Originally from the Northwest, I completed my graduate work at Oregon State University and then spent almost 30 years at Kansas State University and West Virginia University as a faculty member and administrator (including assignments as a department head, dean, and provost/senior vice president) before assuming the presidency of the University of Idaho on July 1, 2009.

My research utilizes satellite and geographic information systems to analyze natural resource systems and has been funded by agencies such as NASA, U.S. Agency for International Development, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. My research has taken me to places like the fringe of the Kalahari Desert in Botswana, the High Plains of Western Kansas, and the forests of Appalachia.

I am co-editor of a new book published by SAGE Publishing (2009) entitled, “Handbook of Remote Sensing.” I am the past president of the Association of American Geographers, the National Council for Geographic Education, and the International Geographic Honor Society, Gamma Theta Upsilon.