(Dorothy is presently APCG Vice President. Below is her statement from when she ran for Vice President last year.)
Professor of Geography, Sonoma State University
PhD, Geography, 1993, University of Oregon
MA, Geography, 1989, University of Oregon
BA, Geography, 1987, Sonoma State
All my life I’ve had a passion for Geography, but just didn’t know it. I think there are a lot of us who can say the same. There are plenty of high school seniors who know they’re fascinated by Psychology or Criminal Justice, even if they’ve never had a course in the subject. They oft en have an idea of what Anthropology involves, or Geology, and certainly History or English or Biology. Most, however, think only of Geography as the part of Social Studies where they had to memorize place names or other trivial facts about a place. For me, even though from a young age I had a subscription to National Geographic, it never occurred to me that there was an actual discipline, a major that I could take, called Geography. I felt torn between my loves of earth sciences and human studies, and so was ecstatic when I discovered, at the age of 42, that I could study both within a single discipline. This story fits with the pattern that many majors recount, of trying a number of other majors before finding Geography, and many of them as mature students returning to school.
I returned to school to finish my BA at Sonoma State in 1984, majoring in Liberal Studies at the Ukiah campus at night. Thanks to a fortuitous class that fall with Dr. Claude Minard of the Geography Department, the second semester I dropped all my liberal studies classes and began commuting to Rohnert Park 100 miles each way to take all Geography classes. I was hooked! I had found my passion and have never looked back.
After finishing my BA at SSU in 1987, I enrolled in graduate years there, working with Pat McDowell and Bart Bartlein, I finished my M.A. (1989) and Ph.D. (1993), focusing on geomorphology, geoarchaeology, and Quaternary environments. Upon finishing my degree I took a tenure track position at Univ. of Missouri Kansas City where I taught for two years. When in 1995 a position opened for a physical geographer at Sonoma State, I was delighted with the opportunity to return to the West Coast, where the landscapes are dramatic and my children are nearby.
I’ve enjoyed 13 years at SSU thus far, serving as Department Chair from 2003 to 2007. During this time I became involved with the APCG, first as a member of the Awards Committee and later as Chair, as well as co-Chair of the Women’s Network with Jennifer Helzer. I’ve also been serving as Editor of The California Geographer since 2003 and for the past several years have been moderator of the APCG email list server. In the past few years I’ve been most interested in bringing undergraduates to the APCG meetings, to introduce them to the exciting range of topics presented by geographers, to meet students and faculty from other parts of the west, and on field trips to interact with and learn from the perspectives of their fellow participants. My research interests have ranged from stratigraphic evidence of the environment of earliest human occupations in the Willamette Valley and Eastern Oregon to paleoclimate modeling of Pleistocene closed basin lakes in the Great Basin to pre-Classic Maya environments in Guatemala and Ecuador. Over the past several years I’ve also gotten involved with bringing students into the field in Guatemala, and for the past four years I’ve taken students on a two week field experience course in Ecuador during January intersession. I have found that field experience is by far the most vivid way for students to learn about Geography.
My goal is to find ways of exposing a greater number and diversity of students to Geography, particularly through first person experiences of their world. That way perhaps more students will know about this elusive option, to study the natural environment and the people who live there. Maybe more will get hooked, as I did.
Associate Professor and Chair of Geography, CSU, Long Beach
Ph.D., Geography, 2000, University of Kentucky
M.S., Geography, 1995, University of Wisconsin – Madison
B.A., Int’l Relations/East Asia Studies, 1990 Bucknell Univ.
Service to Geography/APCG:
I began my work for the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers in 2004, when I
organized my first session for the meetings in San Luis Obispo. I was also asked
to be part of the Membership Committee, and when I became the Chair of the
Committee in 2005, I organized a series of “signature sessions” for the Eugene
meeting, most of which targeted newly minted Ph.D.s, assistant professors, and
graduate students. One such session brought together six current journal editors
from across the discipline to discuss academic publication. I have returned to
that position this year, and will once again target a campaign to expand our
membership and highlight key areas of need for our growing membership. In
addition to my Committee work, I also Co-Chaired the 2007 APCG Meeting in Long
Beach, California. That meeting was the largest annual meeting on record. As a
special initiative, the Department of Geography at CSULB sponsored the
participation of almost 100 of its own students, giving many of them their first
professional academic experience.
In addition to my work for the APCG, I am an active member of the AAG and the discipline of Geography. This includes my participation in a number of specialty groups, organizing paper sessions in addition to special sessions supporting the work of these groups. I currently serve as Book Review Editor for the journal Social and Cultural Geography. Over the last nine years, I have reviewed over 50 journal articles for journals as wide ranging as Progress in Human Geography; Health and Place; and Sexualities. I have also served as a reviewer for a number of important presses in Geography, including Routledge and the University of Minnesota.
My service also extends into my local community, where I have participated in outreach programs for HIV reduction programs as well as teacher training programs in history and social science.
