Tracy Edwards is a geographer specializing in geographic education and sustainability studies. She teaches both Introductory Cultural and Physical Geography courses. Her research focuses on a myriad of topics merging teaching & learning in the online realm, integrating student leadership and advocacy in and beyond the classroom, and exploring the relationship between geography / sustainability in academia. Broader interests include documenting personal narratives of women globally, feminist geopolitics, and experiences of long-term non-tenured faculty in higher education. Tracy earned her undergraduate degree in Geography at Frostburg State University, where she has worked for over two decades. She finished her M.A. from Syracuse University in 2010, and her current status is ABD in the quest to complete a terminal Ed.D. degree in Educational Leadership & Instructional Design at Frostburg State University. Tracy is most proud of her current and past involvement with all things directed toward expanding the world view of students / young persons – having worked with Gamma Theta Upsilon (GTU), the MAD AAG Geography Bowl team, the Maryland Geographic Alliance, and with Girl Scouts and other more local initiatives. Tracy has served as an AP Human Geography Reader since 2006, Table Leader since 2015, and in 2018, initiated the Geographers Give Back campaign at the AP Readings. Her most recent NCGE presentation introduced Ecobricking: a low-tech solution to reusing soft plastics with significant pedagogical potential across grade levels in both natural and social science contexts. At the 2024 NCGE Conference, Tracy will share lesson and outreach ideas developed from her recent participation in GeoCamp Iceland! Tracy looks forward to taking a more active leadership role with NCGE.

Sojung Huh, Ph.D., is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at Texas Tech University. Her research focuses on the intersection in the teaching profession of geography educators and geospatial technology integration in K-12 social studies classrooms. Specifically, Dr. Huh examines the pedagogical knowledge, skills, and wisdom of AP Human Geography teachers as they incorporate Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) into the existing geography curriculum. In 2021, Dr. Huh was awarded the prestigious E. Millard and Ruby S. Miller Grant for Research in Geographic Education from the National Council for Geographic Education (NCGE) to support her research; and her findings were recently published in the Journal of Geography. Since 2023, she has also served as an editorial assistant for the Journal of Geography.

Dr. Huh began her career in education with secondary social studies classrooms in South Korea. Prior to her role at Texas Tech, she taught social studies methods courses in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction and World Geography in the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at Texas State University. Currently, she is contributing to the development of blended personalized learning and case-based instruction in teacher education, a project funded by the Texas Education Agency, as a postdoc researcher.

I am a coastal geomorphologist specializing in post-storm recovery and remote sensing and GIS applications of coastal environments. My research focuses on understanding changes that occur in the coast over time (i.e. erosion, accretion, sea-level rise), how they change the landscapes, how they affect communities and people, and how, if possible, can those changes be mitigated.

I also participate in community outreach and citizen science programs. I believe it is our responsibility as scientists to take what we have learned through research to the communities and help them become more resilient and better prepared to face changes happening in their communities. As part of that interest, I work in the incorporation of community-engaged learning in the courses I teach.

I am really looking forward to the possibility of another term serving on the Board of Directors for NCGE. Over the last couple of years I have been working to expand the reach of NCGE and the professional development offerings of this organization. With so much left to do I am hoping to be able to continue with some of the ongoing projects I have been working with during my first term. One of the areas I have been especially been focused on is the offering of the in-person annual conference and the online webinars to help connect teachers with authoritative resources for teachers to use in their own classrooms. Additionally, as a secondary educator myself I understand the value of the resources being provided by NCGE and look forward to helping NCGE continue its mission of providing high quality materials for teachers to use themselves. Along with being a high school geography teacher, I am a researcher in geography education with a focus on getting students to “do” geography. This is one area where I am especially hopeful to contribute to NCGE by helping develop strategies to get students involved in the practices of geography. Through doing so I hope to help NCGE with its mission of supporting teachers and helping to improve the quality of geographic education.

My name is Jonathan Wessell and I teach at Grand Valley State University. I have been teaching for 26 years in higher education in both Geography and Environmental Science. In the past decade I have served as Vice-Chair and Chair of the Geography Education Specialty Group at the AAG. I have worked closely with my colleagues over my years on many sessions in Experiential Learning. I used those years of work to publish a book on Experiential Learning in Geography and my second book on the same topic should be out at the end of 2024. My involvement with the NCGE started in Denver and again in Austin, then COVID hit. I joined colleagues in Columbia last year. I have already worked with many of the board through the AAG or the AP Human Geography Reading. I count it a privilege to be nominated for the board and believe that I bring leadership expertise as well as my years of knowledge in teaching Geography.