Sarah Witham Bednarz is professor emerita of geography at Texas A&M University, where she served as associate dean for academic affairs in the College of Geosciences from 2008 to 2014. She also previously served as president of the American Association of Geographers (AAG). Dr. Bednarz’s research interests are in the intersection of teaching and learning geospatial technologies and spatial and geographic thinking. She was principal investigator (PI) on two major curriculum and educational research projects; co-authored the national geography standards, Geography for Life (1994 and 2012); participated in the National Research Council Learning to Think Spatially project; and helped to develop the National Assessment of Educational Performance (NAEP) framework in geography. In 2013 she co-chaired the Geography Education Research Committee (GERC) of the Road Map for 21st Century Geography Education Project.
Dr. Bednarz has also focused on higher education policies. As a member of the Healthy Departments Committee, she organized professional development workshops for department leaders and presented sessions on planning for promotion and tenure and mid-career success strategies. She served on the Leadership Team for the Texas A&M ADVANCE grant and was an active participant in the Strategies and Tactics for Recruiting to Improve Diversity and Excellence (STRIDE) component of the grant designed to reduce bias in search and award processes. Dr. Bednarz holds a University Professorship for Teaching Excellence, received the Gilbert H. Grosvenor Honors for Geographic Education (2007) and was an inaugural AAG Fellow. She was educated at Mount Holyoke College (A.B., 1973), the University of Chicago (M.A.T., 1974) and Texas A&M University (Ph.D., 1992).
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Mark Bockenhauer
Mark Henry Bockenhauer is professor of geography at St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wisconsin, where he teaches courses in geography and environmental studies. He has 35 years of experience in K-12 professional development in geography, is coordinator of the Wisconsin Geographic Alliance and served as president of the National Council for Geographic Education in 2007.
Dr. Bockenhauer’s scholarship and outreach have focused on geographic education and curriculum development. He was co-principal investigator (PI) on a $2.1 million federal grant from the National Oceanographic Partnership Program to enhance the scientific literacy of K-12 teachers with integrated oceanography, marine science and geography (1996-1998). He also served as geographer-in-residence at the National Geographic Society (NGS) (2002); co-authored several books and atlases for NGS, including Our Fifty States (2004) and the World Atlas for Young Explorers (2007); and directed NGS field institutes for national groups of K-12 educators in Hawaii, Alaska and California. He directed two NGS geography mentor institutes and an NGS natural hazards workshop for K-12 and museum educators, piloted the NGS Grosvenor Teacher Fellow Program aboard the National Geographic Explorer cruise to Svalbard and served on the Professional Development and Instructional Materials Committee of the Road Map for 21st Century Geography Education Project (2011-2013). Dr. Bockenhauer has received the highest St. Norbert College awards for teaching (1999), community service (2009) and scholarship (2022). He was educated at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse (B.S., 1979), Southwest Texas State University (M.A., 1987), and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (Ph.D., 1996).
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Fred Hiebert
Fredrik Hiebert has been an archaeologist and explorer with the National Geographic Society since 2003, and he has traced ancient trade routes overland and across the seas for more than 40 years. He has led excavations at ancient sites across Asia, from Egypt to Mongolia, and his excavations at a 4,000-year-old Silk Road city in Turkmenistan made headlines around the world. Dr. Hiebert also conducts underwater archaeology projects in the Black Sea and in South America's highest lake, Lake Titicaca, in search of submerged settlements. He rediscovered the lost Bactrian gold in Afghanistan in 2004 and was the curator of National Geographic's exhibition Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures from the National Museum, Kabul, which toured major museums in the United States and internationally.
As National Geographic's archaeologist-in-residence, Dr. Hiebert extends enthusiasm for archaeology and the geography of place in lectures, presentations, films and museum exhibits. He was educated at the University of Michigan (B.A., 1984) and Harvard University (M.A., 1989; Ph.D., 1992), and he received an honorary doctorate of humane letters from the State University of New York (SUNY), Geneseo (2016). Prior to joining National Geographic, he held the Robert H. Dyson, Jr., chair of archaeology at the University of Pennsylvania. In addition to numerous media awards for exhibitions and documentaries, Dr. Hiebert received the Chairman's Award from the National Geographic Committee for Research and Exploration in 1998.