Michigan Geographic Alliance governing board

Gabrielle Likavec is an experienced educator and instructional consultant with a rich background in teaching and curriculum design. Currently, she serves as a Teaching and Learning Consultant at Central Michigan University, where she collaborates with faculty to enhance instructional practices across various modalities. In addition to teaching several education related Geography courses, Gabrielle has also provided leadership to significant initiatives including a yearlong AI in education program, an Open Education Resources project which developed over 20 free course resources, and a district wide One School, One Book initiative which brought books into the hands of almost 1000 students. Previously, she served as co-coordinator of the Michigan Geographic Alliance, where she provided professional development workshops to over 1,000 teachers and contributed to the revision of K-12 social studies standards. Gabrielle's expertise in integrating AI in education has been showcased in numerous conference presentations and published educational materials.  When she is not EduNerding, she is a proud sports and corgi mom.

David A. Johnson Ed.S. is well on his way through his third decade in Education.  A former middle school social studies and ELA teacher, he is now an instructional consultant housed out of Wexford-Missaukee ISD in Cadillac Michigan where he’s responsible for new teacher mentoring, social-emotional learning, and 6-12 ELA.  Wexford-Missaukee ISD also shares him with the 9 other ISDs south of the bridge, where he serves as a social studies consultant bringing training on inquiry-based instruction and next-generation assessment and instruction to the teachers he services.  During his time as the shared consultant for the north, Dave oversaw the PASST project, the Michigan Open Book Project, worked heavily on the update to the state social studies content standards, and is now serving as the GELN Social Studies Task Force chair for the 2024-25 school year.  In his spare time he loves to write and is currently at work on a memoir about the year he became a living donor for a relative called “Signed, Sealed, De-Liver-ed”.  

Annie McMahon Whitlock is an Associate Professor of History/Social Studies at Grand Valley State University where she teaches elementary social studies methods for future Kindergarten through 3rd grade teachers. She is the President of the Michigan Council for the Social Studies and a past member of the National Council for the Social Studies Board of Directors. Dr. Whitlock has published over 25 research articles centered on teaching elementary social studies through civic engagement, place-based inquiry, and curriculum integration. She is also the author of Place-Based Social Studies Education: Learning from Flint, Michigan and Hollywood or History? An Inquiry-Based Approach to Using The Simpsons to Teach Social Studies. She is a proud wife, auntie, daughter, sister, and mom to humans Maggie and McKenzie and to her dog Barkley.

Dr. Joseph Stoltman is a University Distinguished Professor and has a joint appointment in the Department of Geography and the Mallinson Institute for Science Education at Western Michigan University. Stoltman has been a faculty member since 1971 in the Department of Geography, Physical Sciences Division in the College of Arts and Sciences. His research has focused on the teaching and learning of geography, global change education, and the spatial analysis of educational reform in Michigan. He is a member of AAAS, NSTA, NCGE, AAG, SSEC, and MCSS, professional societies devoted to improving scientific knowledge and teaching in the earth and social sciences. He serves as co-coordinator of the Michigan Geographic Alliance, which has as its objective the enhancement of geographic literacy in Michigan among students and young adults.

Marty Mater taught elementary school for 20 years. First in Coldwater and the in Ovid-Elsie. In 1990, she trained to become an official MGA Teacher Consultant at the very first MGA Institute! She continued to present during professional development activities in her intermediate school district. Marty was awarded the Fulbright Memorial Fund Teacher Scholarship in 1998 to study in Japan for three weeks.

From 2000-2012, Marty served as a Teacher Consultant in Residence at Central Michigan University, during which time she presented over 250 Social Studies and Geography workshops at local, state, and national levels. She was part of the Goethe Institute, funded fact-finding trip to Germany with the Michigan Department of Education in 2004. In addition she served on the Social Studies MEAP Content Advisory Committee and in 2005 was awarded the NCGE Distinguished Teacher Award. Marty chaired the Local Arrangements Committee for the NCGE annual meeting in Dearborn, MI in 2008.

Marty and her husband John raised five children on their farm (Mater's Menagerie), and once traded an old piano for a lamb. All of Mr. and Mrs. Mater's five children were in high school at the same time and later in college. She says she got richer by degrees.

Cindy Bloom graduated from Kalamazoo College in 1984 and earned her Master of Arts from Western Michigan University in 1999. She is currently a 7th grade social studies teacher with the Comstock Public Schools. Cindy has been an MGA Teacher Consultant for over 28 years and sits on the MGA Governing Board. She is also a Boy Scouts of America committee member and volunteers with Kalamazoo Troop 205.

