2008 GFDA Workshop Directory
Sharolyn Anderson, Sharolyn.Anderson@du.edu
Sharolyn Anderson is an assistant professor at University of Denver. She is a geographic information scientist with
interest in spatio-temporal data which includes land-use land-cover change (LUCC). She is the Director of the
MSGIS program and teaches in the upper level GISciences and Environmental Issues courses. She received her
PhD from Arizona State University and MA from University of New Mexico both in Geography and has an
undergraduate degree in Computer Science from University of New Mexico.
Beth Bee, bab333@psu.edu
Beth is currently a PhD candidate in Women's Studies and Geography at Penn State. She has served as a teaching
assistant for both human and physical geography classes and has been an instructor for Cultural Geography and Intro
to Women's Studies. Her dissertation is a participatory project that focuses on the adaptive strategies of rural
women in Mexico in the context of simultaneous economic restructuring and climatic change.
Melinda Harm Benson, mkhbenson@msn.com
Mindy is joining the geography faculty at the University of New Mexico as an assistant professor this fall. She
comes to UNM via Laramie, Wyoming, where she is a lecturer and research scientist at the University of
Wyoming’s Ruckelshaus Institute and Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources. At UW, Mindy
provided a legal perspective to the Institute’s work and taught undergraduate courses in environmental law, policy
and ethics. Mindy graduated summa cum laude from the University of Idaho College of Law in 1998. After law
school, she served as law clerk for Judge Stephen Trott on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and was the Natural
Resources Law Fellow at Lewis and Clark College of Law in 2002. As a litigator, Mindy has represented nonprofit
conservation groups in natural resources cases in the Intermountain West. Before law school, Mindy worked for
several years in the nonprofit community on environment and natural resource issues. Mindy’s current research
interests focus on the intersection between law and ecosystem-based scientific approaches to environmental
management, including adaptive management and ecosystem services.
Peter Blanken, blanken@colorado.edu, Leader
I am an Associate Professor of Geography at the University of Colorado at Boulder, where I’ve been since 1998.
Before then, I was a postdoctoral fellow studying the water balance of large northern lakes, received a Ph.D. in soil
science from the University of British Columbia (1997), and received a M.Sc. (1993) and B.Sc. (1991) both from
McMaster University. I study land-atmosphere interactions (water and carbon fluxes) through an experiment-based
approach. My current research sites include alpine tundra, high-altitude wetlands, shortgrass prairies, and (still)
northern lakes. I teach courses in introductory physical geography, hydrology, climatology, and biometeorology, and
am presently the graduate studies director for Geography, and the undergraduate director for Environmental Studies.
For several years, I have been an associate editor for the Bulletin of the American Meteorology Society. I’ve always
had an interest in improving undergraduate education/teaching, and have begun a small study looking at the
relationship between teaching quantity and quality.
P. Anthony Brinkman, brinkman@unr.edu
P. Anthony Brinkman is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Nevada. He
also serves as the Director of its Land Use Planning Policy program. Dr. Brinkman is a planning theorist who
studies the ethical use of technical data. He has extensive experience using qualitative methods to understand the
problem of biased forecasting, in particular as it relates to travel demand. As an interdisciplinarian, Dr. Brinkman
borrows liberally from the fields of philosophy, psychology, engineering and economics.
A certified planner, Dr. Brinkman completed his doctoral work in City and Regional Planning at the University of
California, Berkeley and taught in the Urban Planning Program at Wayne State University for many years. Prior to
entering the academy, Tony served as a Weather Officer in the US Air Force and worked for various state and local
planning agencies in Wisconsin, his home.
Guo Chen, guochen@msu.edu
Guo Chen has recently joined the Department of Geography and Global Urban Studies Program at Michigan State
University as an assistant professor. Guo finished her Ph.D. in Geography at Penn State University, after receiving
her BS in planning and MS in geography from NJU, China. Her dissertation explored the changing landscape of
urban poverty in China in the context of pre-existing institutions and market-oriented changes, providing a multilevel and multi-actor approach to understanding the geographies of inequality at regional, intra-city, and family and
individual levels.
Her on-going projects include (1) writings on rural-urban migration and regional inequality, intra-urban residential
differentiation, economic restructuring and urban welfare policy, and housing access for the poor; (2) an exploratory
analysis of urban spatial structures and contested urban spaces.
Guo teaches a variety of geography and interdisciplinary (undergraduate and graduate) courses such as people and
environment, economic geography, global diversity, and contemporary urban China.
