Meet the Instructors

Asa Sakrison

Asa Sakrison is a geography Ph.D. student at Arizona State University interested in how climate change is shifting the way we use space and build place. Their research focuses on the Puget Sound region and is an extension of their master’s thesis work at the University of Pennsylvania, where they built GIS tools for predictive modeling of sea-level rise and wetland migration.

While earning a master’s in resource management and a certificate in GIS, they first started teaching GIS courses. They have taught at the University of Pennsylvania, Arizona State University, Portland Community College and Lewis and Clark College. They have also worked as a research assistant at the Vegetation and Landscape Ecology Lab, in industry at Google Maps and several geospatial firms as a consultant and contractor. They’re a co-founder and co-director of the Post-Human Network and are passionate about increasing equitable student success in GIS education. An instructor for the UW Certificate in Geographic Information Systems (GIS), they were honored with a Teaching Excellence Award in 2023.