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Geography Alumna Name Dean at Virginia Tech

UT Alumna Named Dean of Virginia Tech Geography Department

Department of Geography PhD alumna Saskia L. van de Gevel has been named dean of Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment.

Van de Gevel has served as chair of Appalachian State University’s Department of Geography and Planning since 2020. She built a reputation there as a passionate advocate for geographic education with an immersive, hands-on teaching style. As chair, van de Gevel secured major research grants, revised the curriculum and launched an online graduate certificate program in geographic information science, and implemented a new scholarship for first-generation college students.

She officially starts at Virginia Tech on July 1 and will be on the Blacksburg campus starting August 1.

Read more about van de Gevel’s new leadership role.

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Engaging Undergraduate Students

Engaging Undergraduate Students

Our alumni continue to find exciting ways to keep engaged with current students. In the middle of the pandemic, a small group of alumni were looking for ways to support current and recently graduating students at a time when the economy was suffering, so they created an alumni group on LinkedIn to build connections between the two groups.

Founding members are Hannah Gunderman (’18), Adam Alsamadisi (’15, ’19), Kelly Baar (’19), and Morgan Steckler (’20). Join the group by searching for “UTK Geography Alum” on LinkedIn. (https://www.linkedin.com/groups/12468218/).  

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Kelly Baar, ’19

“When you go on a tour of UT, one phrase really hits home: Tennessee is a big campus with a small community feel. This could not be truer than as a student in the geography department, which serves as a home away from home. It offers opportunities in research, leadership, and networking. It encourages students to excel academically and gives students the resources to do so. It houses a safe space for students to study, create friendships, and host events. We felt like everything this department works so hard to create shouldn’t end at graduation so, we created the LinkedIn group. Originally, the group was to house a space for students to transition to alumni with the help of other graduates. Now, it is actively used as a way to recognize alumni accomplishments, provide support for recent graduates, and networking. As membership grows, we hope to continue to foster meaningful conversations amongst UT geography alumni.”

–Kelly Baar

In addition to the LinkedIn group, alumni connect with our students through a capstone course, Geography 499: Practicing Geography. More than 30 alumni volunteered to serve as mentors during the fall 2021 semester. The goal of the program was to connect students and alumni to help share professional experiences and advice while building meaningful connections. 

“Being a mentor has been an invaluable experience,” said Kelly Baar, who graduated with a bachelor’s in geography in 2019. “I have thoroughly enjoyed giving back to a department that immensely shaped my experience as a student, and now continues to allow me to share my passion with likeminded people.”

Kelsey Roche will graduate this spring and is ready to explore her career options thanks to her experience with the program. Her mentor, Jeff Smith, is the regional business manager for Trimble Inc. and based in Florida. 

“I was lucky enough to be paired with a mentor to help me navigate the intimidating job-hunting world,” Kelsey said. “I have gained so much appreciation for Jeff as he’s helped me define my strengths as a future employee, strengthen my resume, written me a recommendation, and offered the help of his professional friends along my journey of finding a job out of college. Jeff has given me endless amounts of advice about the real world that I plan on taking with me beyond my professional life. He has not only made me prepared, but excited for the job-hunting experience. I couldn’t imagine being as ready as I am to start exploring my life after college without the help of my mentor.”

Bennett Meeks, who graduated in 2021 with a bachelor’s in geography, enjoyed the opportunity to get to know an alum during the program and speaks to her on a regular basis. 

“My mentor provides a wealth of knowledge,” Bennett said. “There is something special about getting advice from someone who has just gone through the same transitions as you – especially having it been so recently. The ability to speak with a friend in the professional field is also invaluable because I often get a lot of advice that is inferred and often overlooked, and I receive advice on the things that I have yet to do or have not done in my college experience and hear their perspective while learning from their ventures. As I started my new job this semester, my mentor was one of the first people to hear about it, and the advice she gave me was always spot on. I love the connection between my mentor and I, and I am really looking forward to doing the same for the next generation.”

If you are interested in being a mentor, contact Michael Camponovo, program coordinator, at mcampono@utk.edu.

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Alumni Spotlight 2022

Alumni Spotlight 2022

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While a student in the geography department, Alex Webb (’20) took Professor Micheline van Riemsdijk’s age of migration course – a study abroad course in Oslo and London. The experience provided Webb with a broader perspective and ignited her passion for international education.

“Not only did this course lay the groundwork for my academic, and now personal, interest in international migration, but it also gave me the opportunity to experience places, people and ideas that were literally foreign to me,” Alex said. 

