C-GEO Steering Committee

The C-GEO Steering Committee is comprised of nine members. Three new members are elected each year by a vote of C-GEO Teacher Consultants, and serve a term of three years. The Steering Committee meets on zoom two-three times a year and one in-person retreat in various locations across the state. It makes decisions about awards and grants; advises the co-coordinators on programs and materials; brainstorms about the scope and future of C-GEO activities; advises on any matters that come before C-GEO; and serves on specific sub-committees: Outreach, Professional Development, Curriculum Resource Development and Technology Integration.

Sarah Anderson is an educator and author specializing in place-based education who has worked with C-GEO for nearly a decade. She is the author of the book Bringing School to Life: Place-based Education across the Curriculum and has written articles for Learning for Justice, Education Week, Educational Leadership as well as history education curriculum for the Oregon Historical Society. Sarah is currently doctoral candidate at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia.

Christine Boatman is a high school social studies teacher at Estacada High School in rural Clackamas County, Oregon. She is passionate about promoting geography in her classroom and has worked to further geography education with CGEO since 2017. Boatman regularly presents at educational conferences in the Pacific Northwest, including GeoFest, and authors articles for Edutopia and multiple other education organizations. When Boatman is not busy in her classroom, she loves to travel and enjoys hiking with her husband, Daniel, and their dogs.

Chelsea Fuller teaches 6th Grade Social Studies and AVID at Waldo Middle School in the Salem-Keizer School District. She has been involved with C-GEO for over ten years. "I greatly appreciate the learning opportunities and friendships that CGEO has provided throughout the years".

Allyson Hamlik has been an elementary and middle school teacher for 19 years. She is currently the reading intervention teacher for grades K-5 at a rural K-8 Place-based charter school in Powell Butte, Oregon. “Connecting kids to the land, the community, and the water” in a 3-year cycle has been the vehicle that allows me to integrate geography in myriad ways. I love being actively involved with the Center for Geography Education in Oregon (CGeo) as I’ve enjoyed being a Steering Committee member, a TC, presenting at GeoFest, traveling abroad to Greece to support my professional development, and further promoting geography education in our school and beyond.

June Morris is a career social studies educator, with 24 years of experience (primarily in high school). She is currently an Assistant Professor of Practice in the College of Education at Oregon State University working with preservice teachers in secondary social studies, as well as elementary literacy. June has been a member of C-Geo since 2000 and has traveled internationally with amazing teachers to Wales, Turkey, and Chile.

Kerrie O'Brien is a teacher at Memorial Middle School in Albany, where she has taught language arts, social studies, Chinese, Spanish, science, and AVID over the past seventeen years. She holds multiple degrees from Oregon State University. Since joining C-GEO in 2008, she has worked to promote geography in her school by hosting multiple family geography nights and leading her students in geo-inquiry projects. She is passionate about C-GEO and the opportunities it affords educators to help their students learn about the world we all live in.

Tabitha Richards is a twenty-year veteran social science teacher. She teaches Personal Finance, College Credit Speech/Communication, Government, College Credit Economics, World History & Geography, College Credit U.S. History, and diverse History Electives. Tabitha has been the standing senior class advisor for eleven years. She has served as a mentor teacher to seven student teachers. Tabitha earned a Master of Arts in Teaching from Western Oregon University, and has a Bachelor of Arts in the Social Sciences with a minor in Speech/Communication from Western Oregon University. She believes that student success is centered on an environment where children know they are safe to respectfully voice their opinions and interact with people who have differing views.

Courtney Wertz has taught almost every subject for the last twenty years She teaches sixth through twelfth grade. Currently, she teaches for Jefferson County School District located in Madras, Oregon. Traveling, exploring and learning are a few of her favorite hobbies. She found out about the Center for Geography Education in 2016 and has been hooked ever since! "This fabulous program opened the door to a whole new way of thinking about incorporating geography education into whatever I teach. I have gleaned much insight through the trainings and institutes which resulted in projects and hands-on experiences, enriching my students’ lives as well as the community. C-GEO has so much to offer and I highly recommend it all!"

Janelle Wren is a Reading Intervention teacher at an elementary school in the Oregon Trail School District in Sandy. In her sixteen years in education, she has been a Library Media Specialist and Teacher Librarian and an upper elementary Classroom Teacher. She has taught in Oregon public schools and in American schools abroad in Brazil and Dubai, UAE. She has her Master's degree in Geography Education from the University of Oregon. She has held many Family Geography Nights at her schools supported by C-GEO.