Gary Paul Nabhan
| Gary Paul Nabhan | |
|---|---|
| Born |
17 March 1952 Gary, Indiana |
| Fields | Ecology, Ethnobotany |
| Institutions |
Native Seeds/SEARCH Northern Arizona University University of Arizona. |
| Alma mater | Prescott College, University of Arizona |
| Known for | Natural/Cultural History writings Cofounding "Native Seeds/SEARCH" Pollinator Decline Local foods Seed saving Collaborative conservation |
| Notable awards |
John Burroughs Medal MacArthur Fellowship, Pew Conservation Scholar Southwest Book Award, Lannan Literary Award Kellogg Endowed Chair |
Native Seeds/SEARCH
Sabores Sin Fronteras
Gary Paul Nabhan (born 1952) is an Agricultural Ecologist, Ethnobotanist, Ecumenical Franciscan Brother, and author whose work has focused primarily on the plants and cultures of the desert Southwest. He is considered a pioneer in the local food movement and the heirloom seed saving movement.
A first-generation Lebanese American, Nabhan was raised in Gary, Indiana. He excelled in high school which gave him the opportunity to attend Cornell College in Mt. Vernon, Iowa for 18 months. He then transferred to Prescott College in Arizona, earning a B.A. in Environmental Biology in 1974, and has remained in-state ever since. He has an M.S. in plant sciences (horticulture) from the University of Arizona (1978), and a Ph.D. in the interdisciplinary arid lands resource sciences also at the University of Arizona (“Papago Fields: Arid Lands Ethnobotany and Agricultural Ecology”, 1983). During this time he started working with, and learning from, the Tohono O’odham American Indians.
He co-founded Native Seeds/SEARCH while working at the University of Arizona. It is a non-profit conservation organization which works to preserve indigenous southwestern agricultural plants as well as knowledge of their uses (1982-1993). He then served as director of science at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum (1993-2000), before becoming founding director of the Center for Sustainable Environments at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, AZ (2000-2008). In 2008 he moved back south to Tucson and joined the University of Arizona faculty as a research social scientist with the Southwest Center, where he now serves as the Kellogg Endowed Chair in Southwestern Borderlands Food and Water Security. He sits on several boards of conservation organizations.
As detailed in his writings, he married at a young age and had a family, but he was divorced in the late 1980s, later marrying a second time, this time with Caroline Wilson in the early 1990s. He is currently married to his third wife, Laurie Monti (formerly of Northern Arizona University) and lives near Patagonia, Arizona on a five-acre homestead to the southwest of town. He farms a diverse set of heirloom fruit and nut varieties from the Spanish Mission era and from the Middle Eastern homelands of his Lebanese ancestors, as well as heritage grains and beans adapted to arid climates.
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