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CDO Staff Bios

Stanton “Peter” Otis, Jr., Director
Peter Otis is the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies’ first full-time Director of Career Development. The overall goal of the School’s Career Development Office is to assist master’s and doctoral students in charting courses that will lead them to careers fitting their interests, skills and abilities in harmony with their values. He has worked at Yale since 1994.

He has a bachelor’s degree from Trinity College, Hartford, CT and a master’s in counseling education from the University of New Hampshire. He served in the Peace Corps in Sierra Leone as an agricultural extension agent.

Positions in higher education that he has held have included Director of Career Development at Lyndon State College in VT and Plymouth State College in NH. During his nearly 20 years at (now) Plymouth State University, Peter also served as Personnel Director and Director of New Student Orientation and Director of International Student Affairs. In 1986 he created the first one year administrative exchange from the University System of NH and the California State University System that allowed him and his family to live in coastal, northern California while Peter served as Visiting Associate Director at Humboldt State University in its Career Development Center.

In 2000 Peter received an award for Environmental Career Counselor of the Twentieth Century, given by the Environmental Career Center of Hampton, VA.

Family time with his wife, six small grandchildren and their parents, gardening, travel and photography are Peter’s current away-from-F&ES activities. Peter has served as a Director of the Guilford (CT) Land Conservation Trust and as a member of its Westwoods Trails Committee. Currently he is a Vestry member at his church in Branford.

The primary and most satisfying focus of Peter’s career has been the advising and counseling of students and alumni/ae and the linking of these persons with others with mutual interests. A piece of paper attached to Peter’s office door says, “If you love what you do, you get to play for the rest of your life.” He believes he has been blessed with this opportunity to get paid for playing while assisting others.

Mariann Adams, Administrative Assistant
Mariann Adams has been providing administrative support for CDO for thirteen years and has been at F&ES since 1996. She is very interested in environmentalism and the work of F&ES. Mariann is a native of Connecticut, and lives in East Haven with her husband Brian Seaman.

Kathy Douglas, Associate Director
Kathy has over nine years of experience working in Masters and PhD-level student career services at Yale University. She specializes in employer relations, office communications and career programming; and helping students individually and through workshops with job search materials writing, job search strategies, networking and interview preparation. She has expertise in a broad range of environmental careers with a special focus on business/environment opportunities. Kathy has trained as a federal career advisor through the Partnership for Public Service and is a member of NetImpact! and the National Association of Colleges and Employers. Outside of F&ES, she serves on the board of the New Haven YMCA Youth Center as a Member of the Executive Committee and Chair of the Communications Committee.

Before coming to F&ES, Kathy served as Assistant Director of Graduate Career Services at Yale Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, serving as recruiting coordinator and bringing nonacademic career opportunities to PhD and other graduate students in over 70 degree programs.

Kathy holds two MFAs, one in Museum Studies from Syracuse University and one in Creative Writing and Literature from Bennington College.