Julie Urbanik

Education: Ph.D. in Geography (Clark University), M.A. in Women’s Studies (University of Arizona), B.A. in History (Randolph-Macon College)

Describe your job. What are some of the most important tasks or duties for which you areresponsible?
As a Legal Consultant, I am an expert witness for defense teams and I assist with the mitigation portion of a case providing exhibits and any needed expert testimony. It is the defense team’s goal during mitigation to provide as holistic of a perspective as possible for a client to assist a judge/jury in coming to the best decision possible. I produce what I call “geonarrative designs” that combine multi-media storytelling with participatory mapping techniques bundled in the context of geographical research connected to particular phenomena (e.g. poverty & crime). My job is to help the defense team make the case that a client’s geography played a mitigating role in their life choices. In essence, I am applying the adage that “place matters.”

As the Executive Director of The Coordinates Society I manage a small, non-profit organization focused on cultivating geographic curiosity. Right now, this is a passion project where we are developing ways to help people connect to the personal, lived experience of geography through workshops.

What attracted you to this industry?
After spending over a decade in academia I found myself being increasingly isolated into the proverbial ivory-tower – teaching classes, publishing, attending conferences, etc. I missed being out in the world! I realize that many geographers are able to find a balance between the academic bubble and the so-called real world, but my particular situation was not conducive to that. I wanted to use my geographic skills in a different way and I decided to leave academia. While a difficult decision to make at the time, I’ve since been able to pursue many other avenues within my love for geography.

How has your education/background in geography prepared you for this position?
As a trained researcher, I would say that my research skills definitely prepared me to step out on my own. Doing the background research and then being able to reach out to specific people for guidance has made all the difference. My training has helped me to think critically and see multiple perspectives, and these skills have helped me navigate the pathways that have been available to me.

What geographic skills and information do you use most often in your work? What general skills and information do you use most often i your work?
The main skill I use across my work is the ability to synthesize. I am an inherently synthetic person – always looking for and seeing connections. Geography, for me, is also inherently synthetic. In both my consulting and non-profit work, my goal is to help others learn how to make connections they would otherwise not have seen.These connections allow them to see themselves or their clients differently, both as individuals and as members of socio-economic-political groups across space.

In my consulting work I focus on educating the legal community about the interplay between identity and place using participatory mapping techniques. In this way, I rely much more on a social/cultural/humanistic geographic framework than a GIS-based or demographically-based (quantitative) perspective.

Communication is central to everything I do. Teaching for so many years certainly helped me learn what works in engaging the public. Your insights into a given topic are only as powerful as your ability to communicate them. Unfortunately, many academics are unable to communicate beyond their conference/journal bubbles; knowing your audience, adjusting your methods, and seeing engagement as a two-way street is essential to bringing geography out into the world.

Are there any skills or information you need for your work that you did not obtain through your academic training? If so, how/where did you obtain them?
On my own I have had to learn non-profit business management, and I am also teaching myself media techniques (e.g., photography, video, editing, audio, web design).

Do you participate in hiring, screening, or training of new employees? If so, what qualities and/or skills do you look for?
My goal for my non-profit is to be able to hire geographers. To date, I have worked with a variety of interns and volunteers that I have been fortunate to have. I look for several qualities in considering both paid and non-paid employees/interns:

Does this person demonstrate an understanding of my organization and its mission statement?
How has this person combined their creative and intellectual skills? I look for people interested in their own self-evolution because this means they will contribute to the organization’s growth and not just “phone it in.”
Does the individual have solid baseline work skills? The right person can be trained and supported to do any kind of work, but they must have a strong foundation to build from. If you cannot organize and self-manage your own life then you are not cut out for the non-profit world.

What advice would you give someone interested in a job like yours?
If you are a geographer looking for non-traditional geographic careers then I think you have to be a real self-starter and risk-taker. You have to be prepared to constantly evolve, pivot, and try things; personally, I believe geographers are optimally positioned to innovate in terms of careers.

What is the occupational outlook for career opportunities in your field/organization, esp. for geographers?
As I have moved out into the world I have found that people and businesses are always looking for “good” partners. I think the greatest opportunity for geographers is to show all manner of employers what the full spectrum of geography is. Most people have no idea and think geography is only GIS or Google maps – but we all know that our field is much more than that – so this goes back to communication. You must help employers see what geography can help them do.

