User:Pmchaffie

PATRICK MCHAFFIE, PHD, DePaul University Department of Geography & GIS

Patrick McHaffie has been a faculty member in the Department of Geography at DePaul University in Chicago since 1996. He joined DePaul's faculty after a series of positions. These included 10 years directing the National Cartographic Information Center office at the Kentucky Geological Survey where he was involved in several environmental and remote sensing projects and responded to over 6000 separate requests for mapping information and assistance. He earned his Ph.D. in the Department of Geography at the University of Kentucky in 1992 where his dissertation research focused on the political geographies of absentee land ownership by large coal and timber interests in Central and Southern Appalachia, and its principally negative effects on property taxation and school spending. After this he spent several years as a professor in Geography Departments at West Virginia University, Dartmouth College, and West Georgia College.

When he arrived at DePaul Patrick established intro GIS and Remote Sensing courses. He then established a three course GIS sequence that became available to students in 1997-98 and created the GIS Certificate Program. Over the next fifteen years, he developed five more undergraduate courses that utilize GIS software and techniques.

Administratively, Patrick led DePaul to establish an undergraduate BA Geography degree concentration in Geotechnology and a Certificate in GlS, aimed at mid-career professionals but increasingly popular with undergraduate students at DePaul. He also served as Department Chair from 2001-2007, a period where the Department expanded from 3 to 8 full-time faculty. The new faculty in the program energized DePaul Geography. In 2016 the Department was named the most outstanding undergrad geography program in the country by the American Association of Geographers (AAG).

ln 2007, Patrick began the process to move his GIS instruction even further afield. As part of DePaul's Study Abroad Program, he was one of a group of faculty that initiated a project in Kenya working with the Green Belt Movement (GBM), an organization led by Nobel Laureate Wangari Maathai. He proposed using GIS and GNSS to assist in GBM's efforts to stem illegal forest clearance in the Mount Kenya National Park by mapping vegetation and plant species. This effort brought dozens of DePaul students to Kenya in order to work with GBM and participate in this process. This program was run twice in Kenya. After this program was successfully launched he worked with Howard Rosing, Director of the Steans Center at DePaul, to create a study abroad program in the western mountains of the Dominican Republic that combined instruction in GIS and Food Security. This program ran for several years.

Patrick has been a tireless advocate for GIS in Illinois beyond the institutional boundaries of DePaul University working regularly with community organizations and city and county initiatives to promote and encourage greater awareness and usage of GlS. These efforts include:

2002 and 2004: served as an advisor to the Cook County District 34 School District Boundary Task Force, working primarily on GlS, geodemographics and mapping.

2002-2005: served as an advisor and lecturer for Mayor Daley's Youth Mapping Corps initiative. ln this capacity he provided support and training for at-risk youth in mapping and GIS technologies. This program was headed up by Sarah Barr, a graduate of DePaul's Department of Geography and one of his GIS students.

2004-2005: The Resurrection Project (TRP - now known as MAPCORPS) is based in Pilsen, a primarily low income Hispanic neighborhood in Chicago's Lower West Side. The principal mission is to work to strengthen the economic, social, and political fabric of the Mexican-American community in Pilsen. They do this through a variety of programs, principally aimed at housing. ln cooperation with TRP, he designed and implemented a course that enabled DePaul students to help this community organization develop their capabilities regarding GlS, in particular their ability to map property and vacant sites to assist the TRP in completing proposals in the New Homes for Chicago program and contribute to TRP's efforts to redevelop an area around their headquarters (El Zocalo).

2004-2005: coordinated student work with the Asian American Institute and Casa Central (a social service organization in Chicago's Humboldt Park), assisting these organizations with their data management and GIS mapping needs.

2011-14: coordinated a relationship with Al Raby High School (CPS) to highlight GIS in the classroom and GIS careers. He met with Al Raby teachers instructing the largely low-income, African-American students to help them develop GIS curricula, and spoke at the GIS careers day at the school.

In 2012 he was awarded the Richard Dahlberg Distinguished Achievement Award from the Illinois GIS Association (ILGISA). Since 2010 23 DePaul Geography students have won outstanding student or scholarship awards from ILGISA.

After leaving the University in 2019, Patrick was named a professor emeritus and he continues to contribute to the Department of Geography as a colleague, mentor, and occasional instructor.