Professional Experience:
Although I have only been at CSULB since 2000, I have been in the
classroom in different capacities since 1990, when I joined Teach for America.
In 2000, I joined the California State University, Long Beach Geography and
Liberal Studies Departments as an assistant professor. My joint position meant
that I taught both geographers and future elementary school educators. In 2005,
when I received early tenure and promotion., I moved my appointment completely
into Geography. In 2007, I was elected Chair of Department, a position in which
I have served since the Fall of 2007.
Research Interests:
I consider myself a broadly trained human geographer with a strong
interest in social and cultural geography, geographic methodology, tourism and
leisure studies, the geographies of sexuality and health, homelessness, and
HIV/AIDS outreach, advocacy and health care programs. Regionally, I have a
long-term research program in Southeast Asia, particularly Thailand, where I
have conducted research since the early 1990s. I also have a strong research
program in the United States, particularly focused on Long Beach, California,
where I have conducted research on the intersections of drug use and HIV risk
among self-identified gay and bisexual men as well as research on the
intersections between homelessness and public transportation accessibility.
Publications:
I recently published a single-authored upper division textbook on social
geography for the Wiley-Blackwell series in Critical Introductions to Geography.
In addition, I co-edited Mapping Tourism, and currently serve as lead editor on
the Wiley-Blackwell A Companion to Social Geography. I have also authored or
coauthored twenty peer-reviewed articles and book chapters in edited volumes,
and have contributed to a number of encyclopedias. In 2011, I will be joining
Sallie Marston, Paul Knox, Diana Liverman, and Paul Robbins as one of fi ve
authors on World Regions in Global Context (Prentice Hall).
To Do List for APCG:
I would like to employ my experience to continue the expansion of the
organization, and promote the APCG. This means tapping into the needs and
interests of some of the newest members in our region’s undergraduate and
graduate programs and engaging new colleagues as well. We can expand the
broad-based diversity of our membership by highlighting research and outreach
programs in the region. The annual meeting could serve as a venue for bringing
scholars in from both Mexico and Canada. We might also dialogue with colleagues
in different disciplines, through interdisciplinary research colloquia at our
annual meeting and by using our regional publication. APCG can take advantage of
this visibility for the good of its membership and the broader society it
serves.
Professor of Geography
Evergreen State College
PhD, Geography, 1988, Louisiana State University
MA, Geography, 1978, Indiana State University
BA Social Sciences, 1974, Western Oregon University
A year after I received my bachelor’s degree in the Willamette Valley, I went on a road trip to the Colorado Plateau, where I met up with all of the western field representatives of The Wilderness Society in Utah. The group had a business meeting to conduct and a fl oat trip down the San Juan River seemed like a good place to deliberate. We were all young, determined environmentalists. Dave Forman, lean and bearded, stood up at the campfire one night and announced he was going to leave the Society and create a more radical group to be known as Earth First! When it came to my turn, I announced I was going to graduate school in geography. “Geography?” asked Forman. “Yeah,” I answered. “Thinking about our relationship to Earth is my way of committing to bringing peace into the world,” I said. That night seems so long ago (34 years, to be exact.)
My journey from the San Juan River to faculty member at The Evergreen State College in Washington included years of seasonal work in wildland fire, land surveying and outdoor recreation management for the U.S. Forest Service in Oregon, a Ph.D. in geography from LSU, and teaching at the University of Minnesota, Duluth where I was tenured and promoted to Associate Professor. I joined the graduate faculty of Evergreen in 1995 and will become Director of the Masters of Environmental Study this fall. I am currently the Coordinator for the Environmental Studies Planning Unit, a position similar to chairing a department. These administrative positions at Evergreen require working across disciplinary boundaries with faculty and students in natural and social sciences.
Commitment to civility by studying human relationships to Earth has been full of intellectual challenge, amazingly bright and creative humans (plus a few scoundrels), maps and manuscripts, hot days on the desert, endless hours in dusty archives, and years with students. Research on topics in political ecology and ethnicity has been my primary focus. I have co-edited one volume on geographical contexts of American Indians. I have published numerous articles and book reviews on American Indians, American public lands and landscapes, wildland fire and forestry management in Greece, and geographic education. I have three book manuscripts I am committed to finish. One investigates the transfer of power from faculty to student based on a month long walk I made with students across the state of Washington. A second manuscript is an historical geography of central Nevada, and the third is based on my experiences in Greece as a Fulbright scholar. I was an NEH participant in a summer seminar entitled “Nature Writing” and was also a member of a two year seminar at UC Santa Barbara. I am currently working on a funded project to bring educational opportunities in food security and alternative energy to at-risk youth in Lewis County, Washington, one of the poorest counties in the Pacific Northwest.