See All Profiles

Robert J. Mason

Robert J. Mason, a professor in the Department of Geography and Urban Studies at Temple University, died on November 15, 2017.

Rob was known for his work on environmental policymaking and land use management. He believed in international educational opportunities for students and was passionate about teaching the next generation of environmental leaders. A prolific author, Rob published Collaborative Land Use Management: The Quieter Revolution in Place-Based Planning (Rowman & Littlefield, 2008), Contested Lands: Conflict and Compromise in New Jersey’s Pine Barrens (Temple University Press, 1992) and the Atlas of United States Environmental Issues (Macmillan, 1990, with Mark Mattson).

In addition to teaching at Temple University, Rob has taught at Ohio State University, Temple University Japan in Tokyo, and Kobe College in Nishinomiya, Japan. In 2016, Rob taught at Temple Rome. He was serving a three-year term as Regional Councillor of the American Association of Geographers and had previously served as President of the Middle States Division of the AAG. He also served for many years on the Board of Directors of the Kobe College Corporation/Japan Education Exchange including as Co-President.

Rob earned his doctorate in Geography from Rutgers University in 1986, received a master’s in Geography and Environmental Studies from the University of Toronto, and held a bachelor’s in Geography and Environment Studies from the University of Buffalo.

Tribute from Camille Elliott in the Temple University Department of Geography and Urban Studies

See All Memorials

Joseph Kerski

Education: Ph.D. in Geography (University of Colorado Boulder), M.A. in Geography (University of Kansas), B.A. in Geography (University of Colorado Boulder)

More information on: https://www.josephkerski.com

Describe your job. What are some of the most important tasks or duties for which you are responsible?
I focus on GIS-based curriculum development, research in the effectiveness of GIS in education, professional development for educators, communication about the need for geographic skills, tools, and perspectives through keynote addresses, articles, social media, and workshops, and fostering partnerships to support GIS in education. I am active in creating and teaching online courses in spatial thinking and geotechnologies. I teach online and face-to-face courses at primary and secondary schools, through MOOCs, and universities such as Sinte Gleska University, Penn State, and the University of Denver. I am active in educational nonprofit organizations, including NAAEE, AAG, NCSS, and I served as president of the National Council for Geographic Education. Since 2006, I have served as Education Manager for Esri, on a team that emphasis thought leadership in geospatial technologies in formal and informal education at all levels, internationally.

I have written books such as Interpreting Our World, Spatial Mathematics, International Perspectives on Teaching and Learning with GIS in Secondary Schools, The Essentials of the Environment, Tribal GIS, and The GIS Guide to Public Domain Data. I am on work travel about 1/3 of the time, to regional, national, and international conferences to speak about geotechnologies in education and to learn from others, and to university campuses and even some primary and secondary schools.

What attracted you to geography?
First, I grew up in a motel that my parents ran, so instead of having a yard like other kids, I had a parking lot. But I loved it, especially meeting guests from a wide variety of backgrounds, ages, and ethnicities staying at the motel and hearing about their travels far and wide. Second, my childhood was spent exploring western Colorado—the canyons, the mesas, the badlands, the river bottoms. I loved being outside and visiting even ordinary places—railroad yards, vacant lots, all of the places that Richard Louv says are important in his book Last Child in the Woods. Third, much of my indoor time was spent reading. One book I read was The Last Great Auk. When the auks go extinct at the end of the book, I was greatly saddened and became committed to working in an environmental field. Fourth, I spent a lot of time, into my mid-teen years, reading and making maps. I was the family navigator with the map on my lap on vacations. I also made enormous maps on large poster board of made-up places, complete with urban renewal districts, harbors, freeways, and each street with a name and – pretty geeky, I realize – address ranges. Fifth, an experience after a field trip in Grade 7 taught me an important lesson. My classmates and I were sitting with our backs against the bricks of the middle school building in Colorado, listening to the teacher. While some of the other kids were complaining that they were too hot and wanted to go inside, I was truly enjoying the moment. What’s more, I realized for that moment and into the future that I didn’t have to ‘go along with the crowd,’ but that it was perfectly fine to value experiences that not everyone else valued.

