Blue Horizons

Richard Hutton teaches Introduction to Environmental Media. Since 2014, Richard Hutton has been Executive Director of the Center for Environmental Communication and Education at UC Santa Barbara, overseeing CECE’s concept and design. He has been teaching in the Blue Horizons program since 2011, and has been teaching Strategic Communication at UCSB’s Bren School since 2013. Hutton also serves as Chief Media Strategist for Prellis Biologics and as IPCC Curriculum Project Lead for NOVIM.

From 2010-2014, Hutton was Executive Director of UCSB’s Carsey-Wolf Center and Adjunct Professor in Film and Media Studies. He led the evolution of CWC to a fully functioning interdisciplinary Center for teaching, research, and public programming in film, television, and new media.

From 2001-2010, Hutton was Vice President of Media Development for Vulcan Inc., overseeing its feature film and documentary units. Vulcan’s productions included This Emotional Life; the Peabody Award-winning Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial; and the Emmy Award-winning Rx for Survival. Vulcan Productions also co-produced Strange Days on Planet Earth; the Peabody and Grammy Award-winning No Direction Home: Bob Dylan; and the Emmy Grammy Award-winning Martin Scorsese Presents The Blues; the Peabody Award-winning Black Sky: The Race for Space; and the blues concert film Lightning in a Bottle. Feature films included Humanitas Prize winner Where God Left His Shoes; Hard Candy; Bickford Shmeckler’s Cool Ideas; and Independent Spirit Award winner for Best Picture Far From Heaven.

Hutton also directed Vulcan’s media initiatives in the education, museum, and entertainment sectors, leading the design teams that conceived and built the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame in Seattle, StartUp: Albuquerque, and the Personal Computer Revolution (also in Albuquerque). Prior to working at Vulcan, Hutton devoted three years to executive producing the eight-hour, critically acclaimed, Emmy-nominated PBS series, Evolution.

From 1992-1998, Hutton worked at the Walt Disney Company, from 1996-1998 as senior vice president of creative development at Walt Disney Imagineering and from 1992-1996 as vice president and general manager of the Disney Institute where he directed the transition of the organization from concept into an operating business.

Prior to working at Disney, Hutton was senior vice president of television programming and production for WETA Television in Washington, D.C., and, earlier, Director of Public Affairs Programming for WNET Television in New York. There, his projects included the award-winning The Brain and The Mind. Hutton has authored or co-authored nine books and medical texts, as well as articles for national publications, including The New York Times Magazine, Omni, and Cosmopolitan. Hutton holds a B.A. degree in history from the University of California at Berkeley.