I received my BS degree (yes, giggling is allowed) in Geography from Regents College New York. It's now called Excelsior College, which I think is an amazingly dumb name. Yes, I know that "Excelsior" is the New York State motto, and I know that for many people it indicates "superior quality" (not to mention a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow), but to me it has always meant "wood shavings."
Anyway, back to the personal history.
I earned my MA in Geography at San Diego State University and my PhD in Geography at the University of Oregon. I've been teaching Geography at San Diego State (returning to the scene of the crime) for nearly 20 years.
During that time I've taught about 12,000 students, most of whom survived the experience. I mostly teach large introductory and upper division classes -- things like Cultural Geography, Physical Geography, Geography of the United States, World Regional Geography, etc.
I make a lot of PowerPoints. A lot.
For more than a decade now I've also worked for the Educational Testing Service evaluating the Advanced Placement Test in Human Geography. I know what people say about scams in testing. Some of it may be true. But I know that the people I've worked with who evaluate the AP tests are talented professionals (half are High School AP teachers, half are college instructors) who take our work extremely seriously, and only occasionally perform skits and compose rude song parodies. Okay, I'm the only one who does the rude song parodies. But they're really good people.
I've also worked with the California Geographical Society as a presenter in their Summer Workshops for teachers, and with a number of graduate students on their research. I'm not a particularly productive researcher myself. I do have a few professional publications as well as a bunch of conference presentations, but certainly nothing you're likely to have come across.
I created this blog because I just published a book on Amazon: "Boneless, Lean and NOT Fried: 60 Recipes for the Fried Fish Phobic." Yes, it's a cookbook. With just a heck of a lot of Geography and History and Biology and stuff crammed into its 300+ pages. You could, you know, check it out. If you want. It's here: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01DPJU5VG.
You can buy it. If you want. No pressure.
Everybody says that you have to have a website to promote your book. This is mine. I hope you like it.
Oh, and if you don't know that Longfellow poem, here's how it starts:
The shades of night were falling fast,You can read the rest here: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/173897.
As through an Alpine village passed
A youth, who bore, 'mid snow and ice,
A banner with the strange device,
Excelsior!
By the way, that book of mine? Did I mention you can buy it? Here's the link again, in case you overlooked it: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01DPJU5VG.
No pressure.