After finding her academic passion for international migration, Alex pursued research opportunities within the department, such as working for a graduate student and presenting at conferences to hone the skills she would need to earn a graduate degree. She followed her passion to the Netherlands where she earned a Master’s degree from Erasmus University. 

Alex lives in Rotterdam and works as a teaching assistant for the School of Social and Behavioral Sciences at Erasmus. She is working on converting her thesis into a policy brief focused on advocacy.

“In my free time, I am writing essays and op-eds about issues that I am passionate about, including international migration, refugee resettlement, politics, and gender,” said Alex, who received a scholarship to attend an Op-Ed Project workshop, which facilitates access to publishing opinion pieces for women and minority groups.

Emily Craig

Emily Craig (’19) serves as the sole GIS staff member for the East Tennessee Development District, fulfilling all the organization’s map and data related needs. In 2020, TDOT requested Emily take the lead in mapping the Cumberland Historic Byway for a Federal Highway Administration application seeking National Scenic Byway status. Her responsibilities included provision of a statewide reference map and nine inventory maps displaying scenic features along the byway. 

In 2021 the application was deemed a success. As a result, counties and cities located along the byway now have access to federal grant funding and national marketing through the National Scenic Byways and America’s Byways programs. 

“Seven of the eight counties are economically-distressed or at-risk, so access to these resources have the potential to make a large impact on the region in the future,” Emily said. “Also, thanks to the designation, Tennessee is fourth in the country for its number of nationally recognized scenic byways.”

Explore Emily’s storymap to learn more about the project.

Emily Frazier

Geography alumna Emily Frazier published an op-ed in Washington Post

Geography alumna Emily Frazier published an op-ed in Washington Post

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Our Geography alumna Dr. Emily Frazier just published an op-ed in the Washington Post titled “Geopolitics, not humanitarianism, has long guided U.S. refugee policy“. 

Emily graduated from our PhD program in 2019, and she is currently an Assistant Professor of human geography at Missouri State University, and her research focuses on refugee resettlement in the U.S.

Congratulations, Emily! 

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Congrats to Kelly Baar for new position with Roadway Asset Services

Congrats to Kelly Baar for new position with Roadway Asset Services

Tim Kane
Tim Kane

For not being a geography major, Tim Kane (MS Forestry 2021 and BS Wildlife and Fishers 2017) spent a lot of time in the Burchfiel Geography Building working closely with geospatial faculty like Dr. Bruce Ralston. Tim currently works as a GIS Specialist with Roadway Asset Services here in the Knoxville area. When Tim’s company was looking to hire additional staff, he found exactly what he was looking for in Kelly Baar (BA Geography 2019). Here’s what Tim had to say about Kelly and her experience in the UTK Geography Department:

“Kelly has been an asset by providing training to our partners on how to best utilize the Road TRIP software RAS has created for assessing roadway pavement conditions. This training allows us to better utilize the resources we have available and leverage our positions to maintain high data output and better service to our clients.

Kelly Baar
Kelly Baar

I believe that many of the skills expressed in our day to day work were acquired through the geography department at UT. From the hard skills like fluency in multiple GIS environments, to the soft skills of presentation and networking. I believe that geography, more than many other disciplines, gives the user an unparalleled understanding of the world and how multiple disciplines fit together to solve much larger problems. It’s a breeding ground for multidisciplinary studies bringing together spatial understanding and physical assets for greater understanding at large. In this instance, it’s the combination of city planning, pavement engineering, geographic processing, machine learning, and statistical analysis that allow us to deliver actionable products to our clients that will go on to provide residents with a better experience, overall. We are all aware of where the worst roads are on our communities. We’d like for those roads to become almost invisible.”

And here’s what Kelly had to say about how utilizing the department alumni network has helped her be successful in her new position:

“Working as a GIS Specialist at RAS has been a great opportunity that I have my network in the UTK Geography department to thank. Starting a new job can be difficult, but I believe gaining this position through my network enabled a seamless transition. Having an instant commonality allowed for more and faster learning opportunities as I was more comfortable and able to ask questions and learn from the beginning. In this role, I have been able to put the technical skills learned at UT to real world applications to meet clients’ needs. I am now able to learn about an industry and application of GIS that I didn’t even know existed, and network with some of the most experienced and knowledgeable engineers in the Pavement and Asset Management world!

 

The UTK Geography Department is thankful for the ongoing support of our alum and friends who help our students and graduates find career opportunities.