How has your education/background in geography prepared you for this position?
I served for 22 years as geographer and cartographer at NOAA, the US Census Bureau, and the US Geological Survey. These opportunities, as well as teaching since 1994 at the university level, and since 1991 giving workshops at the K-12 level, prepared me for my current positions. I have three degrees in geography so you might say I’m rather passionate about the subject—geomorphology, population change, natural hazards, water, ecoregion studies, and geography education and GIS. I also have nearly 4,000 geo-related videos on https://www.youtube.com/geographyuberalles. But I’m also keenly interested in spreading geographic skills, content knowledge, and perspectives to other disciplines—business, language arts, history, mathematics, biology, hydrology, sociology, and others. I believe that geography provides me with the abilities to be able to speak a common analysis language amongst other disciplines which resonates with many faculty and students outside my own discipline.

What geographic skills and information do you use most often in your work? What general skills and information do you use most often i your work?
I most often use: Spatial thinking, examining patterns, relationships, and trends. I use critical thinking, assessing the quality of my data, and my methods. I use oral and written communications skills on a daily basis. I also use skills in learning from others, listening, decision making, and working as a team member.

Are there any skills or information you need for your work that you did not obtain through your academic training? If so, how/where did you obtain them?
Yes, the skills in presenting and teaching and much of my work in GIS, I did not obtain through my academic training. I obtained this—and am still learning—on the job. I also gain these skills through reading books, blogs, guidelines, and lessons, and by interacting with others, at conferences, via courses, in webinars, and via other means.

Do you participate in hiring, screening, or training of new employees? If so, what qualities and/or skills do you look for?
I advise our hiring team that is active in working with universities, even though I do not hire them myself. We refer qualified people that we meet at events and other means to our university human resources team, and they follow up with those people. At Esri, we look for people with vision, communication skills, teaching skills, technical skills (spatial analysis, Web APIs, mobile apps, coding, writing curriculum; and so on), motivation, ethics, and energy. I did have a large role in hiring people at the U.S. Census Bureau, in the past, and have a great deal of respect for those in Human Resources!

What advice would you give someone interested in a job like yours?
I have posted other career advice on: https://www.youtube.com/user/geographyuberalles/search?query=career and on the Green Guru Career blog: https://green360careers.net/author/jkerski/

I encourage you to identify your interests and career first and foremost, then think about what organization would best help you to achieve your goals. Equally important, think about what organization you would most like to contribute to in order to help meet their goals, because, of course, it’s not all just about you. The two most important qualities I believe for all of you looking for a career or job position is: Be Yourself, and Be Curious. What do I mean?

Be Yourself means being honest about your own job and personal strengths and your own weaknesses, or areas that you are seeking to improve. Don’t pretend in an interview to be anything you’re not. Be Curious means asking questions. This means to ask questions at the interview, of course. But beyond the interview, on the job and while you are still in school, ask lots of questions. Be curious about the world. Good questions lead to good investigations. Investigate and solve problems. If you don’t have some of the skills needed to solve those problems, acquire and practice those skills.

About 6,000 people work at my company, Esri (Environmental Systems Research Institute). Our headquarters is in southern California (Redlands), we have 10 regional offices in the USA and some smaller satellite offices, and more than 80 worldwide distributor offices. We are the largest Geographic Information Systems (GIS) organization in the world and as such receive a lot of applications for every job we post. If you are serious about making a positive difference on our planet with GIS, I encourage you to gain those skills and apply at Esri!

What are the five most important skills that a successful professional in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) should have? I have recorded a three-part video series (Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3) wherein I address these skills. I begin the video series by presenting two ways of thinking about GIS in your career: (1) As a toolset that you use in your career as an environmental researcher, planner, biologist, public safety officer, marketing analyst, or in another career where GIS is listed only as a required or advised set of skills; and (2) As a GIS manager, technician, analyst, or another career where GIS or a variant is a part of the title and primary job duties.

I see GIS as a three-legged stool, one that incorporates content knowledge, skills, and the geographic perspective. In other words, the skills alone will not guarantee success, but are a fundamental part of it. Equally important is the content knowledge–whether in GIScience, meteorology, energy, water resources, planning, or another field. Finally, don’t be discouraged by my mention of the geographic perspective if you feel inadequate here. It is one of the most interesting parts of the stool, and one that might take years to develop. Indeed, as most things in GIS, it is a lifelong endeavor, which leads me to my #1 top skill: Be curious. But also: Understand geographic foundations, and geotechnologies. Be flexible and adaptable. Know how to communicate and teach. Be a lifelong learner. But the most important is: Be curious.

