Department Directory

	Ronald Abler Professor Emeritus of Geography rabler@aag.org Expertise: geography of communications systems; history of geographic thought
	Daniela Aiello Assistant Professor of Geography - Begins July 2023 - Expertise: eviction and renter movements; feminism; urban; anti-racism; anti-colonialism
	Todd Bacastow Teaching Professor bacastow@psu.edu Expertise: geospatial intelligence; analytic methods; GIS; comparative analysis; cognitive processes
	Mahda Bagher Postdoctoral Scholar mmm6749@psu.edu Expertise: GIScience and geospatial analysis; UX Research; HCI; extended reality technologies (AR/VR/mixed); human cognition & perception; designing embodied learning experiences in VR; 3D modeling and 3D visualization; geospatial data visualization in VR; virtual field trips; place-based education
	Jennifer Baka Associate Professor of Geography jeb525@psu.edu Expertise: energy geographies; political-industrial ecology; environmental governance
	Ann Bartos Courtesy Scholar aeb6276@psu.edu Expertise: feminist political geography; care ethics; political ecology of food and agriculture; children's geographies
	Matthew Bauerlin Graduate Student (M.S.) MattBauerlin@psu.edu Expertise: American South; political economy; political ecology; critical geography; cultural geographies; social justice
	Ryan Baxter Associate Teaching Professor rbaxter@psu.edu Expertise: geospatial technologies; land-use change; data management and distribution; energy
	Trevor Birkenholtz Associate Head of Resident Graduate Programs tlb5964@psu.edu Expertise: political ecology; development; social theory; nature-society relations; gender-dynamics; South Asia; water resources
	Alejandra Bonilla Mena Graduate Student (Ph.D.) apb6399@psu.edu Expertise: urban and economic geography; real estate markets; financialization; housing; entrepreneurship governments
	Cynthia Brewer Professor of Geography cab38@psu.edu Expertise: cartographic communication and visualization; map design; color theory; multi-scale mapping; atlas production; topographic maps; cartography
	Ruth Buck Graduate Student (M.S. + Ph.D.) rkb5550@psu.edu Expertise: redistricting; population; scale; segregation; GIS
	Amy Burnicki Associate Teaching Professor acb154@psu.edu Expertise: spatial data analysis; spatial statistics; quantitative modeling; land change science; transportation; environmental engineering applications
	Andrew Carleton Professor Emeritus of Geography amc7@psu.edu Expertise: climatology; synoptic climatology; climate dynamics; climate impacts of aviation contrails; human impacts on climate; climate variability and change; land surface-climate interactions; polar climatology; polar lows; Southern Ocean; Antarctica
	Carolina Carrion Klier Graduate Student (Ph.D.) czc6192@psu.edu Expertise: remote sensing; vegetation mapping; machine learning; Galapagos Islands; drone photogrammetry
	Guido Cervone Professor of Geography and Meteorology & Atmospheric Science (MAS) cervone@psu.edu Expertise: environmental hazards; remote sensing; geoinformatics; social media
	Shuyu Chang Graduate Student (Ph.D.) shuyu.chang@psu.edu Expertise: ecohydrology; contaminant transport; deep learning; remote sensing; Chesapeake Bay
	Connor Chapman Graduate Student (Ph.D.) cjc358@psu.edu Expertise: climate science; physical geography; land-atmosphere interactions
	Mei-Huan Chen Graduate Student (Ph.D.) mzc496@psu.edu Expertise: political ecology; environmental and water governance; infrastructural geographies
	Emma Cheriegate Graduate Student (M.S.) echeriegate@psu.edu Expertise: water quality; wetlands; ecohydrology; climate change; GIS
	Samuel Cohen Graduate Student (M.S. + Ph.D.) sxc5884@psu.edu Expertise: biogeochemistry; water quality; nutrient cycling; ecohydrology; limnology
	Harrison Cole Postdoctoral Scholar harrisoncole@psu.edu Expertise: cartography; geovisualization; accessibility; user experience; disaster management
	Robert Crane Professor Emeritus of Geography rqc3@psu.edu Expertise: climatology; regional scale climate change; African climates
