is currently involved in several green entrepreneurship projects, including a company that manufactures and promotes ceramic tiles with a photovoltaic overlay that allows buildings to utilize solar energy. His research is involved with how sustainable wealth can be created in tune with Natural Law.
Kenneth West
Assistant Professor of Management
M.B.A., Maharishi International University, 1988
B.A., Maharishi International University, 1975
Professor West has previously been director of the University Press and also served as treasurer. He provided on-site administrative planning and faculty development to the Rajapark College in Bangkok, Thailand. He has also introduced the University’s Consciousness-Based educational system to high schools in the Philippines and to college and governmental representatives in Nicaragua.
Jonathan Lipman
A.I.A.
B.A., Cornell University, 1977
Jonathan Lipman is an award-winning architect and Past President of the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy. He is Chief Architect of Maharishi Global Construction and Director of theMaharishi Sthapatya Veda Consultation Service for North America. He has overseen over 200 Maharishi Sthapatya Veda design consultations across the U.S. on houses and commercial buildings. He has spoken on architecture at Harvard, Yale, Cornell, Columbia, the Smithsonian Institution, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and annual national architectural conferences.
Sam Suffern
Environmental Consultant
B.S., State University of New York, 1967
M.Phil., Yale University, 1970
Ph.D., Yale University, 1973
Since 1981, Sam Suffern has worked as a consultant and pollution prevention manager, helping businesses learn to operate live ecosystems. In the past five years alone, he has conducted site assessments and hazardous material removal projects, carried out a water development project reivew in Guatemala for Rotary International, and created pollution prevention plans for U.S. Army and Navy bases. Before 1981, he conducted extensive research in the field of environmental science, worked in the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection, and taught biology at Yale University.
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