On Staying Motivated. Throughout my career, four things have kept me motivated. First and foremost, choose something that you feel passionate about. Then, every day at work, you don’t just have a job, you have a career. You are working not just for a paycheck, or for quitting time, but for larger goals that can make long-term positive impacts on people and the planet. In my field of geotechnology education, I feel that I am having a positive influence on research, partnerships, curriculum, educators, policymakers, and students, and that in itself keeps me motivated on a daily basis.

That’s not to say, though, that I don’t experience times when I need to work actively at staying motivated. These times often occur for me at the start of a long project, such as a book I am committed to writing or a public relations campaign to universities. So, the second thing that has kept me motivated, particularly during these times, is to keep an eye on the long-term goal, and think of the long-term impact and benefits that the project will have. Thinking specifically on who will benefit and why and how they will do so can also provide energy. Third, think of the project in smaller components, in weeks, days, or even just a few hours: What can you accomplish by, say, noontime, today, on this project? How will you measure that you have accomplished it? Breaking up large projects into smaller pieces has helped me stay motivated. Along with that, the fourth recommendation I have is to just start. Sometimes, thinking about a project is more daunting than diving in and starting on it. Just do it! Yes, planning is important, but working hard and putting some tasks behind you can provide motivation to go on to the next steps.

Final Words: Don’t Toss Your Brain. In my work in environmental education and Geographic Information Systems (GIS), I have seen many computer technologies and methods come and go. In one of my videos, I discuss some of them, including punch cards, floppy disks, and CD-ROMs. Yet one tool has remained vitally important in analyzing our world–your brain! Making sense of our world through maps and spatial data is more important than ever. As the deluge of data increases, it will be important in your career to think critically about data, understanding if and when to use it, evaluating its quality, managing error, and making decisions based on data. Keep thinking! The point is: Toss some tools, but don’t toss your brain!

What is the occupational outlook for career opportunities in your field/organization, esp. for geographers?
First, I would say that there is no time better than the present to get into a career in GIS or geography—no matter whether you are 20 years old or a mid-career person looking for a change and an opportunity to make a positive difference on our planet. We have more pressing issues in need of the geospatial perspective than ever before—global issues are becoming more pervasive, complex, and increasingly affecting our everyday lives. We also have more spatial data, and more powerful, mobile, and easy-to-use tools for you to learn and begin using GIS and applying geography to solve problems. What’s more, you don’t have to slog through the “old clunky days” of GIS that many of us went through when it was frankly more difficult to do GIS work. Lastly, be willing to go international! There are many exciting opportunities out there but you do still need to market yourself and also market what GIS is and what it can bring to organizations—making them more sustainable, efficient, profitable, and able to meet their goals.

See All Profiles

Carol L. Hanchette

Carol L. Hanchette, Associate Professor of Geography at the University of Louisville, died unexpectedly on a hiking adventure in the mountains of Wyoming on October 9, 2017. Hanchette received her Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill in 1998 after having worked in a variety of fields including archeology and as a land surveyor for Billings, MT. She joined the University of Louisville in 2002. Hanchette’s work as an applied medical geographer cut across a wide-range of topics which included the links between ovarian cancer and pulp and paper manufacturing in the U.S., and the effects of coal ash on children. Her 1992 study on prostate cancer and ultraviolet radiation, cited over 700 times, was considered an important contribution to the field. More recently, Professor Hanchette had taken an interest in social and environmental justice and the uses of Qualitative GIS. Her work was funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the NIH.

Hanchette was particularly active in the development of the applied master’s program at U. of L. Her vision and passion structured that program from the ground up. Her leadership and popularity with students is well reflected in the many recognitions she received including the Faculty Favorite Award, the Distinguished Service Award and the Community Engagement Faculty Award. Carol was a long-time member and local leader of the Sierra Club. In addition, she loved hiking, ice skating, kayaking and almost any activity outdoors. Her collegiality, professionalism and dedication to geography will be missed by all of the lives she impacted.

See All Memorials

Marcello Graziano

Education: Ph.D. in Geography (University of Connecticut), M.Sc. in International Economics (University of Turin), B.Sc. in Foreign Trade and Economics (University of Turin)

What attracted you to a career in education?
The opportunity to combine independent research with teaching was the main reason behind my choice to pursue an academic career. Working within a university allows me to continue researching on my favorite topics, while interacting with students and policymakers, and contributing to the welfare of my communities.

How has your education/background in geography prepared you for this position?
I had quite an eclectic training, changing three departments throughout my doctorate. My geography background has helped me to think and to operate across disciplines, integrating space and time, and always considering the role of space and place in understanding the relationship between local and global dynamics.

