Governor Beebe appointed three individuals to the State Geographic Information Systems Board on Thursday, September 24. Dr. Robert Kissell will remain on the Board for another term; Dr. Jackson Cothren of Fayetteville has replaced Dr. Fred Limp; and Dr. Margaret McMillan has replaced Ms. Phyllis Poche. The terms of GIS Board members are four years, and the newly appointed members’ terms will expire on August 1, 2013, unless they are reappointed by the Governor.

Dr. Kissell is an assistant professor in the School of Forest Resources at the University of Arkansas-Monticello (UAM), and is also a member of the Arkansas Forest Resources Center (ARFC).  Through the ARFC, Kissell has used applied geospatial technology for wildlife ecology research. He has over 20 years of experience with GIS, and has been responsible for teaching courses in the Spatial Information Systems Program at UAM.

Dr. Cothren has studied geodetic sciences for over a decade. He was an honors graduate of the United States Air Force Academy in 1989, where he received his B.S. in mathematics. Cothren received his Ph.D. in Geodetic Science and Surveying from Ohio State University in 2004. He is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Geosciences, and the director of the Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies at the University of Arkansas-Fayetteville (U of A).

Dr. Margaret (Beth) McMillan has been involved in geology for nearly two decades. She received her B.A. with a distinction in geology from Colorado College in 1991, and her Ph.D. from the University of Wyoming in 2003. She is currently an associate professor and a graduate coordinator in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR).

The Arkansas Geographic Information Office anticipates working with these three distinguished individuals. They are each leaders in the Arkansas GIS community, and we look forward to their future accomplishments as members of the State GIS Board.