Speaker Series—Grad School FAQ

Join us for lunch, learning, and conversation at the next installment of the HEROP Speaker Series on Friday, October 31st, at 12 PM CDT.

In-person or Virtual?

The in-person option is open the University of Illinois community (students, staff, and faculty). Please use the RSVP option on the right for the in-person portion of the event. We will have lunch for all attendees who RSVP by Wednesday @10a before the event.

A virtual option via Zoom is available for the public. To register for the Zoom option, please access the following link: https://go.illinois.edu/HEROP-ZOOM-OCT31

Talk Topic

"Grad School FAQ: A Panel Discussion Demystifying the Grad School Application Process & How to Prepare your Applications"

For first-generation applicants, there is little information about the graduate school application process, creating a barrier of entry into higher education. In this Grad School FAQ, our group of distinguished panelists will help answer your questions on how to best navigate the graduate school application process in the field of Geography & Geographic Information Sciences, and share their own experiences—as both applicants and those who review applications. Attendees will learn how to best navigate the application process, what they should do now to prepare for graduate school, whether pursuing a Master’s degree or PhD is right for their career goals, and have the opportunity to ask any other questions regrading the grad school experience. This session is open to all individuals interested in higher education but are unsure where to start, and/or those thinking of applying in the current cycle.

Panelists

Catherine Discenza, PhD Student

Catherine graduated from the University of Florida with a BS in Geography with a specialization in Medical Geography in Global Health. Their research interests lie at the intersection of place, health, and identity, with particular interest in how urban development patterns interact with health and identity factors.About the Organizers

Kei Kato, PhD Student

Kei (pronounced kay-ee) is a Ph.D. student in Geography from Japan, interested in how oceans, their inhabitants, and human societies interact. Before joining UIUC in 2023, he spent two years as a Ph.D. student at the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning at Arizona State University (Arizona, USA), where his interests in colonialism and racial capitalism grew. He was born and raised in Nagoya, Japan, and moved to Tokyo when he was 17 to attend college, where he ended up majored in cultural anthropology. During his undergraduate studies, he spent a year at Guilford College (North Carolina, USA), marking his first experience spending a whole academic year outside his home country. It was there that he encountered human geography, where a course on urban environmental history assigned Concrete and Clay by Matthew Gandy.

Matt Cohn, Adminstrative Aid & Grad. Program Administrator

Matt Cohn is an Administrative Aide in the Department of Geography & GIS (GGIS), where he serves as the Graduate Program Administrator and faculty liaison. Matt works with the GGIS Graduate Committee and Graduate College to process applications and fellowships, and then helps admitted students join the department and navigate their degree program requirements. He is an Illinois alum (BA, creative writing) and has traveled to 16 countries (so far)!

Sara McLafferty, PhD

Dr. McLafferty’s current research investigates place-based inequalities in health and well-being and access to health services for women, immigrants and racial/ethnic minorities in the United States. Her ongoing work examines the impacts of increasing economic inequality and residential segregation on women's commuting times and modes and on maternal and infant health outcomes. She also uses and develops GIS and spatial analysis methods for examining health and social issues in cities and planning public health interventions. Her books include GIS and Public Health (with Ellen Cromley), A Companion to Health and Medical Geography (with Tim Brown and Graham Moon), Geospatial Analysis of Environmental Health (with Juliana Maantay), Geographies of Women’s Health (with Isabel Dyck and Nancy Lewis), and Location Strategies for Retail and Service Firms (with Avijit Ghosh). She is currently an Associate Editor of Health and Place and serve on the editorial boards of Geographical Analysis, and Spatial and Spatiotemporal Epidemiology.

About the Organizers

Healthy Regions & Policies Lab integrates innovative GIScience, public health, and statistical approaches to explore, understand, and promote healthy places. We’re experts in the spatial & social determinants of health. We're based out of the Dept of Geography & GIScience at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.