Notes from the Chair

Department of Geography The George Washington University

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This fall marks the 70th year of the Department of Geography at GWU. Our department continues to thrive with over 150 majors in Geography and Environmental Studies, 25 graduate students, and the creation of a new GIS Certificate Program to begin in 2014. We just completed a major Academic Program Review that demonstrated the growth of the department and the need for new faculty lines in human, physical and technical aspects of the discipline. Last year we taught over 2,000 students in our courses!

Geography is alive and well at GW—a point underscored by the recent senior seminar camping trip at Mason Neck, Virginia, October 11-13, 2013 where 32 geography majors and professors David Rain and Marie Price bonded in the rain, gathering data on topics ranging from invasive species, birdlife, trail access, and landuse changes. We are one of the few departments at the university that has such a program, and it would not be possible without financial contributions from our alumni for which we are exceedingly grateful. In fact, many of our recent alumni participated in the senior field trip. As the following pages attest, there is much happening as our faculty, graduate students and undergraduates are busy conducting research from Siberia to Ghana; receiving grants from the NSF and NASA; interning with organizations such as the National Geographic Society and the Environmental Protection Agency; and sharing our findings at conferences and in academic publications. This fall our chair, Elizabeth Chacko, is a visiting Fulbright Scholar at the National

University of Singapore where she is teaching, conducting research and enjoying her much deserved year-long sabbatical. She will be back in July 2014. Nikolay Shiklomanov was awarded tenure this spring and promoted to Associate Professor. We also have added two new faculty members to our department; Dr. Dmitry Streletskiy, a climatologist and Arctic specialist, changed his status from Research Associate to Assistant Professor and Dr. Nuala Cowan (MA in Geography in 2004) rejoined our department as a fulltime faculty member and Director of the GIS Certificate Program. Dr. Qin Yu, a post-doc from the University of Virginia, is contributing to our research on environmental change in the Arctic as a Research Associate. We are now 12 fulltime faculty. If you have not visited the department recently, there are several events detailed in the newsletter to entice you to return to Foggy Bottom this fall. On the back of this newsletter are three scheduled talks held on Friday afternoons in the department seminar room, all are welcome. We also have a book signing party on November 14th for Dr. Mona Atia’s new book, Building a House in Heaven, based on years of fieldwork in Cairo, Egypt. That same evening Professor Joe Dymond with the International Development Studies program has an event on the relevance of Open Source software to development. For more information about these events, see our webpage. Finally, our thanks to Socorro Lopez, a Geography junior, for her invaluable assistance in preparing the newsletter. — Marie Price, Acting Chair

In this Issue... Visiting Scholar from Iran P . 3

New Graduate Award P . 4

Funded Research P . 1 2 - 1 3

Student & Alumni News P . 1 8

Professor Mona Atia’s New Book

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The Department is pleased

to announce the release of

“Building a House in Heaven:

Pious Neoliberalism and

Islamic Charity in Egypt” by

Assistant Professor Mona

Atia.

Studying the Urban Transition in Ghana

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Dr. Engstrom is part of a

team that was recently

awarded a $1 million dollar

NASA grant to study the

urban transition and its

relationship to land use and

land cover change in Ghana.

The growing Department of Geography — (Top row from left) David Rain, Michael Mann, Richard Hinton, Joe Dymond, Ryan Eng-strom & Lisa Benton-Short. (Bottom row from left) Qin Yu, Mona Atia, Mojtahed-Zadeh (Visiting Scholar), Marie Price, Nuala Cowan & Melissa Keeley. Not pictured: Elizabeth Chacko, Nikolay Shiklomanov & Dimitry Streletskiy

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New Faculty: Dr. Dmitry (Dima) Streletskiy

Born in Moscow, Russia, Dr. Streletskiy completed his degrees in geography (Moscow State University, MS 2005), and climatology (University of Delaware, PhD 2010). His research is focused on understanding the diverse impacts of cli-mate change on ecosystems, population and overall sustainability of the Arctic regions. After completing his PhD, Dr. Streletskiy worked on various NSF-founded projects and taught several courses for the GWU Deparment of Geography. Dr. Streletskiy’s research combines field observations, GIS and modeling tech-niques to link cross-disciplinary approaches in evaluation of diverse impacts of cli-mate change in the Arctic. Two NSF-founded projects reflect this work. One five-year project, established in collaboration with the Elliott School of International Affairs, is focused on supporting a research network on urban sustainability in Arc-tic Russia. The other is a three year project in collaboration with the University of New Hampshire that studies the impacts of climate change on hydrology in North-ern Eurasia. In July, Dr. Streletskiy went to Siberia where he conducted field research for the projects. He also led an International Field Class on Permafrost. The field class, co-organized with Moscow State University for the third time, brought together nine students interested in various aspects of Arctic systems ranging from climate change to human impacts. Upon returning from Siberia, he went to Alaska to join the CALM team to collect field data on the permafrost active-layer. Dr. Streletskiy is excited to continue working at the Department in his new position.

New Post-Doctoral Research Assistant: Dr. Qin Yu

Dr. Qin Yu is a post-doctoral research scientist, currently working with Dr. Ryan Engstrom, Dr. Nikolay Shiklomanov and Dr. Dmitry Streletskiy on various Arctic and Africa projects at the George Washington University. Her primary research interests focus on modeling and monitoring vegetation dynamics in various re-gions. She expects to establish and expand her research based on her previous work in the Arctic and other vulnerable ecosystems. She hopes her research can be part of the growing Arctic research group here at the Department of Geogra-phy. Dr. Yu received her B.S. (2001) in Earth Sciences from Zhejiang University and M.S. (2004) in Cartography and GIS from the Institute of Remote Sensing Applications, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Dr. Yu obtained her Ph.D. in Environmental Sciences from the Department of Environmental Sciences at the University of Virginia in 2012. Her dissertation research examines the individual and interaction effects of environmental controls (climate and climate change, soil, herbivore and land use change) on tundra plant communities using ecological modeling and remote sens-ing methods at local, regional and circumpolar scales. After graduating, she col-laborated with Dr. Amato Evan as a Research Associate on Sahara dust impact on four major regions based on CMIP5 data analyses. Dr. Yu is author of several peer-reviewed and edited publications.

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New Director of the GIS Certificate Program: Dr. Nuala Cowan

Nuala Cowan has been teaching a range of geospatial techniques courses with the Department of Geography since 2006. During this time Ms. Cowan has also conducted research for the Center for Urban & Environmental Research, the ge-ospatial research arm of the Geography Department. Nuala recently returned to the department as the Director of the GIS Certificate Program, due to launch in Fall 2014. Ms. Cowan completed her doctorate at the GWU Institute of Crisis Disaster & Risk Management (ICDRM) in 2013. Her thesis research focused on developing a geospatial analysis framework to reconcile humanitarian needs with resource provision, and the application of GIS to this issue. To learn more about the GIS Certificate Program, contact Dr. Cowan at nuala@gwu.edu.

The Department Welcomes Visiting Scholar: Dr. Pirouz Mojtahed-Zadeh from Iran

Pirouz Mojtahed-Zadeh is an Iranian political geographer and historian. Professor Mo-jtahed-Zadeh obtained his Ph.D. in Political Geography from the University of Oxford.

