Dr. Rina Ghose is the 2018 Distinguished Community Scholar Awardee From Citizen Science GIS

Opening Remarks from the 2018 Citizen Science GIS REU Keynote Address about Dr. Rina Ghose, our 2018 Distinguished Community Scholar AwardeeAugust 9, 2018Orlando, FLRemarks Delivered by Dr. Timothy Hawthorne, Founding Research Director of Citizen Science GIS.It is my great pleasure and true honor to introduce a truly prolific scholar in the field of geography and GIS, Dr. Rina Ghose. I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Rina both professionally and personally for several years.She is a Full Professor of Geography at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Rina’s research interests intersect Critical GIS, urban geography, and political economy. She has been a dynamic and thoughtful leader in the field of Public Participation GIS.She has published a plethora of articles with thousands of citations in our discipline’s most prestigious journals. On a personal note, one of her many ground-breaking paper from 2001 on empowerment and community participation “Use of Information Technology for Community Empowerment” truly transformed the path which I took in my graduate studies and my work today.To me, Rina’s work signifies what public scholarship and PPGIS and PGIS are all about. An emphasis on communities, an emphasis on under-represented voices being represented through technologies, and an emphasis on critical modes of scholarship that truly push us into new paradigms.Her scholarship alone makes her a remarkable force in our discipline, but to me it’s very rare to meet one of your disciplinary heroes, and actually realize they are truly the incredibly humble, thoughtful, and kind person you hoped they might be. Rina is a remarkable mentor to me and many others, and an ambassador to our field.For all of these reasons, I am pleased to present Dr. Rina Ghose with our 2018 Citizen Science GIS Distinguished Community Scholar Award for her work and mentorship in our discipline. I am very pleased to welcome her to today’s proceedings. Everyone, please join me in celebrating and welcoming my friend and colleague, Dr. Rina Ghose.