Who We Are

Cornwall Alliance Staff

E. Calvin Beisner, Ph.D.
President, Founder, and National Spokesman

Dr. Beisner is Founder, President, and National Spokesman of The Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation, a network of Christian theologians, natural scientists, economists, and other scholars educating for Biblical earth stewardship, economic development for the poor, and the proclamation and defense of the good news of salvation by God’s grace, received through faith in Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection.

Dr. Beisner was associate professor of historical theology and social ethics at Knox Theological Seminary from 2000 to 2008 and of interdisciplinary studies (focusing on the application of Biblical worldview, theology, and ethics to economics, government, and public policy) at Covenant College from 1992 to 2000. He has been an elder in the Presbyterian Church in America and the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, planting a new congregation for the latter and serving on its pastoral staff for three years. He and his wife Debby, an accomplished portrait painter, have seven children and eighteen grandchildren.

His early childhood in Calcutta, India, where he and his family observed both the beauties of God’s creation and the tragedies of poverty, informed his later concerns for caring for both the natural world and the poor. His theological and philosophical studies led to his studying political and economic philosophy and his books Prosperity and Poverty: The Compassionate Use of Resources in a World of Scarcity (1988), an introduction to economics informed by Biblical theology and ethics; Prospects for Growth: A Biblical View of Population, Resources, and the Future (1990), which applied the lessons of the prior book to questions about alleged overpopulation, resource depletion, and environmental degradation and conservation; and Where Garden Meets Wilderness: Evangelical Entry into the Environmental Debate (1997) a history and constructive critique of the evangelical environmental movement, among other books.

In 1999, after a colloquium with about 35 other scholars with shared interest in these subjects, he composed The Cornwall Declaration on Environmental Stewardship, which was quickly endorsed by over 1,500 religious leaders from around the world and became the basis on which he founded The Cornwall Alliance in 2005.

He has written over fifteen books, edited over 30, contributed to over 35, and published thousands of articles, popular and scholarly; has lectured at universities, seminaries, conferences, and churches in North America, Europe, Africa, and Asia; testified as an expert witness on the ethics and economics of climate change and climate and energy policy before committees of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives; briefed the White House Council on Environmental Policy; presented a paper to a scholarly colloquium on climate change of the Pontifical Institute for Justice and Peace at the Vatican in Rome; and has spoken for multiple meetings of the International Conferences on Climate Change. In 2014 the Heritage Foundation honored him with the Outstanding Spokesman for Faith, Science, and Stewardship Award at the Ninth International Conference on Climate Change.

Education:

B.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies with concentrations in Religion and Philosophy and double minors in Classical Languages and Classical History, University of Southern California (1978)

M.A. in Society with Specialization in Economic Ethics, International College (1983)

Ph.D. in Scottish History (History of Political Thought), University of St. Andrews, Scotland (2003)

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Legates’s dissertation was entitled “A Climatology of Global Precipitation” and focused on obtaining a better picture of global precipitation by incorporating a high-resolution precipitation gage database that was adjusted for changes in instrumentation and biases associated with the precipitation gage measurement process. His climatology of precipitation continues to be widely used, as it is the only global climatology available that addresses the gage measurement bias problem.

Upon receiving his Ph.D., Legates became an Assistant Professor in the College of Geosciences at the University of Oklahoma. He was granted tenure and promoted to Associate Professor in 1994. He became the Chief Research Scientist for the Center for Computational Geosciences at the University of Oklahoma in 1995.

In 1998, Legates moved to Louisiana State University and became an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography and Anthropology as well as a research scientist with the Southern Regional Climate Center. Legates returned to the University of Delaware in 1999 as an Associate Professor and was promoted to Full Professor in 2010. While at Delaware, Legates served as the Delaware State Climatologist (2005–2011), Director of the Center for Climatic Research (2001–2007), founder and co-Director of the Delaware Environmental Observing System (2003–2011), and Coordinator of the Delaware Geographical Alliance, now known as the Delaware Center for Geographic Education (2005–2022). For the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, he was Assistant Deputy Secretary of Commerce for Environmental Observation and Prediction, detailed to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy as Executive Director of the United States Global Change Research Program.