Eric Compas, compase@uww.edu
I joined the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater as an Assistant Professor in Fall 2007 and recently completed my
Ph.D. in Geography from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in May 2008. Prior to Whitewater, I spent two years
teaching at Flinders University in Australia and enjoying life down under. My research has examined human
development patterns around protected areas, particularly Yellowstone National Park (the dissertation), using a
combination of qualitative and quantitative techniques. If I were a journal article, my keywords would be: political
ecologist, protected areas, land use planning, GIS, and closet activist.
Suzanne Dallman, sdallman@csulb.edu
Suzanne Dallman just completed her first year as assistant professor of geography at California State University
Long Beach, teaching environmental geography and water resources. Prior to this appointment she was the
Technical Director for the Los Angeles & San Gabriel Rivers Watershed Council, a nonprofit devoted to
stakeholder-driven solutions to resource issues. She served as the project manager for the Council’s Water
Augmentation Study to investigate the practical potential to improve surface water quality and increase local
groundwater supplies though infiltration of urban stormwater runoff. Suzanne received her MA from CSULB and
Ph.D. from UCLA, both in geography, specializing in environmental policy and water resources.
Conny Davidsen, davidsen@ucalgary.ca
Conny Davidsen is an assistant professor at the University of Calgary, where she has been since 2006 after life and
research at the University of Guelph (Ontario), University of Dresden (Germany), GTZ Quito (Ecuador), GTZ
Campeche (Mexico), University of Victoria (BC) and University of Cambridge (UK). Her research focuses on the
political process behind changing environmental policies, especially from a political ecology perspective. Her
regional focus is on Latin America and Western Canada.
Kali Fermantez, fermante@hawaii.edu
Kali Fermantez has completed his first year as Assistant Professor of Geography and Environmental Studies at the
University of Hawaii at Hilo. He is a cultural geographer with a regional focus on Hawaii and the Pacific. His
recently completed dissertation research examined the intersections of place, culture, and identity in postcolonial
Hawaii. He is also interested in indigenous geography, globalization, and participatory approaches to research.
Doug Fischer doug.fischer@csun.edu
Doug Fischer is an assistant professor at California State University, Northridge. He teaches introductory and upper
division courses in physical and biogeography. Doug received his Ph.D. from UC Santa Barbara where he taught
these subjects and also GIS and field research. His research interests include microclimate controls on vegetation
distribution, climate variability and change, and conservation biogeography.
Ken Foote, k.foote@colorado.edu, Leader
I'm a professor of geography and former department chair at the University of Colorado at Boulder. I am interested
in: 1) cultural and historical geography focusing on American and European landscape history and issues of public
memory and commemoration; 2) geographic information science and related computer and Internet technologies;
and 3) learning and teaching geography in higher education, including instructional technology and issues of
professional development for early career faculty. I have served as president and vice president of the National
Council for Geographic Education, a national councilor of the AAG, editor of NCGE Pathways series of
publications for geography educators, and North American editor of the Journal of Geography in Higher Education.
I received the Association of American Geographers' J.B. Jackson prize for Shadowed Ground: America's
Landscapes of Violence and Tragedy in 1998 and Gilbert Grosvenor Honors in Geographic Education in 2005.
At the time a became a geography professor, I had had far more experience teaching music than geography and wish
I had more time to perform early music on flute, recorder, and viola da gamba. My wife and I have twin boys born
in February 2003. When we can manage it, we foster and adopt ex-racing greyhounds and whippets.
James W. (“JW”) Harrington, jwh@u.washington.edu, Leader
JW is a Professor of Geography at the University of Washington. June 2008 will be his fourth year as a GFDA
leader, a highlight of each year! An economic geographer, JW writes and researches on the role of service sectors in
regional economic development, occupational attainment and workforce development, and has recently gained an
interest in Chinese regional development. He served as department chair from 2000-05, and now represents the UW
Faculty in Washington State legislative and educational policy matters. He’s served as AAG Secretary and as
executive director of the North American Regional Science Association, and spent three years directing the
Geography and Regional Science Program at the National Science Foundation.
JW’s abiding interests are in organizational and leadership development, and his hobbies include
cooking/entertaining and vocal music (as a trained baritone). He’s been very active in Unitarian-Universalist
churches in Buffalo NY, Reston VA, and Seattle WA.
