Scott Nelson
History Teacher
Scott
Nelson was born and spent his early years in Cleveland, Ohio before moving to
Auburn, Maine. In 1991, after graduating
from Hebron Academy - a boarding school in rural Maine - Scott studied at Vassar College, where, in
1995, he earned a Bachelor's of Arts in history. Following his graduation from Vassar, Scott
traveled extensively throughout Asia, especially India, Pakistan, and
Turkey. Those travel experiences led him
to pursue a Master's degree in cultural anthropology at Columbia
University. While completing his M.A.,
Scott also earned a Certificate in South Asian Studies from Columbia's School
for International and Public Affairs (SIPA).
His graduate research on rural economic development in India and Pakistan led Scott to a position at a large international development organization, the Aga Khan Foundation, in northern Pakistan. Working in Pakistan on micro-credit and village banking projects inspired him to pursue a Ph.D. in international development at the world's largest school for international development research: the Institute for Development Policy and Management at the University of Manchester (UK). During 2003-04, as part of his doctoral research, Scott conducted fieldwork at a United Nations crops research institute in Hyderabad, India. In late 2006 his dissertation, Emerging Public-Private Partnerships in the Field of Agricultural Biotechnology, was accepted with highest honours by the school, and Scott was awarded his doctorate from the University of Manchester in July 2007.
Despite a solid background in research, Scott has found teaching and working with young people more personally satisfying than other academic settings. A passion for teaching, coupled with a life-long love of the outdoors, led him to Colorado and eventually to Crested Butte, where he lives with his wife, Josephine.