Pirouz Mojtahed-Zadeh is a well-known auk-scholar of Iran with expertise on territorial and boundary dis-putes, especially those in the region of the Persian Gulf. He contributed to the adjudication process of the Bahrain-Qatar disputes at the International Court of Justice (judgment delivered in March 2001). He currently teaches geopolitics and political geogra-phy at the University of Tehran. He has been an advi-sor of the United Nations University (Tokyo) and has published more than 30 books, many book-chapters and a large number of research papers and encyclope-dic entries in English and Persian, some of which have been translated into other languages. His latest publi-

cations in Persian include; The Philosophy of Geopoli-tics and Geopolitics of the Virtual Space, and his publi-cations in English include Small Players of the Great Game and Boundary Politics and international bound-aries of Iran, while Maritime Political Geography: The Persian Gulf Islands of Tunb and Abu Musa is in the process of publication in the USA. Dr. Mojtahed-Zadeh is a member of the Academy of Persian Language and Literature and a number of aca-demic societies. He retired from Chairmanship of the Urosevic Research Foundation of London in 2011, af-ter reaching the age of 65.

New Dorn C. McGrath, Jr. Award

In May 2013 the Department of Geography created the Dorn C. McGrath, Jr Award to recognize outstanding scholarship by a graduate student in the Department of Geography. The Award is named for the former Department Chair, Dorn McGrath, who led the Department of Geography from 1996 to 2003. Emeritus Professor McGrath taught at the university for 35 years, first in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning and later in the Department of Geography. He also founded the Center for Urban and Environmental Research (CUER), an active research center housed in the Department. Throughout his ten-ure at the university, he worked with area neighborhoods as well as district, state and federal governments to monitor land use changes and address planning concerns. Dorn McGrath also worked closely with graduate students, su-pervising 65 Masters theses at GWU, many of them analyzing local problems and recommending plans for action. Although he retired in 2003, he is still active in local planning issues. On

September 13, 2013 he was recognized for his work in Anacostia by the Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum with the John R. Kinard Leadership in Community Service Award at a luncheon held at the Nation-al Press Club. The first McGrath Award was given last May to Jason Burgdorfer (MA 2013) who studied neighborhood effects on obesity in the District of Columbia. We were delighted to have Professor McGrath attend the award ceremony.

Created to Recognize Graduate Student Achievement

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Jason Burgdorfer became enthralled by maps at a very young age, which established a foundation for his academic interest in geography. Jason discovered the discipline of Geography as an undergraduate student where he studied Geography and Geology at College of the Canyons and the University of California Santa Barbara where he earned his B.A. de-gree. In the first year of the geography master's program at GWU, Jason served as a research assistant for Professor Ryan Engstrom. Jason used remote sensing and spatial analysis techniques to assist Professor Engstrom with his research on slum settlements in Accra, Ghana. In the second year of the program, as part of his master's thesis, Jason researched the spa-tial distribution of childhood obesity in the District of Columbia and its relationship to characteristics of neighborhood food and physical activity environments. In the future Jason would like to earn a doctorate degree, teach geography and geology at a community college while doing GIS work for research institutes and public agencies.

Recipient of the first Dorn C. McGrath, Jr. Award: Jason Burgdorfer

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By Mona Atia

Building a House in Heaven: Pious Neoliberalism and Islamic Charity in Egypt

The Department is pleased to announce the release of Building a House in Heav-en: Pious Neoliberalism and Islamic Charity in Egypt by Mona Atia. Mona Atia is an Assistant Professor of Geography and International Affairs. She teaches courses about the intersection of civil society, geopolitics and financial networks in the contemporary Middle East. She holds a PhD in Geography from the University of Washington. Mapping the landscape of charity and development in Egypt, the book reveals the factors that changed the nature of Egyptian charitable practices—the state’s intervention in social care and religion, an Islamic revival, intensified economic pressures on the poor, and the subsequent emergence of the private sector as a critical actor in development. She shows how, when individuals from Egypt’s private sector felt it necessary to address poverty, they sought to make Islamic charities work as engines of development, a practice that changed the function of charity from distributing goods to empowering the poor.

Drawing on interviews with key players, Atia explores the geography of Islamic charities through multiple neighborhoods, ideologies, sources of funding, projects, and wide social networks. Her work shifts be-tween absorbing ethnographic stories of specific organizations and reflections on the patterns that ap-pear across the sector.

The Institute for Middle East Studies at GWU will host a book launch for Dr. Atia on Thursday, Novem-ber 14 at 5:30 p.m., in Room 505 of the Elliott School (1957 E Street NW). Mona Atia will discuss her new book in a conversation with Diane Singerman, Associate Professor from the Department of Govern-ment, American University and Nathan Brown, Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, GWU. Books will be available for sale and all are welcome.

Amanda Osborne, “Seeds of Threat: Insecure Tenure and Governance in the Community Gardens of Washington D.C.”, 2013.

Azher Salikuddin, “Evaluating Transportation and Built Density of LEED Gold Certified Municipal Buildings,” 2013

Eileen Miller, "Creative Places: Post-Industrial Cultural Districts in the Urban Northeast," 2013.

Eric Ashcroft, “Using Remotely Sensed Data and Decision Tree Classifiers to Determine if the Changes in Accra, Ghana are Concentrated in the Most Vulnerable Areas,” 2012.

Jason Burgdorfer, “A Spatial and Statistical Analysis of Childhood Obesity in the District of Columbia,” 2013

Jessica Dell, “A GIS-Based Process Model for Transitional Settlement Site Selection,” 2013.

Leslie Jones, “An Examination of Coordinated Recovery Efforts for the Oswego River Area of Concern,” 2013

Lisa Colson, “Using High Resolution Remotely Sensed Data to Assess the Relationship between Population Den-sity and Impervious Surfaces in Accra, Ghana,” 2012. Timothy Swales, “Quantitative Assessment of Climate Change on Infrastructure Stability in Russian Permafrost Regions,” 2013.

Geography Master’s Thesis Completed in 2012-2013

Lauren Cater

A Vermont native, Lauren earned her BA from American University in 2010 majoring in history and minoring in Arabic language. She spent two years studying abroad on an Erasmus Mundus graduate fellowship and received degrees in global studies and global history from the University of Leipzig and the London School of Economics and Political Science. Her academic interests lie in understanding the relationship between economic and environmental change and she hopes to pursue a career working in

sustainable or international development. In her free time, Lauren enjoys

traveling and exploring new places and ideas.

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New Geography

Emmalee Dolfi

Emmalee Dolfi graduated from Colgate University in 2013 with a double major in Geography and Mathematics. She was a member of the varsity softball team at Colgate. Her research interests lie within physical geography, specifically applied GIS, Arctic environments, and weather. She enjoys taking walks with her dog and watching movies.

Evan Watson

Evan grew up in the mountains of Northern California and completed his undergraduate degree in Environmental Studies at UC Santa Cruz. He is interested in both physical and human aspects of geography. While in DC Evan hopes to develop a skill set he takes back to California and puts to

good use. He enjoys riding bikes, fly-fishing, and other shenanigans.

Avery Sandborn

Avery graduated in 2013 from the University of Maryland-College Park with a BS in Geographic Information Sciences. She has worked on various environmental research projects at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, as well as participated in extensive archaeological research in Hawaii through an NSF funded program. Her interests within Geography and GIS include cartography, urban planning, transportation analysis, and emergency management. Avery also earned a BA in Flute Performance at Maryland where she performed with the university orchestras, chamber ensembles, and opera studio, and is looking forward to joining a local orchestra in DC.