Nick Hopwood, nick.hopwood@learning.ox.ac.uk, Leader
Nick Hopwood studied Geography at the University of Oxford for his undergraduate degree. After this he completed
an MSc and PhD, researching how young people conceive and learn geography in English schools. He has since
spent nearly 2 years at the Centre for Excellence in Preparing for Academic Practice (part of the University of
Oxford). In this role he has been involved in designing and coordinating a number of discipline-based development
events, supporting aspiring and new academics in understanding the nature of academic practice and career
development. His research has included a study of how early career academics learn to teach (on and off the job), as
well as investigating involvement in forms of service (journal editing) and career mentoring. An ongoing study
explores how doctoral students, postdoctoral researchers, and new academics in Geography and several other social
science disciplines learn, interact, and develop their identities as academics. Nick has worked closely with the
Enhancing Departments in Graduate Education (EDGE) project, which explores the experiences of masters and
doctoral students studying geography in the USA.
Leah Huff, leahahuff@gmail.com
My name is Leah, and I am about to begin a position in the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at
Mount Allison University in New Brunswick. I have a great love of teaching, and am thrilled to have found a
position at a small, liberal arts university with a focus on first-rate undergraduate education. When I'm not kept
busy trying to sell a house, planning a move, completing two research assistantships, finishing my dissertation, and
preparing five new courses to teach, I enjoy spending time with my husband and knitting. It should come as no
surprise that I am especially looking forward to honing my time-management skills at this workshop! The courses
that I am developing are: Intro to Human Geography, Intro to Cultural/Social Geography, Gender and the City,
Seminar in Landscape Studies (Sense of Place and Storytelling), and Area Studies (Geographies of Social and
Cultural Activism in Latin America). My dissertation is an ethno-geographical account of sacred specialties,
storytelling, and sense of place in a Tz'utujil Maya community in Highland Guatemala.
Larry Kiage, geolkk@langate.gsu.edu
Larry is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Geosciences, Georgia State University. He received
his Ph.D. in Geography from Louisiana State University in 2007. His research and teaching interests
focus paleoenvironmental investigations, land cover/use change, environmental conservation, remote
sensing and GIS, biogeography, paleotempestology, and global environmental change.
David Lieske, dlieske@mta.ca
David Lieske received his Ph.D. from the University of Calgary in 2007, and is an Assistant Professor at Mount
Allison University, New Brunswick, Canada. He has recently initiated a GIS modelling study of seabirds oiled at
sea and is widely interested in conservation biogeography -- specifically, how spatial information (e.g., GIS data,
remote sensing imagery) can be used to assist and inform conservation planning. His current research interests
include: species distribution modelling, biodiversity monitoring and assessment, simulation modelling, and GIS.
David teaches GIS, data analysis and biogeography at Mount Allison University.
Jonathon D. Little, jlittle@monroecc.edu
Jonathon Little is an instructor of Geography and is in the Department of Chemistry and Geosciences at Monroe
Community College (State University of New York). I am in the process of developing a new course at MCC titled:
“Climate Change and Green Energy: Applications of Geospatial Technology”.
Before teaching at MCC, I was a member of the Center for Climatic Research in the Department of Geography at
the University of Delaware, known for their expertise in climatology. I was a Research Assistant in the Geography
Department and had the privilege to work with my advisor, Dr. Frederick Nelson (Nobel Peace Prize-winning IPCC
panel member), an expert in the field of geocryology and spatial and temporal analysis. I specialized in permafrost,
periglacial and climatic geomorphology, topoclimatology, and spatial analysis. For my thesis, I spent two summers
on Alaska’s North Slope collecting GPS data, and then statistically analyzed this data to determine the spatial
variability of frost heave and thaw settlement. The research has strong ties to climate change (thawing of permafrost
and subsequent release of methane and carbon dioxide).
I completed my B.S. in Atmospheric Science in 1998. Following my B.S., I earned a teaching credential in physical
science from UC Davis with a supplement in Geoscience and math. I have three years of experience teaching
environmental and physical science where I wrote a proposal and was awarded grant money to purchase a weather
station to integrate live weather data into the classroom. Not long ago, I supported middle school math and science
teachers as the Technology Strategy Coach for the Fairfield-Suisun Unified School District in California and was
one of two lead facilitators in a one million dollar grant program (Enhancing Education Through Technology) that
recently received recognition from the California Department of Education for its success. In Fairfield, I designed
and developed the Suisun Marsh Project, an innovative environmental public outreach program that integrates
science and technology in an ongoing attempt to determine the health of the marsh.