	Marnie Deibler Proposal and Award Generalist mpr5@psu.edu Expertise: research proposal processing; monitor grants and contracts; promotion dossiers; faculty reports
	Jim Detwiler Associate Teaching Professor jed124@psu.edu Expertise: geospatial programming; web mapping; spatial databases; climate
	Nicolle Di Domenico Graduate Student (M.S.) ntd5143@psu.edu Expertise: remote sensing; cryosphere; machine learning; physical geography; climate change
	Ida Djenontin Assistant Professor of Geography ind5050@psu.edu Expertise: environment-development governance; agro-forest systems; climate change adaptation and mitigation; sustainable livelihoods; equity; knowledge co-production; sub-Saharan Africa
	Lorraine Dowler Professor of Geography, Women's, Gender & Sexuality Studies, and International Affairs lxd17@psu.edu Expertise: political geography; gender; care ethics; qualitative methods; feminist geopolitics
	Roger Downs Professor Emeritus of Geography rd7@psu.edu Expertise: spatial cognition; cognitive development; geography education; behavioral geography
	William Easterling Professor of Geography wee2@psu.edu Expertise: environmental change; agricultural systems; climate; renewable natural resources; land use
	Rodney Erickson 17th President of Penn State rae@psu.edu Expertise: economic and urban geography; international trade; regional economic development
	Caitlin Flanagan Graduate Student (Ph.D.) cff5224@psu.edu Expertise: skilled female migration
	Chris Fowler Associate Head of Undergraduate Programs csfowler@psu.edu Expertise: inequality; population; scale; economic; urban; race; segregation
	Susan Friedman Affiliate Instructor swf3@psu.edu Expertise: historical geography; social geography; history of geography
	Brandi Gaertner Assistant Teaching Professor bah6009@psu.edu Expertise: hydrology; climate change; normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) ; growing season length; spatial analysis; spatial statistics; R statistical programming and modeling; GISciences
	Panagiotis Giannakis Assistant Teaching Professor pmg5371@psu.edu Expertise: economic geography; strategic management; social networks
	Zach Goldberg Graduate Student (Ph.D.) zag5022@psu.edu Expertise: agroecology; food-energy-water nexus; politcal ecology; utility-scale solar energy development; community seed networks
	Adrienne Goldsberry Assistant Teaching Professor adg30@psu.edu Expertise: GIS education; urban planning; environmental perception & attitudes
	Nikolay Golosov Graduate Student (Ph.D.) golosov@psu.edu Expertise: cartography; geovisualization; GIS; geospatial programming
	Larry Gorenflo Courtesy appointment in Geography ljg11@psu.edu Expertise: biodiversity conservation; cultural ecology; East Africa; Latin America; Southeast Asia
	MacKenzie Goss Graduate Program Assistant mng5361@psu.edu Expertise: graduate appointments; grad admissions support; advise on grad policies
	Helen Greatrex Assistant Professor of Geography and Statistics hlg5155@psu.edu Expertise: weather risk management; geostatistics; uncertainty estimation; historical weather analysis; satellite rainfall estimation; index insurance; agricultural modeling; social equity
	Casey Hamilton Graduate Student (MS + PhD) cwh5643@psu.edu Expertise: landscape ecology; GIS; remote sensing; disturbance
	Owen Harrington Graduate Student (MS + PhD) ofh5033@psu.edu Expertise: energy; political economy; political ecology; critical theory; theories of knowledge; Marxist geography
	Kevin Harris Graduate Student (M.S. + Ph.D.) kph13@psu.edu Expertise: political ecology; sustainability; critical geography
	Sanae Hartmann Graduate Student (Ph.D.) sanaehartmann@psu.edu Expertise: anti- and decolonial biorestoration technologies; critical physical geography; feminist political ecology; Indigenous Land dis- and repossession; Shut Down Red Hill - Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi
	Nebraska Hernandez Graduate Student (M.S.) nah5344@psu.edu Expertise: environmental justice; political ecology; cartography
