New Officers for 2012-13

published Aug 1, 2012 3:36pm

The results of the 2012 Officer Elections are in. Congratulations to our new officers!

2nd Vice President Candidate:

Jimm Myers (University of Wyoming)

James (Jimm) Myers earned his BS in Geology from the University of Rhode Island and his MA and PhD in Geology from Johns Hopkins University. After graduate school, Jimm held a post-doctoral position at Virginia Tech for a year before joining the Minerals Research Group at Chevron Oil Fields Research Lab. In 1981, he joined the faculty of the Department of Geology and Geophysics at the University of Wyoming where he has been since. In 1989, he was a visiting faculty at the Department of Geology & Geophysics at University of California, Berkeley. In addition to being a Professor of geology at UW, Jimm is also currently Director of the Wyoming CCS Technology Institute, a DOE and Wyoming funded center tasked with training the professional workforce for the future carbon capture and storage industry.

During the course of his research career, Jimm has pursued a variety of different interests. Early in his career, he maintained an active research program addressing issues of subduction zone magmatism with a focus on the Aleutian arc. Over the course of two decades, he led numerous field investigations to a number of previously unmapped Aleutian volcanic centers. He also had research projects in the western United States and Wyoming where his students investigated a number of volcanic fields. In the 1990s, Jimm became interested in undergraduate science and geoscience education, particularly with respect to the new (at the time) Web technologies. His interest in geoscience education continues to be a focus of his research program with special interest in the areas of energy, resources and sustainability. In the last four years, Jimm has also been actively engaged in research on geological carbon sequestration, particularly the use of GIS and information systems to assess the risk of potential leakage of sequestered CO2 along pre-existing boreholes.

Jimm's teaching responsibilities range from introductory undergraduate courses (energy and resources) to advanced graduate courses (thermodynamics). Over the last five years with NSF support, he has designed, developed and taught an integrated science course focused on the energy-water-climate nexus and how it impacts sustainability. This semester Jimm is teaching a multi- and cross-disciplinary grad/undergraduate seminar on fundamental energy concepts, which he hopes will become a permanent class. He has been an active participant in numerous SERC Cutting Edge workshops and was co-convener and host of Cutting Edge Teaching Energy workshop at UW in 2009. He also co-organized a follow-up workshop and session at the 2010 GSA National Meeting. In 2011, Jimm was a co-convener of and presenter in the Cutting Edge Climate and Energy Webinar. From 2007-2010, Jimm and colleagues from math and botany conducted a Wyoming math science program (MSP) project, entitled QR-STEM, that focused on helping 6-12 math and science teachers to use energy and the environment to improve instruction in quantitative reasoning and science. Just recently, he and his co-PIs have been awarded a new MSP grant to improve science education at the middle and high school levels by helping math and science educators use the energy-climate-water nexus to engage actively students in their own learning.


Secretary/Treasurer Candidates:

Janis Treworgy (Principia College)

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 been an officer of the Executive Committee of NAGT since 2008, currently serving as the Past President. Prior to that she served for eight years as an officer of the Central Section of NAGT. She values the contribution NAGT makes in enhancing geoscience education and in promoting the geosciences to a wide range of constituencies, and so is willing to support NAGT as Secretary-Treasurer. She received her B.S. in Geology from Principia College and her M.S. and Ph.D. in Geology from the University of Illinois.


Councilor Candidates:

Wendi Williams (NorthWest Arkansas Community College and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock)

Wendi J. W. Williams is faculty with both NorthWest Arkansas Community College and University of Arkansas at Little Rock, facilitating in-person, hybrid and online courses. Ranging from core geology to graduate courses, she's taught general geology, physical science, earth materials, igneous petrology, geochemistry, field methods, remote sensing, environmental geology, and integrated science methods for pre-/in-service teachers. As Director of the UALR Math and Science Education Partnership, she supported K-12 teachers and completed GLOBE workshops. As the first female in her family to attend college, Wendi attended Tarrant County (Community) College before earning degrees in the geosciences from the University of Texas - Arlington (B.S.), University of California - Riverside (M.S.), and University of Texas in El Paso (Ph.D.). Wendi commits her time to assisting first generation students with learning about opportunities afforded by higher education...particularly with the intent to recruit talent into geoscience vocations by teaching in pre-college programs targeting middle school to high school students bridging with college (most recently through the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville). She deliberately uses Universal Design in her teaching environments to better include Persons with Disabilities.

