GSAG 2007 nominees

BALLOT email by April 15, 2007 to: ballots@veryspatial.com Vice Chair/Chair You may cast only 1 vote for this office. Matshwene Edwin Moshia (Edwin) _____ Secretary/Treasurer You may cast only 1 vote for this office. Lynette Jacobson _____withdrawn Janis Schubert _____ Nominees for Director You may cast up to 4 votes for this office Stephen Aldrich _____ Stephanie Deitrick _____ Kelley O'Neal _____ Tim Hawthorne _____

It is time to elect new officers for the Graduate Student Affinity Group of the Association of American Geographers. Please send all ballots to Cynthia Vogel via email at ballots@veryspatial.com by April 15, 2007. Brief nominee bios are below. Below the nominee bios is the ballot, please copy and paste it into your email. To vote for a candidate simply type yes after their name. All names that are not followed by a yes vote will be considered a no vote. You may cast 1 vote for Vice Chair/Chair, 1 vote for Secretary/Treasurer and up to 4 votes for Director, with no more than 1 vote per nominee. If a ballot is received with more than 1 vote for an office for which only 1 vote may be cast, the vote for that office will be void. There is still an open Director position. If anyone is interested in being nominated for this position, please contact Cynthia Vogel. Thanks for your time!

I have been a Teaching Assistant in the course GIS in Agriculture and currently I'm a TA for Applied information Technology in Agriculture class. I am pursuing a Ph.D. (Precision Agriculture). My previous degrees and affiliations include: M.S. (University of Limpopo); B.S. (University of the North); Project Management Cert (GYC); and, GIS Cert (ESRI). My research area of interest is GIS applications in Agriculture; Natural Resource Management; Environmental Quality and sustainability; Water Quality and Manure issues; and, Soil Sciences. Awards and honors that I have received include Fulbright Scholarship (2005/7); Ernest Oppenheimer Scholarship (2006); National Scholars Honor (2007); Gamma Sigma Delta Honor Society (2005); and, National Research Foundation Scares Skill Scholarship (2003/4).

I am exploring an opportunity for both change and challenges. My career development to date has been the results of high degree of initiative, a strong sense of professionalism, an ability to quickly acquire new skills and knowledge when challenged and an ability to interact effectively with people. Furthermore, I can communicate confidently in writing and verbally at various levels of civil society. Perhaps also significantly is the fact that I have developed strong management and organizational skills including managing time and itinerary and the ability to manage multiple projects.

Currently I serve on Graduate Student Committee and I am also representing Colorado State University Grad Students on library Committee. I have represented the entire student body in the University Senate during my MS degree time. I have been a Chairperson of HIV/AIDS Organization at University of the North where I have received my BS degree. I also received a formal training on Leadership and Organization. I am a well trained (3 years formal training) Peer Educator on Community Development and Youth Empowerment. This training was offered to me by Centre for Student Counseling and Development. I subscribed to International Young Professional Foundation since 2005. As a motivated young professional, I have good presentation and representation skills since I am a Stand-Up Comedian.

Janis is a Ph.D. student in Geospatial Information Sciences at the University of Texas at Dallas and is a National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellow. She received a B.A. in Psychology from Rice University and an M.S. in GIS from the University of Texas at Dallas. Her research interests include spatio-temporal analysis, crime mapping, and 3-D GIS. She has presented papers at several conferences including the AAG and the American Society of Criminology Annual Conference and has submitted a journal article and a book chapter for publication. Janis has served as a Director for GSAG in 2005-06 and 2006-07 and also as a reviewer for the student paper competition in 2006. In the greater community, she has served as Treasurer on two non-profit boards.

I am currently pursuing my Ph.D. in Geography. My previous degrees include a B.A. in Geography, Clark University (2002) and M.A. in Geography, Michigan State University (2004).

Having been a geographer since I was eight years old, but only formally one since 1998, my interests are many. However, broadly, human-environment (nature-society) geography and Latin American geography are most exciting for me. My dissertation research, using mixed-methods ranging from the use of satellite imagery to field-interviews, focuses on deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon due to pressures for land reform.

My previous experience includes founding Co-president (Fall 2005 - Spring 2006), Geography Graduate Group (TripleG), Michigan State University; Co-drafter of the TripleG (see above) group constitution; Executive Board Member (Sept. 2001 - Present), Educational Praxis, Inc. (An educational non-profit based in Putney, Vermont); Department Representative (2006), Council of Graduate Students, Michigan State University; and, Travel Award Committee Member (2006), Conference of Latin Americanist Geographers (CLAG).

Stephanie is currently a PhD student under the supervision of Rob Edsall in the School of Geographical Sciences at Arizona State University. Her research interests are in visualization, GISc, and geographic uncertainty, particularly the impacts of geospatial data and technologies on public policy and decision-making. She finished her MA at Arizona State University looking at the influence of uncertainty visualization on decision-making. She received her BS in mathematics from Santa Clara University. Her current research focuses on user-centered typologies of geographic uncertainty and differences in expert and non-expert interpretations of uncertain representations. Stephanie has presented her research regarding geographic uncertainty and decision making at national and international conferences, with her research published in the conference proceedings for Spatial Data Handling. She has submitted a paper and been accepted to present at the International Cartographic Conference in Moscow, Russia this summer. She has served on the graduate colloquium committee in the School of Geographical Sciences, as well as a peer grant reviewer for the Graduate and Professional Student Association at Arizona State University.

Kelley is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Geography at the University of Maryland. She received her M.A. in geography from the University of Arizona and her B.S. in geography from the University of Maryland. Her broad research interests are in human-environment relationships and land-cover and land-use change, with more specific interests in fire ecology, rangeland management, and image processing and environmental simulation techniques to support land change science questions. She has been a member of the AAG since 2003 and maintains current or has held past membership in the following AAG groups: Biogeography; Climate; Coastal and Marine; Geographic Information Science and Systems; Graduate Student; Remote Sensing; and, Spatial Analysis and Modeling. Beyond membership, she has enjoyed serving as a student director for the Remote Sensing Specialty Group during the past two years. She organized and chaired the Remote Sensing/GIS/Cartography Student Illustrated Paper Competition at the 2006 AAG Annual Meeting and is currently organizing the Remote Sensing Student Honors Paper Competition to be held at the 2007 AAG Annual Meeting, where she will serve as session chair and judge.

I am currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Geography. Previous Degrees: Bachelor of Arts, major in Geography at Ohio Wesleyan University (2003); Master of Arts in Geography at West Virginia University (2005). My research interests can be broadly defined under the realm of GIScience. More specifically, I am interested in understanding health issues in GIS through a combination of both qualitative and quantitative methods. In particular, I am interested in exploring issues related to spatial inequalities of health care and (in)accessbility to health care options.

I have served as Director of the AAG Graduate Student Affinity Group from 2006-2007 and also as Chairperson of the Group’s Student Paper Competition. I also served as chairperson of the West Virginia University Dept. of Geography Graduate Student Group from 2004-2005.