James A. Miller, jamesmiller@fullerton.edu
James is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography at California State University-Fullerton. He earned
his Ph.D. in Geography from Arizona State University studying regional and synoptic climatology under the
direction of Anthony Brazel and Robert Balling. In addition, James served as a Doctoral Fellow in the NSF IGERT
program in Urban Ecology during his tenure at Arizona State, which solidified his interest in urban environments
generally and the urban heat island specifically. In addition, James is broadly interested in arid and mountain
environments, particularly the sensitivity of each to global environmental change. Finally, James is an avid hiker
and explorer, which continually inspires him in his teaching and research.
Kirk Oda, kirkoda@geog.tamu.edu
Kirk is a Ph.D. candidate at Texas A&M University. His research interests include GIS education for spatial literacy
and geospatial media for blind people. His dissertation explores how university students’ knowledge is restructured
and understanding of spatial concepts is changed as a result of taking an introductory-level GIS course. He has
taught physical geography labs in recent one year.
Brent Olson, baolson@maxwell.syr.edu
Brent Olson is pursuing his doctorate in Geography from Syracuse University. Brent's interests are in
environmental history and political ecology, especially as they relate to the cultural landscapes of the American
West. He has taught or assisted classes in physical geography, and the global environment.
Joel Outtes, outtes@rowan.edu
Joel Outtes is a Geographer, Planner, Architect and Historian with two Masters (Urban and Regional Development,
Federal University of Pernambuco, Brazil & Urban Studies, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris)
and a Doctorate from the University of Oxford. He won several prizes and awards (Brazilian Ministry of Culture,
Association of American Geographers, British Society for Latin American Studies, USA Latin American Studies
Association) and has been a professor in several countries and institutions.
Prof. Outtes is developing research projects on the so-called "Urban International" (The Critical Comparative
Historical Geography of International Planning and Housing Institutions since the Late 19th Century), Crime and
Illegal Territories in Brazil as well as comparative urban issues broadly speaking. He is currently an Associate
Professor at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul in Porto Alegre-RS, Brazil, where he is the Head of GESTThe Group for the Study of Society and Territory. He is a Visiting Faculty at Rowan University and used to hold the
same kind of post (for just part of the year) at Eastern Illinois University, USA, every spring semester for the past
two years. He is also a PhD Tutor in several disciplines at Warnborough University in the United Kingdom. An
updated and reduced version of his PhD Dissertation will be published under the title "Disciplining Society through
the City? The Birth of Urbanismo (City Planning) in Brazil" as well as several articles based in that research in
various international refereed journals. In his supposed to exist spare time he has an interest in travelling, exercising,
speaking foreign languages, oenology, gastronomy, and new information and communication technologies.
joni palmer, joni.palmer@colorado.edu, Leader
Joni Palmer is a landscape architect, planner, geographer, and educator, as well as a visual artist and poet. Her work
has afforded her the opportunity to work with design firms, public agencies, and private groups in their efforts to
make connections between land and people, and place and time.
Ms. Palmer earned her Bachelors degree in Science at Cornell University, with a double major in City and Regional
Planning, and Human-Environment Relations. She received her MLA at the Harvard University Graduate School of
Design. Currently, she is a doctoral student at the University of Colorado at Boulder, department of geography. She
maintains her permanent residence in Albuquerque, NM.
Scholarly Interests: public art, community art, graffiti, memorials and monuments; post-WW II suburbs (USA), the
American suburban driveway, literature (novels, short stories, poetry) and the suburbs, visual culture and the
suburbs, globalization and suburbs, the new urbanism, the new suburbanism, Latino new urbanism; gender and
planning, gender and landscape/architecture; city imaging, city marketing, urban design, intentional communities,
community planning; visual and textual representation(s), landscape narratives; GIS; teaching (tools, skills, tenure,
women); sustainability, political ecology, the west (USA), the southwest (USA), environmental/nature writing,
geography and food.
Elizabeth Pike, elizabeth.pike@colorado.edu, Leader
Elizabeth Pike is currently an instructor and the undergraduate advisor for the Geography department at the
University of Colorado at Boulder. She is a 2001 PhD Geography graduate of the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Her studies in Geography drew from subfields of sustainable development, the contemporary American West, and
conservation. Her dissertation, entitled "Cows, Community and Conservation: The Nature Conservancy in
Colorado's Yampa Valley", examined one of The Nature Conservancy's first community-based conservation
programs in the United States. She has taught undergraduate courses in Conservation Thought, Conservation
Practice, and Climate and Vegetation. She also completed an MS in Civil Engineering in 1991 at the University of
Colorado, where her coursework focused on groundwater and surface hydrology.