	Robert Hibbert Computer Lab Supervisor rlh23@psu.edu Expertise: department computer laboratories; IT technical support
	Bradley Hinger Graduate Student (Ph.D.) bfh5093@psu.edu Expertise: race/racism; Black geographies; urban geography; cultural geography; transportation mobilities; just energy transitions
	Deryck Holdsworth Professor Emeritus of Geography dwh6@psu.edu Expertise: urban historical geography; historical geography of North America; historial GIS
	Louisa Holmes Assistant Professor of Geography and Demography lmholmes@psu.edu Expertise: health disparities; substance use; socio-spatial determinants of health; urban health; environmental justice; migration; demographic and geospatial research methods
	Lily Houtman Graduate Student (M.S. + Ph.D.) lmh5991@psu.edu Expertise: cartography; data journalism; mobile and web mapping; user experience design; Queer and Trans theory; science communication; pedagogy
	Zhengrui Huang Graduate Student (Ph.D.) zqh5210@psu.edu Expertise: optimization theory; deep learning; remote sensing; cryosphere
	Joshua Inwood Professor of Geography and African American Studies jfi6@psu.edu Expertise: memory studies; landscape; race and racism; truth commissions; cultural geography; urban geography
	Gregory Jenkins Courtesy appointments in Geography and African Studies gsj1@psu.edu Expertise: atmospheric/air chemistry; climate; tropical meteorology; Africa
	Fritz Kessler Teaching Professor fck2@psu.edu Expertise: map projections; datums; cartographic design; history of cartography; spatial analysis; qualitative analysis
	F.M. Kim Graduate Student (M.S. + Ph.D.) fmkim@psu.edu Expertise: neoliberalism; economy; data visualization; belonging; feminist and Queer theories; GIS
	Beth King Associate Teaching Professor exf107@psu.edu Expertise: GIS; data management; geospatial analysis; online education
	Brian King Head of Department king@psu.edu Expertise: development; conservation; Southern Africa; cultural and political ecology; health; livelihoods; justice
	Denise Kloehr Administrative Manager dak28@psu.edu Expertise: administer dept budgets; supervise dept staff; salaries; advise on procedures; HR
	Susan Kotikot Graduate Student (Ph.D.) smk6598@psu.edu Expertise: landscape ecology; agro-ecosystems; climate change; remote sensing; GIS data and methods
	Jessica Kromer Graduate Student (PhD) kromer@psu.edu Expertise: climate variability and change; cryosphere system interactions; ice sheet surface mass balance; remote sensing
	Chanel Lange-Maney Graduate Student (Ph.D.) cml5476@psu.edu Expertise: feminist geopolitics; Queer and feminist geography; geographies of care; coalitional activism
	Lucy Laubenstein Graduate Student (M.S.) lul39@psu.edu Expertise: gender; environmental activism
	Alan MacEachren Professor Emeritus of Geography and Information Science & Technology maceachren@psu.edu Expertise: visual analytics; geovisualization; geographic information retrieval; place & big data
	Stephen Matthews Courtesy appointments in Geography and School of International Affairs sxm27@psu.edu Expertise: demography; health; mortality; inequality; spatial analysis
	Eden Mekonen Graduate Student (M.S. + Ph.D.) evm5746@psu.edu Expertise: identity; othering and belonging; diaspora/(im)migration; Horn of Africa; critical theory
	Tiza Mfuni Graduate Student (M.S. + Ph.D.) tim5357@psu.edu Expertise: GIS; remote sensing; forestry; rural African livelihoods; conservation; climate change
	Doug Miller Research Professor Emeritus dam8@psu.edu Expertise: remote sensing; geomorphology; soils; GIS; landscape ecology; small unmanned autonomous systems
	Karan Misquitta Graduate Student (Ph.D.) kjm6596@psu.edu Expertise: Natural resource management; groundwater; collective action
	Cierra Naglowsky Administrative Support Assistant (Undergrad Program) cbn5240@psu.edu Expertise: department receptionist; undergraduate program; coordination for purchasing, facilities, and event planning
	Belen Norona Assistant Professor of Geography - Begins July 2023 mbnorona@psu.edu Expertise: Amazon Region; feminist political ecology; oil extraction; Indigenous people; non-representational cartography
