One of the primary reasons Penn State is recognized around the globe as a distinguished university is the sterling caliber of its faculty. As a World Campus student, you will enjoy the opportunity to learn from the same instructors who teach traditional face-to-face classes on Penn State's twenty-four campuses across Pennsylvania.
The MGIS program is designed and taught by some of the finest geography instructors in the United States:
David DiBiase, M.S.
David DiBiase directs the John A. Dutton e-Education Institute within the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences at Penn State. He also serves as senior lecturer in Penn State's Department of Geography and as faculty coordinator of the postbaccalaureate certificate and master's programs in geographic information systems. He is author and lead instructor of the introductory course GEOG 482 The Nature of Geographic Information. David came to Penn State in 1989 after earning his bachelor and master of science degrees in cartography at the University of Wisconsin—Madison. He has earned Penn State's Wilson Award for Excellence in Teaching and Mitchell Award for Innovative Teaching, the Association of American Geographers' Media Achievement Award, and the University Consortium for Geographic Information Science's Educator of the Year award in 2005. David can be reached by e-mail at dibiase@psu.edu.
Todd Bacastow, Ph.D.
Todd Bacastow has been with the GIS certificate and MGIS programs since their inception and assisted in the co-authoring of numerous courses over the past years. He is currently the instructor of GEOG 583 Geospatial System Analysis and Design, and an adviser to the MGIS program. As an assistant professor of geography (annual appointment), Todd provides GIS education to students on and off campus. After a career in the U.S. Army that included teaching GIS and remote sensing at West Point, he returned to Penn State, his alma mater, in 1994. Todd is the assistant director of the EMS Earth and Environmental Systems Institute, where he works extensively with business, nonprofit groups, and government on issues of GIS education, design, development, and policy. As a result of his contributions to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, he was recently appointed as a permanent associate to the Legislative Office for Research Liaison and the House of Representatives. Todd can be reached by e-mail at bacastow@psu.edu.
George Chaplin, M.S.
George Chaplin has worked with GIS for more than twelve years. He was awarded his master of science in GIS with Distinction and was the winner of the Association of Geographic Information Student of the Year Award. He has interests in anthropology, as well as geography, and uses modeling, spatial statistics, and complex spatial analysis in his research at Penn State. He studies human ecology, ancestry, and epidemiology. George can be reached by e-mail at guc5@psu.edu.
Ken Corradini, M.S.
Ken Corradini is a research assistant at the Penn State Institutes of the Environment and a lead instructor of GEOG 487 Environmental Applications of GIS. He has a bachelor's degree in environmental resource management, a master's degree in soil science, and a master's degree in environmental pollution control from Penn State. His research interests include watershed hydrology, best management practices, and the development of GIS and simulation models and their application to environmental problems. Ken can be reached by e-mail at kjc139@psu.edu.
Jim Detwiler, M.S.
Jim Detwiler is lead instructor and author of GEOG 485 GIS Programming and Customization and GEOG 489 GIS Application Development. He is also a co-author of GEOG 484 GIS Database Development. He also teaches a GIS programming course for undergraduates in residence and conducts ArcGIS training as part of the Department of Geography's ESRI Authorized Learning Center. Prior to coming to Penn State, Jim worked as a GIS analyst for the Chester County (Pennsylvania) Bureau of Land Records. He received a bachelor's degree in earth science from Penn State and a master's degree in geography from the University of Delaware. Jim can be reached by e-mail at jimdetwiler@psu.edu.
Adrienne Gruver, M.S.
Adrienne Gruver is a lead instructor of GEOG 486 Cartography and Visualization. She has a bachelor's degree in biology, is a certified science illustrator, and is completing her master's degree in geography from Penn State. Her research interests include GIS for public health, geovisualization, and map design. Adrienne can be reached by e-mail at abg152@psu.edu.
Frank Hardisty, Ph.D.
