Geography Department

College of the Sciences
Ellensburg
Dean Hall, room 301

509-963-1188
Fax: 509-963-1047
www.cwu.edu/~geograph
See website for how this program may be used for educational and career purposes.

Faculty and Staff
Chair
James Huckabay, PhD

Professors
Anthony Gabriel, PhD, hydrology, lake and river ecosystems, coastal and wetlands management
Robert Hickey, PhD, environmental impacts, coastal zones, GIS, Australia
James Huckabay, PhD, energy resources, climatology, resource conflict management, Europe  
Robert Kuhlken, PhD, land-use planning, cultural ecology, historical geography, Oceania
Karl Lillquist, PhD, physical geography, geomorphology, soils, environmental change in arid and alpine watersheds
Morris Uebelacker, PhD, human geography, Yakima River basin, field methods   

Assistant Professors
John Bowen, PhD, economic geography, transportation geography, Asia
Jennifer Lipton, PhD, cultural ecology, remote sensing, climate change, Latin America
Mathew Novak, PhD, urban land-use planning, historial geography, GIS
Michael Pease, water resources, watershed planning and analysis, North America
Craig Revels, PhD, cultural-historical geography, landscape, Latin America
Megan Walsh, PhD, biogeography, paleoecology, NW fire history, climate change

Senior Lecturer 
Elaine Glenn, MS, political geography, world regional geography, Middle East

Lecturer
Clay Arango, PhD, environmental geography, field methods, aquatic landscapes

Emeritus Faculty
Joel M. Andress, PhD
James Brooks, PhD
Dee Eberhart, MA
Kenneth Hammond, PhD
Nancy Hultquist, PhD
Martin Kaatz, PhD
George Macinko, PhD
John Ressler, PhD

Staff  
David Cordner, instructional technician
Marilyn Mason, secretary senior

Department Information
An understanding of geography is integral to an educated person’s ability to live and act effectively in today’s changing world. A broad range of factors (human and physical, natural and technological) is at work shaping the future of our planet, and it is the mission of the Department of Geography to prepare students to be active participants in that rapidly developing future. Geography’s traditional concern with the interrelatedness of natural and human environments and reasons for their differences from place to place, provides important insights into many of the complex problems facing society today.

The department stresses flexibility in the selection of course sequences for majors and encourages study in related departments among the social and natural sciences. We are active participants in the following university programs: Environmental Studies, Energy Studies, Asia/Pacific Studies, Latin American Studies, International Studies and Programs, and the Resource Management Graduate Program. The department also maintains a well-appointed Geographic Information Systems (GIS) laboratory which benefits majors from other programs in addition to geography.

If you choose to major in geography, you will be required to take a core sequence of six courses. Beyond those core classes, you may then select, with guidance from a faculty advisor, a coherent sequence of coursework in geography and related fields that will best enable you to achieve your goals in life. Graduates from our program work in positions as diverse as middle school teacher, avalanche forecaster, highway or urban planner and GIS supervisor, and many of them continue on to graduate school.

The department is committed to a liberal education as well as to professional training pertaining to resource planning and environmental management. In meeting those commitments, we offer the geographer’s way of “seeing” the interrelationships of human life and habitat. Our students learn to see a holistic Earth and its many components-environmental and social—along with the processes that shape them. The department encourages imagination and creativity, while providing our graduates with the skills necessary to deal with issues, at scales ranging from local to global.

All students who wish to major in geography must:

Have a 2.25 minimum GPA in all coursework taken up to the time of admission
Apply for acceptance into the geography major
Upon acceptance into the program, meet with their assigned advisor to develop a major contract
Earn a C or better grade in each of the courses in their major contract

Geography Core Requirements
GEOG 101 - World Regional Geography    5
GEOG 107 - Introduction to Physical Geography    5
GEOG 108 - Introduction to Human Geography    5
GEOG 203 - Introduction to Maps and Cartography    4
GEOG 250 - Natural Resource
Conservation   4
GEOG 489 - Geography Capstone    2

Geography Core Total Credits: 25

The geography major includes two options: BA - 45 credits, and BA - 60 credits