Practicing Geography

Whether you are just beginning as a major, taking classes toward a GIS certificate, working on an advanced degree, or considering a career change at a different point in your life, geography can lead to exceptional career opportunities. Practicing Geography: Careers for Enhancing Society and the Environment is a comprehensive new resource from the Association of American Geographers (AAG) and Pearson, designed to prepare students for careers in business, government, and non-profit organizations. Funded by the National Science Foundation, this project brings together members of the geography community to author different chapters that discuss workforce needs, expectations, and core competencies in professional geography, profiling the professional applications of and opportunities in geography today.

Michael Solem joined the staff of the Association of American Geographers (AAG) in 2003 as Educational Affairs Director. At the AA G, he directs many federally funded initiatives including the Enhancing Departments and Graduate Education in Geography (EDGE) and Center for Global Geography Education (CGGE) projects, both funded by the National Science Foundation (NS F). Dr. Solem serves as the North American coordinator of the International Network for Learning and Teaching Geography in Higher Education (IN LT), is associate director of the Grosvenor Center for Geographic Education at Texas State University―San Marcos, and is Treasurer for the International Geographical Union’s Commission on Geographical Education. He twice received the Journal of Geography in Higher Education’s award for promoting excellence in teaching and learning for his Research on faculty development and graduate education in geography.

Kenneth Foote is Professor of Geography and former Department Chair at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Much of his research focuses on landscape history, GIS cience, cartography, and geography education, but over the past decade his work has focused especially on improving support for early career geographers and strengthening leadership training in geography. He has led the NSF-funded Geography Faculty Development Alliance since 2002 and is co-PI of the Enhancing Departments and Graduate Education in Geography project with Michael Solem and Janice Monk. Dr. Foote has served as president of the National Council for Geographic Education (2006) and president of the Association of American Geographers (2010―2011). He received the Association of American Geographers’ 1998 J. B. Jackson Prize for his book Shadowed Ground: America’s Landscapes of Violence and Tragedy and the association’s 2005 Gilbert Grosvenor Honors in Geographic Education.

Janice Monk is Research Professor in the School of Geography and Development at the University of Arizona where she coordinates a graduate course in professional development. She previously served for twenty-five years as Executive Director of the Southwest Institute for Research on Women, leading research, educational, and community outreach projects in the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico. Dr. Monk is also Adjunct Professor of Human Geography at Macquarie University (Australia). She has long been involved with research and projects in higher education and in gender studies and has served on various editorial boards and advisory panels. Dr. Monk is active in the International Geographical Union’s Commission on Gender and Geography and is the long-standing editor of its newsletter. A former President of the Association of American Geographers, she has received several awards, including Lifetime Achievement Honors of the AAG and the Australia-International Medal, Institute of Australian Geographers. She is Co-Principal Investigator of the AA G’s Enhancing Departments and Graduate Education in Geography project.