ALUMNI HIGHLIGHTS

Andrew Gillreath-Brown (M.S. Applied Geography, 2016) went on to complete a PhD in Archaeology at Washington State University in December 2022. His dissertation, Reconstructing Summer Temperatures in the Southwestern US Over the Last Five Millennia: Effects on Prehispanic Farmers and the Spread of Maize Farming, focused on paleoclimate modeling, which was used to understand how climate change affected the spread of maize agriculture and how climate and other processes stimulated migration, contributed to the precarity of people arriving to new locations, and ultimately resulted in social instability, inequality, and depopulation of portions of the southwestern United States.

He is now a Postdoctoral Scholar at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego, where he does paleoclimate modeling in China, specifically in Tibet. He is also a Research Associate in the Department of Archaeology at the Max Planck Institute for Geoanthropology and Adjoint Faculty at Washington State University He works on a number of other projects, such as ancient tattooing in the southwestern United States For more information, see his website: https://andrewgillreathbrown wordpress com/

When Andrew is not working, he enjoys spending time with his pirate-loving 5-year-old son, his newborn girl, and his partner, especially being outside and going hiking. Andrew plans on pursuing a career in academia, working with/for a museum, and collaborating and being an advocate for Indigenous Peoples.

Sentell Dickson (B.S. Geogrpahy, 2020) went on to receive her Master's degree at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga after graduating from UNT Since then she has started her own children's book company called Cactus Mountain Publishing Their goal is to inspire children to explore their imaginations and to teach them about the world around them through captivating storytelling and beautiful illustrations.

She is particularly excited about her latest release that she wrote, "Wonderful Beings Everywhere". She created this book to be a celebration of diversity that encourages children to embrace and appreciate differences in the world. Her company believes that it is essential to teach children about empathy and compassion from an early age, and this book does just that

Her company has been gaining momentum and has received positive feedback from parents, teachers, and children alike They are passionate about what they are doing, and strongly believe that their books can make a difference in the world.

Kelly Sims (BS Geography, Certification in GIS) Kelly worked in the GIS industry for about ten years. She earned her MBA for Centenary University in New Jersey in 2011 and in 2012 she started working in marketing strategy for Verizon Wireless in Atlanta, GA. She and her husband started their own marketing agency,Sims Marketing Solutions, in February 2020. She is also a Professional Certified Marketer (PCM) through the American Marketing Association More information about the company can be found here