Frank Hardisty has more than 20 years of programming experience and enjoys new programming challenges. Frank received his Ph.D. in geography at Penn State in 2003, under the direction of Alan MacEachren. He then taught and researched geographic visualization at the University of South Carolina from then until 2007, when he rejoined the Department of Geography at Penn State. Frank can be reached by e-mail at fah109@psu.edu.
Patrick Kennelly, Ph.D.
Pat Kennelly is author and instructor of GEOG 584 Geospatial Technology Project Management. He is a graduate faculty member in Penn State's Department of Geography and a student adviser in the MGIS program. He has project management experience with both an environmental/engineering consulting firm and a state geological survey. He is a visiting assistant professor at Penn State and an assistant professor at Long Island University in New York. Pat can be reached by e-mail at pjk15@psu.edu.
Fritz Kessler, Ph.D.
Fritz Kessler is an instructor of GEOG 861 Map Projections for Professionals. He is currently an associate professor of geography at Frostburg State University in Frostburg, Maryland, where he teaches a range of cartography and geography courses. He received his doctorate from the University of Kansas in 1999 and his master's degree from Penn State in 1991. He recently collaborated with other Kansas doctoral alumnus on thematic cartography and geographic Visualization. He can be reached by e-mail at fck2@psu.edu.
Beth Fletcher King, M.Ed.
Beth King is co-author and lead instructor of GEOG 483 Problem Solving with GIS. She also teaches GEOG 488 Acquiring and Integrating Geospatial Data, a course she developed for the MGIS program. She has been an ESRI-authorized instructor for nine years, and previously worked as a GIS analyst for a private water/wastewater engineering firm, where she managed a wide range of GIS projects, from turnkey sanitary sewer conversion to 911 rural addressing. Beth can be reached by e-mail at bethking@psu.edu.
Rachel Kornak, M.S.
Rachel Kornak teaches GEOG 487 Environmental Applications of GIS. She is based at the University of Michigan where she is a GIS/database manager. Rachel previously worked in environmental consulting and land-use planning. She enjoys using GIS to manage and share information. She recently designed a GIS property management system which won the 2007 IMAGIN GIS for Everyone Award. Rachel completed a bachelor's degree in environmental geology, a bachelor's degree in Spanish, and a master's degree in environmental science at the University of Michigan. She also completed a certificate in GIS at Penn State. Rachel can be reached by e-mail at rnk114@psu.edu.
Doug Miller, Ph.D.
Doug Miller is the instructor of GEOG 596A and B and an associate professor of geography. In addition to teaching for the MGIS program, he is the director of the Center for Environmental Informatics in the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute. Doug can be reached by e-mail at miller@essc.psu.edu.
David O'Sullivan, Ph.D.
David O'Sullivan lives in New Zealand, where he is a senior lecturer in geography at the University of Auckland. Originally from Ireland, David holds degrees from the University of Cambridge (England), University of Glasgow (Scotland), and University College London, where he was the first Ph.D. to "escape" from the innovative Center for Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA). David got involved in the World Campus MGIS program when he was an assistant professor of geography at Penn State, and has continued his involvement from afar. He is an internationally recognized researcher with numerous journal article publications in the areas of spatial analysis and dynamic spatial modeling. His current research focuses on the measurement and simulation of the social dynamics in urban neighborhoods. David is presently involved in international collaborative research with colleagues at Stanford University and Penn State. He is co-author, with Professor David Unwin, of the book Geographic Information Analysis. He can be reached by e-mail at dbo2@psu.edu.
Adena Schutzberg
Adena Schutzberg is author and instructor of GEOG 860 Comparative GIS. She runs a consulting firm focusing on geospatial technologies and is a well-known writer and speaker on the topic. She founded GIS Monitor in 2000 and is currently executive editor at Directions Magazine, an online publication. She has held positions at ESRI, Cadcorp, and Arthur D. Little, and has taught geography at the college level. Adena can be reached by e-mail at abs15@psu.edu.
