Background
Ph.D., Geography, The University of Tennessee, 2008
M.S., Forest Ecology, Southern Illinois University, 2002
B.S., Forest Science, Pennsylvania State University, 2000
Saskia van de Gevel is the Chair of the Department of Geography and Planning at Appalachian State University. Saskia has a strong history of collaboration with scientists, multidisciplinary faculty, and land management agencies to establish research opportunities, funding, and peer-reviewed publications.
Saskia's research interests include professional ethics, endangered mountain ecosystems, dendrochronology, biogeography, and geography education.
Summary
- Chair and Professor in the Department of Geography and Planning: Responsible for all aspects of department administration, organized 40 course and degree curriculum proposals, updated promotion, tenure, merit, and foundation documents, recruited and retained faculty, and mentored junior faculty. Coordinated faculty promotion and tenure, post-tenure reviews, strategic planning, and program assessment for department. Led the Department through the challenges of the COVID-19 global pandemic and was able to facilitate a new $70,000 scholarship and the renovation of a cutting-edge $60,000 active-learning classroom during the pandemic.
- Awarded a Board of Governors Appalachian State University Campus Excellence in Teaching Award
- Grants Funded: Over $950,000 dollars as PI or Co-PI ($400,000 towards K-16 education efforts)
- The National Geographic Society funded my positions as the Geography Steward of North Carolina and the Coordinator of the North Carolina Geographic Alliance
- Equity research and leadership development on “Reducing the Risk of Sexual Misconduct in Academic Settings”
Publications
Kristen de Graauw, Maegen Rochner, Saskia L. van de Gevel, Lauren Stachowiak, Savannah Collins-Key, Joseph Hendersen, and Amy Hessl. 2023. Dendroarchaeological data for understanding past climate and ecology: opportunities and challenges (in review).
Melissa A. Thomas-Van Gundy, Saskia L. van de Gevel, Peter S. White, and Beverly Collins. 2023. Ecosystem Dynamics chapter in, “Ecology and Restoration of Red Spruce Ecosystems of the Central and Southern Appalachians,” USDA Forest Service (in review).
Grant Harley, Matt Therrell., Justin Maxwell, Arvind Bhuta, Joshua Bregy, Karen Heeter,...Saskia L. van de Gevel…& Sarir Ahmad. 2023. The Longleaf Tree-Ring Network: Reviewing and expanding the utility of Pinus palustris Mill. Dendrochronological data. Progress in Physical Geography: Earth and Environment 0(0): 1–27. (PDF)
Carolyn Copenheaver, Saskia L. van de Gevel, Adam Downing, and Adam Coates. 2023. Reducing the risk of sexual misconduct during field research with students. Natural Areas Journal 43(2): 117-123. (PDF)
Carolyn Copenheaver, Saskia L. van de Gevel, Adam Downing, and Adam Coates. 2022. Reducing the Risk of Sexual Misconduct at Dendrochronology Conferences and Workshops. Tree-Ring Research, Vol. 78(2), 2022, pp. 140–149. (PDF)
Carolyn Copenheaver, Adam Coates, Adam Downing, and Saskia L. van de Gevel. 2021. Best Instructional Practices For Outdoor Laboratories: Reducing Sexual Harassment Risk. NACTA Journal 65. (PDF)
April Kaiser, Pete Soulé, Saskia L. van de Gevel, Paul Knapp, Arvind Bhuta, and Jeffrey Walters. 2020. Dendroecological investigation of red-cockaded woodpecker cavity tree selection in endangered longleaf pine forests. Forest Ecology and Management 473: 118291. (PDF)
Burke McDade, Derek Martin, Saskia L. van de Gevel, and Jessica Mitchell. 2020. Impacts of the hemlock woolly adelgid (Adelges tsugae) on headwater stream woody debris loads in the Southern Appalachian Mountains. Southeastern Geographer 60(1): 65-86. (PDF)
Rebecca Theobald, Anita Palmer, and Saskia L. van de Gevel. 2019. Interactive Mapping for Transparent Redistricting. Research in Geographic Education 21(2): 11-38.