Rosann Poltrone, rosann.poltrone@arapahoe.edu, Leader
Rosann (MA University of Wyoming; BA State University of New York at Buffalo) is a distinguished faculty
member in Geography at Arapahoe Community College (ACC). She has served as Department Chair of the Social
Sciences, Faculty Senate President and Vice-President, and currently is the coordinator for
Geography/GIS/Meteorology. I am an alumna of the 2003 GDFA workshop.
Her career encompasses academic preparation in physical geography, biogeography, and environmental science with
consulting experience as an environmental scientist for the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality
(WDEQ), Battelle, SAIC, and Enecotech. Research interests revolve around my thesis topic, where I studied habitat
degradation and its’ effect upon Northern Leopard Frogs in SE Wyoming. My present course responsibilities include
teaching both lecture, lecture-lab, and online delivery for World Regional Geography, Physical Geography, Human
Geography, Human Ecology, Introduction to Meteorology and development of a new course “Introduction to
Environmental Science” as a new science with lab class for guaranteed transfer within the Colorado Commission on
Higher Education system.
I have also recently become involved with the Colorado Geographic Alliance (COGA), presently co-delivering a
series of 3 workshops to help a major Denver metropolitan school district’s high school and middle school
geography teachers align their curriculum with the Colorado Geography Standards.
My interests include swimming, hiking, and showing and training Labrador retrievers. I also play trumpet in ACC’s
jazz band and participate in ACC’s Town-and-Gown society.
Andrew Scholl, ascholl@wittenberg.edu
Andrew Scholl just finished his first year as an assistant professor at Wittenberg University in Ohio where I am
enjoying teaching at a small liberal arts school. Courses I have taught include World Regional Geography, Intro to
Physical Geography, Intro to Human Geography, and Human Ecology. My dissertation research was focused on
studying the regeneration dynamics of old growth forests in Yosemite National Park. In particular I am looking at
the impact of 100 years of fire suppression on the forest.
C. Scott Smith, cssmith@uci.edu
Scott Smith received his Master of Environmental Planning degree from Arizona State University and is completing
his Ph.D. within University of California, Irvine's Department of Planning, Policy and Design. His research
interests include environmental policy and geographic information science, especially as these topics relate to issues
of environmental and social justice. With financial assistance from the NSF Long Term Ecological Research
(LTER), USC Sea Grant and US EPA Regional Geographic Initiative programs, Scott's work has been published in
environmental, planning and policy journals. He has designed and taught environmental analysis and qualitative
research methods courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels and provides ongoing research assistance on a
volunteer basis to several community-based organizations within southern California. Scott will begin his academic
career as an Assistant Professor at Northern Illinois University's Department of Geography in fall 2008.
Jan Smith, jssmit@ship.edu, Leader
I am an associate professor in the Department of Geography-Earth Science at Shippensburg University in southcentral Pennsylvania. I started my geography teaching career nearly 20 years ago after graduating from the
University of Virginia. I taught high school geography for 6 years although I had very little academic background in
the discipline. I was fortunate to attend a National Geographic summer institute for teachers in the early 1990’s
which immersed me in geography and later led to my MA and PhD in geography (with a cognate in instructional
technology) from the University of Georgia. My research focuses on spatial thinking abilities of children, the
influence of international collaboration between students on learning, and creating flow experiences in the
classroom. I have served as a Vice President of Curriculum and Instruction for the National Council for Geographic
Education and am currently the president of NCGE—an organization dedicated to supporting the teaching and
learning of geography at all levels kindergarten-university.
My husband and I love to travel, work on our old house, and spend time with our two children (ages 13 and 9). This
summer we have a national and state parks trip planned-Rocky Mountain, Grand Tetons, Yellowstone, and Custer.
Please give me suggestions on what to see and do. I am excited to be a part of the workshop this summer!
Laurel Smith, laurel@ou.edu
A cultural geographer with a PhD from University of Kentucky, I am an assistant professor of geography and honors
at the University of Oklahoma, where I earned a MA in the history of science before discovering geography.
