GENI Award Recipients 2025

Matt Evans

GENI's Friend of Geography Award Recipient

This year the GENI Awards Committee wishes to acknowledge Mr. Matt
Evans. Most of you do not know Matt, but he is the genius behind the
creation of GENI’s latest Giant Map of Indiana. Matt is an experienced
Geographic Information Systems Coordinator with a demonstrated history
of working within government and administrative settings . Mr. Evans is
skilled in Strategic Planning, Environmental Sciences, Research,
Geographic Information Systems, and Spatial Analysis. Graduating with
an undergraduate degree from Earlham College highlighting Geology,
Environmental Sciences and General Education enabled Matt to pursue
many diverse professional employment opportunities: including with the
City of Richmond, Planning Division and as a GIS Coordinator; he
worked with the Wayne County Surveyor as a GIS Coordinator; he has
been a GIS Program Specialist with the Indiana Geographic Information
Office; currently, Matt is THE GIS Data Harvest Subject Matter Expert
within the IN Geographic Information Office … Matt enables statewide
GIS and Geospatial Professionals 1) to construct better decision-making
applications and solution, 2) to comprehend the full-scope of problem-
solving as everything involves multi-dimensional, or spatial, elements and
3) calibrate appropriate and efficient planning because of accurate and
current spatial data. In other words, Matt enables the State of Indiana to
function in a more efficient, accurate and informed manner.

MANY of us are looking forward to collaborating with Matt on future GIS
and Geospatial projects as technologies adapt and change and as realities
become both larger and much smaller, in other words involving LOTS of
spatial information. And MANY of us are looking forward to watching as
Matt continues to shine and to lead the state and nation in GIS and
Geospatial Technologies!

Without Matt, GENI and Indiana would be less capable of accomplishing
many geographic tasks and geo-education resource development. THANK
YOU, Matt!!!

Michelle Sanson

Indiana's Geography Educator of the Year Award Recipient

This year the GENI Awards Committee has selected an OUTSTANDING recipient:
I would like to introduce Michelle Sanson from Wea Ridge Middle School located in
Lafayette, Indiana. Michelle has been a Career Professional Social Studies Educator
and has been employed at Wea Ridge Middle School, part of the Tippecanoe County School Corporation, since 2015. She also teaches via the Tippecanoe Online Academy > Psychology, Understanding Diversity, and United States History. Yearly, Mrs. Sanson has led the Husky Travel Club adventures to places around the world; over 300 individuals have travelled with the Club to places such as Panama, Italy, the Galapagos Islands, Belgium, China, Ecuador and more. Michelle’s goals for the Travel Club reinforce teaching and learning for all participants, bringing the classroom to life. She spends her extra-curricular commitments coaching sports and academic clubs. Colleagues, Administration and Students appreciate Michelle’s dedication to the teaching profession, to the Social Studies, to her students and to her ability to integrate topics and disciplines, mimicking real-life! As an example of dynamic and energetic Administrative support, Mrs. Sanson’s principal, Mr. Fred Roop, joined us today … thank you, Mr. Roop! And we want to recognize Michelle’s ever-supportive and greatest cheerleader in her husband, Jeff

One of the coolest opportunities that Michelle earned was a Lilly Teacher Creativity
Fellowship in 2022. Like many of us in this room, Michelle’s Fellowship involved
becoming a student learning new skills and exploring! She renovated a 1999 GMC
Bluebird short bus and spent the summer living simply and self-sustainably while
traveling throughout the United States. Sanson shared this renovation journey with her students, encouraging their excitement about her learning, labor, progress and
adventures. Students learned that life is always about learning … even for an
experienced educator!

Her active engagement within the Geography Educators’ Network of Indiana began
over a decade ago as her students assisted with the creation and production of
Geography Awareness Week resources: postcards, bookmarks and Giant Map of
Indiana resources. Michelle participates in Professional Development highlighting
cross curricular connections providing ideas and resources that always link multiple disciplines; she is a true Social Studies Educator!!! Her unshakeable faith in education and in the Social Studies/Social Sciences is one of the reasons that Indiana has a strong network of educators advocating for Literacy across disciplines.

GENI extends a heart-felt THANK YOU to Michelle Sanson!!!