The Marston Lecture in Geography was established in 2015 by Geography alumnus Richard A. Marston (M.S. ‘76, Ph.D. ‘80). The Marston Lecture was created to bring national and international scholars who have made important contributions in the areas of geographic inquiry to OSU.
Fall 2025 Marston Lecture
Thursday, November 20, 3 p.m.
Location to be announced. Zoom option available.
Title: International and local perspectives on water and food: How geography shaped the professional trajectories of an accountant and an economist
Speakers:
Mark Giordano
Professor of Geography and Vice Dean for Undergraduate Affairs, Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University
Meredith Giordano
Former Deputy Director, Office of Global Operations, Peace Corps
Talk summary: Since leaving Oregon State University more than 20 years ago, Mark and Meredith Giordano have worked on water and agricultural issues at institutions ranging from international research organizations to the U.S. government and academia. The Giordanos have examined multi-scale resource challenges in Asia and Africa, with much of their professional lives based outside of the U.S. Meredith and Mark will join us to reflect on how their study of geography at Oregon State shaped their career trajectories and influenced their approach to research, practice and life in general.
Speaker Bios: Mark Giordano’s research focuses on the international political dimensions of water, agriculture and the environment. As part of his interest in the role of art in global affairs, he sits on the boards of The Kentler International Drawing Space, Brooklyn and the Mokuhanga Project Space, Walla Walla and advises the National Museum of Asian Art. Prior to Georgetown, Mark held multiple roles at the Sri Lanka based International Water Management Institute, and was the winner of the Stockholm Water Prize, known as the “Nobel Prize for Water.” In an earlier career, he was an agricultural trade economist and a combine mechanic.
Meredith Giordano served as Deputy Director of the Office of Global Operations for the Peace Corps from 2018 to 2024. In that role, Meredith provided leadership and coordination of operations across OGO offices; guided the review and formulation of policies involving overseas operations; and facilitated short- and long-term strategic planning and priority setting for the Office of Global Operations. Prior to joining the Peace Corps, Meredith held leadership roles at the Sri Lanka-based International Water Management Institute (IWMI) after having served as a Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. Agency for International Development and as an auditor for Arthur Anderson & Co.
Past Marston Lectures
- 2024 - Brooke Marston, M.S. '14 - Geography, Intelligence, and Foreign Policy: A State Department Geographer’s Perspective
- 2023 (November) - Dawn Wright - The Dive of a Lifetime to the Deepest Place on Earth
- 2023 (May) - William Moseley - When agronomy flirts with markets, gender and nutrition: A political ecology of the new green revolution for Africa and women’s food security in Burkina Faso; Beth Tellman - Understanding flood risk from space: Opportunities to adapt to changing risk and catalyze climate justice; Cascade Tuholske - Linking food security, climate change, and urbanization across Africa
- 2022 - Julia Corbett - New directions for communicating the climate crisis, and Jenna Tilt - Resilience re-imagined: Why equity matters
- 2019 - Jane Lubchenco - Tackling wicked environmental problems with complex-adaptive-systems thinking
- 2018 - Simon Donner - Living islands: Coping with sea-level rise in Kiribati and the Pacific islands
- 2016 - Alexander B. Murphy - The integration struggle in Europe: Geographical considerations
- 2015 - Richard A. Marston - Physical geography and geographic information science in environmental management: Past lessons and prospects for the future
Richard A. Marston
Richard A. Marston is a University Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Geography at Kansas State University. He served as the 102nd President of the Association of American Geographers from 2005-06. He is an Emeritus Co-Editor-in-Chief of the journal, Geomorphology. The American Institute of Hydrology first certified Marston as Professional Hydrologist #488 in 1984. Marston is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Geographical Society, Explorers Club, Geological Society of America, and Royal Geographical Society. The American Association of Geographers awarded him with Distinguished Service Honors (2003), the Barry Bishop Distinguished Career Award in Mountain Geography (2007), and the Mel Marcus Distinguished Career Award in Geomorphology (2016).