I am a human geographer specializing in ethnic geography and geographic education and trained at the University of California,  Davis. After teaching geography for ten years at California State University, Chico, I relocated to Southwest Texas State University in 1997 to help develop the new Ph.D. program in geographic education as
Professor of Geography and Co-Director of the Grosvenor Center for Geographic Education.

My research interests lie at the intersection between geographic education and cultural issues, especially as this juncture pertains to issues of access.  "Reaching the Needs of Special Populations: Key Issues and Research Questions," published in First Assessment: Status of Research in Geographic Education (1997); ongoing commitment to gender issues in geography as co-founder of the NSF-supported "Finding a Way: Reaching Diverse Young Women in Geography" project (see also "Understanding Gender vs. Sex Differences in Geography Education," Journal of Geography, forthcoming 1999; "Cognitive Site Mapping: Placing Yourself in Context," [in] Teaching about Culture,
Ethnicity, and Diversity edited by T. Singelis, Sage Publications, 1997); and my long term interest in ethnic geography (Russian Refuge: Religion, Migration, and Settlement on the North American Pacific Rim, University of Chicago Press, 1993; "Reading, Recording, and Analyzing Ethnic Landscapes" [in] Teaching Ethnic Geography, edited by L. Estaville and C. Rosen, NCGE, 1998) are a few selected examples of my ongoing commitment to this area of research.

Most recently, I have been increasingly focused on the potential for reaching geographically, socioeconomically, and ethnically isolated teachers and students through distance learning technologies. My work co-directing a FIPSE-funded project designed to enhance in-service training for teachers in the remote Rio Grande Valley in Texas
illustrates this commitment to supporting teachers with lack of access to graduate training. The Step Up to Geography Through Distance Learning project currently is providing graduate courses in geography for social studies teachers using the Internet, e-mail, and videoconferencing. It also has helped our department launch a distance learning-based Master's in Applied Geography with a Specialization in Geographic Education degree now available to English-speaking
graduate students anywhere anytime.

References

Going the Distance: Post-Graduate Reform in Geographic Education, Open Praxis: The International Journal of Distance Learning, 1998

Integrating the National Geography Standards and Distance Learning into Post-Graduate Teacher Training in the American Geographical Society's Ubique, 1998

Distance Learning Goes Global: A Faculty Perspective, The Distance Educator, 1997.