We hope you will join us in offering congratulations and wishing good luck to this year’s candidates. NCGE acknowledges and appreciates the time and commitment that elected candidates are willing to make toward ensuring the viability and growth of NCGE.
We also recognize and wish to thank the members for taking a vested interest in NCGE’s growth by casting your vote. Your ongoing involvement is crucial for the continued growth and impact that NCGE has toward advancing Geography Education. We would also like to thank the members of the Nomination Committee who worked hard to produce a solid lineup of candidates for this year’s election.
A daily dose of irony gives me motivation to fight for our discipline. I teach geography at James B. Conant High School, named after a former president of Harvard and an American education reformer who actively pushed to remove geography from K-16 classrooms. Walking into a building that carries his name reminds me daily of the critics geography education has survived, what we still have to prove, and the irony I bring through its doors.
As a working member of the NCGE, I wish to continue my advocacy, as I humbly ask for your vote to serve as your President-Elect. Every school in the United States deserves a geography curriculum.
My central priority is to strengthen the geography education pipeline across the K–16 levels. As a member of the AAG’s Project Gen Alpha team, I work alongside current AAG president Dr. Bill Moseley to research and act on solutions to our pipeline problem.
I view the President-Elect position as a vital bridge between K–12 geography educators and the post-secondary community. If elected, my goal is to help the NCGE expand its network of geography educators and extend our reach across the social studies and science communities, especially supporting teachers who are not classically trained in geography. I am well positioned to strengthen these ties with my active participation in the AAG, NCSS, the Illinois Geographic Alliance, the APHG community, and as a chapter leader of the AGS TeenMaptivist program.
As a current second-term board member, I serve on our finance and APHG subcommittees, where I helped launch our monthly GeoCircles program that provides educators with a space for informal professional development, and organized NCGE events at the annual AP Human Geography Reading to boost membership.
I hold a Ph.D. in Geographic Education from Texas State University, a master’s in Geography and Environmental Studies from Northeastern Illinois University, and a bachelor’s from Illinois State University. My background includes service as an AGS Teacher Fellow, a Northeast Asian History Foundation Teacher Fellow, and as a NatGeo Certified Educator. I contributed to the Human Geography for the AP® Course textbook, serve as the veteran APHG advisor for Illinois’s largest high school district, and recently authored articles in the Journal of Geography on the topics of APHG accessibility and generative AI, which I believe represent some of the most pressing issues currently facing our discipline.
If elected, it would be an incredible honor to serve as your next NCGE President-Elect, to advocate for our discipline’s greatest challenges and help cultivate the next generation of geographers. The irony of doing so under James B. Conant’s name is not lost on me.
Thank you for considering my candidacy for the position of President of the National Council for Geographic Education (NCGE). Over the course of my 17-year career as a geography educator, I have been fortunate to serve in a variety of leadership roles, including as a member of the Minnesota Alliance for Geographic Education (MAGE), Vice President of Geographic Educators of Nebraska (GEON), and a board member of NCGE. I currently teach high school geography for Omaha Public Schools and serve as an adjunct instructor at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and Chadron State College. Throughout my career, I have benefited greatly from opportunities to collaborate with and learn from fellow educators. As President, I would seek to expand those opportunities by connecting geographic educators and fostering meaningful professional dialogue. I believe NCGE can leverage the institutional knowledge and expertise of its members to create engaging platforms for collaboration that strengthen both pedagogical practice and geographic content knowledge. One area in which I believe NCGE can grow is through increased access to authoritative resources and interactive instructional materials that help educators engage students in actively “doing” geography. As President, I would work with partners across the geography community and members of the NCGE network to develop meaningful learning opportunities that draw upon their expertise and experience. I would also prioritize strengthening connections among state geography alliances and integrating existing communities to advance our shared goal of improving the quality of geography education. Additionally, I would focus on engaging early-career educators, helping to expand NCGE’s reach and ensure the organization remains a vibrant and valuable resource for the next generation of geography teachers. I would be honored to serve NCGE in this capacity and contribute to the continued growth and impact of geographic education nationwide.
Information coming soon
At the 2024 NCGE Conference, I had the honor of presenting a session titled, “The Importance of Narratives: Incorporating Asian American Voices in the Classroom.” In this session, I explored ways in which data and map analysis, histories, and stories of Asian Americans can be incorporated into the AP Human Geography classroom. Undoubtedly, this experience uplifted my career because the personal combined with the professional. I never learned about Asian American stories in my own K-12 education, nor had much geography education at all. This presentation overcame all of that. I influenced fellow educators to take a moment to think about simple methods for implementation and the importance of all stories. This is why I want to be a board member: to help create a space where other educators can connect the personal and teaching in their own careers and propel geo-literacy.
NCGE is an organization that supports these kinds of opportunities, and I can continue building, creating, and envisioning lessons that connect to diverse learners. For example, there is a growing number of educators that need help and training for teaching geography to EL learners, specifically with the AP curriculum. EL pedagogy could be incorporated into GeoCircles, Weekly Bellringers, or webinars. I would also love a system in which K-12 educators can connect with higher educators for curriculum ideas or even invite as virtual guest speakers into the classroom.
I bring both classroom and national-level to my work. As a public school social science educator in my 23rd year, I am an AP Reader, AP consultant, on the AP Test Development Committee, and have many years of experience as an EL sheltered Human Geography teacher. I have served on the advisory committee for Harvard’s Religion and Public Life for high school curriculum related to teaching College World Religions Dual Credit, which showed me the huge potential that can come from high school and higher education collaboration. I would be grateful to have the opportunity to share my experience as a board member of NCGE with the goal to expand spaces of educators’ experiences and expertise for the future growth of geography education.
Poll closes Saturday October 17, 2026 at 11:30 pm (ET)
*You must be a current NCGE member to vote. If you have forgotten your password, go to “Forgot your password” and use the email associated with your NCGE account to create a new password.
Get to know the candidates running for the NCGE Board of Directors and learn more about their experience, perspectives, and commitment to geography education and cast your vote
Voting is open to NCGE members through Saturday, October 17 at 11:50 PM ET.