Dr. Lain Graham, Our New NSF REU/RET Site Co-PI

You better Belize-it!

I am very excited to announce that I will continue my journey with Citizen Science GIS and community-based GIS and drone research in the U.S. and Belize as the new Co-Principal Investigator for the NSF REU/RET Site.

I developed a passion for GIS and community-based research during my first trip to Belize in 2013 as a graduate student in Dr. Hawthorne’s GIS study abroad course at Georgia State University (photo below).

Over the past eight years my life has become intertwined with GIS, UCF, and Belize. I have participated in the NSF REU field site in the US and Belize as staff since 2016 where I acted as the Senior Research Associate until 2019. I conducted my mixed-methods doctoral research on sense of place in Hopkins Village (UCF, Sociology class of 2020) where I used GIS and qualitative methods to examine perceived and physical social and environmental landscape change as a result of tourism and development (photo below in Hopkins 2017).

Working with students from all walks of life and community members and partners in Belize has been incredibly rewarding and has resulted in a better understanding of social and environmental issues in our research area. The spatial and temporal aspects of this research as well as the diversity of participants, techniques and technology make this an incredibly rich interdisciplinary research experience. I am so excited to continue working with teachers, student scholars from across the US and Belize, and with partners and the community of Hopkins in Belize.

About Dr. Lain Graham: Dr. Graham is a Senior Solution Engineer on the National Government Sciences Team at Esri, supporting NASA, EPA, U.S. Census and Federally Recognized Tribes. Lain additionally serves as a NASA DEVELOP GeoMentor and an Archaeological Research Associate at the Smithsonian Institute National Museum of Natural History. Lain is a Co-founder of Open Reef and the Citizen Science GIS Maps, Apps and Drones Tour. Lain specializes in mixed-methods and community-based research, imagery and remote sensing, field operations, UAS operations, cultural resource management, archaeology, and geospatial data analysis.