Mitch Carter
Practical Applications
One of my major selling points to industries as a potential employer is my ability to work with GIS programs like ArcGIS for Desktop, ArcGIS Pro, and ERDAS IMAGINE. The ability to perform spatial analysis and produce maps to convey such analysis is a skill I have been honing for many years. Throughout this page, you will find examples of my GIS and cartographic work completed in a professional setting as a teaching assistant for the Department of Geosciences at Auburn University and a few examples from my current position for the Alabama Cooperative Extension System. In addition to maps, there is a brief description of the four classes in which I served as teaching assistant in graduate school. Please feel free to click on any of the images for a larger view and a brief description of each map.
Research Assistant
After completing my master's degree in the spring of 2015, I was hired by the Alabama Cooperative Extension System to work on a federally funded grant to prevent and reduce obesity in thirteen counties throughout Alabama which had an adult obesity prevalence of 40% or greater. This position has allowed me to utilize GIS skills in order to assess food and physical activity environments, nearly identical work to my master's thesis, only on a larger scale and one which involves identifying priority areas and populations where interventions have the potential to make the most impact.
The project is called ALProHealth, which is a (comically) long acronym for Alabama Preventing and Reducing Obesity: Helping to Engage Alabamians for Long-Term Health. The project is funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) through their High Obesity Program and is currently being implemented in fifteen states through partnerships with state Cooperative Extension programs. The goal of the project is to use evidence-based strategies to increase community health through policy, systems, and environmental interventions that address healthy food access and activity-friendly routes to everyday destinations. The initiative is truly a community-based effort with individual community coalitions guiding efforts and making decisions to increase the health and viability of their communities.
My involvement with this project has been rewarding, as I am gaining experience with community-based participatory research, developing and sustaining community coalitions, and working with an interdisciplinary team from multiple academic backgrounds. In my years as a graduate student, I spent much of my time in an office behind a computer. The ALProHealth project has allowed me to gain valuable experience working with individuals within a community and navigating challenges to implement changes that ultimately increase the livability of communities.
The ALProHealth initiative began in September 2014, and I have been involved since February 2015. The project is currently being implemented in thirteen counties, which are displayed in the map to the right. Below are some materials related to the ALProHealth project from academic conferences over the last few years.
Map of 13 ALProHealth Counties
Poster presentation for the 2019 American Public Health Association Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, PA
Conference presentation from the 2017 Public Participatory GIS Conference
in San Luis Obispo, CA
Conference presentation from the 2018 Southeastern Recreation Research Conference
in Athens, GA
Conference presentation from the 2018 National Outdoor Recreation Conference
in Burlington, VT
Conference presentation from the 2018 International Symposium on Society and Resource Management in Snowbird, UT
Graduate Teaching Assistant
Upon my acceptance into the geography graduate program at Auburn, I was awarded a teaching assistantship which offered financial and professional benefits with the opportunity to assist professors in teaching course materials. In addition to my work as a student, I served as teaching assistant for two courses each semester. This leadership role not only allowed me to gain experience as a leader in the classroom, but also provided the opportunity to strengthen my knowledge and skills as a practicing geographer. Below, you will find a brief description of a few of the classes for which I served as teaching assistant.
Global Geography:
This was my first experience as a teaching assistant, and it proved to be intimidating, yet rewarding. With the class section containing 117 students, trying to adjust to grading and answering e-mails for a class of such a large size was difficult. However, I adjusted and settled in fine. One outcome of this class was a map I produced for the professor I assisted, a world map with digitized lines of tectonic plates. In order to show an example of my cartographic skills, I have displayed the map to the right. You can also click the image for a larger view.
Geographic Information Systems (GIS):
Serving as teaching assistant for two GIS classes served as one of the most beneficial experiences as a teaching assistant. It allowed me to fine-tune my GIS skills by helping to teach this complicated tool to new users. With a usual enrollment of about 20, this lab-setting allowed me to be more hands-on and personal with the students, which ultimately was beneficial for both parties.
GIS Applications:
Another GIS class, yet one with a completely different set of students. The student makeup of this class was mostly graduate students from a variety of programs throughout the university (Forestry, Fisheries, Agronomy, and Civil Engineering to name a few). This challenged me to explain the material in a more theoretical way. Assignments from this course consisted of real data acquired for the purpose of illustrating and solving real-world problems.
Geology Senior Seminar:
During my last semester as a graduate student, I served as a teaching assistant in a required course for seniors in the geology program. During this course, I helped to pilot an ePortfolio project which would later be implemented into the current curriculum. Each student was required to produce a website like the one you are viewing in an effort to learn and share the idea behind ePortfolios and to professionally market themselves for their fast-approaching job searches. To view more information on the ePortfolio project at Auburn University, please click here.
Digitized map of world tectonic plates created for Introduction to Geography
Map displaying socioeconomic inequalities related to housing near facilities with reported toxic waste