Families, faculty, and staff gathered in Science Hall and online on Friday, May 9, to recognize this year’s Department of Geography graduates. Professor and Department Chair Sarah Moore opened the ceremony with thoughtful remarks about the importance of Geography in the world. Then, Professor Joe Mason presented the undergraduate and graduate award winners; Professor and Director of Graduate Studies Jenna Loyd recognized the master’s and PhD graduates; Professor and Director of GIS Professional Programs Jonathan Nelson recognized the professional capstone certificate and master’s degree graduates; and Undergraduate Advisor Joel Gruley recognized the bachelor’s degree graduates.
Graduates, seeing the depth and breadth of the work and research done in this department is never anything less than inspiring. Thank you for sharing your hard work, your effort, and your passion—we learn as much from you as you learn from us.
Bachelor’s Degree Graduates & Awards
25 undergraduates walked the stage at our celebration. Many of them are double (or triple!) majors, and three of them were invited to join Phi Beta Kappa, the nation’s oldest and most prestigious academic honor society, recognizing excellence in the liberal arts and sciences. During their time on campus, this impressive group racked up numerous accomplishments in the areas of research, public service, awards and scholarships, and geography-related internships. We’re extremely proud of all our graduating seniors and wish them the best of luck as they embark on the next exciting chapters in their lives.
Undergraduate Awardees
Ian Bohacheck – Olmstead Award for Academic Excellence
Aly Fry – Olmstead Award for Academic Excellence
Ella Matz – Olmstead Award for Achievement in the Cartography & GIS Major
Kendall Johnson – Olmstead Award for Achievement in the Geography Major
Lauren Wunderlich – Kohn Scholarship Recipient
Will McAllister – Petchenik Award in Cartographic Design
2025 Undergraduate Graduates
Ameya Baxi – BS, Cartography/GIS; Environmental Sciences
Ian Bohachek – BS, Cartography/GIS; Environmental Studies; Geography
Julian Callegari – BS, Cartography/GIS; Economics
Brooke Clark – BS, Environmental Studies; Geography
Ben Dimenstein – BS, Cartography/GIS; Geography; Landscape & Urban Studies
Owen Edminster – BS, Cartography/GIS; Geography
Reuben Fendt – BA, Geography
Aly Fry – BA, Geography
Ari Greenlee – BA, Geography
Marek Higley – BA, Cartography/GIS; Geography
Xu Ji – BA, Classical Humanities & Geography
Kendall Johnson – BS, Cartography/GIS; Geography
Isaac Lebeck – BBA, Cartography/GIS; Information Systems
Jihong Lee – BA, Asian Languages & Cultures; Geography; International Studies; Japanese
Ella Matz – BS, Cartography/GIS; Geography
Kayla Newhouse – BA, Environmental Studies; Geography
Carolyn Shumaker – BS, Environmental Studies; Geography; Landscape & Urban Studies
Mose Skolnick – BS, Cartography/GIS; Data Science
Taylor Tagliavia – BA, Environmental Studies; Geography; Landscape & Urban Studies
Tina Tran – BA, Environmental Studies; Geography; Political Science
Jean Traudt – BS, Cartography/GIS; Conservation Biology
Shaelee Wallner – BA, Geography
Will Weatherhead – BA, Cartography/GIS
Katie Wenzel – BS, Economics; Environmental Studies; Cartography/GIS
Lydia Zajichek – BA, Environmental Studies; Geography; Landscape & Urban Studies
GIS Professional Programs Graduates
This year is a bittersweet celebration for GISPP, as we say goodbye to some of our last online capstone certificate graduates. We have 6 graduates from the GIS Fundamentals Capstone; 4 graduates from the Advanced GIS Capstone; 14 graduates from the Cartography and GIS MS: Online GIS Development Option, and 6 graduates from the Cartography and GIS MS: Accelerated/Non-thesis Option. We are delighted that some of these graduates and their families were able to join us to acknowledge the hard work and dedication required to master technical skills in Cartography, GIS, geovisualization, geospatial analysis, and web map programming.
