Sam Colvin

Office:   ML G31G
Phone:  (304) 696-5432
Email:   colvin8@marshall.edu

Sam Colvin received a bachelor's degree and a master's degree from WVU. He has taken postgraduate courses at Marshall.

Sam has worked on environmental issues since the first Earth Day in 1970. He has been employed at the city, county and state levels in West Virginia. He was an Extension Agent for two years and the Community Development Director of Huntington for three years. He served as Executive Director of the WV Resource Recovery-Solid Waste Disposal Authority for eleven years. He was a market development representative for a major environmental company for one year. He has operated an environmental consulting business since 1990.

Sam has been a member of the WV Solid Waste Management Board and the WV Water Quality Advisory Committee. He served two years as Executive Director of the Ohio River Basin Consortium for Research and Education.

Sam's major environmental emphasis is solid waste, including recycling and composting. He is a certified yard waste facility operator and has received the National Backyard Compost training and the Compost Facility Best Management Practices training.

Sam has taught at Marshall since the spring of 2000. He has taught ISC Living on Earth, IST 111 Living Systems, IST 320 Nature of Environmental Problems, and IST 321 Resolution of Environmental Problems. He has been involved in two Campus Compact service learning grants.

His current research and service projects include (1) effects on plant growth of crushed glass as a bulking agent for compost, (2) effectiveness of Cabell County's proposed 50% waste reduction strategy, (3) Fourpole Creek assessment and improvement, (4) environmental impacts on campus - student campus observations, and (5) proposed campus food waste compost programs.

Sam lives in rural Wayne County, WV with his wife, Prudence, and their two sons, Andrew and Samuel. The family is active in church and youth baseball.