Faculty Highlights Archive

Mary Finley-Brook was promoted to professor of geography, environment, & sustainability. Finley-Brook specializes in environmental policy, climate justice, public health, energy transition, affordable access to renewable energy technologies, and equity in environmental, climate and energy governance.

Stephanie Spera was promoted to associate professor of geography, environment, & sustainability. Her research seeks to understand landscape-level human-environment feedbacks regarding social, economic, and environmental drivers and consequences. 

Mary Finley-Brook, associate professor of geography, environment, & sustainability, published Climate Crisis, Energy Violence: Mapping Fossil Energy’s Enduring Grasp on Our Precarious Future with Elsevier Press.

Mary Finley-Brook, associate professor of geography, environment, & sustainability, along with Charles S. Mullis, ’23, published “Circular economy, methane capture, and climate education in US HEIs” in the International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education.

Todd Lookingbill, professor of geography, environment, & sustainability, along with Beth Zizzamia, Special Analysis Lab GIS operations manager, published “Virginia Heat Watch: Collaboration to assess climate vulnerability at local to regional scales” in Urban Climate.

Beth Zizzamia, Special Analysis Lab GIS operations manager, along with Todd Lookingbill, professor of geography, environment, & sustainability published “Virginia Heat Watch: Collaboration to assess climate vulnerability at local to regional scales” in Urban Climate.

Kyle Redican, teaching faculty of geography, environment, & sustainability and director of the Spatial Analysis Lab, along with undergraduate Shaoting (Tim) Wen, ‘24, and Carlos Hurtado, assistant professor of economics, published “A New Urban Center/Subcenters Identification Approach Based on Open Street Map in Polycentric Urban Landscapes in the US” in the Journal of Transactions in GIS.

Kyle Redican, teaching faculty of geography, environment, & sustainability and director of the Spatial Analysis Lab, along with undergraduate Matteo Gonzalez, ‘24, and Beth Zizzamia, Spatial Analysis Lab GIS operations manager, published “Assessing ChatGPT for GIS education and assignment creation” in the Journal of Geography in Higher Education.

Beth Zizzamia, Spatial Analysis Lab GIS operations manager, along with undergraduate Matteo Gonzalez, ‘24, and Kyle Redican, teaching faculty of geography, environment, & sustainability and director of the Spatial Analysis Lab, published “Assessing ChatGPT for GIS education and assignment creation” in the Journal of Geography in Higher Education.

Todd Lookingbill, professor of geography, environment, & sustainability, published “A Heat Emergency: Urban Heat Exposure and Access to Refuge in Richmond, VA” in GeoHealth.

Todd Lookingbill, professor of geography, environment, & sustainability, along with undergraduates Jack DuPuy, ’25, Ellery Jacobs, ’25, Matteo Gonzalez, ’24, and Tihomir S. Kostadinov, ’02 published "A 20-Year Ecotone Study of Pacific Northwest Mountain Forest Vulnerability to Changing Snow Conditions" in Land.

David Salisbury, associate professor of geography, environment, & sustainability, and Stephanie Spera, assistant professor of geography, environment, & sustainability, and undergraduate students in the Amazon Borderlands Spatial Analysis Team (ABSAT) lab published their work mapping official and informal road networks of the Brazil in the Monitoring of Forest Roads (MOCAF) Bulletin, Second Edition.