What geographic skills and information do you use most often in your work? What general skills and information do you use most often in your work?
Spatiality and Place/Regionality are broad, geography-specific concepts I use in my work. These become ‘applied’ when dealing with space-dependent analyses in econometrics, or economic analysis looking at regional development.

As an economic geographer (broadly speaking), I utilize mainly my economic and policy analysis skills during my work, particularly those associated to sustainability and energy uses. Additionally, I have to thank my humanistic background for giving me the ability to read and to analyze quickly massive amounts of information.

Are there any skills or information you need for your work that you did not obtain through your academic training? If so, how/where did you obtain them?
I had quite a comprehensive training, but I benefited from my additional work as Research Assistant in the School of Business, where I mainly learned how to link research results to policies and investment decisions.

Do you participate in hiring, screening, or training of new employees? If so, what qualities and/or skills do you look for?
I had the opportunity to sit on a panel for hiring a postdoctoral fellow. In terms of qualities/skills, I look for a strong background in the discipline, which endow the applicant to work easily across focuses/disciplines, along with integrity and enthusiasm for the research. An additional deal-breaker is honesty: candidates trying to forge a competence are the first to be discarded. I prefer someone who does not know and is ready to learn, than someone trying to please.

What do you find most interesting/challenging/inspiring about your work?
Interesting? The opportunity to support real-world policies and decision-making, working with stakeholders from several different backgrounds.

Challenging? The way academia is funded, both for research and for personnel. Shrinking research budgets in Western Counties, along with an overuse of temporary posts make it difficult to pursue long-term, game-changing research.

Inspiring? Working alongside some of the most dedicated, prepared, and professional folks I have met both in academia and in the private sector. Also, the opportunity to see students grow and build their path through life.

What advice would you give to someone interested in a job like yours?
Be tough, be professional, and don’t lose sight of your own happiness. Think of yourself as a Society’s MD: you need the same passion and integrity as a surgeon needs when on the operating table. Also, be flexible in terms of ‘where’ you look for positions: departments are increasingly interdisciplinary, and positions can be found globally in places and institutions that will support you.

What is the occupational outlook for career opportunities in your field/organization, esp. for geographers?
Good. The ability geographers have to work through multiple perspectives make them quite desirable, whether in positions related to environmental sciences/management, GIS applications, or economics. Furthermore, the increasing ease of access to spatial technologies makes economic geographers particularly well-suited both to fill academic and private-sector positions.

See All Profiles

Lisa Brownell

Education: Ph.D. in Geography (University of Kentucky), M.A. in Geography (University of Kentucky), B.A. in Individually Designed Interdepartmental Major with focus on Community Planning (University of Minnesota)

Describe your job. What are some of the most important tasks or duties for which you are responsible?
I am responsible for managing the Ohio Historic Preservation Tax Credit program. I work with applicants at all stages of the process, administer the application, oversee the competitive scoring, and work closely with the state historic preservation office, our partner in the program.

What attracted you to this organization?
They pay me to go out and poke around abandoned buildings! What could be more fun? And then I get the joy of seeing these buildings rehabbed and brought back to a place of value in their communities.

Historic buildings and landscapes have always been so compelling to me as well as the ways that communities value and engage with places. This job sometimes means hours putting numbers in boxes but overall lets me help communities reinvest in places they love.

How has your education/background in geography prepared you for this position?
A background in historic/cultural geography has helped me to understand urban development patterns and historic architecture. The big picture/holistic approach that geography offers has been valuable as we work in cities and places that experience conditions that are the result of a wide variety of variables. Instead of looking at the scale of just the building, or even the specific architectural elements of the building, I can help my team look at the broader neighborhood, city, and regional scales to understand a project or a problem better.

What geographic skills and information do you use most often in your work? What general skills and information do you use most often i your work?
Geographic skills: Using and making maps, spatial thinking, and understanding how places are nexuses for all sorts of flows and forces and meanings (economic, cultural, historical, politics, environment, memory, power, settlement patterns, etc.).

General skills: Problem solving and listening are big. Looking at big picture needs and translating that to day to day policy and procedure. The ability to help others learn but also to keep learning and being teachable are skills that are very important.

Are there any skills or information you need for your work that you did not obtain through your academic training? If so, how/where did you obtain them?
Local knowledge and familiarity with local stories and meanings plus how things “work” in different places. This came from experience and from reading, watching, working with people in the places, and listening over time.

