HERO Alumni
John Connors (HERO Alumnus 2006-2007)
 Major:
Geography (undergraduate); GIS (graduate)
Favorite Super Hero: Die Fledermaus
Class of: 2006 (undergraduate); 2007 (graduate)
Email Address:
jconnors@clarku.edu
Faculty Member Working With: I will be working with Gil Pontius to
continue the work I began last summer as a HERO-PIE fellow. This summer,
we will be working to bridge the agendas of MaFOMP and PIE.
Thoughts About Being in the HERO Program: My experience in HERO over
the past year has significantly improved my research skills. It has also
offered me many opportunities to present my work to other researchers in my
field. I hope that this year will also offer me the same opportunities and
that I will continue to learn how to be a better researcher.
Kate Del Vecchio (HERO Alumna 2006-2007)
Major: Environmental Science and Policy and Psychology
Favorite Super Hero: Laura Merna and Captain Planet
Class of: 2007
Thoughts About Being in the HERO Program: It is a great opportunity to do
research in a field you think you might be interested in entering when you are
out of school. It gave me a better understanding of what I am in for in the
“real world”. It is a very self-motivated project, although professors provide a
lot of structure and support, you are given a lot of freedom in how you approach
parts of the research and your input and ideas are valued and make up a huge
part of the data gathering process as well as the final products.
Interviewing allowed me to see the situation from many
different people’s eyes, from different sides of the issue. It also gave me a
chance to see into the world of the field of work that I am interested in
entering.
Ryan Frazier (HERO Alumnus 2006-2007)
Major: Geography
Favorite Super Hero: The Tick
Class of: 2007
Email Address: rfrazier@clarku.edu
Phone Number:
Please refer to Joe Fortier for any thing at all.
Faculty Member Working With: John Rogan,
Massachusetts Forest Monitoring Project
Thoughts About Being in the HERO Program:
Hero has already taught me many things. For example, I know a about large
area land cover/use mapping, historical data capture, a great deal of remote
sensing, and how to present work professionally all due to HERO. This year I
hope learn more about field data collection methods more, as well continue all
the other work in MAFoMP.
Personal Statements:
I was born (the younger of two brothers) and raised in the town of Beachmont,
Massachusetts. When I'm not working with HERO or for classes at Clark, I am
usually found with friends or exploring the area around Worcester and Boston and
Massachusetts. A few of the things that I like are the ocean, rocks, maps and
seeing new places. I have always been interested in maps, whether they were road
maps or sea charts, but I would say my interest in Geography stemmed first from
a physical Geography class where the basics of weather, climate and landform
were taught. I intend to graduate from Clark in the Spring of 2007 with a
Masters in Geographic Information Science.
Paula Kiviranta (HERO Alumna 2006-2007)
 Major:
Geography
Favorite Super Hero: Wonder Woman
Class of: 2008
Email Address:
pkiviranta@clarku.edu
Faculty Member Working With: John Rogan on forest change monitoring.
Thoughts About Being in the HERO Program: I am hoping that being involved
in the HERO program will help me recognize land use patterns in Massachusetts
and see the ways in which people’s interactions with their environment affect
the forests, be it timber harvesting, urbanization, or any other activity. I am
also hoping to acquire skills in GIS and remote sensing, which are among my
interests within my major, and learn how to put these skills into practical,
meaningful use.
Personal Statements:
I am a Geography major and currently a sophomore at Clark. I am part of
the Forest Change Monitoring group of the HERO program. I was born and raised in
Finland, and It is probably not a surprise that forests have always been a big
part of my life, taking into account the fact that over 70 percent of the land
is covered by forests and that I am an outdoorsy person who enjoys hiking,
running, camping, berry-picking, and just sitting in the woods listening to the
sound of the wind in the trees. I became interested in geography in high school,
and by the time I applied to colleges in the US, inspired by the year that I
spent in Massachusetts with my family in 2002-2003, I knew that I wanted to
major in Geography. I am finishing my first year at Clark, and so far I have
come across many unique opportunities both in my academic and social life, the
HERO program being one of the major ones. I am also proud to mention that I am
an undergraduate Fulbright Scholar.
Dominic Pascarelli (HERO Alumnus 2006-2007)
Major: Global Environmental Studies and International Development and
Social Change
Favorite Super Hero: Definitely Spider-man; who wouldn't want the
ability to climb and swing between buildings.
Class of: 2008
Email Address:
dpascarelli@clarku.edu
Faculty Member Working With: Colin Polsky and John Rogan
Thoughts About Being in the HERO Program:
I am confident that the HERO program will vastly improve my knowledge
of GIS and my ability to perform statistical regression analysis. Furthermore, I
anticipate the program will develop my overall research capabilities, my ability
to work within a group, and, with any luck, my public speaking skills.
Personal Statements:
If you’re actually reading this right now, congratulations. Clark’s web page is
about as easy to navigate as the Louisiana Bayou on a foggy night. I have two
brief recommendations and one brief offer. If you’re a prospective student who
does not currently recycle or compost and are not willing to learn, I strongly
encourage you not to come here. If you’re already enrolled as a student (be you
undergrad, grad, or PhD ) or work here in any capacity (be you faculty,
administration, or staff) and do not currently recycle or compost and are not
willing to learn, I strongly encourage you to leave. If you would like to learn
to recycle or compost please feel free to e-mail me at any time and I will
gladly explain both processes.
Sarah Assefa (HERO Alumna 2005-06)
 I’m
a junior now, majoring in Biology (emphasis on ecology) and Economics (emphasis
on development).
