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Geosciences Workforce Awareness Webinar Series - Webinar 1: Geoscience Research Affecting Policy
Date: 09/27/17 4 PM ET - 09/27/17
Location: Online

Geosciences workforce awareness is critical for students in preparation for employment following their formal education. The nations of the world are facing a daunting range of geoscience-related environmental challenges, including climate change, declining fisheries, ocean acidification, sea level rise, and coastal development, among many others. As society strives to grapple with these issues and the complex economic, political, and environmental implications, geoscience graduates are finding an increasingly wide array of potential career pathways, both inside and outside of academia.

This webinar series is a follow-up to the workshop conducted during the 2016 AGU Fall Meeting exploring career pathways for geosciences students. The webinars will explore pathways not covered during the workshop. Please join us over the next few weeks as we highlight exciting opportunities for geosciences applications. More information on this series, including upcoming webinars will be posted on the COSEE website.

Overview

Coastal resilience is a term quickly working its way into communities around the world. As coastal communities face increased flooding events due to storms and climate change, the ability to face these threats is increasingly important. A coastal community’s ability to prepare for and rebound from flooding events can reduce environmental, health and economic impacts. Researchers from the geoscience community play a key role in working with communities to affect policy change.

Speakers

Sheila Hutt 
Sheila Hutt, Center for Geospatial and Visualization Computing group, Old Dominion University

Sheila is currently a graduate research assistant associated with the Center for Geospatial and Visualization Computing group at Old Dominion University where she has worked on several projects related to sea level rise in the Hampton Roads region in southeast Virginia. She is currently working on her master’s degree in Ocean and Earth Sciences with a concentration in Geological Oceanography and has a strong interest in topics related to hydrogeology and geophysics. Sheila’s current master’s thesis research focuses on determining how rising sea levels will impact saltwater intrusion within coastal groundwater flow systems within the Chesapeake Bay region. Additionally, she completed her bachelor’s degree in Geological Sciences at Old Dominion University in May of 2015 and currently serves in the United States Air Force Reserves as a Geospatial Intelligence Imagery Analyst.


Joshua Behr 
Joshua G. Behr, Research Associate Professor at the Virginia Modeling, Analysis and Simulation Center (VMASC), Old Dominion University

Dr. Behr is a Research Associate Professor at the Virginia Modeling, Analysis and Simulation Center (VMASC) at Old Dominion University and a professor within the School of Health Professions at Eastern Virginia Medical School (EVMS). Dr. Behr received his training at the University of New Orleans specializing in urban and minority politics. Dr. Behr has conducted studies, modeled, and published insights related to community resilience, catastrophic events, evacuation behavior, recurrent flooding, and the disposition of medically fragile and vulnerable populations in the post-event recovery process. Much of this involves connecting both modeling and data from several systems to produce actionable, policy-relevant knowledge and forecasts. Dr. Behr has studied political factions and insurgencies in weakening and failed states. Dr. Behr has worked on models of stabilization and weakening governance. Most recently, Dr. Behr has drawn upon key drivers of – and hurdles to – building community resilience and applied them to the modeling of deteriorating governance and policing interventions.

Contact Name: Andrea Gingras
Contact Phone: (401) 874 6524
Contact Email: agingras@uri.edu

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