Graduate Students

Madeline Hale

After graduating with a BS in geography and environmental planning from Towson University, Madeline (Maddy) spent a year working as a nursing assistant at the GW hospital where she decided that geography really is her one, true love. She looks forward to returning to her interests in human-environment interactions, feminist theory, cultural geography, hydrology, and environmental hazards. When not reading or writing, she

enjoys traveling, being outdoors and practicing martial arts.

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Yussef Esmail

Yussef is from Pacoima, California. He double majored in Geography and Liberal Arts at California State University, Northridge. His interests are in global political ecology, the politics of climate change, and geographies of inequality. In his spare time Yussef enjoys playing soccer, boxing and reading.

Zand Bakhtiari

Zand, originally form Chesapeake, Virginia, graduated from Old Dominion University with a B.S. in Geography. Although he spent a lot of time studying GIS, he is also interested in the more social side of Geography. These interests include the Middle East, Islam, political geography, historical mapping, and the learning other languages. In his spare time, Zand likes growing fruits and vegetables and meeting new people.

Kelsey Nyland

Kelsey was born and raised to “live free or die” in New Hampshire, but she is also a Washingtonian having received her B.A. in Geography and Environmental Studies from GW this past May. Continuing her involvement in GW Arctic research, she hopes to focus on remote sensing applications, and modeling the effects of climate change in high

latitude regions. Kelsey also enjoys long hikes through the tundra, swimming in the Arctic Ocean, and killing mosquitoes.

Chris Dively

Chris Dively is originally from Western Pennsylvania and attended George Washington University, graduating in 2009 from the Elliott School. He currently lives in Arlington, VA and works for a DOD Contractor. His interests include sustainability and GIS. In his spare time he plays too

many computer games and enjoys cooking and bike riding.

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The George Washington University Department of Geog-raphy Senior Class, joined Geography Professors Joe Dy-mond and David Rain, and the Geography Department Chair, Elizabeth Chacko, in hosting 15 Geography Alumni for a student-made feast on Friday, November 30, 2012 in the Geography Department. The purpose of the annual event is to give graduating seniors exposure to the ca-reer paths taken by their GW geography predecessors. The Alumni group gathers prior to the meal, and each alumnus briefly speaks to the students about the various

Alumni Dinner with Geography Seniors, November 2012

Alumni speak to graduating seniors during the Alumni Dinner

Located about 40 minutes south of DC, Virginia’s Mason Neck Peninsula serves as the field setting for a weekend-long research and camping trip taken each year by the GW Geography senior class. Geography seniors partici-pate in Geography 4195W, the Geography major’s cap-stone course, which is also a writing-intensive course. The seniors form into research groups based on their interests, which have been as varied as measuring the growth of invasive plants, assessing the redevelopment of the former DC prison at Lorton, or preserving Bald Eagle habitat on Mason Neck. The groups in the weeks prior formulate a research hy-pothesis, consult experts, and make a plan for data col-lection in and around the Mason Neck peninsula. They also meet in committee to plan the field trip including arranging the meals and transportation. During the week-end itself, the group arrives on Friday evening, gets a campfire going and prepares the first dinner. Saturday of the field trip is focused the data collection, with students dropped off at various points on Mason Neck to inter-view park users, for instance, or assess the quality of hik-ing trails. On Saturday evening students sometimes hike to the bluff above Belmont Bay or play a game of capture the flag. The trip serves multiple purposes from providing valuable field experience to serving as a bonding oppor-tunity for the seniors. Each year the students come back from the trip feeling more connected to their geography

peers and confident they have created a network of col-leagues and friends that will take them into the years be-yond their undergraduate careers.

Mason Neck Senior Field Trips, October 2012 & 2013

career opportunities available to geography students, and the choices each of them made from the time when they were geography seniors at GW, to their current employ-ment positions. After each member of the alumni group speaks, then alumni, faculty, and students mingle during dinner to further explore career guidance. Alumni attending the 2012 event represented a range of positions from those in the federal government to private industry and included organizations such as; Booz Allen-Hamilton, The Department of Defense, The U.S. Depart-ment of Agriculture, The National Geographic Society, and the U.S. Census. Geography seniors prepared and contrib-uted the various courses of the meal in exchange for the valuable advise provided to them by the alumni. Alumni participating in the Fall 2012 event included: Derek Azar, Crystal Bae, Kyle Cole, Lisa Colson, Victor Ecarma, Grace Hearty, Matthew Kamisher-Koch, Daniel Kirkwood, Sam Salkin, Charlotte Schou, Emily Sciarillo, Alex Stegmaier, Peter Tchoukaleff, and Kaitlin Yarnall. Many thanks to our alumni for offering their time, support, and advice to our graduating seniors!

Mason Neck Field Trip 2013: GW Geography senior class

Mason Neck Field Trip Fall 2012: Anne Lausier, Caitlin Boucher, Joe Duffey, Curtis Davis & Emily Trautwein, a few of the geography seniors

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Juan José Valdez, a Geographer at National Geographic and Director of Editorial and Research of National Geographic Maps, was the honored guest speaker during the GW Geog-raphy Department’s celebration of Geography Awareness Week in the fall 2012 semester. The Valdez presentation, entitled “Being a National Geographic Cartographer – or - So you take pictures for the magazine?” was delivered to a standing room only crowd of GW faculty, students, and alumni. Several of the students and alumni present at the talk interned with Valdez at National Geographic during their undergraduate and graduate careers at GW. Mr. Valdez’s presentation is part of an ongoing relationship the GW Department of Geography has with the National Geographic Society (Nat Geo). A significant part of the GW-Nat Geo relationship is an internship program where GWU Geography and Environmental Studies students intern each semester in several departments at Nat Geo. Geography student interns participate in semester-long internship pro-grams while earning Geography internship credits under the guidance of Geography faculty advisor, Joe Dymond. Student interns work for the National Geographic Maps Group on various map and atlas projects, the National Geo-graphic Bee – a nationwide competition where 4th-8th grade students from thousands of schools across the United States compete in an entertaining and challenging test of geographic knowledge, National Geographic Traveler maga-zine, and the National Geographic Education Department, among other Nat Geo departments. Geography Seniors, Kyle Mackie and Alex Pommer, class of 2013, both interned in the Nat Geo Maps Group under the guidance of Juan Valdez during the 2012-2013 academic year. Mackie contributed to the National Geographic Global Atlas, the forthcoming 10th Edition of the National Geo-graphic Atlas of the World, and various destination and ref-erence maps ranging from a Poconos destination map to an Asia-Pacific regional map commissioned by the U.S. State Department. She described her experience at Nat Geo as an “excellent, rewarding, once in a lifetime opportunity.” Mackie said that working under the guidance of Juan Val-dez and his dedicated team of researchers and editors ena-bled her to get a behind- the-scenes look at how Nat Geo maps are made, and to experience the hard work and at-tention to detail that goes into each map product. Among the glowing statement Kyle provided about her experience at Nat Geo was her summation that the most rewarding part of her internship was working with the people of the Maps Group whom she described as very “welcoming and willing to teach.”