Legates has testified three times as an expert witness before the US Senate Committee on the Environment and Public Works and before both Pennsylvania House and Senate Committee meetings on climate change. He participated in the historic joint USA-USSR protocol for the exchange of climate information in 1990, won the 2002 Boeing Autometric Award for the Best Paper in Image Analysis and Interpretation by the American Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, won First Place in the International Statistical Institute (ISI) and ESRI Paper Competition in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and was awarded the Courage in Defense of Science Award in 2015. In 2021, he was awarded the Frederick Seitz Memorial Award and the Petr Beckmann Award.

He has received over $7M USD in grants over his career and has published more than 80 refereed articles and made more than 250 professional presentations. He is a Senior Fellow of the Cornwall Alliance and since early 2022 has served as its Director of Research and Education.

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Cornwall Alliance Advisory Board

• H. Sterling Burnett, Ph.D. (Applied Philosophy), Research Fellow, Managing Editor, ECN, Heartland Institute, Rowlett, TX
• Barrett Duke, Ph.D., Executive Director, Montana Southern Baptist Association; former Vice President, Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, and Director of the ERLC Research Institute, Southern Baptist Convention
• Rev. George Grant, Ph.D., Teaching Pastor, Christ Community Church (PCA), Principal, Kings Meadow Study Center, Nashville, TN
• Wayne Grudem, Ph.D.,^ Research Professor of Theology and Biblical Studies, Phoenix Seminary, Phoenix, AZ
• Steven Hayward, Ph.D., fellow of the Public Law and Policy Program at UC Berkeley Law, and the Gaylord Visiting Professor at Pepperdine University’s School of Public Policy.
• Peter Jones, Ph.D., President and Executive Director, truthXchange; Emeritus Professor of New Testament, Westminster Theological Seminary, Escondido, CA
• Rev. Henry Krabbendam, Ph.D., President, Africa Christian Training Institute, Professor of Biblical Studies (ret.), Covenant College, Lookout Mountain, GA
• David Legates,* Ph.D., Director of Research and Education, Cornwall Alliance; Professor of Geography and Climatology (Ret.) and former Director of the Center for Climatic Research, University of Delaware, Newark, DE
• Kevin Alan Lewis, J.D., M.Div., Th.M., Associate Professor of Theology and Law, Biola University, La Mirada, CA
• Tracy Miller, Ph.D., Senior Policy Research Editor, Mercatus Center, Falls Church, VA
• Rev. Joey Pipa, Ph.D., President, Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary
• Daryl Sas, Ph.D., Professor of Biology and Chairman of the Department of Biology, Geneva College, Beaver Falls, PA
• Roy W. Spencer, Ph.D., Principal Research Scientist, Earth System Science Center, University of Alabama, Huntsville, AL, and U.S. Science Team leader for the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer flying on NASA’s Aqua satellite
• Timothy Terrell, Ph.D., T.B. Stackhouse Professor of Economics, Wofford College, Spartanburg, SC
• Rusty Towell, Ph.D., Professor of Engineering and Physics, Abilene Christian University, Abilene, TX
• James A. Wanliss, Ph.D., Professor of Physics, Presbyterian College, Clinton, SC
• Rev. Ralph Weitz, Stewardship Pastor, Immanuel Bible Church, Springfield, VA

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Cornwall Alliance Scholars

(*indicates also serves as a Contributing Writer; ^indicates also serves on the Advisory Board.)