In 2019 she was honored to receive the Grosvenor Teacher Fellowship with the National Geographic and Lindblad Expeditions which gave her the opportunity to travel to Washington DC, Britain, and Ireland. Another award, received by Cindy in 2005, was the American Councils Teaching Excellence Award. This award included an international workshop focused on teaching strategies and a two-and-a-half-week trip to the Republic of Tajikistan.

Cindy is a very adventurous mother with a great sense of humor. She is passionate about the power of education and its ability to provide a positive change in our world.

Laurie Erby is a retired middle level Social Studies teacher from Saline, Michigan who now spends her days working as a Literacy Program Associate with WestEd, a non-profit educational research organization.  Her main focus, Reading Apprenticeship, helps classroom teachers recognize and share their own reading and thinking expertise with their students and apprentice them in the ways that experts in their discipline read and make meaning of source documents.  What can be better than Reading and Thinking Like a Geographer?  Laurie's love of Geography led her to not only join the MGA back in 2003, but also to become a Teacher Consultant working along other members to create and share high quality geography lessons. In her work with the Alliance, Laurie participated in National Geographic’s, Geography Action! “Migration: The Human Journey” in Washington, DC.  Laurie was honored to receive the Distinguished Teaching Award from the National Council for Geographic Education in, and later that same year, to be named the MAMSE Middle School Educator of the Year.  Her classroom has been featured in the U.S. Department of Education’s “Doing What Works” Library.  As her current work takes her all over the country, Laurie is able to both experience and share her LOVE of Geography!

Dr. Tim Constant is the Lead Instructional Coach for the Clarenceville School District in Livonia, MI and a National Education Program Facilitator for Echoes & Reflections, an educational program from the Anti-Defamation League, Washington, D.C. Dr. Constant previously served as an upper elementary, middle, and high school principal, assistant principal, and director in Hamtramck, Southfield, and Detroit. Prior to becoming a school administrator, he was an award-winning Social Studies and English Language Arts teacher for 11 years in Detroit, Southfield, and Warren. In addition to serving on the University of Michigan-Dearborn Alumni Society Board, where he is the chair of the nominations committee, he is also a board member of the Michigan Council for the Social Studies, where he serves as the chair of the Michigan Social Studies Olympiad. Most recently, he has joined the Instructional Leaders Network for the Oakland Schools and in addition to that he has been a member of the Royal Oak Schools Curriculum Advisory Committee since 2020. Dr. Constant has a doctorate degree in education and a masters of arts degree in teaching from the University of Michigan-Dearborn. 

Jennifer Johnson is a Professor of Geography at Ferris State University. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degrees in Geography and Mathematics from Carthage College and a Masters Degree in Geography from Arizona State University. She was a recipient of a National Science Foundation Research Fellowship for her doctorate and earned her Ph.D. in Geography, with an emphasis in Climatology, from Arizona State University. She was honored as a Ferris State University Distinguished Teacher in 2014, received the Ferris State Distinguished Service Award in 2018, and is a two-time nominee for Distinguished Professor of the Year through the President's Council of the State Universities of Michigan. She serves as the content coordinator for Geography Education and Social Studies Education at Ferris State and has been the Chair of the Social and Behavioral Sciences Department since 2019. She also served as a member of the statewide Michigan Department of Education task force to write the new teacher preparation standards in Social Studies that were approved in 2023. Jennifer joined the governing board of the Michigan Geographic Alliance in 2023.

Kimberly L. Adams is a 30+ year veteran educator specializing in Social Sciences and English Language Arts. She has experience within all grade levels from 6-12 and currently teaches at Comstock High School, Kalamazoo, Michigan. Kimberly graduated from Western Michigan University with both her BA and MA and continues to be a classroom educator focusing in World History, Geography, Sociology & Psychology. She began her Social Science path back in the 1990s and served as a Board Member/Regional Representative on the Michigan Council for Social Studies, as well as its Conference Chair, for close to a decade. She has been an active part of the MGA for almost 20 years and has served on the MGA Advisory Board for several years and has been a MGA Teacher Consultant since 2005. She was privileged to be included on the Local Arrangements Committee for the NCGE annual meeting in Dearborn, MI in 2008 and with assisting with the NCGE Conference in Puerto Rico in 2009, in which she also received the NCGE Distinguished Teacher Award and in 2010 received the MGA Distinguished Service Award at the MCSS Conference. She has been recognized both locally through WMU and by the State of Michigan, on her continued and committed work with student intern educators and her passion within the educational field, resulting in her recent award, as the 2024 Outstanding Mentor Teacher. She continues to serve her local educational district as a Union Association Representative and has received the Kalamazoo Educational Association Partner in Education Award through her continued work with the MEA. She is ultimately dedicated to MGA and its pursuit in making Geography a fundamental discipline in K-12 education.