Patience and people skills came from working in childcare, having my own children, and from working as an academic advisor.

What advice would you give someone interested in a job like yours?
Persevere. As a geographer in a field full of historic preservation folks (most with either history, planning, or architecture backgrounds) you have to work hard to educate others what a geographer can bring. Folks don’t understand that geographers know cities and buildings and economic development. We have to show them that we bring a holistic understanding of places that is valuable.

Intern, volunteer, get involved, and get to know people in the field. It’s a small field and there aren’t a ton of job openings.

What is the occupational outlook for career opportunities in your field/organization, esp. for geographers?
I’d say it’s good, in the sense that geographers make great candidates in historic preservation/government program admin. But it’s not a large field so the opportunities are somewhat limited.

See All Profiles

John Whitling Hall

John Hall (1934- 2017) was born in Tulsa, OK, but grew up in Lafayette, Louisiana, and always considered it “home.” He graduated from Lafayette High School, and later served in the Army for three years in an intelligence unit in Germany. Upon return, he enrolled at the University of Southwestern Louisiana (U.S.L., now the U. of Louisiana-Lafayette) where he majored in geology. John attended Southern Illinois University-Carbondale for his master’s degree. Since his bachelors was in geology, he wrote a thesis on physical geography, titled “Lithology of Missouri, South of the Missouri River,” completed in 1963. He returned to Lafayette, and taught at USL for about three years, and started part-time studies toward the Ph.D. at Louisiana State University, taking one course each semester. John soon came under the influence of Prof. Fred Kniffen, and his interests changed from physical geography, to cultural and historical geography. His dissertation was titled “Louisiana Survey Systems: Their Antecedents, Distribution, and Characteristics.” There are five land survey types in Louisiana, 1) the French long-lot, 2) the American long-lot, 3) metes and bounds, 4) the Spanish sitio, and 5) the American rectangular system. He researched the origin and distribution of these systems in great detail, as well as the settlement patterns that were established as a result of each. It was a classic study, and completed in 1970.

John accepted a position at LSU-Shreveport, where he stayed for all of his career (1967-1999). He taught both geography and anthropology, and particularly enjoyed teaching and researching American Indians. He was instrumental in establishing the “Pioneer Heritage Center” on the campus of LSU-Shreveport, which emphasized the settlement and development of NW Louisiana.

John was an excellent teacher, and he attracted a great number of students to his classes. He gave many talks across northwest Louisiana (to civic groups, schools, and the like), many of them supported by the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities. As well, John had a beautiful singing voice, was very involved in music at his church, and was a member of a barbershop quartet. He passed away on Sept. 28, 2017. He is survived by his wife of 60 years, Carol Ann, and two daughters, Cathryn Angeles, and Carla Minor, and granddaughter, Hannah Minor.

—Malcolm L. Comeaux

See All Memorials

Frank Boscoe

Education: Ph.D. in Geography (Penn State University), M.A. in Geography (Kent State University), B.S. in Civil Engineering (Carnegie Mellon University)

Describe your job. What are some of the most important tasks or duties for which you are responsible?
I would describe my primary responsibility as finding interesting and useful applications of the vast amount of cancer data collected by the State of New York. These tend to revolve around several themes: Why are there different cancer rates in different places? What makes some people live longer with cancer than others? Which cancer treatments work better than others? In pursuing these questions, I get to work with many outside researchers from hospitals and universities.

What attracted you to this position/career path/organization/industry?
As with so many careers, there was an element of chance. In 1999, before my Ph.D. was even completed, I applied for a number of jobs from government to private industry to academia. The job I landed is the one I thought I was least likely to get. But at the time, New York was interested in producing some detailed cancer maps, and my graduate school work on the design of a digital disease atlas made me attractive for the job.

How has your education/background in geography prepared you for this position?
What has been most valuable has not been the specific technical skills (I don’t do a whole lot of GIS, in fact), but the repeated application of geographical thinking: repeatedly asking the question, why does something exist more in one place than in another place? Approaching problems from that angle often leads to an insight no one else has had before.

What geographic skills and information do you use most often in your work? What general skills and information do you use most often in your work?
I find that if an effect is strong enough to matter to public health, it will be evident through maps and scatterplots and straightforward regression models. More sophisticated methods can help tease out subtle differences, but while these may be statistically significant, they are rarely clinically significant. In other words, we needn’t worry too much about differences of 10% when there are enough 50% and 100% differences to go around. Accordingly, I still rely quite heavily on the spatial analysis techniques and methods I learned in my master’s level courses, in particular.