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Alum Emily Craig and Intern Olivia Lamm

Congratulations to Olivia Lamm for her Internship with East TN Development District

Congratulations to Olivia Lamm for her Internship with East TN Development District

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Olivia Lamm

The UTK Geography Department is thankful for our amazing alum at East Tennessee Development District (ETDD) who work with our students as mentors and internship supervisors. Emily Craig, 2019, has this to say about working with Olivia:

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Emily Craig (’19)

Olivia is one of the best students I’ve had the pleasure of mentoring as an internship supervisor at ETDD. She came onboard to assist in the ongoing update of our county-wide Census Reports following the release of 2020 Decennial Census data mid-last year. With minimal guidance, Olivia led the identification of Census source tables, collection of relevant data from those tables, as well as data reformatting for all 15 county reports. With 18 tables in each report, she prepared a total of 270 tables. Olivia proved her technical writing skills in her updates to the written sections of each report as well. This project has required a high level of coordination, organization, and record-keeping on her end, which she continues to execute with great success. Her ability to communicate and meet deadlines during a remote internship has been especially impressive. I look forward to continuing this project with her as the updates progress. Olivia is a great example of the caliber of students I’ve worked with from the University of Tennessee Geography Department. Through my past two years of internship supervision, guest speaking, and career mingles, I’ve met and mentored bright, dedicated individuals who no doubt have promising careers ahead of them. As a UTK Geography alumnus, I’m so thankful to have that connection to my home department along with an employer who encourages it – student mentorship adds value not only to students’ lives as future-professionals, but to my life as a current-professional and to our organization as well. I hope to continue giving back to the department in this way, as it did so much for me during my time there.

Black owned businesses in the Knoxville area from 1896-1936

Black owned businesses in the Knoxville area from 1896-1936

Devyn Kelly’s Storymap

Alumnus from UTK’s Geography Department Devyn Kelly recently completed a time lapse story map depicting the differing rates and dispersal of Black owned businesses in the Bristol, VA area from 1896-1936. This work was done for the Black in Appalachia Project to depict the historic and vibrant community of Black business in Bristol.

Her work is viewable here: https://tga.maps.arcgis.com/apps/StorytellingSwipe/index.html?appid=52e5c1e73b3c45c0ae712ec5d1fdc0bf

This map from the Black in Appalachia website, viewable here: https://t.co/XpiF7FpeXD?amp=1

David Leventhal

Former Geography Student Thrives As Educator With Help from Student Emergency Fund

Former Geography Student Thrives As Educator With Help from Student Emergency Fund

Source: https://news.utk.edu/2020/12/14/with-help-from-student-emergency-fund-graduate-thrives-as-educator

David Leventhal

For David Leventhal, the coronavirus pandemic hit during an already challenging time. A nontraditional student, Leventhal returned to the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, to pursue a master’s degree in secondary education and teaching during midlife with a young child to support and a mortgage to pay.

Completing his master’s degree meant spending an entire year as an unpaid intern teaching at Gresham Middle School and Maryville High School. He applied for mortgage forbearance during that time, expecting to graduate with an offer of employment. However, the educational sector was completely upended when COVID-19 hit, and Leventhal’s prospects disappeared. 

David Leventhal in graduation regalia stands next to his framed Master of Secondary Education degree.

At that point, UT’s Student Emergency Fund and Center for Career Development and Academic Exploration helped him navigate the situation to reach a positive outcome. He has since graduated, found full-time employment, and caught up with his mortgage.

“I really can’t underestimate how helpful and timely the emergency funding was, as well as the career development center,” Leventhal said. “The opportunities that I got were amazing. As disappointing and troubling as 2020 has been, it never ceases to amaze me how something good will happen that just keeps me going.”

Today Leventhal is a full-time social studies teacher with Tennessee Connections Academy, an entirely online public school available to students in Tennessee. His pay and benefits are on par with what he would earn in a brick-and-mortar school, and he’s able to teach from Knoxville. That is crucial for Leventhal because his daughter and her mother live locally.

Leventhal’s path to his current role has taken a number of turns. Originally from Atlanta, he completed his undergraduate degree in philosophy and religious studies at Appalachian State University in 2001. He came to UT and completed a master’s degree in history in 2007. After graduation, he operated a restaurant marketing and delivery business for five years before moving into the information technology sector. He’s also been a banjo and ukulele instructor and taught college-level history.

