Adjunct Faculty

Gregory Kientop has, at their invitation, served as an Adjunct Professor of Environmental Science on various university campuses in the Chicago metropolitan area since 2002. With 17 years of experience in highway infrastructure environmental planning studies for the State of Illinois, he has served as project manager on hundreds of projects including the I-355 extension in Will County, the “Hillside Strangler” project, the Kingery Expressway reconstruction project, and the Dan Ryan reconstruction project.  He currently manages the Illinois State Geological Survey northern field office in Westchester.  In July of 2008, his group became part of the Institute of Natural Resource Sustainability at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.  Prior to coming to Illinois, Mr. Kientop worked out of the 91st floor of the Two World Trade Center in New York City for Ebasco Services Incorporated, an international engineering and construction firm.  His work with Ebasco included geotechnical projects dealing with flood control, pipeline route selection, dam and aqueduct rehabilitation, bridge scour, low-level radioactive waste site characterization, and electrical power cogeneration plants.  He also worked as late-phase site geologist on the countries first Superfund site in New Jersey.  Accomplishments include the over-water geotechnical study for the worlds longest, large-diameter, horizontally-drilled borehole and authoring a technical pipeline construction specification which, when upheld in federal court, supported the second-largest corporate environmental fine ever levied in the United States (second only to that for the Exxon-Valdez oil spill Incident).

Susan Kirt is an adjunct in the Biology Department who is able to bring her experience in natural resource management and environmental research to the classroom.  Her educational background includes a BS from Michigan State University in Botany and Plant Pathology and a MS from the University of Northern Iowa in Biology; Prairie Ecology.  Currently, she works at Argonne National Laboratory doing research on carbon sequestration in forest and grassland ecosystems as well as using native prairie plants as a potential sustainable biofuels source.  Ms. Kirt also researches mycorrhizae, a fungal symbiote that grows on over 90% of all plant species, and determine how changes in carbon, nitrogen and restoration age affect the plant: fungal relationship in prairie, forest and agricultural systems.  She’s excited to bring these experiences and others into the classroom at Lewis University.

Lee Witkowski has been on the adjunct faculty of Lewis University since Fall 2006. He teaches Introduction to Environmental Science, Ecology Laboratory, Conservation Biology, Limnology and Field Biology. He received his BS from Northern Illinois University in 1971 and his MA in Environmental Science from Governors State University in 1986. He is on the board of directors of Illinois Audubon Society where he serves as webmaster of their web site, www.illinoisaudubon.org. He has served on the finance and education committees of this, the oldest environmental organization in the state of Illinois. He is currently the editor of The Chickadee, the newsletter of the Will County chapter of the Illinois Audubon Society. They are based out of Joliet, Illinois. He volunteers at The Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie in Wilmington, Illinois. There, he leads automobile bird tours, bicycle bird tours and bicycle tours. Schedule permitting, he also volunteers in the Mighty Acorns program. This outdoor education program is targeted at fifth and sixth graders. It teaches them ecological principles using hands-on activities as well as the value of stewardship of our environment. Currently, he is working to develop a program of prairie "restoration" on the Lewis University campus. He is working closely with the superintendent of grounds to develop a plan to promote native prairie plants in specific areas of the campus. The academic goal is to incorporate environmental science students in this project as part of several courses. Another goal is to design and implement stewardship projects that involve the entire student body as well as the faculty and staff of Lewis.