pmaker and teacher trainer. She worked in a census-data research office, then taught cartography and GIS for 17 years at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota. In 2005, she became co-director of the New York Center for Geographic Learning and co-coordinator of the New York Geographic Alliance. While in New York, she also taught AP World Geography and helped advise teachers at a K-12 school in Queens. She still flies back occasionally to work with schools in New York, but now she is cartographic advisor, educational materials author, and teacher-trainer for the Michigan Geographic Alliance.
Phil Gersmehl is an educational-material author and teacher trainer. He taught for five years at Concordia Teachers College, then moved to the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. In 2004 he started a decade of split positions, serving as co-director of the New York Center for Geographic Learning and half-time Professor at the University of Minnesota. He is currently Visiting Research Professor at Central Michigan University, where he works with Carol and other teachers to develop materials for a variety of geography classes, including a kit for Parents’ Night in early grades, a 6th-grade world geography sequence, and materials for world geography and history, US geography and history, and AP Human Geography.
Together, the Gersmehls have conducted teacher-training workshops in 34 states and five other countries. Contact carol.gersmehl@gmail.com or pgersmehl@gmail.com if you would like to arrange a workshop in your school or district.