Professional Statement
Currently I am an Associate Professor of Geography at the University of California,
Santa Barbara (with an adjunct position at San Diego State University Department of
Geography), where I direct the Human-Environment Dynamics Lab (HED). I hold affiliate
positions in three UCSB interdisciplinary programs: Global and International Studies (GIS),
Latin American and Iberian Studies (LAIS), and Marine Studies (IMS), and am a research
associate with the UCSB Earth Research Institute (ERI), the University of California Center
for U.S.-Mexican Studies (USMEX) and the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies
(CCIS). I received a BA in Spanish Literature (with a minor in Geology) from Bates College
and a PhD in Geography from the University of North Carolina, where I also held a NIH
post-doctoral fellowship in Biostatistics in the School of Public Health and Carolina
Population Center. I have lived, worked, and traveled extensively in Latin America and in
over 70 countries worldwide. I speak Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, and rudimentary
Q’eqchí Maya.
Research
I work on links among population, health, rural development, agriculture, and marine
and forest resource use and conservation through ongoing projects in Latin America, Africa,
and Asia. I have (co)authored over 100 conference papers and approximately 100 articles,
chapters, proceedings, books, and reports. My research is conducted with colleagues and
students thanks to nearly 4 million dollars raised through over 50 fellowships, grants, and
awards from NASA, NSF, NIH, the Mellon and Fulbright Foundations, and numerous
other sources. Notable among my scholarly achievements are paper awards from the
University of North Carolina School of Medicine, the Latin American Specialty Group (SG)
of the Association of American Geographers (AAG), the Population SG of the AAG, the
Nystrom Prize for best paper based on a dissertation in Geography, a University of North
Carolina Post-doctoral Award for Research Excellence, and an Athgo International VIP
Award for participation in the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize winning Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change (IPCC)
My research has developed synergistically through collaborations with conservation
and development organizations, including the following work with the United States Agency
for International Development (USAID): the regional implementation of the Millenium
Development Goals, the development of the Regional Plan for Amazonian Biodiversity Conservation,
the research, evaluation and planning of integrated population, health, and environment
programs in global priority conservation zones (also with WWF, Conservation International,
and BALANCE), and the conceptual framework for Emerging Trends in Environment and
Economic Growth in Latin America and the Caribbean. I have also worked for National
Geographic and Population Reference Bureau on the AP Population Teaching Initiative; for
Direct Relief International on mapping health-environment dynamics, for the Obama
administration’s $63 billion six year Global Health Initiative. Currently I am coordinating lead
author of the “Land” chapter and a lead author of the “Drivers” chapter with the United
Nations Environment Program’s (UNEP) Global Environmental Outlook (Geo-5) in preparation
for the Rio de Janeiro 2012 World Summit.
Service
I have served in several positions for the AAG including Chair of the Human
Dimensions of Global Change (HDGC) and the Population Specialty Groups (PSG) and
Cultural Ecology and Population Geography Representative for the AAG Outreach Project.
I serve as associate editor for Population and Environment and on the editorial board of the
Journal of Global and International Studies. I am a steering member of the International
Geographical Union (IGU) Land Use/Cover Change (LUCC) Commission, of the
Population-Environment Research Network (PERN), of the International Human
Dimensions Program, and of the UN-sponsored Project on Global Environmental Change
and Human Health (GECHH). I have served on research proposal review and planning
committees for the Social Science Research Council, National Science Foundation and the
National Institutes of Health (NIH). I also served on the Eco-agriculture Action Committee
at the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa.
At UCSB I have collaborated on over 20 University and Departmental committees.
Among these, I currently serve on the UCSB Faculty Senate Committee for Equity and
Diversity and the Committee for Sustainability. I currently am on the steering committee of
three emerging PhD emphases on campus: Human-Environment Dynamics, Global and
International Studies, and Demography. For the larger UC system, I am a representative to
the University of California Global Health Institute (UCGHI) and a steering member of the
University of California’s Center of Expertise on Migration and Health (COEMH).
Teaching
I have a teaching mantra: It’s not about what I say, it’s about what my students learn.
My goal is to encourage and foster students’ passion to think critically and to think
geographically. My teaching philosophy is informed by pedagogical theory on hierarchical
levels of learning and on multiple intelligences and learning styles. I fashion my lectures,
exams, and assignments to challenge and engage students at each learning level, from rote
knowledge acquisition to more complex, creative, and abstract knowledge production. Term
papers particularly emphasize higher levels of learning following a solid grounding in basic
concepts from course lectures and exams. Course syllabi and lecture slides are available
online (http://www.geog.ucsb.edu/~carr) for GEOG 155: Latin American Geography,
GEOG 141: Population Geography, and various graduate seminars.
Mentoring
Mentoring is a rewarding and satisfying part of my job. I spend considerable time with
graduate and undergraduate students in independent research credits and in collaboration on
research projects. I have served on over 25 PhD committees (12 as a primary advisor). I dedicate
a large portion of time to graduate education, often outside of class in informal meetings. My
PhD students have been highly successful in garnering extramural funding, in publishing, and in
securing jobs. For more specifics, see “Mentoring” at
www.geog.ucsb.edu/~carr/DLCarr_CV_files/DLCarr_CV_online.pdf