Dr. Joshua J. Frye

About

Biographical Sketch

I hold a Ph.D. from Purdue University. I am a Professor in the Department of Communication at Humboldt State University. I teach a wide array of courses in the communication curriculum including public speaking, persuasion theory, creating communication campaigns, communication and social advocacy, argumentation, environmental communication, and research methods. My research interests focus primarily on strategic political and environmental communication with regard to critiquing public policy, cultural change agency, social movement advocacy, and innovative organizational forms and leadership.

I have been working on transforming food systems and community building for over two decades. When I was just 20 years old I traveled to India to study ethics and sustainable development. Prior to arriving in India, I had a stopover in Geneva where I participated in a seminar with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).  While in India, I worked with displaced fisherfolk conducting participatory action research and studied ethics and development. Later, in the mid 1990s I interned on various organic, permaculture, and biodynamic farms on the south Island of New Zealand preparing for my sustainable agriculture work with the U.S. Peace Corps.

I then went on to serve as a Sustainable Agriculture Extension Agent with the U.S. Peace Corps from 1997-1999 in Honduras.  Upon returning to the U.S. I worked at a neighborhood center in Madison, Wisconsin in anti-hunger programming.  I managed a food pantry, community meal program, wrote grants and built community networks for access to healthy food for vulnerable populations such as senior citizens and unemployed individuals.

In graduate school at Purdue University I received a university-wide grant to conduct my dissertation research on the diffusion and transformation of the organic agriculture movement in 2006.

From 2007-2015 I was a tenured professor in the SUNY system in upstate New York where I served on the Board of Directors for the Center for Agricultural Development and Entrepreneurship and worked with the SUNY Sustainability Office in Albany, NY to design and facilitate sustainability education workshops for faculty across New York state. I was a founding member of the Presidents Advisory Council for Sustainability at the SUNY College at Oneonta.

I have traveled, taught, conducted and presented research extensively in the U.S., Latin America, and Asia, most recently at the Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome. When I am not in contract with the state of California, I work with a non-profit environmental education organization called Sustainable Summer to lead experiential summer programs at Dartmouth College, Ecuador, and Costa Rica. These programs are dedicated to creating the next generation of environmental leaders and focus on sustainable living, food systems, and how individuals can impact institutional change.

In 2015 I joined the Department of Communication at Humboldt State University. I have served on the University Senate, University re-accreditation task force, and held an appointment to the Arcata City Council Committee on Agriculture and Open Spaces. Deliberately relocating to Northern California where the food sovereignty movement in the US has deep roots, I continue to contribute to the advancement of sustainable and equitable practices and the cultivation of healthy democratic systems through public education, collaborative research, volunteerism, and consulting. Follow this link to learn more about a collaborative multimedia project on Northern California's local food system I helped with-Locally Grown.