Cassandra Garcia is a Ph.D. candidate in our Environmental Monitoring program with Professor Tim Allen from Botany. Her dissertation research is focused on Public Participation Geographic Information Systems (PPGIS) and how they can be used foster effective public participation in government decision-making. Specifically she is working with a group of citizens, elected officials, and city staff who are participating in a process to site a new municipal drinking water well. She completed her master’s degree in Environmental Monitoring (December 2003) with a thesis titled "Development of a GIS-based Tool for Stormwater Management on the University of Wisconsin-Madison Campus." In 2004, as a project assistant, Cassandra carried out the stormwater runoff modeling and mapping for the UW Arboretum’s Stormwater Runoff Management Plan. She has also served on the UW Lakeshore Nature Preserve Committee as a student representative and assisted the committee with their GIS needs during their master planning process. She is currently working with other students, staff and professors from the UW Land Information and Graphics Facility (LICGF) and UW-Extension on developing a website and data portal for spatial analyses related to bio-energy production in Wisconsin.
Lea Shanley is a Ph.D. dissertator in the Environmental Monitoring Program working with Professor Steve Ventura from Environmental Studies and Soil Science. Lea's dissertation research focuses on the intersection of Indian nations' rights and interests in their natural resources, federal agencies decision-making processes that affect those resources, and the public's right-to-know. Specifically, she is investigating the legal and regulatory circumstances under which tribal geospatial data may become accessible to third parties and the impact that accessibility may have on tribes and, in turn, on their willingness to share this information with the Federal government, particularly within the context of environmental planning and policy formulation. Currently, Lea is working on several projects, including a team effort through the Land Information and Computer Graphics Facility (LICGF) to develop an online community resource related to bio-energy production in Wisconsin, as well as a working group through the Wisconsin State Cartographer’s Office (SCO) to establish a statewide geographic information coordination council. In addition, Lea received NSF fellowships to participate in the NSEC Nanotechnology and Society Program and to attend the Vespucci Summer Institute in Geographic Information Science on Spatial Data Infrastructures in Fiesole, Italy.