the GW Department of Geography &

Mr. Pommer added that “National Geographic Maps takes a great deal of pride in the integrity and quality of the work they produce, which I was able to see and take part in during my internship. This experience gave me an insight into the internal operations of one of the world's leading geographic and environmental organizations. I was able to take on a great deal of responsibility and coordinate a new and exciting Nat Geo Maps project, which allowed me to understand how a map is produced from the ground up. I don't think I could have gained a greater geographic experience at any other organization, especially as I can now look at any National Ge-ographic map and smile because I know the people and per-severance that goes into each and every piece of cartograph-ic mastery. Today, as a professional geographer, I am proud to say that I was a part of our profession's leading society.” Juan Valdez provided the Nat Geo perspective of the intern-

ship program with the following comments: “National Geographic Maps' internship pro-gram just celebrated its fifth anniversary. Dur-ing this time, the major-ity of students accept-ed into our program have come from the Department of Geogra-phy at The George Washington University. This is no coincidence, for all have come well

prepared with a sound geographic education. Our internship exposes students to real world mapmaking processes. They are well mentored in the fine art of cartographic research and editing, and by the end of their tenure I often hear these part-ing words: "Thank you so much for the experience. I'll never look at a map the same way as I did before I started my in-ternship." The Geography Department at GW looks forward to continu-

ing the internship programs, and other collaborative rela-

tions, with the National Geographic Society in the coming

years and is thankful for the learning opportunities and “real

world” experience interning at Nat Geo provides to

our majors .

National Geographic Staff at the Fall barbe-cue hosted by Joe and Maureen Dy-mond. (Left to right) Kaitlin Yarnall (MA 08), Juan Valdez and his wife, Kathy Valdez.

Geography & Environmental Studies Senior Awards 2013

Muriel H. Parry Award

Presented to a Geography Senior in Recognition of Scholarly Excellence Jeff Kline Jeff Kline was born and raised in Pennsylvania, studied abroad in Berlin, Germany, and traveled to more than 14 countries during the duration of his undergraduate studies. He discovered Geography in Professor Chacko’s Geography of South Asia course, where he realized that his interest in international affairs and security could be complemented and enhanced through a spatial lens. Jeff took advantage of GW’s vast professional networks and prime location to secure three internships during his undergraduate career. The first was with The Center for a Free Cuba, analyzing and tracking Cuban espionage cases in the United States (especially within the Cuban diaspora). His second internship was with Arc Aspicio, where he re-searched and supported a variety of projects across the Department of Homeland Security. Additionally, Jeff applied his geographic knowledge during his time at the State Department, where he served as an in-tern in the European and Eurasian Affairs Bureau working on Counterterrorism and United Nations issues. Jeff asserts that his additional major in Geography was an invaluable experience. Jeff is currently working as a government consultant on homeland security and intelligence issues in the D.C. area. In the near future, he hopes to pursue graduate studies in Geography, focusing on the spatial implications of violent extrem-ism and terrorism.

Robert D. Campbell Prize

Presented to a Geography Senior for Outstanding Leadership & Scholarship Kelsey Nyland

Kelsey Nyland graduated with a double major in Geography and Environmental Studies, and minors in Biolo-gy and Geographic Information Systems. Throughout her undergraduate career, Kelsey was actively in-volved in Arctic research, spending her summers conducting fieldwork in Russia and Alaska. Since her fresh-man year, Kelsey worked with Professors Nikolay Shiklomanov and Dmitry Streletskiy in their ongoing NSF-funded permafrost monitoring research efforts. With their mentorship, she published her first peer-reviewed paper titled, “Effect of Vegetation on Soil-Surface Temperatures in Northern Alaska” in the Pro-ceedings of the Tenth International Conference on Permafrost. Kelsey was also awarded numerous universi-ty fellowships to conduct her own independent research projects. In 2011, Kelsey received the GW Luther Rice Fellowship, which helped her to study paleo-permafrost conditions in the mid-Atlantic region using cutting edge mineralogical analysis developed in Russia. And in 2012, Kelsey was awarded the GW Under-graduate Fellowship. For this project she collaborated with the local government of Barrow, Alaska and the indigenous Inupiat people to map the village’s ice cellars (Siġ-uaq), a traditional food storage practice cur-rently endangered by the warming climate. Kelsey’s passion for Arctic environments and peoples inspired her to continue her research and education in the Department of Geography Masters Program.

Thomas Foggin Award

James Hark

Presented to an Environmental Studies Senior for Scholarly Excellence

Jamie has always had a strong passion for nature and the environment, and after speaking with Professor David Rain during his freshman year, he found the Environmental Studies program to be a perfect fit. After declaring his major, he went on to study Geography and GIS as well. Over the course of his undergraduate career at GWU, Jamie applied his coursework to various internships with the National Geographic Socie-ty, Casey Trees, and Senator John Kerry’s office. In the summer of 2012 Jamie studied abroad at the Center for Sustainable Development Studies in Costa Rica, where he gained hands-on exposure to ecology and sustainability in action. Post-graduation, Jamie is currently using the skills he acquired in the Environmental Studies program to pursue a career in cartography and climate change adaptation. He started a job at Ap-pgeo, a GIS consulting company in Boston, right after graduation.

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2013 Campbell Graduate Summer Research Awards

GW Undergraduate Research Award Recipient: Geography Senior, Mitch Langley

Geography Senior Mitch Langley received a GW Undergraduate Research Award in 2013 to study limited-stop bus service provision and quality in socially vulnerable areas in Guayaquil, Ecuador; Santiago, Chile; and Lima, Peru. The comparative analysis approach Mitch is taking with his research adds significant depth to existing research on bus rapid transit systems (BRT) and other limited-stop services. Langley’s examination of Guayaquil and Lima is the first of its type for those two South American cities. Working with his Geography faculty advisor, Professor Joseph Dymond, Mitch developed a methodology which uti-lizes a comparison of arithmetic and principal components analyses to identify socially vulnerable urban districts within the cities under investigation. After identifying vulnerable districts, he selected limited-stop bus lines to investigate within each district from the Metrovía system in Guayaquil, Transantiago in San-tiago, and the Metropolitano system in Lima. He used OpenStreetMap, a free Web-based geospatial open source database, to run spatial analysis in Quantum GIS, creating map products to back up his selections.

Three weeks of field study in August took Mitch to Ecuador, Chile, and Peru, where he spent five to six days each week riding trunk and feeder bus lines. He compared service provision (i.e. whether an area had service or not) and quality (i.e. a relative level of service) against amalgamated standards of BRT using a “yes-no,” ten-point evaluation system. While many cities display their new lim-ited-stop bus systems as BRT, the reality is that few socially vulnerable areas are serviced by BRT systems – instead, lower quality feeder routes funnel large amounts of people from vulnerable areas into terminal stations.

Mitch is now writing a paper summarizing the results of the data he collected in South America. In the spring, he will present his research at the Student Associ-ation’s Research Day and at the Association of American Geographers’ Annual Meeting. He also intends to submit his research for publication in a refereed journal.

Four MA students were awarded the highly competitive Campbell Graduate Summer Research Grants in 2013. The grants assist with travel and other support for graduate thesis research.

Amber Boykin received the award to conduct her research project “Painted Spaces: Place-identity, street art, and urban (re) development in Baltimore City.”

Kristin Pyne trekked to Alaska this summer for research on “Detecting Snow-pack Development Using Tempera-ture Observations in Arctic Alaska.”

