This is a friendly reminder that, this Thursday, February 25th, we have the honor of hosting Dr. Mike Mayfield, Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education at Appalachian State University, as the 2016 Distinguished Alumnus of the Geography Department. Dr. Mayfield received his  Master’s and doctoral degrees in geography from UT in 1980 and 1984, respectively. Dr. Mayfield has been a member of the faculty at Appalachian since 1988. He served as faculty coordinator of General Education at Appalachian from 2007-10, was chair of the Department of Geography and Planning from 1998-2002 and interim department chair in spring 1996. He was a visiting scientist at the CATIE Research Institute in Costa Rica in spring 1995, and has led study abroad and field trips to Costa Rica, Ecuador and Peru.

The department has prepared three congratulations cards for Dr. Mayfield and put them in the workroom. Please sign those cards! The cards along with a bouquet of flower will be presented to Dr. Mayfield during the award ceremony by representatives of undergrads, grads, and faculty & staff.

Dr. Mayfield’s schedule for February 25^th is as follows:

1:30 pm — 2:30 pm: open meeting with faculty, undergraduate and graduate students. (Could you send me an email if you are able to attend)

2:30 pm – 3:00 pm: meeting Henri Grissino-Mayer

3:15 pm: walk to the Hodges library.

3:30 — 4:00 pm: reception in front of the Hodges library’s Auditorium (second floor)

4:00 pm — 4:50 pm: 2016 Geography Distinguished Alumni Awards Ceremony (Hodges library’s Auditorium — second floor)

We strongly encourage our undergraduate and graduate students to attend both the open meeting, and the award ceremony.  As this is a very ceremonial event to honor our distinguished alumni (e.g., Dean Lee and many distinguished guests will attend the event), please observe the semi-formal dress code.

Thank you, all! Hope to see you this Thursday!

On behalf of Dr. Derek Alderman, Department Head

Madhuri Sharma & Liem Tran, Special Events Committee