Senior Fellows

• Kenneth Chilton,*^ Ph.D., Senior Environmental Fellow, Institute for the Study of Economics & the Environment, Lindenwood University, St. Charles, MO
• David Legates,* Ph.D., Director of Research and Education, Cornwall Alliance; Professor of Geography and Climatology (Ret.) and former Director of the Center for Climatic Research, University of Delaware, Newark, DE
• Vishal Mangalwadi, Ph.D., Theologian and Author, Founder, Revelation Movement, Pasadena, CA
• Tracy Miller,*^ Ph.D., Senior Policy Research Editor, Mercatus Center, Falls Church, VA
• Craig Vincent Mitchell,* Ph.D., Associate Professor of Philosophy, Politics, & Economics and Director of the Criswell Institute for Philosophy, Politics, and Economics, Criswell College, Dallas, TX
• Roy W. Spencer, Ph.D.,^ Principal Research Scientist, Earth System Science Center, University of Alabama, Huntsville, AL, and U.S. Science Team leader for the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer flying on NASA’s Aqua satellite
• Timothy Terrell,*^ Ph.D., T.B. Stackhouse Professor of Economics, Wofford College, Spartanburg, SC
• G. Cornelis van Kooten,* Ph.D., Professor of Economics and Research Chair in Environmental Studies and Climate, University of Victoria, BC, Canada
• James A. Wanliss,*^ Ph.D., Professor of Physics, Presbyterian College, Clinton, SC

Fellows

• Charles Clough,* Bel Air, MD; M.S., Atmospheric Physics; retired chief, U.S. Army Atmospheric Effects Team, Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD; retired Lt. Col., U.S. Air Force Reserve Weather Officer; President, Biblical Framework Ministries; adjunct professor, Chafer Theological Seminary, Albuquerque, NM
• Barrett Duke,*^ Ph.D., Executive Director, Montana Southern Baptist Association; former Vice President, Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, and Director of the ERLC Research Institute, Southern Baptist Convention
• Neil L. Frank,* Ph.D. (Meteorology), the longest-serving Director of the National Hurricane Center (1974–1987) and retired Chief Meteorologist of KHOU-TV, Houston (1987–2008), Fulshear, TX
• Ben Phillips,* Ph.D., Associate Professor of Systematic Theology, Director of the Darrington Extension, Associate Dean, J. Dalton Harvard School for Theological Studies, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort Worth, TX
• Shawn Ritenour,* Ph.D., Professor of Economics, Grove City College, Grove City, PA

Adjunct Scholars

• Gordon Evans,*BS, Meteorology; MS, Soil Science, retired Environmental Program Manager of the Texas A&M University System, is an environmental and earth-systems professional who has worked on a wide range of environmental issues for almost 50 years in private consulting for private clients, industry, and government, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Energy. He is a Senior Fellow of the Cornwall Alliance.
• Steven Hayward,*^ Ph.D., fellow of the Public Law and Policy Program at UC Berkeley Law, and the Gaylord Visiting Professor at Pepperdine University’s School of Public Policy.
• Kevin Alan Lewis, Ph.D., Professor of Theology and Law, Biola University, La Mirada, CA
• Gregory J. Rummo, B.S. (Chemistry), M.B.A. (Financial Management), M.S. (Organic Chemistry), former CEO and now consultant for New Chemic (US), Inc., is a Lecturer of chemistry at Palm Beach Atlantic University, West Palm Beach, FL, a veteran columnist, and a DMin student at Knox Theological Seminary in Fort Lauderdale, FL.*
• Michael Salazar,* Ph.D., Associate Professor of Chemistry, Union University, Jackson, TN
• Chris Skates,* M.S., Communications Specialist, Four Rivers Nuclear Partnership; past positions: Special Advisor to the Assistant Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy; former Energy Advisor/Speechwriter for Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin; former Plant Chemistry Supervisor, Electric Energy Inc., Joppa, IL; author, Going Green: For Some It Has Nothing to Do with the Environment