David Babson – Cartography & GIS – GIS Development MS
Erico Burgos – GIS Fundamentals Capstone Certificate
Kevin Bursaw – Cartography & GIS – GIS Development MS
Devin Carlson – Cartography & GIS – GIS Development MS
Alison Case – Cartography & GIS – GIS Development MS
Elliot DeGuilme – GIS Fundamentals Capstone Certificate
Jack Dipaolo – Accelerated/Non-Thesis Cartography & GIS MS
Maya Edstrom – Cartography & GIS – GIS Development MS
Xun Gong – Accelerated/Non-Thesis Cartography & GIS MS
Morgan Grundy – Cartography & GIS – GIS Development MS |
Maxwell Heilig – GIS Fundamentals Capstone Certificate
Benjamin Holec – GIS Fundamentals Capstone Certificate
Eric Johnson – Cartography & GIS – GIS Development MS
Jacob Kampf – Cartography & GIS – GIS Development MS
Leonard Kendall – Advanced GIS Capstone Certificate
Lindsay McClintock – Cartography & GIS – GIS Development MS
Sean McClure – Advanced GIS Capstone Certificate
Ryan Mroczenski – Accelerated/Non-Thesis Cartography & GIS MS
Kathryn Porter – GIS Fundamentals Capstone Certificate
Ephraim Retta – Cartography & GIS – GIS Development MS
Virginia Robenski – Cartography & GIS – GIS Development MS
Ginevra Ryman – Advanced GIS Capstone Certificate
Joseph Sawruk – Advanced GIS Capstone Certificate
Nathan Schuelke – Cartography & GIS – GIS Development MS
Andrew Sirota – Cartography & GIS – GIS Development MS
Katherine Soltys – Accelerated/Non-Thesis Cartography & GIS MS
Rebecca Stoddard – GIS Fundamentals Capstone Certificate
Steven Sykes – Accelerated/Non-Thesis Cartography & GIS MS
Joseph Willman – Accelerated/Non-Thesis Cartography & GIS MS
Karen Witsell – Cartography & GIS – GIS Development MS
Master’s and Doctoral Degree Graduates
This year we were excited to celebrate the graduation of 11 students in our research-based master’s and doctoral programs in Geography. Five MS students and six PhD students successfully completed (or are this summer completing) their MS theses and doctoral dissertations, with research that reflects the wide breadth of the discipline.
Graduate Awardees
Nora Schlenker – Clarence W. Olmstead Award for Outstanding Citizenship
Thi Le Thu Dinh – Clarence W. Olmstead Award for Outstanding Teaching
Erin Clancy – Clarence W. Olmstead Award for Outstanding Publication
Lauren Gerlowski – Whitbeck Graduate Dissertator Fellowship
Erin Clancy – Whitbeck Graduate Dissertator Fellowship
Katie Braun – Leopold Geomorphology Graduate Research Award
2025 Graduate Degrees
Yanbing Chen – An Overview of Current GIScience Education: From Academia to Industry (MS thesis)
Christina Dennis – Property Characteristics of Midwestern Farms Enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program (MS thesis)
Ashmita Dhakal – Mitigation of Spatial Bias in Social Media Data for Disaster Relief (MS thesis)
Celeste Gunderson – Land Titles and Deforestation: Evidence from Peru’s Palm Oil Sector (MS thesis)
Qianheng Zhang – Mapping Urban Coyote Ecology in Los Angeles: Insights from Citizen Science and Human Mobility Data (MS thesis)
Nicolle Etchart – The promise and limits of conservation payments in protected areas in Ecuador’s Amazon (PhD dissertation)
Adrian George – Using open paleoecological data to map and understand global change ecology (PhD dissertation)
Yuhan Ji – Explainable AI and Machine Learning for Modeling Human Mobility and Geospatial Context (PhD dissertation)
Siddharth Menon – Reinforcing Concrete: Capital, Urban Natures, and Infrastructures in Transnational India (PhD dissertation)
Nora Schlenker – Vegetation dynamics in a novel and rapidly changing world – using a biogeographical and palaeoecological lens (PhD dissertation)
Congratulations to all of our graduates – we are proud of your many accomplishments and look forward to hearing about what comes next!
