2008 New NAGT Officers
New 2nd Vice President
Dr. Treworgy is Professor and Chair of the Geology Department at Principia College where she has been teaching since 2000. Prior to that, she spent 25 years as a Paleozoic stratigrapher and sedimentary geologist at the Illinois State Geological Survey where, for her last three years, she focused on running workshops for K-12 teachers around the state as part of a program with the Illinois State Board of Education. While in Urbana-Champaign, IL, she co-founded a K-8 independent school and served on the Board in many capacities for eight years. At Principia College she has had the opportunity to direct the excavation of a mammoth found on campus. She uses this project as the basis for a general education geology course in which the students do all the excavating and bone preparation while learning about mammoths and the Pleistocene. She and her students host school groups and many other visitors and conduct hands-on workshops on mammoths for teachers and the public. Janis has served the Central Section of NAGT as an officer since 2000. She received her B.S. in Geology from Principia College and her M.S. and Ph.D. in Geology from the University of Illinois.
New Councilors
Ms. Awad has served as the Science Department Chair at Maine East High School in Park Ridge, Illinois for the past five years, an administrative role where she oversees a department of 24 science faculty. Prior to serving as Chair, she taught Geology and Earth Systems Science at Maine West High School for nine years. She is currently serving as Vice-Chair of the GSA Education Committee. Ms. Awad earned a B.S. in Geology and a B.A. in Political Science at University of Illinois at Chicago in 1981 and an M.S. in Earth and Environmental Sciences at University of Illinois at Chicago in 1993. Her research interests include increasing student achievement using cooperative learning in high school science classrooms, integrating GIS into a physical geology curriculum and increasing student achievement in science classrooms through PBL.
Bob Blodgett is Professor and Assistant Physical Sciences Department Chair at ACC in Austin, Texas, where he teaches geology and environmental science, and manages the college's Edwards Aquifer monitoring well. He has over 20 years of teaching experience including positions on the faculties of Ohio State University and Dickinson College. Dr. Blodgett is a Licensed Professional Geoscientist and has worked as the vulnerability assessment team leader in the State of Texas Public Drinking Water Program and as a Research Fellow at the Texas Bureau of Economic Geology. He is coauthor with Ed Keller of the textbook, Natural Hazards; Earth's Processes as Hazards, Disasters, and Catastrophes published by Pearson Prentice Hall. Bob holds degrees in geology from the University of Wisconsin at Madison (B.S.), University of Nebraska at Lincoln (M.S.), and University of Texas at Austin (Ph.D.) with research specialties in clastic sedimentology and paleosols.