Geoporter Board of Directors
Dr. Thomas Baker is an education manager, directing STEM initiatives and educational technology strategies for Esri. Tom is also an Adjunct Researcher in the University of Kansas Center for Science Education and is interested in geospatial tools and thinking to enhance student learning and teacher professional development.
Geinier Alvarado Guzmán Born in the Osa Region of Costa Rica, Geinier has lived most of his childhood life in Bahia Ballena, with the great rainforest as his playground and the ocean right in front of his home. He attend University at the University of Miami for an international business and marketing degree, did his MBA at Pepperdine University. He worked for Samsung Electronics, Latina America Office and at Capital One for the Hispanic market and the Global Expansion Team. He moved back to Costa Rica to help his family manage their international eco resort hotel, La Cusinga.
Anne Haywood is a geographic and environmental education consultant based in Miami, Florida, Anne Haywood has worked for more than a decade on publishing, public awareness, instructional design, and field-based programs for National Geographic’s education divisions. Her initiatives include development of the online teacher’s guide Investigating Your World With My World GIS; the print-based Reading Expeditions: World Regions and World Cultures series for grades 5-8; the “My Wonderful World” geo-literacy campaign; and student and teacher engagement in the National Geographic BioBlitz.
Dr. Keene Haywood is the Director of Education at the Leonard and Jayne Abess Center for Ecosystem Science and Policy and directs the Exploration Science program. His background is mixture of media production, conservation, geospatial and educational technology research. His interests intersect the humanities and natural sciences with a particular focus on the implementation of effective uses of technology in the field to gather data, document research, and disseminate discovery to the general public.
Dr. Cheryl Margoluis has 15 years of experience living and working in Latin America and several years of experience working on projects in Asia. She has served as a researcher with the Nature Conservancy, Biodiversity Support Program, Biodiversity Support Network, as an adjunct professor with Pitzer College, consultant for the World Wildlife Fund, USAID/ARD, Conservation International, and the Organization for Tropical Studies. She is currently Pathfinder International’s Senior Technical Advisor for Population, Health, and Environment. In addition to her extensive Population, Health and the Environment, Monitoring and Evaluation, and research experience, Cheryl founded and directed Escuela Verde Costa Ballena, a green elementary school in Costa Rica. Cheryl is fluent in Spanish, and she has a PhD in Forestry and Environmental Studies from Yale
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Anita Palmer is President of GISetc and taught middle and high school technology and social studies. Anita designs and teaches technology institutes and classes for K-12 teachers focusing on integration of GIS technologies throughout the curriculum both in the USA and in the international arena over the past 16 years. Anita Palmer was the co-coordinator of the geospatial census mapping initiative in the Chilamate region of Costa Rica and the initiation of geospatial community work in Bahia Ballena. Anita is co-author of the original “Mapping Our World: GIS Lessons for Educators”, the community based ”Community Geography: GIS in Action! Teacher’s Guide, the newly released Our World “Mapping Our World” and “Analyzing Our World” as well as the first GPS activity book “Going Places with GPS.” Anita helped develop and implement plans for the UAE to incorporate GIS into middle schools across the country. She continues to mentor US teachers in GIS use from Northern Arizona’s NSF funded IPOD program to co-designing and delivering Eastern Michigan University’s and Redlands University’s GIS Masters Certificate program for educators.
Roger Palmer is the science department chair and outdoor education director of a local high school in Texas. He holds an M.S. in Chemistry and conducts research projects in the use of GIS to model integrated approaches to environmental problems. Roger conducts GIS institutes for teachers and GIS/science camps for students in the USA and in the international arena. He and Anita co-coordinated the geospatial census mapping initiative in the Chilamate region of Costa Rica and the initiation of geospatial community work in Bahia Ballena. He has co-authored “Mapping Our World”, “Analyzing Our World”, “Tech Enabled Field Studies”,”Geocoding Media” and Esri’s most recent Earth Science and Environmental Science GeoInquiry Series of exercises. Roger coaches teachers in their profession as seen in the courses he helped develop and teach both at Eastern Michigan University and Redlands University’s GIS Masters Certificate program for educators
Diana Wheeler is a Manager with Accenture, a global consulting company. She currently works on IT projects helping the State of Texas Department of Health and Human Services. Diana has a Master’s degree in Environmental Studies from Yale. She has worked as an environmental educator in Maryland and in New Mexico, and she taught English as a second language to high school students in Cartago, Costa Rica as a WorldTeach volunteer.
