2019-Elections-Bios

SEDAAG 2019 Ballot

President

Lynn Resler

Lynn Resler (PhD, Texas State University) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography at Virginia Tech. Dr. Resler has served the SEDAAG community as a member of the local arrangements committee for the 2013 Annual Meeting in Roanoke, VA, as the State Representative for Virginia (2014-2016), and most recently, as SEDAAG Vice President and Program Director (2017-2018). She has chaired the Biogeography and Mountain Geography Specialty Groups of the American Association of Geographers. Dr. Resler is an Associate Editor of Arctic, Antarctic and Alpine Research, and is an editorial board member for the Annals of the American Association of GeographersSoutheastern Geographer, and Physical Geography.  In addition to professional service, she maintains an active research and teaching program focusing on the physical geography of mountain environments, and the student field experience.

Kathy Sherman-Morris

Kathy Sherman-Morris (Ph.D., 2006, Florida State University) is a Professor in the Geosciences Department at Mississippi State University.  She recently served as the department’s director of the Geosciences Distance Learning Programs from 2012 to 2019. A member of SEDAAG for nearly 20 years, Kathy previously served as SEDAAG secretary (2014-2016) and state representative for Mississippi (2010-2012), and recently joined the editorial board for the Southeastern Geographer. While secretary, Kathy started the Facebook group currently in use with the goal of enhancing member communication and interaction. She also assisted with the local arrangements for the 2017 Starkville meeting. In other service to geography, Kathy was chair of the AAG’s Environmental Perception and Behavioral Geography Specialty Group, was a member of the AAG’s Enhancing Diversity Committee, and is currently a member of the AAG Committee on the Status of Women. She was also a past advisory board member for the Mississippi Geographic Alliance. Kathy has also been active in other national organizations such as the National Weather Association, where she is a board member, and the American Meteorological Society. Her research focuses on communication of weather information, human responses to weather hazards, and issues of diversity in geoscience education. She has published in a number of journals including The Professional Geographer, The Southeastern Geographer, Geography Compass, as well as other hazards, meteorology and geoscience education journals.

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Treasurer

Amy E. Potter

Dr. Amy E. Potter is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geology and Geography at Georgia Southern University. As a research fellow for Tourism RESET (Race, Ethnicity and Social Equity in Tourism), her research connects to the larger themes of cultural justice and Black Geographies in the Caribbean and U.S. South where she has conducted extensive ethnographic fieldwork. For SEDAAG, she has served as Chair of the Honors Committee and Georgia State Representative and for AAG she has served as Chair of the SAGE Specialty Group, Secretary of the Study of the American South Specialty Group, and a member of the Student Award and Scholarship Committee.

Craig Ramseyer

Dr. Ramseyer is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography at Virginia Tech. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Geographic Science from James Madison University, and Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in Geography from the University of Georgia. Dr. Ramseyer’s primary area of research focuses on tropical rainfall, particularly in the Caribbean, and how climate change is likely to change drought and flooding. His other published research has examined weather impacts on football player mortality, climate change impacts on severe convective environments, and moisture impacts on Greenland ice melt. His publications have appeared in Climate Dynamics, Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, International Journal of Climatology, and Science of the Total Environment.

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Alabama Representative

Seela Aladuwaka

Seela Aladuwaka is an Associate Professor of Geography at Alabama State University. She taught in the Department of Global Gender Studies at University of Buffalo (SUNY) from 2008 to 2010 as a visiting professor.  She received a Doctoral Degree in geography from West Virginia University, a master’s degree in International Development from the American University, Washington D.C. as a Fulbright Scholar and, BA in geography from University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka. Her research interests include poverty, microfinance, gender and development and, resource management. She has conducted research for well over two decades in social geographies and published widely including two recent publications:  Co-edited, 2018, “Research in Political Sociology”, Environment, Politics, and Society (Research in Political Sociology Vol.25), Emerald Group Publishing Limited and, “Women, Micro-finance and Repayment Challenges: Sri Lanka Experiences” in A Handbook of Gender and Development edited by Ann Coles, Leslie Gray, and Janet Momsen (Routledge, 2015). Her ongoing research is centered on exploring poverty trends and patterns in the Black Belt Region of Alabama.

Caroline McClure

Caroline McClure grew up in Memphis, Tennessee and attended the University of Tennessee-Knoxville for her undergraduate education, earning a B.A. in Geography with a minor in History. She then moved to Atlanta, where she spent a few years working as a pre-school teacher, earned an M.Ed. in Social Studies Education from Georgia State University, and played ultimate Frisbee. In 2010 Caroline moved out to Laramie, Wyoming to pursue a Master’s degree in Geography, studying the changing urban landscape of Overton Square in Memphis and working on educational projects with the Wyoming Geographic Alliance. After completing her M.A. at UW, Caroline moved on the Texas State University, where she continued her work in geography education, earning a Ph.D. and studied the first 25 years of the National Geographic Alliance Network for her dissertation. Currently, Caroline is an instructor at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, teaching World Regional Geography, Human Geography, Cultural Geography, and Introduction to GIS.

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Florida Representative

Cynthia Simmons

Dr. Simmons is an Associate Professor at the University of Florida. She is a Human Geographer with a focus on the manner in which social processes interact across a multiplicity of scales and the impact these interactions have on local environments and social conditions. She is affiliated with the Center For Latin American Studies.

Kentucky Representative

Peggy Gripshover

Dr. Margaret M. “Peggy” Gripshover is a Professor of Cultural Geography in the Department of Geography and Geology at Western Kentucky University. She is a native of Cincinnati, and received her B.S. and M.S. in Geography from Marshall University, and her Ph.D. in Geography from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Dr. Gripshover has received teaching awards at three universities and from the Southeastern Division of the Association of American Geographers.

Dr. Gripshover’s research and teaching interests focus mainly on cultural, urban, and historical geography. Her recent publications include articles and book chapters on such topics as “Baseball and Race in the South,” “Foaling Locations of Kentucky Derby Winners,” and the “Changing Landscape of the Craft Beer Industry.” She lives in Bowling Green with her husband and fellow Geographer, Dr. Tom Bell, and Bella, their Australian Shepherd.

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South Carolina Representative

Christa Smith

Christa Smith is an Associate Professor of Geography in the Department of History and Geography at Clemson University. She teaches Urban Geography, Geography of the American South, and Historic Preservation.

Conor Harrison

Dr. Conor Harrison is an Assistant Professor of Geography at the University of South Carolina. His research examines the relationship between energy and society, with a particular focus on the political economy of electricity systems. Dr. Harrison has examined the historical development of electricity supply systems and markets in relation to questions of energy poverty, race, and white supremacy in the American South. More recently he has traced the flows of investment capital, expertise, and technology in the ongoing renewable energy transition in the Caribbean. Dr. Harrison has now begun a multi-year project examining the relationship between finance and the transforming electricity system in the United States. He teaches courses on energy and environmental sustainability, and was awarded the Michael J. Mungo Undergraduate Teaching Award at the University of South Carolina in 2019. He has regularly attended SEDAAG meetings, starting while he was in graduate school at East Carolina University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

West Virginia Representative

Jamison Conley

Jamison Conley is an Associate Professor of Geography at West Virginia University, where he was the director of the undergraduate program from 2013 through 2019.  His recent teaching and research focuses on spatial analysis, with specific applications in international development, and access to public health resources in West Virginia.  He has been active in SEDAAG since moving to the division in 2008, largely through the World Geography Bowl, having been the director of the SEDAAG World Geography Bowl from 2011-2014, and still active as the director of the AAG World Geography Bowl since 2014.