Stephen Wearing

Dr. Stephen Wearing is an Associate Professor at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS). He has taught as Visiting Fellow at a number of Universities in his 25 year career at UTS, including Wageningen University, Netherlands (12 years); Newcastle University Australia (10 years) and Macquarie University, Australia (7 years). Dr Wearing has received awards from Industry and Government for his work in the Leisure and Tourism fields (in 2007 the Frank Steward Award for his major contributions to the Parks and Leisure industry and in 1992 from the Costa Rican Government for services to youth, conservation and community).

His teaching has seen him awarded the Peak Teaching Award, an Australian Teaching and Learning Council Teaching Award in (2008) and the UTS Excellence in Teaching Award (2000). At both the World Leisure and Tourism International Centre of Excellence (WICE) and Australian Conservation Training Institute (ACTI) he was given special mention for his teaching. He has continually engaged with the community where he has served as Chair and Advisor to the Board of Youth Challenge Australia (YCA) (17 years) and Board Member of the Kokoda Track Foundation Board (3 years). Dr Wearing has also served on a number of steering committees for the Sustainable Tourism CRC, WICE and IUCN. He is a Fellow and Life Member of Parks and Leisure Australasia, and has been editor of the Parks and Leisure Australasia Journal for 12 years. He has authored 10 books in the field of leisure and tourism, over 50 refereed papers and a wide range of industry based articles.