Mark Welford
Professor and Head of Geography; Director of Environmental Resource Management program
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Mark Welford
Professor and Head of Geography; Director of Environmental Resource Management program
PhD, Geography, University of Illinois, at Urbana-Champaign, 1993
MS, Geography, University of Idaho, 1988
BS, Geography, Coventry University, U.K., 1986
Course responsibilities include World Geography, Nature and Society, Biogeography, and Geography of Europe. Dr. Welford has taught in and been program director of twelve Study Abroad trips, seven to Ecuador of which four were co-taught with Dr. Yarbrough (2005, 2008, 2011, 2013), one to the Czech Republic (2006), one to Poland (2008), one to India (2015), and two to Lucca, Italy (2018, 2019). He also taught in three study abroad trips to London (2003, 2004, 2005).
Conservation, biogeography and geodynamics of Andean cloud forest; historic Atlantic hurricane frequency; and spatial epidemiology
Recent Funded Research Projects
Co-PI on RAPID: Tracking and Understanding Spatiotemporal Dynamics of the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Arctic (COVITA). ($186,089 National Science Foundation, 2021-2022)
Co-PI on RAPID: Tracking and Understanding Spatiotemporal Dynamics of the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Arctic (COVITA) ($199,998 National Science Foundation, 2020 - 2021)
Co-PI on RAPID: Hurricane Evacuations in the Age of COVID-19 ($78,821 National Science Foundation Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences Human-Environment and Geographical Sciences Grant, 2020 - 2021)
Co-PI on Reconstructing Georgia’s Hurricane Record: A 260-year GIS Database of Coastal Impact ($129,664 Georgia Sea Grant Program grant, 2012-2013)
Tiwari, S, Petrov, A, Golosov, N, Devlin, M, Welford, MR, DeGroote, J, Degai, T, Ksenofontov, S, 2024. Regional Geographies and Public Health Lessons of the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Arctic. Frontiers in Public Health, Vol. 11, 08 Jan 2024.
Tiwari, S, Petrov, A, Devlin, M, Welford, MR, Golosov, N, DeGroote, J, Degai, T, Ksenofontov, S, 2023. Assessing Pandemic Risk through a Lens of Resilience: A Case of the Northwest Territories (NWT), Canada. Special issue of Arctic Yearbook - Arctic Pandemics: COVID-19 and other pandemic experiences and lessons learned, July 2023.
Petrov, A, Tiwari, S, Devlin, M, Welford, MR, Golosov, N, DeGroote, J, Degai, T, Ksenofontov, S, 2023. The COVID-19 Pandemic in the Arctic: An Overview of Dynamics from 2020 to 2022. Special issue of Arctic Yearbook - Arctic Pandemics: COVID-19 and other pandemic experiences and lessons learned, July 2023.
Collins, J, E. Dunn, R.K. Jones, A. Polen, N.R. Rao, S. Murphy, M. Welford, 2023. Hurricane Risk Perceptions and Evacuation Decision-Making in the Post-Vaccine Era of COVID-19 in U.S. Coastal States. WCS Nov 2023.
Tiwari, S, Petrov, A, Mateshvili, N, Devlin, M, Golosov, N, Rozanova-Smith, M, Welford, M, DeGroote, J, Degai, T, Kseofontov, S. 2023. Incorporating resilience when assessing pandemic risk in the Arctic: A case study of Alaska. British Medical Journal – Global Health.
Petrov, A, Dorough, D, Tiwari, S, Welford, MR, Golosov, N, Devlin, M, Degai, T, Ksenofontov, S, DeGroote, J, 2023. Indigenous Health Care Sovereignty Defines Resilience to the Pandemic. The Lancet, April 18, 2023 10.1016/S0140-6736(23)00684-0.
Tiwari, S, Petrov, A, Devlin, M, Welford, MR, Golosov, N, DeGroote, J, Degai, T and Ksenofontov, S. 2022. The Second Year of Pandemic in the Arctic: Examining Spatiotemporal Dynamics of the COVID-19 “Delta Wave” in Arctic Regions in 2021. International Journal of Circumpolar Health.
Collins, J, Polen, A, Dunn, E, Jernigan, I, McSweeney, K, Welford, MR, and Lacovic, M, 2022. Hurricanes Laura and Sally: A Case Study of Evacuation Decision-Making in the Age of COVID-19. Weather, Climate and Society.
Petrov, A, Welford, MR, Golosov, N, Devlin, M, DeGroote, J, Degai, T, Savelyev, A, 2021. Lessons on COVID-19 from indigenous and remote communities of the Arctic. Nature Medicine, Aug 23, 2021: doi:10.1038/s41591-021-01473-9.
