On March 28, 2018, Dr. Chadwick Rittenhouse was recognized as the 2018 recipient of the Kinsman Award for Excellence in Teaching by a junior faculty member in the College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources (CAHNR). Dr. Rittenhouse joined UConn in 2011 as an Assistant Research Professor and launched the Sustainable Environmental Planning and Management (SEPM) Online Graduate Certificate Program in 2014. Dr. Rittenhouse coordinates and instructs for the SEPM Program, which focuses on building professional skills for those currently in sustainable environmental and natural resource positions or eager to learn more about these fields. Students study ecological systems, decision-making processes, communication methods and software-based geospatial tools. Rittenhouse says, “I encourage each student to tailor class projects to their personal interests. For example, I had a civil engineer with soil and toxicology experience that incorporated past site use into their analysis. Another student was interested in marine biology and had sailing experience. Her team created a wind-energy project in Long Island Sound and discussed shipping routes, fish and mollusk habitats and ways to anchor turbines in a way so as not to disturb the ocean ecosystems. It’s great to see that level of enthusiasm and detail. It’s exciting for me as an instructor to see our students prepared to face real challenges.” The SEPM Program ensures students develop a deeper knowledge of the social, ethical, political and economic systems at work in environmental planning and management while learning how to adopt essential consensus-building and problem-solving skills central to work in land management and environmental decision-making.