Jennifer Rowland was also awarded a summer research award for “Conceptualizing Urban Green Space within Municipal Sustainability Plans.”

Jillian Sherman received a grant for her project “GMO Resistance Movements and the “Ethical” Geographies of Food.”

Writing a field summary at lunch in

Guayaquil

Documenting bus stop quality in Puente Alto, Santiago, Chile

Research Awards

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Funded

Field Research in Arctic Alaska

The Arctic field investigations continued this summer as part of the

Circumpolar Active Layer Monitoring (CALM) project funded by the

Arctic Observing Networks program of the NSF. The CALM project is

designed to monitor the long-term response of the active layer and

near-surface permafrost parameters in various climatic and edaphic

conditions characteristic of the circumpolar Arctic. Geography Mas-

ters students Kristen Pyne and Kelsey Nyland, and undergraduate

student Stephen Ross, traveled to the North Slope of Alaska to as-

sist in field research and to study the Arctic climate and landscapes

with professors the Geoge Washington University (Shiklomanov,

Streletskiy), University of Montana (Klene) and University of Dela-

ware (Nelsion).

The students participated in the North Slope field and safety training

in Fairbanks before they embarked on their journey up the Dalton

Highway, one of the most isolated roads in the United States that

was built to support the Alaska pipeline in the 1970s. Along the way

they crossed the Arctic Circle and mighty Yukon River, and stopped

at the Arctic Interagency Visitor Center in Coldfoot. The team visit-

ed both the Prudhoe Bay oil fields and Toolik Field Station, where

they had a chance to communicate with and learn from Arctic scien-

tists from very diverse disciplines and institutions. Part of the group

also visited Barrow, the northernmost community in the United

States. A few others got to travel to Nome on the Seward Peninsula.

The trip was a once in a lifetime experience and included helicopter

rides to field sites, wildlife observation, and hiking in the Brooks

Range. Aside from having fun, students participated in active re-

search and learned advanced field techniques, instrumentation and

data processing. GW Geography students who participated in Alaska

field research are currently processing the data. They intend to pre-

sent their research at the annual meeting of the Association of

American Geographers.

Students cross the Arctic circle along the Dalton High-way.

GW Professor Shiklomanov explains to his colleagues from University of Colorado and Stanford about the procedure utilized by CALM to measure annual heave and subsidence of the ground surfaces.

GW Geography graduate stu-dent Kelsey Nyland and Geography/Environmental Study under-graduate stu-dent Stephen Ross.

University of Montana Professor Anna Klene and GW Geography graduate student Kristen Pyne study one of the CALM air and soil temperature sites in Arctic Alaska.

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Research

Field Research in Eurasia

Dr. Streletskiy received a three year

NSF grant titled “Interactions between

air temperature, permafrost and hy-

drology in the high latitudes of Eura-

sia.” In collaboration with the Universi-

ty of New Hampshire, this three year

research project focuses on the im-

pacts of climate change on Arctic hy-

drology since numerous studies indi-

cate that the signal of climate change

in Northern Eurasia has already ex-

ceeded the level of natural climate var-

iability.

The research is aimed specifically at

understanding how increases in air

temperature can promote changes in

magnitude and timing of river fluctua-

tion and describes the physical pro-

cesses driving these changes. The pro-

ject has extensive field component in

the regions of Igraka and Kolyma. Both

of these areas are part of the GWU-

hosted CALM network.

In these locations, data on climatic,

hydrologic and permafrost characteris-

tics is collected at a series of repre-

sentative watersheds in order to as-

sess the role of river ice formation,

permafrost degradation and increas-

ing air temperatures on river stream

flow. The field data collected during

this three year period will be used to

feed the models scaling local observa-

tions to larger areas.

Yenisey, the largest river flowing to the Arctic Ocean, shows an increasing trend in discharge during summer periods. Increasing summer temperatures and thawing of permafrost may explain the observed trends in stream flow.

Collecting permafrost samples for isotope analyses.

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Professor Streletskiy shows students ground ice and lectures on ice wedge formation.

Arctic Urban Sustainability Field Research and the Annual International Permafrost Field Course

Measuring active layer at a CALM permafrost monitoring site outside of Noril’sk. From left to right; Lauren Dauphin, Kelsey Nyland, and Trevor Ceneviva.

Professor Streletskiy gives a lecture from the top of the world’s largest technogenic rock glacier.

Summer 2013 Activities

This July, a diverse group of GW students traveled to the central Si-berian city of Noril’sk in order to conduct field research for two new complementary research projects; a NSF-funded project called, “Building a Research Network for Promoting Arctic Urban Sustaina-bility in Russia,” and a National Research Council of Norway-funded project called, “Arctic Urban Sustainability in Russia.” The team in-cluded GW Geography Professors Nikolay Shiklomanov and Dmitry Streletskiy, University of Delaware Geography professor Frederick Nelson, Research Professor Marlene Laurelle from the GW Elliott School’s Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies, re-cent GW Master’s graduates Colin Reisser and Genevieve Parente, incoming GW Master’s student Kelsey Nyland, and GW undergradu-ate students Trevor Ceneviva and Lauren Daupin all participated. The group met in Krasnoyarsk where they boarded a ship and sailed north on the Yenisei River, one of the largest rivers in the world. The Yenisey slices Russia roughly in half and has a distinct longitudinal direction. Traveling from Karsnoyasrk to Dudinka, the group wit-nessed the bioclimatic conditions transition from the southern taiga near Krasnoyarsk to the forest-tundra in Dudinka first hand. After traveling almost 2,000 km and crossing the Arctic Circle to reach Dudinka, the group arrived in the city of Noril’sk, the largest city on permafrost and one of the largest mining industry centers in the Arctic. The following week was spent conducting interviews and investigating various aspects of current or potential sustainable as-pects of the city. The group investigated a wide range of topics in-cluding migration patterns, public policies, and engineering practic-es. In addition to the field work, Professor Streletskiy, Kelsey Nyland, Trevor Ceneviva and Lauren Dauphin participated in the annual In-ternational Permafrost Field Course organized jointly by the GW Ge-ography Department and Moscow State University’s Department of Cryolithology and Glaciology. The class visited local museums and went on several excursions including attending meetings with rep-resentatives of the city’s administration and visiting mining head-quarters, factories, extraction facilities, and construction companies in order to learn about the diverse effects of permafrost on urban Arctic lifestyles.

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Studying the Urban Transition in Ghana

NASA Grant/GTU 2013 Induction

Dr. Engstrom is part of a team that was recently awarded a $1 million NASA grant to study the urban transition and its rela-tionship to land use and land cover change in Ghana by the

NASA Interdisciplinary Sciences program. This three year project focuses on mapping land cover change in the rural areas and within four major cities in southern Ghana including Accra, Kumasi, Obuasi, and Cape Coast.

This project is a follow on and expansion of the work that was previously funded by the National Institute of Health (NIH) that focused on Accra. The project is a collaboration between Geography researchers from The George Washington University, San Diego State University (SDSU) and the University of Califor-nia Santa Barbara (UCSB). As part of the project Dr. Engstrom will fund one graduate assistant every year. Starting this fall, Avery Sanborn, who was re-cently awarded her Bachelor’s degree from the Uni-versity of Maryland in Geographical Sciences, accept-

2013 Gamma Theta Upsilon Congratulations to the GWU Geographers for their re-cent induction into Gamma Theta Upsilon (GTU), the In-ternational Geographical Honor Society. This group of exceptional GWU Geographers were inducted into GTU at the end of the Spring 2013 semester by faculty sponsor Joe Dymond, based on the number of geography credits they earned, and their overall Geography major GPAs.