Petrov, A, Welford, MR, Golosov, N, DeGroote, J, Devlin, M, Degai, T, Savelyev, A, 2021. The ‘Second Wave’ of the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Arctic: Regional and Temporal Dynamics. International Journal of Circumpolar Health. doi:10.1080/22423982.2021.1925446.
Welford, MR, 2021. Book Review of Red Coasts and Wild Birds: How Military Ornithologists and Migrant Birds Shaped Empire by Kirsten A. Greer published UNC Press. Social and Cultural Geography. DOI:10.1080/14649365.2021.1917148
Collins, J, Dunn, E, Polen, A, Welford, MR, Lackovic, M, McSweeney, Jernigan, I, 2020. Preliminary Findings: Hurricane Decision Making in the Age of COVID-19: Hurricanes Laura and Sally.
Welford, MR, Yarbrough, R, 2020. Human-Environment Interactions: An Introduction. Palgrave-Macmillan.
Petrov, A, Welford, MR, Degani, T, DeGroote, J, Savelyev, A, 2020. Spatiotemporal Dynamics of the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Arctic: Early Data and Emerging Trends. International Journal of Circumpolar Health, Submitted Sept 2020.
Welford, MR, Yarbrough, R, 2020. Human-Environment Interactions: An Introduction. Palgrave-Macmillan.
Welford, MR, Bossak, BH, 2020. From Infection to Pandemic in 48 hours? Disease Diffusion across Space. Royal Geographical Society, Geography Directions blog, May 29.
Welford, MR, 2018. Geographies of Plague Pandemics: The Spatial-Temporal Behavior of Plague to the Modern Day. Routledge, U.K.
Welford, MR, Bossak, BH, Gibney, E, 2017, Archival evidence of secular changes in Georgia hurricanes: 1750-2012. Invited chapter in Hurricanes and Climate Change Vol 3: Springer eds Collins, JM and Walsh, K.
Welford, MR, Yarbrough, R 2015, Serendipitous Conservation: Impacts of Oil Pipeline Construction in rural northwestern Ecuador. Journal of The Extractive Industries and Society. doi:10.1016/j.exis.2015.07.005.
Bossak, BH, Welford, MR 2015, Spatio-temporal characteristics of the medieval Black Death. In Spatial Analysis in Health Geography eds Kanaroglou, Demelle and Paez. Ashgate.U.K.
Bossak BH, Keihany, S, Mullis, D, Gibnery, E, Welford MR. 2014, Coastal Georgia is Not Immune: Hurricane History, 1851-2012. Southeastern Geographer 54 (3): 323-333.
Welford, MR, 2013, Physical Geography. Oxford Bibliographies Online: Geography. Published Mar 20, 2013. Updated Aug 2015.
Welford, MR, Barilla, AG, 2013, Is Neotropical Conservation sold-short: diminishing returns for birding suggest ecolodges could encourage longer stays. Journal of Nature Conservation 21: 401-405. doi: 10.1016/j.jnc.2013.05.002
Durden, LA, Welford, MR 2011. Rapid Assessment of Elevational Zonation and Biodiversity in Ecuadorian Butterfly Faunas. Southern Lepidopterists' News 33 (2): 60-69.
Welford MR, Bossak BH 2010. Body Lice, Yersinia pestis Orientalis, and Black Death (Letter to Editor), Emerging Infectious Diseases 16 (10): Article ID: 10-0683. doi: 10.3201/eid1610.100683.
Bossak BH, Welford MR 2010. Spatiotemporal Attributes of Pandemic and Epidemic Diseases. Geography Compass 4 (8): 1084-1096.doi:10.1111/j.1749-8198.2010.00355.x
Welford MR, Bossak BH 2010. Revisiting the Medieval Black Death of 1347-1351: Spatiotemporal Dynamics Suggestive of an Alternate Causation. Geography Compass 4 (6): 561-575. doi 10.1111/j.1749-8198.2010.00335.x
Welford MR, Bossak BH 2009. Validation of Inverse Seasonal Peak Mortality in Medieval Plagues, including the Black Death, in Comparison to Modern Yersinia pestis-variant Diseases. PLoS ONE 4 (12): e8401. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0008401
Bossak BH, Welford MR 2009. Did Medieval Trade Activity and a Viral Etiology Control the Spatial Extent and Seasonal Distribution of Black Death Mortality? Medical Hypotheses 72: 749-752.
Dykes AP, Welford MR 2007. Landslides in the Tandayapa Valley, northern Andes, Ecuador: implications for landform development in humid and tectonically active mountain ranges. Landslides 4 (2): 177-187.
Welford MR, Vásquez A, Sambrano P, Nunnery T, Ulman B 2007. Evidence for Giant Cowbird Molothrus oryzivorus brood-parasitism of Turquoise Jays Cyanolyca turcosa in northwest Ecuador and how this alters our understanding of Cowbird brood parasitism. Cotinga 27 (spring issue): 58-60.