Geology

As a youth, Roger spent his free time fossil hunting in Illinois and Wisconsin. These interests eventually led him to on his academic path; Beloit College in Wisconsin where he majored in geology, the University of Washington where he earned his masters of science in geology, and the University of Minnesota where he earned his PhD in economic geology. 

Since the late 1970s he has worked on natural resources, mineral discovery, and environmental protection while working in over 80 countries around the world, including living in South Africa for 8 years. It was through this work, that his passion for living and building a sustainable world began to blossom.

Writing

Beginning in the late 1990s he began writing monologues, spurred on by a brief discussions with the late New York monologist Spaulding Gray. Since then, Roger has written 12 monologues, and performed many of them at fringe festivals and small theaters including a show at the Acorn Theater in New York City. Roger’s love of writing continued while he worked as a news writer for Wisconsin newspapers and radio stations in the early 2000s and has published 45 professional and public interest articles. In 2001 he began a recording and publishing company “musicTOears Press” and continues this passion. Roger began putting his world travels into book form in 2014 with his first book “Didn’t See That Coming”, which includes six of his performance monologue stories. This was followed in 2015 with his novel “Dolphin Mimicry” which was inspired by bedtime stories he would tell his children after returning from travels working at sea in the South Atlantic.

Music

Roger’s music is an extension of his story telling. His first original music album “Eye of the Storm” was recorded in Cape Town, South Africa in 2000 and one of the songs won a “runner’s up” song-writing award from the 1999 Cape Town Barleycorn Music Club Contest. His second album “Songs for Good People” includes the song Blue Ocean, which was performed by Eli Mattson in Carnegie Hall.

Film

Roger’s film career began in his teen years with an 8mm film entitled “Thunder Lizards” featuring claymation dinosaurs, which won a Kodak Film Award in 1968. Over the years he produced a series of videos focused on instructional sustainability, music videos, and comedy. His first feature length documentary titled “Escarpment” was released in 2017. The film won an Award of Recognition from the 2017 Hollywood International Independent Documentary Awards, was a Semi-Finalist in the 2017 Los Angeles CineFest, and official selection in the Miami and Great Lakes film festivals. Roger enjoys the art of storytelling through film and there is already working on his next feature film.

Sustainability

Roger’s goal of enlightening people to the urgencies of protecting the environment and working towards sustainable communities has led him to pass on his knowledge through teaching and his company SustainAudit. He developed and taught geography, ecology, sustainability, and urban agriculture courses at City College Spitzer School of Design in NYC. He has been a teacher at The Clearing Folk School in Ellison Bay, Wisconsin since 2001 and teaches summer field courses in geology, ecology and sustainability at UW Milwaukee Cedarburg Bog. Roger continues to lead field trips in Wisconsin, present workshops and lectures in the Midwest and east coast, and contribute numerous articles on geology, ecology, sustainability, and climate change.

Roger founded SustainAudit, LLC, in 2009 and has completed work such as developing a sustainability master plans for a wide variety of projects. He is currently developing a phone app, SustainabilityAPPTM, which applies metrics and measures to sustainability strategic and master planning to map out moves toward a zero net total impact to the planet.

Roger also serves as a volunteer lobbyist for the Citizens’ Climate Lobby; a nonprofit group garnering support in Congress for national carbon fee and dividend legislation. Kuhns is the CCL Connecticut State Coordinator and group leader for the Southeast Connecticut (Mystic) chapter with his wife Anne Schmidt. Watch Roger's CCL video.

Family

Roger and his wife Anne currently reside in Mystic, Connecticut with a cottage in Door County, Wisconsin. He has two grown children, Madeleine and Matthew, who are his best friends and has enjoyed their company on many of his life adventures. Roger continues to live his life sustainably striving for a zero waste lifestyle. Just ask him about the coffee plants he grows in his home.

“Today Roger Kuhns is well known as a speaker and writer on topics that include the environment and the Niagara Escarpment. He’s also a musician, entertainer and thoroughly genial character. But Dave Eliot [Peninsula Pulse publisher] describes him better: ‘And then Roger Kuhns came in as this Indiana Jones guy, been all over the world, done all these things, had a great education. He used to do presentations that would have made some rock concerts seem small. He had a cult following.’” - Jim Lundstrom, Peninsula Pulse

“Kuhns is a man of many talents. In addition to being a geologist, he’s a writer, filmmaker, naturalist and sustainologist. He has a bit of politician in him, having served on the Door County Board of Supervisors, and he’s written and performed a few songs. He’s a man of many hats, which may explain why you often see him wearing one.” Jon Gast Green Bay Press-Gazette