I think interactions between humans and the environment are
fascinating and very important for us to understand. Working in the
Vulnerability stream of HERO research has been an incredible opportunity to
learn about and help others understand such human-environment interactions. The
way our research investigates the links between climate, geology, ecology,
economics, government and social justice concerns is awesome. I’ve learned tones
about New England and particularly about Eastern Massachusetts. I feel I’ve
developed skills (like qualitative analysis techniques and public speaking)
which will be useful wherever I may live and work in the future. After school I
aim to build upon this experience by working with similar human-environment
issues in Kenya where I grew up.
Looking and working for peace on earth!
Troy Hill (HERO Alumnus 2005-06)
Currently pursuing a Master of Environmental Science at Yale University in
New Haven, Connecticut.
View Troy's Resume (in .pdf).
Christopher Lippitt
 Currently
a senior geography major at Clark University, I am in my second consecutive year
as a HERO fellow. Originally
from Providence, Rhode Island, I grew up in a rural town called Amherst
in southern New Hampshire. A lifelong career of outdoor activities left me with
a strong interest in helping to promote the coexistence of humans and nature.
This year I am collaborating with Professor John Rogan to develop a long
term timber harvest monitoring program for the state of Massachusetts using LandSat MSS/TM/ETM+ data. I am continuing my work to develop new methods for
assessing change assessment/prediction accuracy with Professor Gil Pontius. We
plan to submit “A method to distinguish landscape change from map error during
map comparison” for publication in the journal Remote Sensing of Environment
this fall. The paper is currently published in the proceedings of the TIES
Accuracy Conference 2004. I am working on my honors thesis “Timber harvest
monitoring in western Massachusetts; a comparison of machine learning
algorithms” with advisors John Rogan and Ron Eastman and expect to defend in
December 2004. This paper will be presented at the 2004 conferences of the
American Society for Photogrammetry & Remote Sensing and the Association of
American Geographers. I have continued to work on the production of 1951 land
use maps. With the help of some of the “fellow fellows,” we hope to
complete the map by December 2004.
Next year, I will continue at Clark University in the M.A. in G.I.Science
program. I expect to graduate in May, 2006. For a closer look at
what I have been up to the past couple years, here is my
resume (in .pdf).
Nicholas Malizia
 I
am currently pursuing a M.A. degree in geography at Clark University.
My research interests broadly pertain to the areas of geographic information
science, remote sensing, land change science, and landscape ecology.
My undergraduate honors thesis, “Effect of Category Aggregation on
Measurement of Land-Use and Land-Cover Change,” received Highest Honors from the
Clark University School of Geography. This paper was selected as a finalist in
the Association of American Geographers
Geographic Information Science Specialty Group’s Student Paper Competition and
is currently in publication in
Lecture Notes in Computer Science.
My current HERO research includes studying land-use and land cover change
across the country with researchers from the
Human-Environment Regional Observatory (HERO) Project, investigating the
link between a precipitation decline and NDVI over the past twenty years with
the
Southern Yucatan Peninsular Region (SYPR) Project, working with researchers
at Harvard Forest to assess the effectiveness of conservation land acquisitions
in central Massachusetts as part of the
North
Quabbin Conservation Study, and working with Gil Pontius and Anna Versluis
of Clark University to extrapolate the uncertainty of land use change models
into the future.
Issac Payano (HERO Alumnus 2005-06)
 Major:
Global Environmental Studies
Favorite Super Hero: Batman
Class of: 2007
Email Address: ipayano@clarku.edu
Thoughts About Being in the HERO Program: I have learned many skills that
make me feel like a professional researcher. It really has helped me
develop as a person. This program helps you get in to the real world by
taking on serious issues and handling many responsibilities. HERO has
helped me grow as a person and find what I want to do.
Thoughts for Prospective HERO Fellows: It is an awesome experience and if
you wanted to do something very important and something you can take pride in,
do HERO! GIS is growing as an industry and becoming necessary in
environmental studies, so look in to it!
Daniel Pomerleau
 My
name is Daniel Pomerleau. I am a graduate student in
Clark's new fifth year Masters program in GIScience. I
was born and raised in the town of
Vassalboro, ME., and am the youngest of three
children. I graduated from
Clark in the Spring of 2004 with a major in Geography,
minor in International Development and Social Change, and concentration in Asian
Studies. Since high school I have had a strong interest in Chinese history,
culture, philosophy, and language, and I had an opportunity to combine these
interests with Geography during my senior year with work on my honors thesis.
The thesis was titled "When Persecution Meets
Principle: The Chinese Communist Party, Human Rights, and Falun Gong,"
and investigated the political history of Communist China, the current
persecution of the spiritual practice Falun Gong, and the effectiveness of an
international human rights effort to get prisoners of conscience out of China's
forced labor camp system, Laogaidui. The
thesis received high honors under joint advising by faculty in
Clark's Geography and History and Asian Studies
departments.
My work in the HERO program this year will be with the Massachusetts Forest
Mapping Project (MAFomp) where we will begin detecting and mapping the history
of timber harvesting in
Massachusetts using GIS and Landsat imagery.
This project will be particularly interesting and beneficial for me because it
will give me the opportunity to experiment with different change detection
techniques for use in my Masters thesis this year. My Masters thesis will
involve detecting and mapping ice storm damage to forests in
Maine that occurred during a major icing
event in
Northern New England and
Southern Quebec in January 1998. The ice storm of 1998
was classified as a 100 year storm and devastated forest agriculture in the
region. The results of my study will be compared with previous mapping efforts
completed by the Maine Forest Service in conjunction with the USDA Forest
Service following in the summer of 1998.
My future interests lie in GIS and Remote sensing for forestry management, or a
related field. I would like to gain a few years experience before possibly going
for my Ph.D. in GIS/Remote Sensing.
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