The society, founded in 1928, furthers professional inter-est in geography, encourages geography student re-search, awards funds for graduate study in geography, and advances the status of the discipline for study and investigation.

We are very proud of our GTU inductees and wish them well as ambassadors for the Geography Department at GWU and for the discipline of Geography.

Geography Seniors and 2012-2013 GTU Initiates pose with their GTU Certificates on the stairs of Old Main. Front Row: Alex Pommer, Kyle Mackiem Anne Lausier, and James Hark, Back Row: Joe Reynolds, Aaron Eubank, Phil Tilly, and Peter Joyce. Not present for the photo: Jeff Kline, and Gillian Weeks. GTU members showing off their spatial skills!

ed the position and is now working towards her Mas-ter’s degree here in the Geography Department.

The overall goal of the project is to determine if rural to urban migration is driving changes in the built envi-ronment using a combination of high and medium resolution satellite data from 2000-2010. Additionally, the project is seeking to determine if the quality of life for urban inhabitants can be inferred from infor-mation obtained using remotely sensed data.

The role for the GW research group is to acquire and process the high resolution satellite data from NASA to provide inputs for the medium resolution land cov-er change mapping and to determine the amount of within city change that has occurred during the 10 year study period. To date, GW has received over 2 Terabytes of high resolution satellite data from the Quickbird, IKONOS, and Geoeye sensors that covers nearly the entire country of Ghana. Currently we are developing efficient, automated ways to process and derive information from this extremely large data set.

STUDENT CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS

Undergraduate students

Lauren Benne. Urban Sustainability in Bangkok, Thailand, Undergraduate honors thesis project. Anne Lausier. Poster presentation at the OVPR "Research Days 2013". Kelsey Nyland, Shiklomanov N.I., Streletskiy, D.A., Klene, A.E., Nelson F.E., Effect of Vegetation on Soil-Surface Temperatures in Northern Alaska, Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Permafrost, 2012, Vol. 1, 295-302, The Northern Publisher, Salekhard, Russia, K.M. Hinkel Editor. Kelsey Nyland and Anna Klene. Inipiaq ice cellars, thermal regime monitoring in Barrow, Alaska. Inupiat Studies Conference (October 2012, Smithsonian, Washington DC),

Kelsey Nyland. Presented a poster at the Annual Meeting of the

American Geophysical Union (December 2012, San Francisco, CA), Kelsey Nyland. Mapping the distribution of traditional Inupiaq ice cellars in Barrow, Alaska. Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers (April 2013, Los Angeles, California). Gloriana Sojo. Regional and Local Impacts of Infrastructure Projects in the Costa-Rica - Nicaraguan Border Area presented at the PGS- MADAAG annual meeting Salisbury, MD, November 2, 2012. Gloriana Sojo. “The motivations and impacts behind infrastructure development projects in the Costa Rica – Nicaraguan Border Region.” Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers. April 2013, Los Angeles, California.

Graduate students

Bartlett Bickell. “Mapping the evolution of the cultural landscape of the Great Dismal Swamp – 18th century to present”. Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, April 2013, Los Angeles, California Jason Burgdorfer and Ryan R. Engstrom. “Childhood Obesity in the District of Columbia: Effects of Neighborhood Food and Physical Activity Environments.” Race, Ethnicity, and Place Conference, October 2012, San Juan, Puerto Rico. Amanda Osborne. “Insecure tenure and access: “Community” gardens in the District of Columbia”. Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, April 2013, Los Angeles, California. Kristen Pyne. “Detecting snow-pack development using temperature observations in Arctic Alaska”. Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, April 2013, Los Angeles, California Boykin A, Gaskins M, Jackson S, McDonell C, Mann ML. (Accepted 2013) “The Impacts of School District Spending: Exploring the Connection Between School District Expenditures and Graduation Rates in Virginia,” Papers of the Applied Geography Conferences Arevalo C, Peto B, Suaya A, Mann ML. (Accepted 2013) “Demographic changes and Gentrification in Washington D.C. Between 2000 and 2010,” Papers of the Applied Geography Conferences Timothy Swales, “Quantitative Assessment of Climate Change on Infrastructure Stability in Russian Permafrost Regions” Annual

Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, April 2013, Los Angeles, California. Timothy Swales and Ellen Hatleberg, “Changing Permafrost and Arctic Population: a quantitative assessment for the Russian Arctic” Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Permafrost, 2012, Vol. 4, 579-582, The Northern Publisher, Salekhard, Russia, K.M. Hinkel Editor.

FACULTY PUBLICATIONS

Books Lisa Benton-Short and John Rennie Short, Cities and Nature, Second Edition, London and New York: Routledge, ISBN : 978-0-415-62556-2. Michael Bradshaw, George White, Joseph Dymond and Elizabeth Chacko, Contemporary World Regional Geography, Dubuque: McGraw-Hill, 4th Ed, 2012. Marie Price and Elizabeth Chacko. Migrants’ Inclusion in Cities: Innovative Urban Policies and Practices. United Nations through UN-HABITAT and UNESCO. Published in English and Spanish. Les Rowntree, Martin Lewis, Marie Price and William Wyckoff, Globalization and Diversity: Geography of a Changing World, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 4th edition.

Chapters in Books Lisa Benton-Short and Nathaniel Lewis, Cities of the United States and Canada, In Cities of the World, ISBN : null,2012, Stan Brunn, Maureen Hays-Mitchell and Don Ziegler (editors) Cities of the World, 5th Edition. Rowman and Littlefield. pp 51-100. Marie Price, Hispanic Entrepreneurship in a Global City: The Bolivian Diaspora in Washington DC, In The Hispanic Presence in Washington, DC, 2012, edited by Enrique Pumar. Bingley, UK: Emerald Press. Pp. 133-153. Shiklomanov N.I., and Nelson F.E., Active Layer and Thaw Processes, Encyclopedia of Quaternary Science, In: Elias S.A. (ed.) The Encyclopedia of Quaternary Science, vol. 3, pp. 421-429. Amsterdam: Elsevier. Shiklomanov N.I., and Nelson F.E., Thawing Processes and Thermokarst, A Treatise on Geomorphology, In: Treatise on Geomorphology, In: John F. Shroder (ed.) Treatise on Geomorphology, Volume 8, pp. 354-373. San Diego: Academic Press. Anisimov O.A., Anohin Y.A., Lavrov S.A., Malkova G.V., Pavlov A.V., Streletskiy D.A., Shiklomanov N.I. (in alphabetical order), Continental Permafrost., Modern Methods of climate change assessments in Russia, ISBN : null,2012, C.M. Semenov Editor, Roshydromet, Moscow, Russia, 301-359 (In Russian), Semenov S.M. (ed.),Chapter 8. Shiklomanov N.I., and Streletskiy D.A., Effect of Cryosphere Changes on Siberian Infrastructure, Environmental Changes in Siberia: Regional Changes and their Global Consequences, ISBN : null,2012, Springer Environmental Science and Engineering Series, Springer, New York, London, 155-170P.Y Groisman and G.Gutman (eds.)

Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles & Conference Proceedings

Mona Atia, A Way to Paradise: Pious Neoliberalism, Islam, and Faith-based Development, Annals of the Association of American Geographers. Vol 102 (4); 808-827.

Gilbert, E., Mona Atia.,

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Slater, M., and Goede, M., Reading Marieke de Goedes, Speculative Security, Political Geography, Review Article, 1-9. Elizabeth Chacko and R. Menon, Longings and belongings: Indian American youth identity, folk dance competitions, and the construction of ‘tradition’, Ethnic & Racial Studies, 36(1): 97-116. 2013

Elizabeth Chacko and P. Gebre, Leveraging the diaspora: lessons from Ethiopia., GeoJournal, 78(3): 495-505. 2013

Elizabeth Chacko and Marie Price, “The Role of the Diaspora in Development: The Case of Ethiopian and Bolivian Immigrants in the USA,” Migration, 5:5-19 (Tbilisi, Georgia). 2012 David J. Mathison, James M. Chamberlain, Nuala Cowan, Ryan Engstrom, Anthony Shoo, Linda Fu, Stephen J. Teach,, Primary Care Spatial Density and Non-urgent Emergency Department Utilization: A New Methodology for Evaluating Access to Care, Academic Pediatrics, 13:279-285 doi:10.1016/j.acap.2013.02.006. Azar,D., Ryan Engstrom, Graesser, J. and Comenetz, J., Generation of fine-scale population layers using multi-resolution satellite imagery and geospatial data, Remote Sensing of Environment, 2013, 130 219-232. DOI:10.1016/j.rse.2012.11.022 Ryan Engstrom, Ofiesh, C., David Rain, Jewell, H., and Weeks, J., Defining Neighborhood Boundaries for Urban Health Research in Developing Countries: A Case Study of Accra, Ghana, Journal of Maps, DOI:10.1080/17445647.2013.765366. Melissa Keeley. et al., Practitioner perspectives on the integration of green infrastructure into stormwater management in Cleveland and Milwaukee, Environmental Management, (April 2013), 51(6 ), 1093-1108. Nickel, D.; Schoenfelder, W.; Medearis, D.; Dolowitz, D.; Melissa Keeley; Shuster, W., German experience in managing stormwater with green infrastructure, Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, (February 2013) Advance online publication, doi.org/10.1080/09640568.2012.748652 Dolowitz, D., Melissa Keeley and Medearis, D., Stormwater Management: can we learn from others?, Policy Studies, (August 2012), 33(6), 1-21. (Invited article). 10.1080/01442872.2012.722289 Hunter C, Baldwin JG, Michael Mann, The Financial Viability of Solar Photovoltaic Canopies as Urban Climate Change Mitigation: An Analysis of the Potential Utilization of Public Space in Boston Massachusetts, Energy and Environment Research, 3(1) Michael Mann, Kaufmann RK, Bauer DM, Gopal S, Baldwin JG, Vera-Diaz MDC, Ecosystem service value and agricultural conversion in the Amazon: Implications for policy intervention, Environmental and Resource Economics. Romanovsky V.E., Smith S. L., Christiansen H. H., Shiklomanov N.I., Streletskiy, D.A., Drozdov D. S., Oberman N. G., Kholodov A. L., Marchenko S. S., Permafrost, NOAA Arctic Report Card 2011, Permafrost [in Arctic Report Card 2012],http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/reportcard Parente, G., Shiklomanov N.I., Streletskiy, D.A., Living in the New North: Migration to and from Russian Arctic Cities, Focus on Geography, 2012, 55(3):77-89. Grebenets, V., Streletskiy, D.A., Shiklomanov, N.I. 2012. Geotechnical safety issues in the cities of Polar Regions. Geography, Environment,

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Sustainability Journal, Vol 5, No.3, 104-119. Streletskiy, D.A., Shiklomanov, N.I., Nelson F.E., Spatial variability of permafrost active-layer thickness under contemporary and projected climate in Northern Alaska,, Polar Geography, 2012, Vol 35 (2), pp 95-116 DOI: 10.1080/1088937X.2012.680204 Shiklomanov, N.I., Streletskiy, D.A., Nelson, F.E., Northern Hemisphere Component of the Global Circumpolar Active Layer Monitoring (CALM) Program, Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Permafrost, 2012, Vol. 1, 377-384, The Northern Publisher, Salekhard, Russia, K.M.Hinkel Editor Nyland K.E., Shiklomanov N.I., Streletskiy, D.A., Klene, A.E., Nelson F.E., Effect of Vegetation on Soil-Surface Temperatures in Northern Alaska, Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Permafrost, 2012, Vol. 1, 295-302, The Northern Publisher, Salekhard, Russia, K.M. Hinkel Editor. Streletskiy, D.A., Shiklomanov, N.I., Hatleberg E., Infrastructure and a Changing Climate in the Russian Arctic: A geographic Impact Assessment, Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Permafrost, 2012, K.M. Hinkel Editor, The Northern Publisher, Salekhard, Russia, Vol. 1, 407-414. Streletskiy, D.A., Shiklomanov N.I., Grebenets V.I. 2012. Changes of foundation bearing capacity due to climate warming in Northwest Siberia. Earth Cryosphere XVI, 1, 22-32. (in Russian) Streletskiy, D.A., Shiklomanov N.I., Nelson F.E. 2012. Permafrost, infrastructure and climate change: A GIS-based landscape approach to geotechnical modeling. Arctic, Antarctic and Alpine Research, 44(3), 368-380. DOI: 10.1657/1938-4246-44.3.368.

Student and Faculty Notes Two GW geography majors participated in the World Geogra-phy Bowl in Los Angeles, California at the Association of American Geographers Meeting in April 2013. Raynell Cooper and Chris Hart (BA 2015 expected) were on the Mid-Atlantic Division Team which was undefeated in preliminary rounds and finished second place in the finals. Congratulations Raynell and Chris!

Geography students and friends participated in the Clarendon 5K Fun Run on Sept. 28, 2013. From left to right: Ivan Cheung, Sara Wiley, Rich-ard Hinton, Nuala Cowan and Joe Dymond.

Camille Fisher Galdes (MA 2011) accepted a position in May with the Pew Research Center in Washington DC as a Re-search Associate. In October 2012 she married Andrew Galdes in Boston Massachusetts. The couple now lives in Alexandria. Adam Eckstein (BA 2009) is working as a Policy Analyst for the Manhattan Borough President's Office writing policy re-ports, op-eds, and press releases. Prior to this job, he worked for the New York City research center called Center for an Urban Future.