Contributing Writers

• William Anderson, Ph.D., Professor of Economics, Frostburg State University, Frostburg, MD
• William D. Balgord, Ph.D. (Geochemistry), President, Environmental & Resources Technology, Inc., Middleton, WI
• Kenneth Chilton,^ Ph.D., Senior Environmental Fellow, Institute for the Study of Economics & the Environment, Lindenwood University, St. Charles, MO
• Charles Clough, Bel Air, MD; M.S., Atmospheric Physics; retired chief, U.S. Army Atmospheric Effects Team, Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD; retired Lt. Col., U.S. Air Force Reserve Weather Officer; President, Biblical Framework Ministries; adjunct professor, Chafer Theological Seminary, Albuquerque, NM
• Barrett Duke,^ Ph.D., Executive Director, Montana Southern Baptist Association; former Vice President, Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, and Director of the ERLC Research Institute, Southern Baptist Convention
• Gordon Evans, Gordon Evans (BS, Meteorology; MS, Soil Science) retired Environmental Program Manager of the Texas A&M University System, is an environmental and earth-systems professional who has worked on a wide range of environmental issues for almost 50 years in private consulting for private clients, industry, and government, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Energy.
• Neil L. Frank, Ph.D. (Meteorology), the longest-serving Director of the National Hurricane Center (1974–1987) and retired Chief Meteorologist of KHOU-TV, Houston (1987–2008), Fulshear, TX
• Steve Goreham, B.S., M.S. Electrical Engineering), M.A. (Business Administration), Executive Director, Climate Science Coalition of America
• Steven Hayward,^ fellow of the Public Law and Policy Program at UC Berkeley Law, and the Gaylord Visiting Professor at Pepperdine University’s School of Public Policy.
• Robert A. Hefner V, BBA, founder and president of Hefner.energy.
• David Legates,* Ph.D., Director of Research and Education, Cornwall Alliance; Professor of Geography and Climatology (Ret.) and former Director of the Center for Climatic Research, University of Delaware, Newark, DE
• Anthony Lupo, Ph.D., Department Chair and Professor of Atmospheric Science, and Principal Investigator, Global Climate Change Group, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO
• Tracy Miller,^ Ph.D., Senior Policy Research Editor, Mercatus Center, Falls Church, VA
• C. Ben Mitchell, Graves Professor of Moral Philosophy, Provost, and Vice President for Academic Affairs, Union University, Jackson, TN
• Craig Vincent Mitchell, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Philosophy, Politics, & Economics and Director of the Criswell Institute for Philosophy, Politics, and Economics, Criswell College, Dallas, TX
• R. Mark Musser, Ph.D., professor, missionary, farmer, and author, depending on the time of day and year, from Olympia, Washington, author of Nazi Ecology: The Oak Sacrifice of the Judeo-Christian Worldview in the Holocaust, which describes the surprising green connections to Nazi Germany and the Holocaust.
• Bill Peacock, B.A., MBA, policy director for the Huffines Liberty Foundation and the Energy Alliance, host of Liberty Cafe, a podcast on TexasScorecard.com.
• Todd Pedlar, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Physics, Luther College, Decorah, IA
• Ben Phillips, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Systematic Theology, Director of the Darrington Extension, Associate Dean, J. Dalton Harvard School for Theological Studies, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort Worth, TX
• Shawn Ritenour, Ph.D., Professor of Economics, Grove City College, Grove City, PA
• Gregory J. Rummo, B.S. (Chemistry), M.B.A. (Financial Management), M.S. (Organic Chemistry), former CEO and now consultant for New Chemic (US), Inc., is a Lecturer of chemistry at Palm Beach Atlantic University, West Palm Beach, FL, a veteran columnist, and a DMin student at Knox Theological Seminary in Fort Lauderdale, FL..
• Anthony J. Sadar, M.S., Adjunct Professor of Earth & Environmental Sciences, Statistics, Air Pollution, Meteorology, & Engineering, Geneva College, Beaver Falls, PA
• Michael Salazar, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Chemistry, Union University, Jackson, TN
• David Shormann, Ph.D., Marine Chemist and Limnologist, President, DIVE (Digital Interactive Video Education), Houston, TX
• Chris Skates, M.S., Communications Specialist, Four Rivers Nuclear Partnership; past positions: Special Advisor to the Assistant Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy; former Energy Advisor/Speechwriter for Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin; former Plant Chemistry Supervisor, Electric Energy Inc., Joppa, IL; author, Going Green: For Some It Has Nothing to Do with the Environment
• Timothy Terrell,^ Ph.D., T.B. Stackhouse Professor of Economics, Wofford College, Spartanburg, SC
• G. Cornelis van Kooten, Ph.D., Professor of Economics and Research Chair in Environmental Studies and Climate, University of Victoria, BC, Canada
• James A. Wanliss,^ Ph.D., Professor of Physics, Presbyterian College, Clinton, SC