Zachary Osborne, Saskia L. van de Gevel, Montana Eck, and Margaret Sugg. 2019. An Assessment of Geospatial Technology Integration in K–12 Education. Journal of Geography 1-12. (PDF)
Karen J. Heeter, Grant L. Harley, Saskia L. van de Gevel, and Philip B. White. 2019. Blue intensity as a temperature proxy in the eastern United States: A pilot study from a southern disjunct population of Picea rubens (Sarg.). Dendrochronologia 55: 105-109. (PDF)
Saskia L. van de Gevel, Evan Larson, Henri D. Grissino-Mayer. 2017. Separating trends in whitebark pine radial growth related to climate and mountain pine beetle outbreaks in the Northern Rocky Mountains. Forests 8: 195. (PDF)
Maegen Rochner, Saskia L. van de Gevel, Mark D. Spond, and Henri D. Grissino-Mayer. 2016. Using dendrochronology to investigate the historical and educational value of two log structures, Bear Paw State Natural Area, North Carolina, U.S.A. Tree-Ring Research 73 (2): 136-148. (PDF)
David Austin, Saskia L. van de Gevel, and Peter T. Soulé. 2016. Forest dynamics and climate sensitivity of an endangered Carolina hemlock community in the southern Appalachian Mountains, U.S.A. Botany 94: 301-309. (PDF)
Mark D. Spond, Saskia L. van de Gevel, and Henri D. Grissino-Mayer. 2014. Climate-growth relationships for Rocky Mountain juniper (Juniperus scopulorum Sarg.) on the volcanic badlands of western New Mexico, U.S.A. Dendrochronologia 32: 137–143. (PDF)
Philip B. White, Peter T. Soulé, and Saskia L. van de Gevel. 2014. Impacts of human disturbance on the temporal stability of climate-growth relationships in a red spruce forest, Southern Appalachian Mountains, U.S.A. Dendrochronologia 32: 71-77. (PDF)
Nicholas Fuhrman, Chris Morgan, Carolyn Copenheaver, John Peterson, Milton Newberry, Sara DeLoach, and Saskia L. van de Gevel. 2014. Repeated monitoring of forest plots: Evaluating the accuracy of student scientist data. NACTA Journal 58(2): 95-101. (PDF)
Saskia L. van de Gevel, Justin L. Hart, Mark D. Spond, Philip B. White, Megan N. Sutton, and Henri Grissino-Mayer. 2012. American chestnut to northern red oak: a forest dynamics study in the Blue Ridge Mountains, North Carolina, U.S.A. Botany 90: 1263-1275. (PDF)
Philip B. White, Saskia L. van de Gevel, and Peter T. Soulé 2012. Succession and disturbance in an endangered red spruce-Fraser fir forest in the southern Appalachian Mountains, North Carolina, U.S.A. Endangered Species Research 18: 17–25. (PDF)
Philip B. White, Saskia L. van de Gevel, Henri D. Grissino-Mayer, and Lisa B. LaForest. 2011. Climatic response of oak species across an environmental gradient in the southern Appalachian Mountains, U.S.A. Tree-Ring Research 67(1): 27–37. (PDF)
Justin L. Hart, Saskia L. van de Gevel, John Sakulich, and Henri D. Grissino-Mayer. 2010. Influence of climate and disturbance on the growth of Tsuga canadensis at its southern limit. Trees 24: 621–633. (PDF)
Justin L. Hart, David A. Austin, and Saskia L. van de Gevel. 2010. Radial Growth responses of three co-occurring species to small canopy disturbances in a secondary hardwood forest on the Cumberland Plateau, Tennessee. Physical Geography 31(2): 1–22. (PDF)
Evan R. Larson, Saskia L. van de Gevel, and Henri D. Grissino-Mayer. 2009. Variability in fire regimes of high-elevation whitebark pine communities, western Montana, U.S.A. Ecoscience 16(3): 282–298. (PDF)
Henri D. Grissino-Mayer, Lisa B. LaForest, and Saskia L. van de Gevel. 2009. Construction history of the Rocky Mount Historic Site, Piney Flats, Tennessee from tree-ring and documentary evidence. Southeastern Archaeology 28(1): 64–77.
Saskia L. van de Gevel, Justin L. Hart, Henri D. Grissino-Mayer, and Ken W. Robinson. 2009. Tree-ring dating of old-growth longleaf pine (Pinus palustris Mill.) logs from an exposed timber crib dam, Hope Mills, North Carolina, U.S.A. Tree-Ring Research 65(1): 69–80. (PDF)
Joseph P. Henderson, Henri D. Grissino-Mayer, Saskia L. van de Gevel, and Justin L. Hart. 2009. The historical dendroarchaeology of the Hoskins House, Tannenbaum Historic Park, Greensboro, North Carolina. Tree-Ring Research 65(1): 37–45. (PDF)
Sara A. Blankenship, Meta G. Pike, Saskia L. van de Gevel, and Henri D. Grissino-Mayer. 2009. The dendroarchaeology of Cagle Saltpetre Cave: A nineteenth century saltpeter mining site in Van Buren County, Tennessee. Tree-Ring Research 65(1): 11–22. (PDF)
Justin L. Hart, Saskia L. van de Gevel, and Henri D. Grissino-Mayer. 2008. Forest dynamics in a natural area of the southern Ridge and Valley, Tennessee. Natural Areas Journal 28(3): 275–289. (PDF)
Justin L. Hart, Saskia L. van de Gevel, David F. Mann, and Wayne K. Clatterbuck. 2008. Legacy of charcoaling in a Western Highland Rim forest in Tennessee. American Midland Naturalist 159: 238–250.
Henri D. Grissino-Mayer and Saskia L. van de Gevel. 2007. Tell-tale trees: the historical dendroarchaeology of log structures at Rocky Mount, Piney Flats, Tennessee. Historical Archaeology 41(4): 32–49. (PDF)
Saskia L. van de Gevel and Charles M. Ruffner. 2006. Land-use history and resulting forest succession in the Illinois Ozark Hills. In: David S. Buckley and Wayne K. Clatterbuck (Editors). Proceedings, 15th Central Hardwood Forest Conference, February 28–March 1, 2006, Knoxville, Tennessee. USDA Forest Service General Technical Report SRS-101: 719–726, Asheville, North Carolina.
Saskia L. van de Gevel, Henri D. Grissino-Mayer, and Evan R. Larson. 2005. Dendroecological applications for whitebark pine ecosystems. Nutcracker Notes 9:6–7.
Marc D. Abrams, Carolyn A. Copenheaver, Bryan A. Black, and Saskia L. van de Gevel. 2001. Dendroecology and balsam fir decline in a relic, old-growth, bog forest in the central Ridge and Valley Province. Canadian Journal of Botany 79: 58–69. (PDF)
Marc D. Abrams, Saskia L. van de Gevel, Ryan C. Dodson, and Carolyn A. Copenheaver. 2000. The dendroecology and climate impacts for old-growth white pine and hemlock on the extreme slopes of the Berkshire Hills, Massachusetts. Canadian Journal of Botany 78: 851–861. (PDF)
Title: Department Chair & Professor, Professional Ethics; Endangered Mountain Ecosystems; Dendrochronology; Biogeography
Department: Geography and Planning
Email address: Email me
Phone: (828) 262-7028