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  • Contributor Biographies

Gina Bloodworth is an Oklahoma native and an assistant professor at Central Washington University. Her academic interest is water resources, particularly allocation issues, water policy, and water law. Extensive travel to places where there are very few environmental laws, and even fewer law abiders, fuels her concern about environmental laws and the intersection of human-nature interactions.

William Forbes worked in forestry and rural community assistance for the Siskiyou National Forest in southwestern Oregon. He received his Ph.D. in environmental science in 2004 from the University of North Texas. Contrary to a popular notion of arid Texas landscapes, Bill is surrounded by the East Texas “Pineywoods.”

Gabe Judkins is a geography Ph.D. student at Arizona State University, aspiring to one day own his own farm. While he might be unable to afford the land prices around Phoenix, Arizona, he enjoys living off the land vicariously through his interviews with farmers in Arizona and Mexico. Even though his article focuses on the decline of cotton, he says, “fresh fruits and vegetables make up the majority of my academic diet, as globalization keeps them in season all year round.”

Aaron Kingsbury is a Ph.D. student in geography at the University of Hawai‘i in Manoa, with research interests in the geographies of agriculture and food in East Asia. He encourages those on the mainland to revisit Spam as an alternative source of protein.

Steve LaDochy has taught geography in California, Kansas, and Canada. He also moonlights at JPL, NASA, and as a weather forecaster.

Brenda Kayzar completed her Ph.D. in the fall of 2006 in the joint doctoral program at San Diego State University and the University of California, Santa Barbara. She is no longer loitering in downtown San Diego, though. Having purchased a nice coat and smart pair of boots, she now makes her home in Minneapolis, where she is an assistant professor in the Geography Department at the University of Minnesota, pursuing interests in downtown revitalization planning strategies and policy application, urban arts and culture, urban residential development and environmental issues, and a broad range of other place and space interests. [End Page 12]

James Lowry is an assistant professor of geography at the University of New Orleans, located on the high ground of the shore of Lake Pontchartrain. He completed his Ph.D. at the University of Arizona and has wound his way through Oklahoma and Texas to the bayou of southern Louisiana. He now lives in the suburban hills of New Orleans, at a safe elevation of eight feet above sea level.

David “Jim” Nemeth graduated UCLA in 1984 with his Ph.D. and hit the ground running. He is now the Asian, ethnic, and cultural geographer at the University of Toledo. His favorite quote: “Behind every success story is a great crime” (Confucius?). He appears destined to grow gray on the job, and with a clear conscience.

Richard L. Nostrand, in anticipation of his high school’s 50th reunion, compiled a booklet about his graduating class titled “The Class of 1957: Roosevelt High School, Seattle, Washington.” Reconnecting with members of that class was memorable, he says, and his piece that appears herein is drawn from that study. In 2004 he retired from the University of Oklahoma, where he is now the David Ross Boyd Professor Emeritus.

Mark Patterson is an associate professor of geography at Kennesaw State University in metro Atlanta. Originally from the Canadian Pacific Southwest (BC, for the geographically challenged), he completed his Ph.D. at the University of Arizona. Mark still finds time to hone his ice hockey skills as his team’s resident thug. Keep your head up.

Arbi Tamrazian was a student at Glendale City College when he did this research while completing an internship at JPL. He is now relaxing in the UC Berkeley Civil Engineering department.

Benjamin Timms is an assistant professor in the Social Sciences Department at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo. His main areas of interest are political ecology and international development, with a regional focus on the Caribbean and Central America. Outside of work, Dr. Timms enjoys hiking, cooking (badly), and sampling the wonderful wines of the central...

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