Through ethnographic inquiry and visual analysis, my research asks how the intersections of academic advocacy and
indigenous activism can reconfigure the production of authoritative geographic knowledge. Currently I study how
transnational geographies of advocacy contribute to indigenous actors’ access and use of video technologies in
southern Mexico. And I investigate how the resulting video productions address and assess the technoscientific
interventions of development and conservation. This sort of scholarship directly informs my critical pedagogy and
fuels my obsession with video-mediated geographic learning.
Michael Solem, msolem@aag.org, Leader
Michael Solem is Educational Affairs Director at the Association of American Geographers. Since 2003, Dr. Solem
has served as principal investigator or co-principal investigator on over $3 million in federally funded projects
aimed at enhancing the teaching and learning of geography in postsecondary education.
Dr. Solem currently directs the Enhancing Departments and Graduate Education in Geography (EDGE) project and
the Center for Global Geography Education (CGGE) initiative funded by NSF. EDGE is a research and action
project designed to improve the preparation of geography graduate students for academic and non-academic
professional careers. CGGE is an initiative supporting online international teaching and learning collaborations in
undergraduate geography courses.
Dr. Solem is the external evaluator for the University of Colorado¹s Geography Faculty Development Alliance and
Oregon State University¹s Graduate Ethics Education for Future Geospatial Technology Professionals project. He
currently serves as the North American coordinator of the International Network for Learning and Teaching
Geography in Higher Education (INLT), is associate director of the Grosvenor Center for Geographic Education at
Texas State UniversitySan Marcos, and leads the AAG¹s efforts with the Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of
Teaching and Learning program.
Dr. Solem received the Journal of Geography in Higher Education¹s biennial award for promoting excellence in
teaching and learning for his research with Ken Foote on faculty development in postsecondary geography. He is coeditor of Aspiring Academics and Teaching College Geography, two AAG books for graduate students and early
career faculty.
Xiaobo Su, xiaobo@uoregon.edu
My area of interest covers cultural politics, tourism development, and urban heritage. My current research project
investigates the politics of tourism in China's heritage sites when these sites become increasingly exposed to global
capitalistic tendencies arising from tourism. My work focuses on the issues of representation, commodification,
nationalism and spatial inclusion/ exclusion in a global-national -local nexus in order to examine the radical
transition of China after 1978. Some research topics include: 1) Tourism consumerism in China-looking at the
middle-class Chinese urbanites who rush into China's frontier regions for invented tradition and 'authentic' heritage;
and 2) The state mode of production and tourism regionalism-using Lefebvre's theory on the state mode of
production to examine the multiple roles of Chinese government in shaping the space of development through
tourism regionalism.
Jeremy Tasch, JTasch@towson.edu
Jeremy is an assistant professor in the Department of Geography and Environmental Planning, Towson University,
the College of Liberal Arts’ first interdisciplinary hire in Global Studies. A geographer by training (Ph.D. from
Clark University, 2006) with background in energy management (MS in energy management, University of
Pennsylvania), he was the director of an international NGO in the Caucasus from 2000 – 2004, where he received
numerous US Department of State grants to promote civil society development and youth initiative. He was the cofounder in Azerbaijan of the first American Library and the US-Azerbaijan Education Center. In 2005 Jeremy
accepted an assistant professorship at the University of Alaska, 2005 – 2007, where he helped found the Department
of Geography and Environmental Studies, and the International Studies Program. While at the University of Alaska,
he was awarded a collaborative Fulbright-Hayes Grant and co-led 14 educators from the US to the Russian Far East
in 2006. Currently involved in international collaborative research on Arctic sovereignty issues, he has been
contracted by Rowan and Littlefield for a book on the political ecology of resource development in the Russian Far
East. Currently most of his time is spent in his postage stamp-sized garden, drinking coffee and tending his fish.
Lei Wang, leiwang@lsu.edu
Lei finished his Ph.D. at Texas A&M University in 2006. His interests are in GIS, spatial analysis and modeling,
spatial data acquisition and integration, hydrologic models, flooding, computational geomorphology, and coastal
areas
Corey Werner, werner@ucmo.edu
Corey Werner is an assistant professor at the University of Central Missouri. Corey received his PhD in geography
from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and his M.S. from Texas A&M University. Corey is his department’s
resident physical geographer, and his primary research investigates the geomorphology of dune fields in the High
Plains and how past behavior of those dunes relates to paleoclimate. In addition to introductory World Geography,
Corey teaches regional courses, climatology, physical geography, conservation, and natural hazards.