Professor Jean Everett is a Senior Instructor in the Biology department at the College of Charleston, whose expertise is on the natural environment of the south. She received her PhD in forest ecology and botany from North Carolina State University, her MS in environmental sciences with an emphasis on ecology from the University of Virginia, and her BS in forest resource management from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Her interests include plant community and ecosystem interactions, forest ecology, seed banks, restoration ecology, particularly in longleaf pine systems, and rare plant and plant habitat surveys. 

Even though Professor Everett has lived in Charleston for almost 40 years, she does not consider herself a Southerner because most of her definitions of “southerners” are “quite negative based on experience”. She mentioned that she and her husband came to Charleston as “reluctant transfers for the company [her] husband worked for” because of a “scarce job market”. She did say that she would consider herself a mid-Atlantic southerner because it doesn’t have as close of an association with the “racist… conservative politics” that are typically tied to the deep south. 

Professor Everett has conducted several plant surveys for various state and national agencies, mainly for “rare plants in the Francis Marion National Forest”. She has helped relocate “several endangered plant populations” on SC Heritage Preserves. She has also done work with The Nature Conservancy which is a non-profit that helps combat climate change and protect our natural resources. Her expertise is on the Longleaf pine ecosystem. She is interested in the agricultural and ecological impacts that the declining population of longleaf pine has had on our society. She also mentioned the negative stereotypes that are associated with the longleaf pine such as “women sweeping the pine needles from dirt yards” when in reality, it was just a precassion for stopping the frequent fires from spreading. Her connection to the Southern Studies program is giving lectures on the dominant ecosystem of the longleaf, particularly in an agricultural aspect.