Candidate Bios for the 2024 APCG Election
Elena Givental, Candidate for President

Lecturer at CSU East Bay and Berkeley City CollegePhD, Geography, UC Davis
MBA, St. Mary’s College of California
BS, Geography, Moscow Pedagogical University, Russia
I received a professional training as a geography and earth science educator in Russia. After graduating, I
participated in geological research at Moscow University doing fieldwork in the Ural Mountains and Siberia.
After moving to California, I completed my PhD in Geography at UC Davis, and have been teaching a variety ofGeography classes at Berkeley City College and CSU East Bay for the last sixteen years.
My first encounter with the APCG occurred at the 2007 annual meeting in Eugene (OR), and I’ve beencommitted to this outstanding organization ever since, participating in almost all annual meetings, serving as amember of the Student Paper/Poster Competition Committee, being the Budget Committee member, serving as
the APCG Treasurer between 2018 and 2023, and currently as a VP. I am honored to have been a long-term
member of the APCG Executive Council.
Geography plays an exclusive role in the environmental awareness and education of young people. I view theAPCG as an important avenue for creating a community of like-minded professionals and attracting young
geographers and students in the related disciplines such as environmental science and history to share theirknowledge and research interests.
As APCG President, I hope to be able to focus on several organizational and scientific aspects that I view as themost essential for the growth and enhancement of the APCG as a professional organization.
1. Maintain and increase the APCG membership by brainstorming the new ways of attracting students andprofessionals from the variety of earth science and environmental science fields.
2. Expand the APCG’ s community college outreach.
3. Strengthen our cooperation with the AAG and regional Geography organizations.
4. Attract young professionals and graduate students who are the APCG members to leadership positions.
5. Maintain and improve the quality of research presented at the APCG annual meetings and increase theparticipation of undergraduate students in the APCG student competition.
6. Maintain the financial health of the APCG and explore the new avenues for fundraising.
7. Provide the APCG student members with networking opportunities and access to the nationwide
databases of available scholarships and internships.
8. Improve the APCG communication approaches by increasing the APCG visibility through publication ofthe Pacifica and a monthly newsletter.
I would like to thank the APCG community for the continuing support of the APCG’s values and goals. Look
forward to seeing everyone in Arcata in October!

Lily House-Peters, Candidate for Vice President

Associate Professor, Department of Geography
California State University, Long Beach (CSULB)
PhD, Geography, University of Arizona
MS, Geography, Portland State University
BA, Geography and History, The George Washington University
I am excited and honored to run for the Vice President position of the APCG! I received my PhD from theUniversity of Arizona’s School of Geography, Development & Environment in 2016 and began working as anAssistant Professor of Geography at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) in Fall 2016.
I have been active member of APCG since 2009, when I attended my first APCG meeting in San Diego in the Fallof 2009. I have remained an active and committed member of the APCG serving as the Co-Chair of the APCG’sWomen’s Network from 2017-2022, editing the 2018 and 2019 versions of the annual Pacifica Newsletter, andserving on the Awards committee at a number of APCG meetings. I have deeply enjoyed my 15 years ofmembership in and service to the APCG and believe wholeheartedly that the APCG represents the very best ofthe regional divisions! I look forward to continuing the traditions of excellence embodied in our APCG regionaldivision!
I am a broadly trained human-environment geographer and political ecologist. My research interests include
biodiversity conservation policy implementation and exploring conflicts with mining/extractivism in theAmericas region and western Australia, transdisciplinary research approaches for just sustainabilities, and therole of emerging robotics, smart technologies and algorithms/AI in producing novel encounters with and newunderstandings of nature.
I currently serve as primary investigator for a grant funded by the Inter-American Institute for Global Change
Research (IAI) exploring the potential for alternative and experimental environmental governance arrangementsthat explicitly address power asymmetries, bridge and respect diverse knowledge systems and divergent
stakeholder interests, and facilitate social learning to improve local-scale biodiversity conservation
implementation in case study sites in Latin America and the Caribbean. I am a former Fulbright Research Fellow
to Mexico.
In the classroom, my teaching focuses primarily on environmental geography, climate justice, sustainability, andclimate action utilizing service learning and field experiences to engage students with community organizations
and unique landscapes, such as the Salton Sea and Anza Borrego State Park in southern California. I also teach aregional course focused on the historical, political and environmental geographies of Latin America. I am also anactive mentor and thesis supervisor for MA students in our Geography graduate program.
I believe strongly in supporting the discipline through service and leadership and currently serve on the AAG’sCommittee on the Status of Women in Geography. I have chaired the Susan Hardwick Excellence in MentoringAward committee for the past two years (2022-2024). I served as a mentor for the AAG Water Resources
Specialty Group (2019-2020), co-led the AAG professional development webinar “Positive Steps Towards
Tenure” (2020), and was formerly a member of the editorial board of The Professional Geographer. I wasrecently elected to the AAG’s Nominating Committee.
As APCG Vice President, I look forward to focusing on elevating the status and visibility of Geography throughout
the Pacific Coast region, strengthening collaborations across K-12, community colleges, and state and private 4year universities. In particular, helping high school, college, and graduate students find geography and excel inthe discipline is extremely important to me. As we see changes to GE and cuts to liberal arts, social sciences, andhumanities programs across higher education, it is more important than ever to assure the future of geography
and the next generation of geographers. APCG provides an incredible resource for our region, especially forunderrepresented and diverse populations of students, faculty, and geography researchers and practitioners.

