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K-State Today

March 5, 2012

Harrington elected national councillor for the Association of American Geographers

Submitted by Communications and Marketing

John A. Harrington Jr., professor of geography, was recently elected to serve a three-year term as a national councillor for the Association of American Geographers. His term begins in July.

The association's governing board is known as a council and members are elected by the membership at large and by the association's regional subdivisions. Two members of the association are elected each year as national councilors.

As a national councilor Harrington will assist the leadership of the association in decision-making and moving the organization forward. The American Association of Geographers, an organization of professional geographers, has a membership of more than 10,000.

Harrington also is currently serving as a member of the association's Research Committee and as a member of the Committee on the Status of Women in Geography.

The former head of the department of geography from 1999-2005, Harrington's research and teaching interests are in climate and climate change, the Great Plains, ecological climatology, the coupling of natural and human systems, geographic information science and geographic education. He is currently working on three National Science Foundation-funded projects: the Long Term Ecological Research project, Maps and Locals; the Kansas EPSCoR or Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research-funded Climate and Energy project; and the Central Great Plains Climate Change Education Partnership.

Harrington also is a co-coordinator for the Kansas Geographic Alliance, a volunteer organization dedicated to helping K-12 teachers and others interested in advancing geographic literacy within Kansas. The Geographic Alliance is funded and coordinated at the national level by the National Geographic Society.