2026 Keynote

Ángel A. Garcia 

Assistant Professor, Department of Geology and Environmental Science, James Madison University

Ángel García is a geologist whose research bridges earth science, culture, and community. His work spans ethnogeology, cave and karst science, and place-based education, exploring how the tools and experiences we gather along the way, even unexpected ones, shape how we understand the world beneath our feet. In his talks, Ángel will draw on his own journey to academia alongside his research in geoscience education, Caribbean geology and ecology, and speleothems as paleoclimate archives in Virginia, weaving it all together through a central question: how can place-based science help us build bridges between Western geoscience and the communities who have long called these landscapes home?