As we bid former ICE co-director Mike McCoy a bon voyage and congratulatons on his new endeavor at the Urban Land Use and Transportation (ULTRANS) Center, we also extend best wishes to the new Associate Director of the Information Center for the Environment (ICE), Dr. Karen Beardsley.
Karen Beardsley has been with ICE since its inception in 1994. She began as a geographic information system (GIS) analyst and has held a senior manager position at ICE for the past 8-10 years. Now she is assuming most of Mike McCoy's duties at ICE as she moves into the Associate Director position, with Professor Jim Quinn remaining as the ICE Director. Karen brings to her new position, extensive administrative and research experience, as well as specialized skills in spatial technology for decision support, urban modeling and wildlife conservation. Her research includes modeling enviromental impacts of land use policies in California an integrating wildlife conservation and land use planning practices in Kenya. Karen is a geographer and GIS expert who earned her master's degree in Geography from the University of California at Santa Barbara and recently completed her PhD in Geography at UC Davis. One of Karen's current undertakings is to oversee the development of a new Forest Service sponsored international seminar on Climate Change and Natural Resource Management taking place May 2010 at UC Davis.
While Karen is not a new face at ICE, she now has a new office and more responsibilities than when she was just a mere manager. We're glad to have her at ICE - Congratulations Karen!