A general skill that I use daily is the seemingly simple one of counting and categorization. Do these two different records represent the same person, or not? Did this patient have cancer, or was it pre-cancer? Did these people actually live in New York during the study period? Is this person still alive, or just lost to follow-up? Ignore these questions, as many researchers do, and your study will be biased. But spend too much time on them, and you’ll never finish anything. The trick is to make quick but defensible decisions, something that sounds easy but really benefits from years of experience.

Are there any skills or information you need for your work that you did not obtain through your academic training? If so, how/where did you obtain them?
I use a commercial statistical software package called SAS every day; it is ubiquitous in public health. I had to teach myself on the job. During graduate school, I had done some coding in other (now obsolete) languages, so it was not too difficult of a transition.

Do you participate in hiring, screening, or training of new employees? If so, what qualities and/or skills do you look for?
I am involved whenever a junior research scientist position opens up, typically once every few years. I have found the most useful part of an interview is to show the candidate a cancer map and ask them to speculate on what might be causing the patterns and trends they see. No one has ever given an especially accurate answer; we choose the ones who generate the most interesting hypotheses.

What advice would you give to someone interested in a job like yours?
Take an introduction to public health or introduction to epidemiology course while pursuing your geography degree. If these disciplines are not available at your school, there are outstanding courses available online through sites like Coursera. Don’t worry that it will not appear on your official transcript; I have never looked at anyone’s official transcript.

What is the occupational outlook for career opportunities in your field/organization, esp. for geographers?
It is still strong despite some current short-term funding pressures. The average age within my field is in the 50s, and retirements are outpacing recruitment. I myself am almost 50 and still occasionally find myself to be the youngest person attending a meeting. There has been some progress against cancer during my career, but there is still much more that we don’t know than we know. We will need plenty of smart people to help collect and interpret cancer data for the foreseeable future.

See All Profiles

Adelle Thomas

Education: Ph.D. in Geography (Rutgers University), M.S. in Geography (Rutgers University), B.S. in Civil Engineetring (University of Minnesota), B.A. in Engineering Science (Macalester College)

What attracted you to a career in education?
After graduating from undergrad and taking on a full time job in engineering, I realized that I missed the rhythm of the school year and the constant learning required when being in school. After two years of an office job with only two weeks of vacation per year, I decided to pursue a career in academia. I knew that I wanted a career where I would be constantly learning and challenging myself as well as creating new knowledge.

How has your education in geography prepared you for this position?
I specifically chose geography as a field for my graduate studies due to the broad nature of the field. In graduate school I was able to take classes in both physical and human geography as well as in other related social sciences. This exposed me to a plethora of schools of thought and approaches to understanding the world that we live in. In my research field of human dimensions of climate change, it is particularly beneficial to be able to understand both the physical processes that lead to climate change as well as the implications for society. Having a background in geography has prepared me to understand the multiple aspects of climate change as well as other environmental issues.

What geographic skills and information do you use most often in your work? What general skills and information do you use most often in your work?
Geographic skills: explaining human-environment relationships, GIS skills, deep understanding of globalization and how the world is connected.

General skills: analysis of literature, critical thinking, writing for both scientific and general audiences, presentation skills, teaching students of all ages and backgrounds.

Are there any skills or information you need for your work that you did not obtain through your academic training? If so, how/where did you obtain them?
Organizational skills have been imperative when trying to juggle teaching multiple classes, conducting and publishing research and acting as an advisor for governmental institutions. The ability to break down complex concepts and ideas into easily digestible information for sharing with the general public, as well as presentation skills.

These skills were obtained through trial and error and through involving myself in situations that were outside of my comfort zone. Speaking at public events forced me to hone my presentation skills and learn to translate my research into information that anyone can understand and want to explore further. You can’t be afraid to challenge yourself and learn some new skills.

Do you participate in hiring, screening, or training of new employees? If so, what qualities and/or skills do you look for?
Yes. I look for people that are comfortable in their own skin, that recognize their past challenges and have grown from them, that are confident in what their research has to offer, that are open to learning new skills, that are open to a challenge, and mostly those that have a sense of humor!

