Thea Youngs

Thea Youngs is serving as a Fellow for the brand-new Town of Chebeague Island, where she will be using GIS technology to assist the town with developing its first Comprehensive Plan, Land-Use Regulations and Zoning ordinances. Thea will work directly with members of the Long Range Planning Committee, the Planning Board and the Conservation Commission to develop maps that display and analyzes information to identify issues and the implication of policies related to the use and development of land.

Thea is a recent graduate of Mount Holyoke College, where she majored in Geography and minored in Anthropology. Thea received the Mount Holyoke College Laurel Fellowship for Study Abroad and spent a year studying geography at the University of London, Royal Holloway. That summer, she received a Mary Jean Hale Fellowship and traveled to Belfast, Northern Ireland to work at the Queen’s University Centre for Data Digitization and Analysis, where she assisted on research examining changing patterns of infant mortality in 20th century England and Wales. In addition, Thea has served as a teaching assistant and assisted faculty research projects on population change in 19th century France; measurement of tree heights from stereo images; and the creation of GIS datasets for the Plum Island Salt Marsh.

Thea is from Penacook, New Hampshire and writes: "I want the chance to realize my initial ambitions with geography: using it as a tool to study the way in which people connect with the environment around them. Moreover, I am greatly interested in having the opportunity to be able to use the skills I have developed in a project centered on community work. I believe that the Island Institute fellowship would give me the chance to use GIS as a tool that would directly benefit communities and the chance to gain experience in town planning and management of natural resources."  

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