2018 SEDAAG Elections
CANDIDATE BIOS
For Vice President
Bill Graves (University of North Carolina, Charlotte)
Bill Graves (PhD, University of Georgia) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography and Earth Sciences at UNC Charlotte where he has been on staff since 2000. His research interests are in economic and urban geography, particularly as they relate to the growth of the American South. Dr. Graves has attended 25 SEDAAG annual meetings (including nearly every business meeting). His formal service to SEDAAG includes the Local Arrangements (Charlotte and Asheville (Chair)), Honors, Nominations (Chair), Audit (Chair), Program (x3) and Southern Studies committees. He has indirectly served SEDAAG as a frequent reviewer of the James O. Wheeler student travel award as well as the director of the Catawba Valley Geographical Society’s SEDAAG student travel award. Dr. Graves has also served as editor of The Industrial Geographer, as well as on the editorial boards of the Southeastern Geographer and the International Journal of Applied Geospatial Research.
Selima Sultana (University of North Carolina, Greensboro)
Selima Sultana (PhD, University of Georgia) is Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Geography, Environment, and Sustainability at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro (UNCG). She is a broadly trained human geographer and an engaged citizen, who considers research, teaching, and service to be fully integrated with each other to understand and address the real issues communities are facing. Dr. Sultana has held multiple leadership positions for SEDAAG including the Honors, Program, Steering, Resolution, and Nomination Committees, served as two-term President of the North Carolina Geographical Society, and Chair of the Transport Geography Specialty Group of the American Association of Geographers. Additionally, Dr. Sultana co-chaired the Housing, Migration, and Commuting cluster of the Network on European Communications and Transport Activities Research group. Dr. Sultana has been involved in numerous key college and university services including on the College and the University Tenure and Promotion Committees, University Faculty Senate, Faculty Diversity Committee, and Chair for the College of Science and Arts Faculty Assembly. Dr. Sultana’s work has focused on understanding the commuting/travel patterns and behaviors of individuals. She has authored a book on transportation modes across the world, published dozens of scholarly articles in leading geography and discipline-based journals, and is currently working on a co-authored book about the human geography of the U.S. National Park system.
For Secretary
Shrinidhi Ambinakudige (Mississippi State University)
Shrinidhi Ambinakudige (PhD, Florida State University) is a Professor in the Department of Geosciences at Mississippi State University. Currently, Shrinidhi serves as the leader of the geospatial and geography team in the department of geoscience, faculty advisor for the MSU chapter of the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS), and South Asia director of the AAG’s Asian Geography specialty group. Shrinidhi chaired the local organizing committee for the 2017 SEDAAG meeting at Starkville. Previously, he has served as a member of the AAG’s research grant committee, AAG’s student awards and scholarships committee, and also as a Mississippi State representative to SEDAAG. Shrinidhi’s research comprises both physical and human geographical approaches. Broadly, his research focuses on nature-society interactions, specifically the human dimensions of global change. He has studied land use and land cover, glacial retreat, biodiversity, and vegetation changes. His research study sites span North America (U.S. and Mexico) and South America (Andes) to Europe, Central Asia (Tajikistan), and South Asia (India and Nepal). As a human geographer, he also studies the US South, and internal migration flows in the US and Europe.
Joe Weber (University of Alabama)
Joe Weber (PhD, The Ohio State University) is a Professor of Geography at the University of Alabama. His work is focused on national parks and the changing geography of the American highway system. He has chaired the Transport Geography Specialty Group of the American Association of Geographers and served on numerous committees and elected positions within his department and university, and was a member of the Transportation Research Board Committee on the Transportation Needs of National Parks and Public Lands. Dr. Weber has published numerous articles in leading geographical journals. His favorite activities include searching out abandoned roads and bridges by car, on foot, and on GoogleEarth.
State Representatives
For Georgia
Amy Potter (Georgia Southern University)
Amy Potter (PhD, Louisiana State University) is an Assistant Professor of Geography in the Department of Geology and Geography at Georgia Southern University. She has served as Chair of the Honors Committee for SEDAAG as well as Chair and Vice Chair of the SAGE Specialty Group for AAG. In addition to service to the discipline, she maintains an active research agenda largely centered on tourism geographies, with her most recent research examining representations of slavery at plantation museums in the U.S. South, a project funded by the National Science Foundation.
For Mississippi
Jerry “Joby” Bass (University of Southern Mississippi)
Joby Bass (PhD, University of Texas, Austin) is Associate Professor at the University of Southern Mississippi and a cultural geographer who studies the intersections of cultures, landscapes, and environments. He works primarily in Latin America and the U.S. South. His current research activities involve studying environmental and cultural change in Honduras using repeat photography and studying the geographical aspects of race, geography, and landscape in the South.
For North Carolina
Shane Canup (University of North Carolina, Greensboro)
Shane Canup (PhD candidate, University of North Carolina, Greensboro) is a graduate student in the Department of Geography, Environment, and Sustainability at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Shane received his MA in Geography from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 2015, and a BA in History with a concentration in Secondary Education from Winthrop University in 2009. Shane has held adjunct instructor positions in Geography at the University of South Carolina Upstate (2015-2017), Spartanburg Community College (2016-2017), and Converse College (2016). His research interests include sovereignty, political geography, borders, regional geography, island studies, geopolitics, and the Caribbean.
Burrell Montz (East Carolina University)
Burrell Montz (PhD, University of Colorado) is Professor in the Department of Geography, Planning and Environment at East Carolina University. Her teaching and research focus on natural hazards, water resources management, and environmental impact analysis. She started her career looking at responses to flooding in the Northeastern United States, was an Environmental Planner, and has since addressed such topics as the effects of flooding on property values, perceptions of risk, and responses to warnings. She is also involved in research relating to vulnerability of communities to the impacts climate change as projected in future flood scenarios and water management issues associated with pharmaceuticals and personal care products. She has been fortunate to have been able to work in such places as Slovenia and New Zealand, as well as numerous locations throughout the US.
For Tennessee
Kelsey Ellis (University of Tennessee)
Kelsey Ellis (PhD, Florida State University) is an Assistant Professor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and a physical geographer specializing in applied meteorology and climatology. Her research uses a variety of statistical and spatial analysis methods in order to further our understanding in the general areas of tornadoes, tropical cyclones, and human-environment interactions. Some of her recent work has focused on tornado tracks as well as on how the public perceives tornado risk in Tennessee.
For Virginia
Stephanie E. Zick (Virginia Tech)
Hurricane researcher Stephanie Zick (PhD, University of Florida) is an Assistant Professor in Virginia Tech’s Department of Geography. Her work harnesses the intimate link between the anatomy of a hurricane and its physiology, or the physical mechanisms that fuel the storm. Dr. Zick’s research utilizes geospatial and spatiotemporal methods built on the idea that the shape and intensity of clouds and precipitation are not only useful in discerning the current storm intensity but also provides key information about the robustness of the storm’s working parts and, thus, is critical for improving forecasts of the rain, wind, and storm surges that impact coastal and inland communities when these storms make landfall.
Nicole Hutton Shannon (Old Dominion University)
Nicole Hutton Shannon (PhD, University of South Florida) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science and Geography at Old Dominion University. Her research focuses on third-sector organizations and non-profit recovery after natural disasters such as the 2011 earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand, where she conducted field research. Dr. Hutton Shannon is the recipient of the 2016 Gilbert White Dissertation Award from the AAG’s Natural Hazards, Risks, and Disasters Specialty Group.