Graduation Year: '92

address: 710 Toole Avenue
Missoula, MT 59802

occupation: Land Use Planner

Email address: alhandler@yahoo.com

While I received my bachelor's degree in philosophy, my true love was always science, specifically conservation biology. No worries, I knew all the great early philosophers were scientists. So from Williams out into the world I went in 1992, into environmental activism, a stint in museum exhibit design and interpretation at the Science Museum of Minnesota, environmental education and, ultimately, math and science education.

When I tired of explaining why I was teaching geometry, physics, architecture, chemistry and other things scientific to kids in an inner-city after-school program when my degree was in philosophy (and no amount of referring to ancient Greeks could do the trick), I went back to school. In 1998, I received a masters of science in environmental studies from the University of Montana and focused on the urban environment--urban planning, design and redevelopment.

After two years as a land use planner with the City of Missoula, I left bureaucracy behind. There were far too many ethical dilemmas--my masters thesis detailed horrors of urban sprawl, yet there I was, daily reviewing subdivisions and recommending approval. I now work as a land use planner for a nonprofit community development corporation, for which I coordinate a community land trust providing affordable homeownership opportunities for lower-income homebuyers.

Philosophy? Very active in my life--I live by a personal code of ethics that demands an ever-decreasing ecological footprint: I just sold my car and don't plan to replace it; I don't own a television; I am very active in local third-party politics; I grow a lot of my own food in the backyard; I make a point of shopping downtown to support locally-owned businesses; I believe in equity and participatory democracy. Some day, I'd like to have coffee with Richard Moe, fellow Williams graduate, of the National Trust for Public Land, and Jeff Speck, co-author of "Suburban Nation" (which is practically required reading for everybody in the Missoula planning office...). I like philosophy as it can be applied on the ground, where we live, in what we do daily.

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