Director and VISP Instructor

I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Geoscience at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I grew up in Alaska and attended Oregon and Portland State Universities for my B.S., M.S., and PhD degrees. My primary expertise is in past glacier and climate change. As part of the VISP school I will be overseeing the larger program objectives and assisting with some of the glacial geology related instruction. I am a first generation college student and my family is from Oregon with many members attending 2-year institutions. I am looking forward to being "home" in Oregon during the U.S. VISP and teaching in familiar outdoor spaces that are dear to me.

VISP Coordinator and PCC Liaison

I am a Geography & GIS Faculty member and Department Chair at Portland Community College. I grew up in New York and attended Clemson University (B.A.) and Portland State University (M.S.). My primary focus is GIS, Cartography, and Cultural Geography. I am a strong believer in the power of observation and think the best way to get to know a place is to fully immerse yourself in it. We can use GIS and maps as a tool that allows us to understand places - what makes them unique, the patterns that exist, and their relationships with other places. Getting students involved in real-world experiences, field-based research, and passionate about maps are all things that I look forward to sharing through VISP. I will be helping with supporting logistics and students attending VISP.  

VISP Instructor

I was born in the suburbs of Santiago, the capital of Chile. I am a first-generation college student. My father and my mother were born and raised at the flanks of Quizapú and Puyehue-Cordón Caulle volcanoes. Their stories motivated me to study geoscience at the Universidad de Chile and then complete my Master's degree at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where I am also doing my third year as a PhD Student. I study volcanoes in Chile focusing on the time they erupted and the specific conditions needed to trigger their eruptions (such as temperature, pressure, water content, etc.). To do that, I analyze specific minerals that crystallize in volcanic lava. I love being in the field, and I am very excited to learn from and with you all!

VISP Instructor

I'm a third year PhD student at the University of Wisconsin Madison, where I study coastal erosion and sediment transport in the Great Lakes using computer models, drones, and sonar. I started at a 2-year campus as a non-traditional student and transferred to a 4-year college where I took my first geology course (spoiler, I loved it). Through undergraduate research I was able to study geologic processes near where I grew up, and I made connections that later encouraged me to pursue grad school. My skill set is using drones and computers to measure and simulate geologic processes on “short” time scales (decades to centuries). I will be learning about volcanoes and glaciers alongside you but am looking forward to teaching you how to make 3D landscape models and how we as geologists can learn from them.

VISP Instructor

I am the Moraine Chair in Arctic Studies and Professor of Earth Sciences at Dickinson College. I grew up in Wyoming and attended Carleton College (B.A.), the University of Wyoming (M.Sc.) and the University of British Columbia (Ph.D.). My expertise is in volcano-ice interactions, and using volcanic deposits as paleoclimate proxies for reconstructing past ice extents, mainly in British Columbia and Iceland. For VISP, I will be helping to teach basic concepts for describing volcanic rocks and deposits in the field, and learning to identify lava textures and features formed by interactions with ice. I will also be one of the main instructors teaching students how to use Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV/drones) and Structure-from-Motion principles to make 3-dimensional models of geologic features, as well as helping to give students basic field-based lessons with using QGIS to incorporating those models into more traditional GIS-mapping projects.

VISP Evaluator

I'm an independent consultant who works with Earth scientists to improve their projects. I have a BA in English lit and a PhD in geology, both from the University of Minnesota, and am also a high school dropout with no GED. During my many years working at the U of MN, I advised over 70 undergrad research projects. My job is to pay attention to whether the project goals are being met - for instance, whether the instructors are doing a good job in creating an inclusive and equitable environment for the whole team. I'll be interviewing project team members, both instructors and students, to collect this data. As a soft-rock geologist (I study lakes and lake mud) I know nothing about volcanoes, so I'm very excited to learn alongside students. I'm also psyched to have the opportunity to work on my anxiety about speaking Spanish! I live in Minneapolis, MN, and volunteer at a horse rescue in the early mornings.