What do you find most interesting/challenging/inspiring about your work?
There’s always something new. As a geographer in a small island setting, I am constantly being called upon to be involved in projects that have anything to do with the environment. I’ve been involved in projects that are far outside of my area of specialization, but since I am a trained geographer, I am often viewed as the most suitable to learn about the new area and to offer insight. This has exposed me to things as diverse as marine protected areas, sustainable development planning, ballast water management, access and benefit sharing for genetic materials and climate change adaptation planning. All of these opportunities have allowed me to interact with different groups of people and to increase my knowledge about the particular challenges facing small island states.

What advice would you give to someone interested in a job like yours?
Be open to new opportunities and don’t be afraid to get involved in areas that may be outside of your area of study. Translate your research to be understood by people outside of academia and get involved with NGOs. Involve students in your research efforts.

What is the occupational outlook for career opportunities in your field/organization, esp. for geographers?
There are many opportunities in the area of climate change that are specifically looking for geographers. The way that geographers understand the world and spatial relationships are in high demand as we attempt to pursue a global solution to climate change. With our broad backgrounds, geographers are in an ideal position to engage in many different research areas and we bring a unique perspective to understanding issues. GIS is in high demand so having this skill set will also be a bonus.

See All Profiles

Anne Buttimer

Anne Buttimer, emeritus professor of geography at University College Dublin, died July 15, 2017.

Buttimer was Fellow of Royal Irish Academy, Royal Geographical Society (UK) and Academia Europaea. She served as Council Member of the American Association of Geographers (AAG) from 1974 to 1977; of the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) from 1996 to 1999; and as President of the International Geographical Union (IGU) from 2000 to 2004, the first female and first Irish person to be elected to that role.

During her distinguished career, she held research and teaching positions in Belgium, Canada, France, Scotland, Sweden, and the USA. She was appointed Professor of Geography at University College Dublin (UCD) in 1991, where she remained until she retired in 2003. However, she continued to work relentlessly, attending overseas meetings, giving invited lectures and engaging in debates on the promotion of social science, European cooperation and the world of geographical knowledge production and its circulation.

She has received many awards and honours, including a post-doctoral fellowship from the Belgian American Educational Foundation 1965 1966; Fulbright Hays Visiting Professor in Social Ecology to Sweden 1976; Association of American Geographers Honors Award 1986; Ellen Churchill Semple Award, University of Kentucky 1991; Royal Geographical Society (UK) Murchison Award 1997; Royal Scottish Geographical Society Millenium Award 2000; Member of the Jury for the Prix Vautrin-Lud 1998-2012; Appointed to Board of Science for the Austrian Academy of Sciences 2010; Doctor, honoris causa, University of Joensuu, 1999; Doctor honoris causa, Tartu University 2004; August Wahlberg Medal in Gold from King of Sweden 2009; appointed Chair of the Social Sciences Section of Academia Europaea 2010; elected as Vice-President of Academia Europaea 2012; Doctor honoris causa, University of Grenoble 2012.

Anne’s colleagues Alun Jones and Stephen Mennell write:

She was a powerful advocate of the discipline. She was truly international in her work, vision and activities; a gifted multilingual scholar with a sharp intellect. Her scholarship on place, space and the spirituality of everyday human existence was truly groundbreaking. One paper that had exceptional impact was “Grasping the dynamism of lifeworld”, which appeared in the Annals of the Association of American Geographers in 1976, and has been cited well over 700 times. It drew upon the social phenomenology that was then widely influential in the other social sciences, and applied it to the culturally defined spatiotemporal setting or horizon of everyday life. In her work she promoted the emancipatory role of humanism, and championed calls for Western scholars to seek better communication with colleagues from other cultures to address global environmental challenges. Anne’s work received deservedly numerous international awards and honours. Most recently these included: the Wahlberg Medal of the Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography in 2009; the Lifetime Achievement honour from the Association of American Geographers, presented to her at the Annual Conference of the AAG in Tampa in 2014; and the Vautrin Lud prize (often referred to as the ‘Nobel Prize’ in Geography) in 2014.

Buttimer conducted her undergraduate studies at University College Cork in geography, Latin, and mathematics. She earned a master’s degree in geography from the National University of Ireland. After earning her master’s degree in 1959, she became a Dominican nun in Seattle, serving in the order for 17 years. In 1965, she earned a doctorate from the University of Washington.

Anne was deeply committed to her family, friends, and colleagues and she will be greatly missed.

See All Memorials