	Norman Ornelas Jr. Graduate Student (Ph.D.) nxo7@psu.edu Expertise: economic geography; racialization; Queer and feminist theory; decolonial studies; urban geography
	Mark Ortiz Presidential Postdoctoral Scholar mark.ortiz@psu.edu Expertise: climate justice; youth; social movements
	Suraiya Parvin Graduate Student (Ph.D.) svp6104@psu.edu Expertise: health and place; immigrants; place attachment; migration; cultural geography; GIS
	Ruchi Patel Ph.D. Student -- Graduating soon. Hire me! rdp20@psu.edu Expertise: environment and development; conservation; tourism; critical geography; Latin America
	Donna Peuquet Professor Emerita of Geography peuquet@psu.edu Expertise: geographic information science; space-time representation; spatial data models; environmental cognition
	Nathan Piekielek Geospatial Librarian and Associate Professor of Geography nbp104@psu.edu Expertise: geographic information science; remote sensing and spatial analysis geospatial research support; landscape ecology and conservation; interdisciplinary social and natural science research
	Bronwen Powell Associate Head of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion bxp15@psu.edu Expertise: biodiversity and nutrition; wild and forest foods; dietary patterns and dietary diversity; traditional food systems; applied research for improved policy and practice
	Prakriti Prajapati Graduate Student (Ph.D.) pmp5473@psu.edu Expertise: water governance; everyday state; politics of knowledge; infrastructural geographies; normative ethics; public policy
	Timothy Prestby Graduate Student (M.S. + Ph.D.) tprestby@psu.edu Expertise: cartographic design; geovisualization; interactive maps; visual storytelling; UX design
	Krista Pylant Marketing Communications Specialist kqp5592@psu.edu Expertise: departmental communications including news, website content, and social media
	Elise Quinn Graduate Student ( M.S. + Ph.D.) eaq10@psu.edu Expertise: the Black radical tradition; racial capitalism; feminist epistemology and knowledge production; postcolonial and critical theory; communities of care; spaces of affirmation
	Anthony Robinson Director of Online Geospatial Education acr181@psu.edu Expertise: geovisual analytics; cartography; user-centered design; geovisualization; information visualization
	Vivian Rodriguez Rocha Graduate Student (Ph.D.) vdr10@psu.edu Expertise: feminist political geography; social reproduction theory; feminist movements in Latin America; qualitative methods
	Emily Rosenman Assistant Professor of Geography ekr5260@psu.edu Expertise: urban and economic geography; financialization; philanthropy; housing; debt; public finance
	Marie Louise Ryan Graduate Student (Ph.D.) mdr259@psu.edu
	Kristin Schoenecker Graduate Student (M.S. + Ph.D.) kps6081@psu.edu Expertise: political ecology; stormwater; energy transitions; governance; infrastructure; urban-rural dynamics
	Karen Schuckman Associate Teaching Professor kls505@psu.edu Expertise: photogrammetry; lidar; UAS mapping; accuracy assessment
	Harman Singh Graduate Student (M.S. + Ph.D.) hxs5376@psu.edu Expertise: natural hazards; floods; GIS; climate science; statistics
	Erica Smithwick Distinguished Professor of Geography and Ecology smithwick@psu.edu Expertise: landscape ecology; ecosystem ecology; biogeochemistry; fire ecology
	Billy Southern Graduate Student (Ph.D.) bms6724@psu.edu Expertise: sociospatial inequalities; neighborhood and community processes ; urban geography
	Kaitlyn Spangler Postdoctoral Scholar of Transdisciplinary Climate Science kas6281@psu.edu Expertise: political agroecology; climate justice; regenerative landscapes; critical data science; qualitative methodologies
	Olivia Spencer Graduate Student (M.S. + Ph.D.) obs5088@psu.edu Expertise: landscape ecology; remote sensing; GIS; climate change
	Marcela Suarez Assistant Teaching Professor marcela.suarez@psu.edu Expertise: spatial data science; GIScience; cartography; emergency management; spatio-temporal data mining; spatial data quality