Dr. Williams participated in NSF- and NAGT-sponsored On the Cutting Edge workshops and contributed to the 2010 "The Role of Two-Year Colleges in Geoscience Education and in Broadening Participation in the Geosciences: A Planning Workshop." She co-authored the November 2011 GSA Today Groundworks article "Enhancing participation of two-year college faculty in The Geological Society of America." Wendi served as Geosciences Councilor for the Council on Undergraduate Research, currently is an At-Large Representative with the Geological Society of America South-Central Section and was a member of GSA Standing Committees on Education (served as Chair) and Geology and Public Policy during which time she assisted with an education whitepaper about the nature of science and assisted as a Liaison and Panelist for a number of position statements (e.g. The Importance of Teaching Earth Science, Expanding and Improving Geosciences in Higher Education, Valuing Professional Contributions to Geoscience Public Policy and Education). She has been a teacher; lab / field geologist for a geotechnical firm; County Geologist in southern California addressing environmental and engineering issues; researcher in economic deposits, Quaternary dating methods, igneous petrology and volcanology; visiting professor with Lewis Clark State College in Idaho, and adjunct faculty with Austin Community College and Lone Star College - North Harris in Houston; and Education Director with the Ozark Natural Science Center. She is a member of the Arkansas Governor's Earthquake Advisory and Pre-Disaster Mitigations Councils (note: Arkansas is part of the New Madrid Seismic Zone). Wendi looks forward to working for the NAGT community however needed, but with particular interest in improving the general perception of geoscience as a societally important and rigorous science needing to be included nationally in K-Higher Education requirements.


Andrew Goodliffe (University of Alabama)

Andrew Goodliffe received a B.Sc. in Applied Geology and Physics from the University of Plymouth, UK, an M.S. in Geophysics from the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and a Ph.D. in Geology and Geophysics from the University of Hawai'i Manoa. Andrew's M.S. thesis focused on using gravity and magnetics to define the vent structure of Novarupta Volcano, Katmai National Park, Alaska. His Ph.D. work focused on the continental rifting to seafloor spreading transition in the Woodlark Basin, Papua New Guinea. On completion of his Ph.D. in 1998, Andrew continued at the University of Hawaii, first as a postdoc, and later as research faculty. Additional project included field studies in locations such as Greece, Australia, Lau Basin, and the Mariana Basin. Since 2004, Andrew has been on the faculty of the Department of Geological Sciences at The University of Alabama. Current research includes a continuation of work in Papua New Guinea, coastal and deep ocean studies in the Gulf of Mexico, and projects related to the geological evolution of the southeastern USA. Most recently this has included ongoing projects in the area of carbon sequestration.

Andrew's teaching at The University of Alabama has included introductory level geology and sustainability classes and upper/graduate level classes in geophysics and computational methods. Through his teaching activities and participation in "On the Cutting Edge" professional development workshops, Andrew has become very interested in how geoscience is taught. This has led to the funding of a number of small internal proposals at The University of Alabama that focused on the greater integration into the curriculum of active and collaborative teaching techniques, as well as a larger proposal to build a 3-D visualization laboratory aimed at introductory level geology students. Since 2009 Andrew has been a member of the MARGINS/GeoPRISMS Education Advisory Committee. In this role Andrew has co-convened a number of national workshops focused on the creation of mini-lessons – small exercises aimed at bringing cutting edge geoscience research into the classroom. This committee has also been key in increasing the emphasis on education and outreach in this research-centric program. At the K-12 level, Andrew has for the last three years taught a weekly geology class at a local elementary school. Andrew has also served as the president of the Alabama Geological Society since 2009.