Board Member
Don Culwell Ph.D.
 

BIOGRAPHY

Don's first 18 years were spent in De Soto, Missouri, just south of St. Louis. There he became a Boy Scout and rose to the rank of Eagle. It was his love of the outdoors that led him into scouting and the study of biology. He pursued his B.S. degree at Southeast Missouri State University, earned his M.A. in botany at Indiana University and his Ph.D. in plant taxonomy at the University of North Carolina. These provided qualifications for him to teach college students, a love he had discovered years before as an undergraduate.

Don recently retired as Professor of Biology at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway where he taught Plant Taxonomy, Biology of Lower Plants and Fungi, Biology of Seed Plants, and Biology for General Education. He worked in the Academic Advising Center half-time where all UCA freshmen are advised. At UCA he is Curator of the Vascular Plant Herbarium (21,000 specimens in the collection) and Director of the Jewel E. Moore UCA Nature Reserve located on the UCA campus (18 acre prairie and lowland woods). His past service at UCA includes managing the Biology Department greenhouse and sponsoring the Biology Club. While teaching at UCA, Don often made botanical-biological presentations for classrooms of grade school students and led numerous field trips.

Honors conferred during his 35 years at UCA include the University Teaching Excellence Award (1984-1985) and the University Public Service Award (2003).

Don is a member of the Arkansas Academy of Science, the Arkansas Native Plant Society (was the founding president in 1980) and is currently a member of the Arkansas Vascular Flora Committee that is writing a manual of the vascular flora of Arkansas.

Don is an avid gardener who enjoys extensive hiking, camping, and canoeing.