Jim Perry has served as the UW Fox campus executive and dean since 1993, functioning as its primary ands outspoken advocate, not only because it's part of his job, but because one of its sister UW Colleges campuses (UW-Marathon County) was the launch for his career. His role allows him to advocate for science education and innovations in pedagogy within higher education. His B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. come from UW-Madison in zoology and secondary education, botany and zoology, and botany and plant pathology, respectively. He is the coauthor of several widely used texts in biology and botany. Jim credits a number of people for influencing the direction he has taken in life, including Aldo Leopold, Katharine Esau Professor of Botany Emeritus, Ray F. Evert, and LeRoy Lee (who served as his supervising teacher in 1970). Holding the rank of Professor, he manages to teach an introductory botany course each year. Active community participants, Jim and his spouse, Joy, seek to live lightly in their environment and help others understand, interpret, and appreciate the boundless beauty of Wisconsin. They spend as much time outdoors as possible, either at their former dairy farm residence in Winnebago County or small middle-of-the woods cabin in Iron County.