Advisory Board Members
Dr. Patrick WILLIAMS - Advisory Board Chair and Chief Editor
Dr. Williams has been employed for over thirty years as a planner, academic, environmental project manager and consultant in the fields of land use planning, geography, urban and regional planning, environmental conservation project planning and management at the State Planning Secretariat, University of Guyana, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF) Central Housing and Planning Authority. He has published over thirty articles and chapters in scholarly journals, books, and reports and made presentations at over twenty-five academic gatherings locally and internationally. Dr. Williams has acquired specialized training in project proposal development, regional planning and analysis and land use planning. He served as member of the Board of Directors of Guyana Geology & Mines Commission (GGMC), Kaieteur National Board of Central Housing & Planning Authority CH&PA) and the Environmental Protection Agency.
Dr. Oluwasinaayomi Faith KASIM - Assistant Chief Editor & Vice Chair
Dr. Kasim is a Senior Lecturer, Department of Geography, Faculty of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Guyana. He has published book chapters and peer reviewed journal articles. He worked with National Emergency Management Agency in Nigeria and also worked in universities in Ethiopia and Nigeria. His research focus are urban analysis, environmental planning and management, disaster vulnerability assessment and climate change mitigation.
Professor Mark PELLING
Prof. Pelling is Professor of Geography, King's College London. His expertise is in climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction, primarily in urban contexts. Recent research has focused on urban resilience in Nairobi, Kathmandu, Quito and Istanbul. He is a Coordinating Lead Author for the IPCC 6th Assessment Report and a member of the Future Earth Knowledge Action Network on Extreme Events and Systemic Risk.
Dr. Iris PATTEN
Dr. Patten leads Pivot Partnerships, a consulting and applied research organization whose tools provide insight for community investment and social justice strategies. Guided by the intelligence of Pivot’s proprietary mapping tools, Iris works with funders, communities, and populations to identify opportunities for intervention that improves the wellbeing of people and place. Iris has degrees in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Florida and in Environmental Science and Policy from the University of Maryland, College Park. In 2015, Iris’ co-authored book “Advanced Land Use Analysis for Regional Geodesign” was published by Esri Press.
Professor Carol ARCHER
Dr. Archer, Professor of Urban and Regional Planning and Public Policy, has over twenty-five years of experience in management, education, training, and research in a multi-disciplinary and international setting. Over the years, she developed a philosophy of leadership and scholarship that is motivational, transformational, visionary, and deeply rooted in teamwork.
Dr. Keith YEARWOOD
Dr. Yearwood is currently a Lecturer in the Department of Geographical Sciences at the University of Maryland, College Park. He has been a Lecturer at the College level for 18 years. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Florida (2010) with a specialization in Fluvial Geomorphology. His additional research interests focus on at-risk urban environments, specifically small island economies, due to sea level rise.
Professor Mark LEIPNIK
Prof. Leipnik was educated at the University of California at Santa Barbara earning B.As in Economics and Environmental Studies in 1985, then a Master’s in Public Administration from Rice University in 1987 and then a PhD. in Geography from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1995. From 1992 to 1996 he functioned as an environmental scientist/GIS specialist with the U.S. Department of Interior in Nevada and has done consulting work for municipal, County and State governments, private firms and multinational corporations involving use of GIS in environmental applications and been a visiting professor in Thailand and Suriname (twice). Since 1996, Prof. Leipnik has been a professor of Geography (since 2008 a full Professor) in the Department of Environmental and Geosciences at Sam Houston State University, Texas; including serving as director of a GIS lab, teaching courses at undergraduate and graduate level in GIS, and environmental sciences and conducting research with over 100 publications and presentations, mostly on the use of GIS and related geo-spatial technologies in environmental, marketing and law enforcement applications areas.