Alumni Notes

Tim Swales (MA 2013) just landed a job working in Cu-pertino, CA for ProUnlimited, a company that Apple con-tracts with. He is a GIS Technician for Apple maps. Nicole Svajlenka (MA 2010) co-authored a Brookings Institution Report on Child Immigrants that was featured in the Washington Post and the New York Times on August 14, 2013. Cary Fukui (BA 2012) is beginning a Masters degree in Urban Planning at NYU this fall. Prior to returning to school he worked for the Department of City Planning in NYC on transportation issues. Benjamin Nathan (BA 2012) works in Washington DC for the EPA, in the Drinking Water and Protection Division of the Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water. He writes “I work a lot with GIS and am constantly using the skills and knowledge I received from my geography stud-ies in our monitoring and management of nationwide drinking water data.” Jenny Brown (MA 2004) recently accepted a position as an Associate Planner for Washington County, which is just outside of Portland, Oregon. She has retired from her former job as ferry boat captain in Marion County, Oregon. Evan Feeney (BA 2012) reports that last year he worked for the international advocacy group Avaaz as an Opera-tions Associate. While at Avaaz he traveled to Italy to protest the murder of Syrian children at the U.N., fight for an end to global oil subsidies, reproductive rights, LGBT rights, Maui Dolphins and so much more. In April, he moved back to Washington DC as a Government Affairs Program Assistant for the Natural Resources De-fense Council. There he works to defend critical environ-mental regulation such as the National Environmental Policy Act and advancing the President's climate agenda. He has been putting his geographic skills to work on NRDC's new GIS institute. And finally, he continues his political activism with the DC Divest program, a volun-teer group that has been working since April to get the District Council to divest all it's public funds from the top 200 fossil fuel companies. Ewa Wieslaw (BA 2010) is living in Chicago and just start-ed her first year of law school at DePaul University. She plans to graduate in 2016. Zach Schulman (BA 2007, MA 2009) is currently working

for United States Coast Guard as a Knauss Marine Policy Fellow. This year he made his first trip to the Arctic, a region of the world Zach studied for his MA in Geography. The mission he was on was featu red on the National Geographic Society web page : http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/energy/2013/09/130913-

arctic-oil-spill-cleanup-technology/

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Richard W. Stephenson (BA 1962) of Winchester, Virginia passed away this September at the age of 82. For much of his career he worked at the Library of Congress where he was head of the Geography and Map Reading Room from 1987 until 1992, when he retired. He was a specialist in American Cartographic History,

active in the Washington Map Society and curated a Li-brary of Congress exhibit called “City of Magnificent Dis-tances: The Nation’s Capital” commemorating the 200th anniversary of L’Enfant’s plan of Washington DC. Mr. Stephenson received a BA in Geography from GWU in 1962 and a M.S. in Library Science from Catholic Universi-ty. He received numerous awards such as the Library of Congress Superior Service award (1992); the Special Achievement Award (1990); and the Meritorious Service Award (1969); the Geography and Map Division Special Library Association’s Honors Award (1977); and the Amer-ican Congress on Surveying and Mapping’s award for Outstanding Service to Surveying and Mapping (1988).

In Memoriam

Ben Hyman (BA 2010) was hired as Executive Director of Pigtown Main Street in Baltimore, a non-profit dedicated to the commercial revitalization of Pigtown, a historic neighborhood near the Inner Harbor. He writes “the job is a blast and I'm applying much of what I learned in the Geography Department to the job.” The Main Streets program has internship opportunities for Geography stu-dents interested in economic geography or urban plan-ning. There are over 700 programs nationwide, from large cities to small towns. The program is housed out of the National Trust for Historic Preservation in DC. Learn more about Pigtown Mainstreet at Facebook.com/PigtownMainSt John Tuminaro (MA 1994) is now the Senior Food Securi-ty Advisor in the Office of Human Security at the U.S. De-partment of State where he has worked for 20 years. John lives in Northern Virginia and has two chil-dren, ages 6 and 10. Courtney Whitworth (MA 2001) and Travis Whitworth (BA 2000) live in Beijing with their two children and work at the U.S. Embassy. In November 2012 they hosted Pro-fessors Chacko and Price in their home for several days when they were visiting China for a conference on the Chinese Diaspora. Crystal Bae (Geography Minor, 2012) is at the University of Santa Barbara pursuing a Master’s degree/Ph.D. in geography. She distinguished herself among the other graduate students by biking to California from Washing-ton, DC. The trip took 88 days and she cycled 4,651 miles. Lisa Colson (MA 2012) is working for the US Department of Agriculture for the Foreign Agricultural Service and lives in the District of Columbia.

B.A. in Geography Cole Ashcraft Caitlin Boucher Grace Campbell Anita Davidson Curtis Davis Amanda Destefano Joseph Duffey Kristen Dunphey Alyssa Edwards Aaron Eubank Justyna Felusiak

Jack Greenhouse James Hark Alexander Kemp Samuel Johnson Jeffrey Kline Anne Lausier Hae Youn Lee Lokyee Lui Kyle Mackie Kelsey Nyland Kendall Pauley

Alex Pisciarino Alexander Pommer Joseph Reynolds David Smentek Phillip Tilly Christina Valentiner Jerry Wauford Gillian Weeks Maura Welch

Alexander Alvendia Arjun Awasthi Sarah Cahlan Grace Campbell Samuel Catherman Curtis Davis Amanda Destefano Kristen Dunphey Alyssa Edwards Aaron Eubank Regina Fong Jack Greenhouse

James Hark Corinne Haynes Rosemary Holt Jeremy Iloulian Samuel Johnson Alexander Kemp Jeffrey Kline Mitchell Langley Anne Lausier Hae Youn Lee Lokyee Lori Lui Kyle Mackie

Kelsey Nyland Ellen Park Kirstie Polentz Alexander Pommer Joseph Reynolds Isabelle Riu Analise Rivero David Smentek Christina Valentiner Gillian Weeks Maura Welch Samuel Wong

B.A. in Environmental Studies

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Jason Burgdorfer Jessica Dell Anna Findley Leslie Jones

Julianna Kuhn Eileen Miller Amanda Osborne Azher Salikuddin

Kathryn Schindler Timothy Swales Geoffrey Swanson

M.A. in Geography

Congratulations to the Class of 2013!

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If you are interested in making a gift to the Department, please visit our website (www.gwu.edu/~geog) and click on the “Support the Department” link for instructions.

Semester Events

Geography Fall 2013 Speaker Series

Friday, September 25, Pirouz Mojtahed– Zadeh, Visiting Scholar from the University of Teh-ran will present “Political Geography and Geopolitics: The Middle East Way.” Friday, October 25, Roger-Mark DeSouza, Director of Population, Environmental Change and Security at the Woodrow Wilson Center will give a talk entitled "On Sustainable Devel-opment and Building Resilience." Thursday, November 21, Qin Yu, Post-doctoral fellow in the GWU Deparmtent of Geography will give a talk entitled "Arctic Tundra Vegetation Dynamics under Changing Environmental Conditions." Friday, December 6, Oleg A. Anisimov, Professor of Physical Geography, Hydrological Insti-tute (Russia) will discuss the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

All events are schedule for 4pm in the Department, Room 219 of Old Main

and are followed by a reception. All are welcome.

geography env i ronmental s tudies

Department of Geography The George Washington

University 1922 F Street, NW

Washington, Dc 2005

Loyal Donors

Ms. Kirsten Anne Berg Mr. Byron K. Callan, III

Ms. Alyssa Christelle Edwards Mr. Aaron David Eubank

Ms. Regina Rose Fong Ms. Sarah P. Fuller Ms. Vera D. Harvell

Ms. Gretchen D. Hasse Mr. Steven Barry Herzberg Mr. Frederick R. Hoeschler

Mr. Larry S. Howard

Dr. Benjamin H. Hyman Mr. Stanley S. Kidwell, Jr.

Mr. Dorn Charles McGrath, Jr. Mr. Mark M. Newland

Mr. Matthew A. Plevelich Dr. Marie Daly Price

Mr. Michael E. Riccio Mr. Ronald G. Waggoner

Dr. John E. and Mrs. Elizabeth W. Westfall

Donations received between November 2012—October 2013