Department: Geology and Environmental Science
Areas of expertise:
- Caves (Puerto Rico and Shenandoah Valley) and karst landform
- Ethnogeology (intersection between culture and geology)
- Community-based research
Garcia is a Boricua (Puerto Rican) geologist who is interested in ethnogeology, cave and karst science, place-based education and increasing diversity within geosciences.
Garcia completed his undergraduate degree in Puerto Rico at Universidad Ana G. Mendez (formerly known as Universidad Metropolitana) majoring in environmental sciences with a minor in marine biology. He then started his graduate career at the University of Vermont where he finished a master’s degree in geology, focusing on geochemistry. Garcia then attended Arizona State University for his doctoral degree in geological sciences, focusing in ethnogeology about culturally framed geological interpretations among long-term residents in the Dominican and Puerto Rican karst.
Media contact: Eric Gorton, gortonej@jmu.edu, 540-908-1760.
