Justin Mando, a Pennsylvania native, has been serving on the LSRA Board of Directors since late 2019. He has been an Assistant Professor of Science & Technical Writing at Millersville University since 2016. Prior to that, he lived in Pittsburgh where he earned his Ph.D. in Rhetoric from Carnegie Mellon University. Through his academic career, Justin has studied how people argue on behalf of the natural world. He has published articles in the journal Environmental Communication among others and has a forthcoming book on the rhetoric of the fracking debate in Pennsylvania. Justin is especially enthusiastic to serve as Chair of the Board of Directors as it draws on his experience in studying and teaching how to impact environmental change and gives him opportunity to raise his own voice.
Justin Mando was born and raised on Lake Erie, spent summers at Chautauqua Lake in western New York where his father worked, he attended college in Vermont along Lake Champlain, and he taught English as a Second Language along the Vltava River in Prague and the Danube in Bratislava. Standing on Charles Bridge astride the Vltava, he met his wife, Marika, and they started a family together at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers. They have two children, Nella and Sonia. Despite being close to water his whole life, coming to know the Susquehanna River and this watershed has been a revelation. Standing waist deep in the Mighty Susquehanna fishing for smallmouth bass for the first time, he found a new sense of purpose. This has led him to focus his academic work on connecting students to the Susquehanna and on raising awareness of issues facing this enduring place.
