Dr. Fugate Visits From Washington, DC

This coming Friday, the Geography Department at San Diego State University will be hosting one of its illustrious alums--Dr. Debbie Fugate, from the U.S. State Department.

Dr. Debbie Fugate is the Deputy Director of the Office of The Geographer and Global Issues in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research at the U.S. Department of State. The office provides timely, independent analysis on a range of global issues to inform foreign policy decisions. She co-directs the research and analysis of the office, including work on civilian security, health and environment, human rights, migration and refugees, trafficking, and war crimes. She reports directly to The Geographer of the United States, a position that was established in 1921 and bears the statutory responsibility for providing guidance to all federal agencies on international boundaries and sovereignty.

Debbie oversees the Humanitarian Information Unit (HIU), an interagency unit that produces written and visual analytics on humanitarian challenges and complex emergencies worldwide. The HIU employs geographic methods and technologies, serves as an information-sharing node, and manages projects that facilitate the creation of geospatial data. She is also Director of the Secondary Cities Initiative, a field-based program that engages communities to build capacity in geospatial science and open data with partnerships addressing disaster preparedness and urban resiliency in secondary cities globally.

You'll know from my past posts (here's the most recent) that she and I co-edited a volume on The Youth Bulge: Challenge or Opportunity?, as well as a variety of papers and chapters. We are happy to have her "back home" for this talk (with reception to follow). Please join us if in you're in the area!