Scott Herron, PhD

Scott Herron, PhD

Professor
Biological Sciences
Phone: (231) 591-2087
Email: [email protected]

Education

• PhD, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, Plant Biology
• BS, Grand Valley State University, Biology

Biography

Scott M. Herron is a tenured full professor of Biology at Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Michigan. He is was a visiting professor of Ethnobotany at the University of Michigan Biological station, where he taught an advanced Ethnobotany field course since 2003-2015. Scott studied Ethnobotany, cultural anthropology, paleoethnobotany, American Indian studies/history, and linguistics during his undergraduate and graduate careers. He continues his research as a specialist in the Great Lakes region, with focus on the Anishinaabek culture (Ojibwe, Ottawa, Potawatomi, Cree and Menominee). He directs the Wild Rice and Ethnobiology Lab at Ferris, was the faculty advisor for the Mycology Club and Circle of Tribal Nations. He co-chaired the Native Wild Rice Coalition with LVD elder Roger LaBine. Scott has emphasized the outreach of our discipline through research and mentoring undergraduate and high school students, especially targeting American Indian students as future scientists, researchers, and Ethnobiologists. He has helped develop the framework for curriculum and certification with the Open Science Network, collaborating with professional organizations and continues to do outreach with the Ecological Society of America and Society of Ethnobiology. Scott served as the President of the Society of Ethnobiology, overseeing 3 journals, an annual conference, 3 graduate fellowships, 1 undergraduate scholarship, and other awards. Scott has consulted with the US Forest Service and Cedar Tree Institute of Marquette on 6 years of workshops centered on native plants and native pollinators taking place in tribal communities across Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, and he hopes this current workshop will help expand the efforts being made in this Great Lakes region.
Scott lives in Big Rapids, Michigan with his family including Aden Sage and Lucy Bedabin Herron, whom he has integrated into the seasonal subsistence life activities that he has studied, and now practiced for most of his adult life. Scott actively makes maple sugar, harvests wild mushrooms, many berries, nuts, is a seasoned wild rice harvester/processor/instructor, does some fly fishing with his dad when time permits, and is active in biking, kayaking, canoeing, cross country skiing, snow shoeing, hiking, bird watching and cleaning up the local natural areas of his home town. He tends gardens, grows edible mushrooms, an extensive ethnobotanical home garden, and cooks both wild and domestic foods in creative ways.

Publications and Intellectual Contributions

• Book Chapter
  Herron, S. (2018). "Working with Indigenous Communities: The Original Caretakers of Crops and Crop Wild Relatives." Chapter 5. Springer International Publishing. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-95101-0_5

Presentations

• Oral Presentation
  Herron, S., Society of Ethnobiology Conference, "Ethnoornithology of Cranes in North America: Anishinaabe and Myaamia Chieftain Clan Animal," University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC Canada, (May 10, 2019).
• Oral Presentation
  Herron, S., The Second Forest Bio-economy Confrence, "Non-Timber Forest Products: Indigenous Perspectives; Emerging Markets of Wild and Cultivated Mushrooms in Michigan," Midland, MI, (February 12, 2019).
• Oral Presentation
  Herron, S., Society of Ethnobiology Conference, "Bineseewug: The relationship of thunderbeings and thunderbirds to the Anishinaabek Great Lakes Native American People," Montreal Botanical Gardens, Montreal, Quebec, (May 11, 2017).
• Oral Presentation
  Herron, S., "Retracing the canoe trail of Nanabozho: Wild rice reemergence in Michigan after a decade of ecocultural restoration," Lac Vieux Desert Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, University of Arizona, (March 18, 2016).
• Panhelist
  Herron, S., Ethnobiology Ethics Lab Workshop, "What is an ethnobiological ethic? A president's perspective," Society of Ethnobiology Conference, University of Arizona, (March 18, 2016).
• Presentation
  Herron, S., 38th Annual Conference for the Society of Ethnobiology, "Using Prezi Presentations to Teach Ethnobiology: An Open Source Innovation," University of California, Santa Barbra, CA, (May 9, 2015).
• Presentation
  Herron, S., 14th Annual To Bridge A Gap Meeting, "The Zaagkii Wings and Seeds Project: Eco-cultural Restoration of Native Plants and Pollinators," Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma & US Forest Service, Wyandotte, OK, (April 2, 2015).
• Presentation
  Herron, S., Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting, "Great Lake Ethno-ecology from the lens of Anishinaabemowin," Sacramento, CA, (August 2014).
• Presentation
  Herron, S., Society of Ethnobiology and Society for Economic Botany joint conference, "Anishinaabek Revitalization of Ethnomycology, from Keewaydinoquay’s 1998 Puhpohwee for the People," Cherokee, NC, (May 16, 2014).
• Oral Presentation
  Herron, S., Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting, "Sense of Place Session Organizer," Minneapolis, MN, (August 2013).