Allen Rasmussen grew up in New Mexico and has spent his professional time in the Southern Great Plains and the Intermountain West. He, his wife Kathleen, and his son Joshua moved to South Texas 3 years ago. Currently he is the Dean in the College of Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Human Sciences at Texas A&M University-Kingsville and has a research appointment with the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute (CKWRI). He has worked to help people understand how their management and decisions affect rangeland resources. He draws on a wide variety of experiences from consulting, having a grass seed company, to being a faculty member with extension, research, teaching and administrative roles at different times throughout his career. These experiences have allowed him to help people understand how and why their management and decisions impact rangeland resources. His extension programs have focused on helping land managers and the public understand how rangelands function and how they can be managed as a system. Often, this entailed getting people together to deal with conflicts over techniques or information so they could make acceptable resource decisions. He has taught courses ranging from prescribed burning to conflict management of natural resources.

• B.S. Wildlife Ecology, Texas A&M University. 1979
• M.S. Range Science, Texas A&M University, 1981
• Ph.D. Range Science, Texas Tech University, 1986

Allen's research has focused on the role of fire in rangelands. This has included how fire can be put safely back into our natural systems and be used as a disturbance within an overall system to manage for a desired plant community. Allen is currently working with Drs. Tim Fulbright and Alfonso Ortega of the CKWRI on the risks associated with warm season prescribed burns funded through the Joe Skeen Institute for Rangeland Restoration. He is also working with South Texas Natives to help improve the establishment of native plants for seed production.

Allen has been active in a variety of community and professional groups. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Society for Range Management and the International Arid Lands Consortium. He has served on numerous committees ranging from chair of the Society for Range Management International Affairs Committee to being a member of the National Task Force to Develop Interagency Rangeland Monitoring Manuals. He is currently serving as the cub master for his son,s Cub Scout pack. Allen is also working with the Natural Resource Conservation Service to provide field based prescribed burning short courses to help people use fire in natural environments and to develop web based short courses.

• Natural Resource Conservation - Undergraduate Level
• Prescribed Burning - Undergraduate and Graduate Level
• Conflict Management in Natural Resources
• Rangeland Applied Ecology Practicum
• Natural Resource Policy - Undergraduate Level
• Range and Desert Plants - Junior and Senior Level
• Natural Resource Management Conflicts
• Natural Resource Policy Analysis