Chad: My name is Dr. Chad Thatcher. I’m a professor at Southern Oregon University and I teach in the Outdoor Adventure Leadership Department. We also have a master’s degree in outdoor adventure and expedition leadership. And I’ve been there now for eight years.
Before that I was at Colorado Mesa University for 13 years. I was the director of their outdoor program and was teaching in their kinesiology department, outdoor adventure leadership classes. And that’s what I’ve been doing for quite a while now in the college environment.
And before that I was a professional guide, guiding on rivers and rock climbing and working at ski resorts, doing ski patrol and working pretty much everything you can imagine at a ski area from running the lifts and the rental areas to going and selling people tickets. Anything there was, I was part of that at Mount Spokane for quite some time.
And then I just lived in my truck for quite some time and was just kind of cruising around the United States and working the seasonal jobs. And eventually I decided, “You know what? I wanna go back to school.” And I ended up going to Portland State University and getting a degree in History and Spanish.
When I was there, I decided to stay on and get my master’s. And I got a Master’s in education, focusing on experiential education. And from there, I was at Prescott College. That’s where I got my PhD in sustainability education. One of the first in the nation to have such a degree in that area.
Robert: It’s nice to know that you can get a doctorate in dirt bagology.
Chad: It’s great. It’s fantastic. It’s a vital skill being able to take what you learn in the Outdoors and apply it to life, yes.
