Positions

Research Areas research areas

Overview

  • Charlie leads UNH Cooperative Extension’s Community & Economic Development program, whose mission is to cultivate civic leaders; foster participation in community decision-making; revitalize downtowns; and help communities leverage resources to grow the local and regional economy. In his capacity as Program Leader, he works with his Extension colleagues to provide civic leaders with training, educational resources, and technical assistance in community engagement, economic development, leadership development, and community-based natural resources stewardship.

    As an Extension Associate Professor in Community and Economic Development, he brings his applied experience to the classroom in UNH’s Masters in Development Policy & Practice program, where he teaches a course in land and resource use conflict. His current research is focused on civic agriculture and tracking the long-term impacts of community development efforts.

    Before joining UNH Extension, Charlie was an Economic Development Educator for the University of Illinois Extension. He also served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in rural Panama, where he taught conservation principles and sustainable agriculture techniques to school-age youth and subsistence farmers. Charlie has a B.A. in Geography from Dartmouth College, an M.A. in Regional Planning from Western Illinois University, and a Ph.D. in Natural Resources Policy from UNH.
  • Selected Publications

    Academic Article

    Year Title
    2015 Extension stakeholder engagement: Adapting to the Twenty-first centuryJournal of Human Sciences and Extension.  3. 2015
    2013 The UNH Engaged Scholars Academy: Instilling in Faculty Principles of Effective PartnershipJournal of Public Scholarship in Higher Education.  3:19-42. 2013
    2011 Havana’s changing urban agriculture land-scape: A shift to the rightJournal of Agriculture, Food Systems and Community Development.  1. 2011
    2010 Ten years of community visioning in New Hampshire: The meaning of successCommunity Development: Journal of the Community Development Society.  41:223-238. 2010
    2008 Building Wealth through Ownership: Resident-Owned Manufactured Housing Communities in New HampshireJournal of Extension2008
    2006 Resident-Owned Manufactured Home Communities in New HampshireNational Association of Housing Cooperatives2006
    2006 The Effect of Cooperative Ownership on Appreciation of Manufactured HousingCooperative Housing Journal2006

    Book

    Year Title
    2022 Building Rural Community Resilience Through Innovation and Entrepreneurship 2022

    Chapter

    Year Title
    2020 An international agricultural development organization’s experience measuring program impacts with limited resources 2020
    2017 Sustainable Harvest International's work in two rural communities: Program participants' perceptions 2017

    Teaching Activities

  • Balancing Resource Management Taught course 2015
  • Education And Training

  • B.A. Geography, Dartmouth College
  • M.A. Geography, Western Illinois University
  • Ph.D. Natural Resources/Conservation, University of New Hampshire
  • Full Name

  • Charlie French
  • Mailing Address

  • University of New Hampshire

    Cooperative Extension

    59 College Road Taylor Hall

    Durham

    NH

    03824