Leslie Straker, Ph.D. Dr. Straker is academically trained in marine affairs and coastal resource management.  He has conducted research in those areas in several countries in different regions of the world. He teaches environmental science courses in the areas of coastal management, environmental decision-making  and coastal resiliency in the Sustainability Masters’ Program at Wake Forest University. He also has practitioner experience in the management of coastal resources at the country and regional levels, in the Caribbean context. He brings his wealth of real-world experiences to the classroom, where he has been teaching in environmental studies programs at several universities for the past decade. He approaches environmental science from the perspective that it is a “science about the management of people and their use of resources and not the management of the resources themselves. Resources have always been fine until we begin to use them.” He likes to say.