	Alan Taylor Professor of Geography and Ecology aht1@psu.edu Expertise: landscape ecology; fire ecology; disturbance and climate effects on vegetation; biogeography; biological conservation; environmental management; paleoecology
	Gregory Thomas Associate Teaching Professor gat5@psu.edu Expertise: geospatial intelligence; intelligence analysis; homeland security
	Mandy Thompson Administrative Support Coordinator (Financial) met15@psu.edu Expertise: reimbursement; wage payroll; award disbursement; budget monitoring
	Ben Townsend Graduate Student (M.S.) bct5191@psu.edu Expertise: health geography; GIS; statistics; population geography; international development
	Luke Trusel Assistant Professor of Geography trusel@psu.edu Expertise: climate variability and change; ice sheet surface mass balance; ice core paleoclimatology; remote sensing
	Ramzi Tubbeh Postdoctoral Scholar rmt5319@psu.edu Expertise: political ecology; science and technology studies; postcolonial studies; environmental and water governance; common-pool resources; conservation; agrobiodiversity; climate change; livelihoods; Latin America
	Saumya Vaishnava Graduate Student (M.S. + Ph.D.) suv276@psu.edu Expertise: political economy of energy; energy infrastructure; technology; South Asia; governance
	Kimberly Van Meter Assistant Professor of Geography vanmeterkvm@psu.edu Expertise: water quality; wetlands; biogeochemistry; environmental modeling; remote sensing; human-environment interactions
	Jodi Vender Coordinator of Undergraduate and Alumni Programs jvender@psu.edu Expertise: academic advising for undergraduate students; curriculum planning; alumni engagement
	Shujie Wang Assistant Professor of Geography skw5660@psu.edu Expertise: cryosphere; remote sensing; machine learning
	Denice Wardrop Research Professor dhw110@psu.edu Expertise: ecological indicator development; monitoring and assessment for environmental management; wetland ecosystem services; impacts of anthropogenic change
	Melissa Wright Professor of Geography and Women's, Gender & Sexuality Studies mww11@psu.edu Expertise: critical geography; urban landscapes; Mexico-US borderlands; Latin America; intersectional feminist and critical race studies; social movements; post-colonial and decolonial studies
	Lakshman Yapa Professor Emeritus of Geography lxy3@psu.edu Expertise: Post-modern discourse theory; Third World; theories of poverty; community development; GIS applications; public scholarship and service learning
	Brent Yarnal Professor Emeritus of Geography alibar@psu.edu Expertise: global change in local places; climate variation and change; land-use/land-cover change; natural hazards; coupled human-environment systems
	Manzhu Yu Assistant Professor of Geography mqy5198@psu.edu Expertise: geographic information science; spatiotemporal theories and applications; big data and cloud computing; natural hazards and extreme weather; environmental informatics; spatial data science and deep learning
	Michelle Zeiders Assistant Teaching Professor mgz1@psu.edu Expertise: GIS; spatial analysis; online geospatial education; geoenvironmental studies
	Lilly Zeitler Graduate Student (PhD) lmz5288@psu.edu Expertise: sustainable nutrition; tropical agroecology; agroforestry; ethnobotany; climate change
	Wendy Zeller Zigaitis Graduate Student (Ph.D.) wlz101@psu.edu Expertise: geovisualization; user experience; unmanned aerial systems; conservation; resource scarcity; wildlife poaching
	Shiyan Zhang Graduate Student (Ph.D.) szz5367@psu.edu Expertise: GIS application; Python, R programming; machine learning/deep learning; database; trajectory analysis
	Karl Zimmerer Professor of Geography, Ecology, and Rural Sociology ksz2@psu.edu Expertise: land use and agricultural change/global change; economic development/globalization/neoliberalism; nature-society and human-environment theory environmental impacts (biodiversity/soils/water/conservation); food/producer-consumer networks/sustainability

Department of Geography

Department Directory