Scott Sheeder, M.S.
Scott Sheeder is a research assistant at the Penn State Institutes of the Environment, a part-time doctoral student in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and a lead instructor of GEOG 487 Environmental Applications of GIS. He has a bachelor's degree in biology from Dickinson College and a master's degree in forest hydrology from Penn State. His research interests include watershed hydrology, river hydraulics, and the application of GIS and simulation models to environmental problems. Scott can be reached by e-mail at sas371@psu.edu.
Jim Sloan, M.S.
Jim Sloan is lead instructor and co-author of GEOG 484 GIS Database Development. He has taught GIS and cartography courses since 1995, at both Penn State and the University of Florida. Jim can be reached by e-mail at jls@essc.psu.edu.
Ian Turton, Ph.D.
Ian Turton is a senior research associate in the GeoVISTA Center in Penn State's Department of Geography. He joined the center in 2005 after fourteen years working in the Centre for Computational Geography at the University of Leeds, UK. During that time he worked on a variety of projects using artificial intelligence and high-performance computing to solve large and complex geographical problems. Ian received his Ph.D. in 1992 from the University of Edinburgh, UK, on spatio-temporal variations of the paleogeomagnetic field in the Holocene. He earned a master's degree in 1995 from the University of Leeds on modeling the spatial structure of urban areas. Currently, Ian's research is focused on building geocollaborative systems for emergency and crisis management. He is also the lead developer on GeoVISTA Studio, a programming-free environment that allows users to quickly build applications for geocomputation and geographic visualization. Ian is the instructor for Open Web Mapping (Geography 585). Ian can be reached by e-mail at ijt1@psu.edu.
Jan Van Sickle, M.S.
Jan Van Sickle has more than forty years of experience in GIS, GPS, surveying, and mapping. He created and led the GIS department at Qwest Communications for the company's 25,000-mile worldwide fiber optic network. He began working with GPS in the early 1980s when he supervised control work using the Macrometer, the first commercial GPS receiver. He supervised the first GPS control survey of the Grand Canyon. He led the team that collected, processed, and reported GPS ground control positions for more than 120 cities around the world for the ortho-rectification of satellite imagery now utilized in a global web utility. He has led nationwide seminars based on his books, GPS for Land Surveyors and 1,001 Solved Fundamental Surveying Problems. The latter book is serialized in the magazine POB. His latest book is Basic GIS Coordinates for Taylor and Francis Publishers, London. He has been a featured speaker at many conferences, including GITA conference and the Institute of Navigation (ION) Annual Meeting. He was formerly on the board of RM-ASPRS and was the vice chairman of GIS in the Rockies. Jan earned his master's degree in engineering from the University of Colorado and is currently enrolled in the doctoral program there. He is a licensed professional land surveyor in Colorado, California, Oregon, and North Dakota.
Jim Wright, Ph.D.
Jim Wright, a lecturer in GIS, is based in the School of Geography at the University of Southampton in England. In addition to researching aspects of primary health care in the United Kingdom with GIS, Jim has research interests in GIS and health in developing countries. He is currently involved in a project that is looking at ways of managing water quality test results from developing countries, using GIS. He can be reached by e-mail at j.a.wright@soton.ac.uk.
Michelle Zeiders, M.S.
Michelle Zeiders teaches both GEOG 483 Problem Solving with GIS and GEOG 484 GIS Database Development. She has been teaching introductory and software-intensive GIS courses since 1998. Prior to joining the certificate program, Michelle worked as a GIS programmer/instructor for the Penn State Population Research Institute, a GIS project manager/instructor for the Institute for Transportation Research and Education at North Carolina State University, a GIS project manager at a private civil engineering firm, and a GIS analyst at MapQuest. She received a bachelor's degree in public administration and a master's degree in geoenvironmental studies from Shippensburg University. Michelle can be reached by e-mail at zeiders@psu.edu.