Commitment to APCG began the minute I arrived in Washington. I fully support our regional meetings. I have attended the APCG meetings, given presentations, been active in the Women’s Network, and for the last three years shepherded the Trussell Awards. I have also served as a judge for student awards. It has been my honor to review these young scholars’ work. The Women’s Network plays a vital role in supporting all women geographers. I have very much enjoyed participating in and attending APCG meetings and field trips. My time with APCG members has been a critical to maintaining my identity as a geographer.
My vision for APCG is four fold: 1) develop a presence in academia beyond geography by interacting with other regional professional groups with whom we share common interests; 2) create a strong web-based presence that will attract students to undergraduate and graduate programs in our region; 3) become a support system for all students by maintaining web-based geographical data links including alternative educators; and 4) continue APCG members’ long history of commitment to field-based learning and research. I strongly support student preparation for careers in the twenty first century.
Finally, we senior scholars and faculty members have much wisdom to share with one another and younger geographers. I envision strengthening ties between departments especially in an era when academic resources may be scarce. The Association of Pacific Coast Geographers has a great deal to contribute to this new, hopefully peaceful, world.
Candidates for Secretary, 2009
Santa Monica College
MA, Geography, 1996, CSU Northridge
BA, Geography, 1994, CSU Northridge
Since 2000, I have been a faculty member in the Earth Science Department at Santa Monica College. I became chair of the department in 2004 and was re-elected as chair in 2008. Although community college Geography instructors are expected to teach all types of Geography classes, I have managed to keep my focus on Physical Geography, Field classes, and GIS.
My Master’s Thesis (Hydrophobic Soil Genesis, Santa Monica Mountains, southern California) was a continuation of my Senior Thesis. I am still researching this topic, only now I’ve extended it to using Remote Sensing. While participating in a NSF grant, I have been examining Landsat 5 and Landsat 7 imagery to determine vegetation loss and burn severity due to wildfires, using pre-fi re and post-fi re datasets.
My involvement with APCG dates back to my undergraduate senior year. I presented my Senior Thesis (Post-fire Development of Hydrophobic Soils in Big Sycamore Canyon, Santa Monica Mountains, southern California) at the APCG conference held at CSU, Northridge in the early 1990s for which I won an award. Several years ago I took over the Women’s Network Coordinator position and have found it to be a wonderful experience. About two years ago, I, with the help of Jenny Zorn, set up a fund-raising program for the Women’s Network that has brought in monies to aid in keeping the Travel Grant program funded.
My one big goal is to help define the Secretary’s role, since this has traditionally been a combined position (Secretary-Treasurer). I am also interested in increasing membership in the APCG, and especially encouraging the upcoming female geography students.
Arizona State University
PhD, Climatology, 1997, University of Delaware
MS, Geography, 1994, University of Delaware
BA, Geography, 1991, University of Delaware
Andrew Ellis holds the position of Associate Professor in the School of Geographical Sciences at Arizona State University and is also an affiliate of ASU’s Environmental Fluid Dynamics Program within the School of Earth and Space Exploration.
Ellis arrived at ASU in 1997 after obtaining a Ph.D. in Climatology from the Department of Geography at the University of Delaware. After a one-year appointment as Visiting Assistant Professor of hydroclimatology he was hired as an Assistant Professor and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2004. While at ASU he has served as State Climatologist for Arizona and as Director of ASU’s Office of Climatology.
Ellis’ research interests have evolved from snow cover-atmosphere interaction and lake-effect snowfall studies early in his career, to research focused on hydroclimatic variability, drought, and climate change-water resource issues in recent years. His climate science research agenda over the past five years has been geared to support ASU’s emergence as a global leader in sustainability science. Specifically, his current research interests are focused on improving our understanding of past hydroclimate variability and change, improving hydroclimatic monitoring, and improving prediction of the hydroclimatic impacts of potential future climate change.
Ellis’ service to AAG includes the positions of Secretary- Treasurer of the Cryosphere Specialty Group and as Director of the Young Scholars Program and Member of the Honors Committee of the Climate Specialty Group.
Candidate for Treasurer, 2009
Professor Emeritus, CSU, Sacramento
PhD (Geography), 1973, University of Oregon
MA (Geography), 1966, Louisiana State University
BS (Geography), 1964, University of Wisconsin (Madison)
My degrees are all in geography.
I began teaching in 1969 at San Fernando Valley State (later CSU Northridge), then came to CSU Sacramento in 1977.
I am fully retired (or perhaps retarded) since the Spring ’08 semester ended, but have been allowed to keep a portion of my old office where the APCG data resides.
I have been Secretary/Treasurer since 1997. With the position now split in two, I offered to continue as Treasurer for another term, or year, if creating staggered terms for Secretary and Treasurer would be useful.
I will have to quit doing this at some point, but have thoroughly enjoyed working with the members and officers and attending the annual meetings over the years. My math and computer skills are decent and I’m as honest as the day is long (and with tidal friction coupled with melting of polar ice, the days are getting longer!).