Geoffrey Wandesforde-Smith retired in 2004 from the Department of Political Science at UC Davis, where he taught environmental law, politics, and policy since 1970 and also held a joint appointment in the Department of Environmental Science and Policy.  He was for many years Faculty Director of the Political Science and International Relations Internship Programs. 

He is active as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the California Voter Foundation, the major internet-based source of ideas for the reform of voting and elections processes in the state.  CVF has support from a broad array of funders to be a vigorous advocate for the interests of voters in re-envisioning the conduct of elections, particularly in ways that enhance voter participation. 

He is also Associate Editor and Reviews Editor of the Journal of International Wildlife Law and Policy, a Routledge/Taylor and Francis publication.  Ongoing research and writing collaborations involve a variety of colleagues around the world, through the Journal.  The current focus is on terrestrial and marine protected areas and the implications of climate change for the conservation strategies of major NGOs.    

He is the leader and founder of the Henry Dunster Society, the organization representing the overseas alumni/ae of Bury Grammar School and memorializing the first President of Harvard, who was once a student and headmaster at the School.  An interest in heraldry underlies the design of an armory for the School and the Society, as well as for UC Davis.

In the past at the University, he served on the Academic Senate committee recommending a permanent UC presence in the state capital and subsequently taught for three years at what is now the University of California Center Sacramento(UCCS).  The program develops political and policy analysis skills for Scholar Interns, recruited from all campuses in the UC system.  Scholar Interns undertake a mixture of academic and internship work while in residence at UCCS.  

Innovative instructional uses of the Web in regularly scheduled and large enrollment courses, pioneered in the late 1990s with support from AT&T and Sun Microsystems, led to the Academic Senate's Distinguished Teaching Award. 

The International Law course was notable for its collaboration with Nicholas Watts, a colleague at London Metropolitan University.  Instructional use of the internet was also integral to the Practicum in Diplomacy, organized and led by Ambassador Genta Hawkins Holmes, formerly a Diplomat in Residence in Political Science and subsequently United States Ambassador to Australia, as well as in the California Politics course taught with Kim Alexander, the Founder and President of CVF, and the International Wildlife Law courses taught with Wil Burns.