Dr. Temitope D. Timothy OYEDOTUN
Dr. OYEDOTUN has acquired and developed academic and research interests in diverse academic and research fields. His principal area of discipline is in different fields of geography, quantitative and spatial analyses, geographic information systems (GIS), fluvial, estuarine and coastal environments. He is bringing his years of international academic exposures, pieces of training and scholarly outputs to serve on the Advisory Board of this journal. He has, over the years, developed a culture of discipline with an ethic of academic entrepreneurship and great scholarship performance.
Professor Leonard NURSE
Prof. Nurse retired in 2018 as Professor, Integrated Coastal Management and Climate Change Adaptation, University of the West Indies, Barbados. He was Chairman, Board of Governors, Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre from 2006-2020. He was a Coordinating Lead Author for the IPCC Third, Fourth and Fifth Assessments. He served as Vice-Chair of IOCARIBE from 2002-2004 and was a Member of the Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel of the Global Environmental Facility during the same period. His work focuses on coastal and nearshore dynamics under a changing climate, and assessment of risk, vulnerability and adaptation on small islands. Professor Nurse is a graduate of the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus, Jamaica, Memorial University of Newfoundland, and McGill University, Canada.
Professor Samuel Babatunde AGBOLA
Prof. Agbola earned his B.Sc. degree in Economics from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria and an MCP and PhD degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia USA. He is a Professor of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. He is an accomplished academic with many books and many articles in respected Journals around the world. He is also a respected national consultant in Nigeria and has also consulted for many international organizations like the UNDP, WHO and especially UN-Habitat.
Dr. Anna PERREIRA
Dr. Perreira is Coordinator of the University of Guyana Growth in a Resource-abundant Economy and ENvironment (GREEN) Institute, Head of the Faculty of Engineering and Technology Research Committee, Vice President of the Caribbean Academy of Sciences Guyana Chapter, and lectures in the Departments of Architecture and Urban and Regional Planning. Her focus is on sustainability in the Built Environment and implementation of the UN’s SDGs in underserved communities. She holds a BSc. in Architecture (UG), MSc. Urban and Regional Planning (UWI – thesis supervised at McGill), Graduate diplomas in Community Economic Development (Concordia University) and University Teaching (University of New Brunswick) and a PhD in Construction Engineering and Management (UNB). She is also an accredited LEED Green Associate.
Secretary
Ms. Linda JOHNSON-BHOLA
Linda Johnson-Bhola is a Lecturer and Researcher in the Department of Geography, Faculty of Earth & Environmental Sciences -University of Guyana (UG), where she also holds the position of Head of Department - Geography. Ms Johnson-Bhola has been serving as UG’s/Guyana’s Representative on the Geography Syllabus Review Panel for the Caribbean Secondary Certificate Education (CSEC) – CXC since 2012; member of the International Geoscience Education Organization (UNESCO); Peer Reviewer for the Caribbean Urban Forum Proceedings, and member of some other professional organizations. She also functioned as Associate Editor for Common Ground Publishers (University of Illinois-USA) and Co-founded the Guyana Planning Association. Her research areas include coastal geomorphology and mangrove management, housing and community development, land use planning, and geographical education. She has a number of publications in peer-reviewed Journals and books.
Technical Editors
Mr. Alim HOSEIN
Mr. Hosein is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Language and Cultural Studies at the University of Guyana where he has previously served as Head of Department and Dean. A linguist, Art critic, and researcher in culture, he has written, presented and published in these areas. He is currently conducting research into the history of the Guyanese Creole language, and into the background to Indigenous art in Guyana. He is also the Chair of the Guyana Visual Arts Competition and Exhibition.
Mr. Mark MC GOWAN
Mr. McGowan is an English Lecturer in the Faculty of Education and Humanities at the University of Guyana. He holds a B.A. in English from the University of Guyana and an M.A. in Mass Communications from the University of Leicester, UK. He also has several years of experience as a print journalist and feature writer.
Associate Editors (Open)
The Associate Editors will be drawn from a wide cross-section of disciplines that reflect the thematic areas identified under the Call for Papers.