Dr. Nick Schulke is a Great Lakes Social Scientist at the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation.
I began my journey in geography during a year of post-baccalaureate studies at UWM. I was drawn to the field of geography due to the breadth of discipline across the physical and social sciences, and also because I’m a big map nerd. It was during this year of post-baccalaureate studies that several faculty inspired a passion for geography, which prompted me to enroll as a graduate student. I completed my master’s (2014) and PhD (2019) under the guidance of my advisor, Dr. Ryan Holifield, as well as my committee members, Drs. Bonds, Donnelly, Fredlund, Sziarto, and Yoon. My specialization is environmental geography, and my graduate research focused on controversies surrounding the restoration of Milwaukee’s Kinnickinnic River (master’s) and oil and gas development in residential areas of northern Colorado (PhD).
Following completion of my doctorate, I taught at Central Washington University and then UW-Rock County and the UWM Department of Geography before joining Wisconsin DNR as a Natural Resources Research Scientist. I currently work for the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation (NMSF) as a Great Lakes Social Scientist and am also an affiliate with NOAA. I am currently based in Alpena, Michigan (pull out your atlas, geographers!) at the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary (NMS) supporting a large, multi-component socioeconomic study on the three Great Lakes national marine sanctuaries—Thunder Bay, Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast, and Lake Ontario. As part of this study, I collaborate with researchers and other staff at NOAA, NMSF, West Virginia University (WVU), and an environmental consulting firm.
Currently, my work centers on leading a social values mapping project in which residents of Great Lakes NMS communities identify locations in the waters and coastal areas of these sanctuaries they feel are representative of different types of social values (e.g., recreational, aesthetic, maritime heritage). Over this past summer, I managed field staff and data collection for a visitor use study led by WVU that focused on recreation and tourism in Great Lakes NMS regions. In my researcher roles, my training as a geographer has allowed me to apply my experience in qualitative and quantitative methodologies with my GIS skills in numerous ways, including study design, data analysis, and visualization. In my current role, my training allows me to contribute a geographic perspective to investigating spatial dimensions of value (broadly defined) that Great Lakes sanctuaries bring to their communities and region, as well as to partner organizations.
I have many fond memories of my time as a student in the department, and they are too numerous to list. Among them are the department picnics, grad student lunches with colloquium speakers, and social outings with fellow grad students to grab a beer at the Gasthaus, go bowling, or just get out around Milwaukee. Above all, I enjoyed working with numerous geography students over the years as a teaching assistant (and sharing my passion for geography with them), as well as appreciated the incredible amount of support provided by my advisor, committee members, and the faculty, in general.
Balancing work and life can be a challenge for me, particularly in my current role, but I find that getting out to hike, camp, and generally spending time outdoors is therapeutic and allows me to disconnect from the bustle of work. Living in northeast Michigan provides plenty of opportunity to explore and enjoy the outdoors and has been a refreshing change from city life.
The advice I would offer to geography students would be to get out of your comfort zone and seize opportunities during your studies to do and try new things that come your way. You never know what or where those experiences will bring you. Also, even though you specialize in a track or subdiscipline of geography, embracing the breadth of the discipline (human, physical, geospatial) will help you be more versatile and valuable in the professional work you do.