Meet Our Faculty

Patrick Kennelly
GIS Program Director
Geography Advisor
Email: pkennelly@cocc.edu

For more than three decades, Pat has worked with geographic information systems (GIS) to make maps for the natural resource industry, state government, environmental consulting, and higher education. Specializing in cartography, his maps, apps, and data visualizations have been featured on the BBC and at three exhibition venues: the Harvard Graduate School of Design, the Los Angeles Center for Land Use Interpretation, and the Academy of Architecture of Mendrisio, Switzerland. His maps are also featured in nine books on topics that include landscape ecology, geology, cartography, and GIS, and have also graced the covers of seven international scientific journals and two books on cartography.

Pat has discussed his map-making techniques with audiences in Italy, France, Germany, Portugal, Croatia, Romania, Australia, China, Japan, Hong Kong, Brazil, Chile, Canada, and across the United States. Pat loves working with COCC students in his courses to introduce them to the wonders of mapping with GIS.

Bob Earle
Part-time Geography Instructor
Email: bearle@cocc.edu

Bob Earle began his interest in spatial and geographic sciences with a Masters of Geography and Environmental Studies at San Francisco State University. He was a database designer and manager in Sacramento County’s GIS department for 25 years, before retiring to teach GIS and Physical Geography in eight universities and community colleges. Along the way he has worked at Stanford, the California Coastal Commission, Sonoma County Planning Department, and as a GIS consultant. Bob is published in ESRI’s ArcUser Magazine, and acknowledged for contributions to three books on GIS and Biogeography. He is the former creator and coordinator of the Sacramento Area GIS User Group. Bob was part of two ESRI International Achievement Awards – once as part of the American River College GIS Program, and once as part of the Sacramento Area GIS Coordinating Committee. Bob was also awarded URISA's prestigious Exemplary Systems in Government (ESIG) Award, as a manager in the Sacramento GIS department.

Ben Clark
Part-time Geography Instructor
Email: bclark10@cocc.edu

Ben began teaching part-time for COCC in 2023 and primarily teaches online. He teaches several Geography courses, including GEOG 107: Human Geography - The Cultural Landscape, and the World Regional Geography sequence (GEOG 201 & 202).  The World Regional Geography Sequence explores the developed world by comparing culture, politics, economics, history, urbanization, and the physical environment. 

Currently, Ben is splitting his time as a Part-time Geography Instructor at COCC and working as a GIS Analyst for local government. He has a Master of Arts in Teaching degree, along with degrees in GIS, History, and Land Management. In addition, he has experience working for the Forest Service and as a secondary Geography and History teacher for 10 years. Most of his teaching career was in Alaska before more recently transitioning into the geospatial land management path in Oregon. In his free time, he and his wife are outside in our national forests skiing, biking, hiking, and trying to keep up with their border collie, Juniper.

Betsy Julian
Part-time Geography Instructor
Email: bjulian@cocc.edu

Dr. Julian earned her doctorate in geology from Rice University. She completed a masters degree in geology at the University of Michigan and a bachelors degree with a double major in geology and history at Rice University. Betsy formerly served as COCC's Vice President for Instruction and continues to teach on a part-time basis for the Geology and Geography programs. 

Prior to moving to Oregon, Dr. Julian served as dean of math and sciences at Solano Community College in Fairfield, California; professor of earth science at Yuba College; an earth science instructor at Lake Tahoe Community College; and an assistant professor, instructor and undergraduate lab coordinator in the department of geological sciences at the at the University of Texas at El Paso. Dr. Julian received the Woman of Distinction Award from Portland Community College in 2015, the Presidential Recognition award at Solano College in 2011, and the Lake Tahoe Community College Teacher of the Year award four times during her tenure at that college.

Betsy teaches two physical geography courses, GEOG 278 and GEOG 279, usually at the Redmond, Prineville, or Madras campuses.