Continuing to strengthen the APCG through relationship building and networking, maintaining strong
connections with the other regional divisions and national AAG organization, and expanding our conference
attendance and organizational reach will be priorities for my leadership in the APCG.
My career in Geography started in earnest at the APCG 2009 meeting, the very first time I presented at an
academic conference and my first introduction to the Women’s Network as a travel award grantee. Over the last
15 years, I have seen firsthand the transformative impact of the APCG for students, many of whom count APCG
as the first conference they attend and/or present at. Winning awards at the APCG meeting also helps tocatapult many early geographers’ careers, helping them build confidence in their geography research andbecome engaged in the APCG community. It would be my great pleasure to serve as the Vice President of theAPCG!

Terence Young, Candidate for Secretary

Professor Emeritus of Geography, Department of Geography & Anthropology, Cal Poly Pomona
PhD, UCLA
Terry Young is professor emeritus of geography at Cal Poly Pomona, where he began teaching in 2002. Hepreviously taught at Clemson University, Cal State Long Beach, USC, and elsewhere. He earned his B.A.
(anthropology) at UC, Berkeley, and his M.A. (biogeography) and Ph.D. (cultural-historical geography) from UCLAin 1987 and 1991, respectively. He has published articles in a variety of journals, including Geographical Review,
Journal of Historical Geography, Planning Perspectives, Die Gartenkunst, and Mondes du Tourisme. He is theauthor of two books, 2004’s Building San Francisco’s Park, 1850-1930 (Johns Hopkins University Press) and2017’s Heading Out: A History of American Camping (Cornell University Press). The latter book won the J.B.
Jackson Prize from the AAG and the Hal K. Rothman Prize from the Western History Association. He has taught awide range of undergraduate and graduate courses, including the usual introductory ones and such specializedofferings as Biogeography, Environmental Geography, Cultural and Historical Landscapes, Protected Areas in a
Regenerative World, Tourism in a Globalizing World, and Utopianism in American Urban Planning. In addition toserving on the typical assortment of department, college, and university committees, he is a past member of theeditorial boards of Historical Geography and Environmental History, the steering committee of the California
Studies Association, the AAG’s Publications Committee, and several local arrangements committees forprofessional meetings. He recently served as Vice Chair and then chair of the AAG’s Protected Areas Specialty
Group. He is a member of the George Wright Society’s Publications Committee.
Terry gave his first APCG presentation at the 2002 meeting in San Bernardino and has been actively attending
and supporting our region’s activities since. Now that he is emeritus, he has more time to give back to the APCG
through this position. He asks for your support.