Now, as a high school teacher, Leventhal wants to bring all of those skills to bear in his social studies instruction. When he was a history student he spent time learning geographic information systems (GIS) because, he said, “as a history teacher, you can’t ignore geography. Everything happens at a time and place.”

GIS can be extremely versatile and allow for data to be overlayed onto maps. One project Leventhal worked on at UT involved correlating a dataset of blighted potato harvests and grain exports during the Irish Potato Famine with statistics on emigration to the United States.

“It was very clear the hardest-hit counties were in the western part of Ireland, and that’s where people emigrated from,” Leventhal said. “When you factor in the folk music and stringed instruments, a picture starts to emerge that connects to our life today.”

Leventhal would like to start a geography club at his school and potentially a GIS club. He wants the subject matter to be relevant to his students. With a bright future as an educator ahead of him, Leventhal reflects positively on the good fortune he has enjoyed during an extremely complicated time.

“My new work with a K–12 virtual public education academy has shown me how to grow as an educator and build my resume while also earning the same compensation as my brick-and-mortar colleagues,” Leventhal said. “I am forever indebted to the University of Tennessee, in more ways than I could ever quantify—and indeed it’s great to be a Tennessee Vol!”

CONTACT:

Gerhard Schneibel (865-974-9299, gschneib@utk.edu)

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Paying it Forward

Paying it Forward

Hannah Gunderman
Hannah Gunderman

At least once a week, Hannah Gunderman (’18) finds herself strategizing about ways she can engage with the UT Department of Geography. She is a proud alumna and makes it a priority to stay involved.

“It would be an understatement to say that I care about the geography department,” Gunderman said. “There was something really special about my experience that makes me want to continue being involved in any way that I can and pay it forward to students currently in the program.” 

Working with Professor Derek Alderman as her dissertation advisor, Gunderman earned her PhD in geography and decided to pursue a career in academic librarianship. She started down this path as a postdoc in the UT School of Information Sciences (SIS) in September 2018 and a year later, began working in her current role as a research data management consultant at Carnegie Mellon University. During her postdoc at UT, however, Gunderman could not get geography – or the Burchfiel geography building – off her mind.

“The postdoc in SIS changed my mental map of UT’s campus, which had previously been so rooted in the Burchfiel geography building that I found myself making excuses to pop over to Burchfiel whenever I could,” Gunderman said. “Needed a walk at lunch? I’d head over to Burchfiel! Needed some water? The water fountains in that building are the best! It was clear that, although my professional sphere at UT had shifted, my heart still remained with UT geography.”

Gunderman’s commitment to giving back to the department began during her internship at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) as a doctoral student in the former geographic information science and technology group. For several years, she served as a bridge between ORNL and the department. Gunderman connected students with information about opportunities at the lab and mentored several students on career development and professional growth, both as a doctoral student and in her role as a postdoc in SIS.

“I quickly learned how much I loved giving back to the department that provided so much for me as a student,” Gunderman said. “While my postdoc duties over in SIS kept me busy, I always made time for coffee chats at Golden Roast, my favorite Knoxville coffee shop, with UT geography students.”

Shortly before Carnegie Mellon and UT went fully online due to the coronavirus pandemic, Gunderman visited Knoxville for two information sciences conferences and saw an opportunity to conduct a data management workshop for UT geography students while she was in town. During the workshop, students drew from Pokémon to learn more about documentation and workflows, chatted through file naming schemes, and engaged in conversations on tools for storing and sharing geospatial information.

“It was an incredible experience to watch these students go through these activities and also see myself through a completely different lens being back in Burchfiel,” Gunderman said. “Conducting the workshop in the very same room where I used to write my dissertation, have committee meetings, and meet with students, I saw how I could continue to enrich the department as a faculty member at another institution.”

Hannah Gunderman Workshop Group Photo
Hannah Gunderman and UT students and staff after her workshop in February 2020.

Gunderman recently participated in a five-week career coaching program, led by GIS Outreach Coordinator, Michael Camponovo, where she learned techniques for growing her career and gained the opportunity to network, mentor, and connect with other UT geography alumni.

With the ongoing pandemic, Gunderman is not sure when she will be able to visit with UT geography students in person again, but she plans to continue her outreach in a virtual environment through guest lectures, data management workshops, and a Zoom-Side Chat with Michael Camponovo.

“I am always available to talk with any students or alumni who are interested in exploring the academic librarianship career route, for which geography is an excellent foundation,” Gunderman said. “I consider my outreach and engagement with UT geography to be one of the most important service activities of my career, and I hope to continue this for many more years to come.”

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