About
This will serve as both a Professional and Personal website. I hope to be honest and open about who I am, where I came from, as well as what I do and what I have accomplished. I believe that the personal, uniqueness of the self cannot truly (and should not) be separated from our goals and career, job, work, academics or anything else.
Geographer, Hydro-Climatologist & Geo-Spatial Data Analyst.
I am a first-generation, disabled, queer non-binary scientist and geographer, born and raised in rural Wakulla County Florida.
- Pronouns: they/them
- Birthday: December 16th
- Website: https://geog.ufl.edu/grad-students/capps-herron/
- Phone: 850-274-6525
- Age: 26
- City: Gainesville, Florida
- Degree: Geography PhD (in-progress), Masters (completed)
- Email: hcapps65@ufl.edu ; hcapps65@gmail.com
I'm is a PhD student in the Department of Geography. A Florida native of Venezuelan descent (maternal side), I completed a B.S. in Environmental Science with a minor in Geography at the University of Florida in 2019, and a M.S. in Geography at UF as well in 2021. My research interests include climate science and hydro-climatology broadly, and specifically rainfall and streamflow variability, and extreme precipitation, as well as extreme precipitation utilizing Extreme Value Theory, and understanding societal impacts of hazards. I am interested in looking at daily to annual scales as well as inter and intra-variability. I use meteorological station data as well as numerical and probabilistic approaches to study or evaluate potential changes over time and space of these hydrological phenomena. I am also interested in Climate justice. During the course of my education, I will build on my current Geospatial analysis and techniques, like GeoAI. Growing up in Wakulla County on FLs Forgotten Coast, I always had appreciation for nature, and fascination for extreme weather. After taking AP Environmental Science in high school, I became interested in climate change and science. I followed my interest in climate science through Environmental Science at UF. Eventually, Geography provided the avenue to tie all of these interests together. As a first generation student from a part of the state with extremely limited technology resources, I've had to overcome much to succeed in graduate school. These include but are not limited to: navigating academic bureaucracy, learning advanced technologies, and discovering I have had undiagnosed ADHD all my life and how to navigate that now. Soon I will transition from working on my PhD full-time to part-time, as I begin a full-time position as a Hydrologist at the St. John's River Water Management District.
Facts
I add a fact or two about myself, but I'm not super exciting, so I also share facts about my home and heart: Wakulla County FL. Where I grew up was a gorgeous natural sanctuary, but also a time-bubble, lacking access to technology and other things expected of someone growing up in the U.S.
Travel I have never been outside of the southeastern United States: furthest north Virginia, west Louisiana, and south Tampa FL.
Technology Access My family did not have interest access and wifi until I was 16 years old.
High School I was my high school Valedictorian.
Wakulla County history I was one of the first two people in my county history to graduate high school with my AA degree.
Wakulla Springs Wakulla Springs is the largest and deepest freshwater artesian spring in the world
Skills
I'm confident & experienced in coding in R and R Studio, as well as mapping & geospatial analysis in ArcMap & ArcGIS Pro. I'm also in the process of learning Python. I want to learn JavaScript & Html, though I'm only very early in this. Other geospatial programs I'll have some experience in and want to learn more about include QGIS and USGS Hydrologic Toolbox. I've had nearly no experience or knowledge of Linux use, but it'd be useful to learn. In future classes in my PhD I will begin to learn about AI, machine learning, and further my current coding, techniques & programs.
Resume
Here I share some highlights of my resume: education and recent research & work experience. I also share a file version of my most up-to-date CV/resume. CV Dec2022.
Summary
Holli Capps Herron (they/them)
Geography PhD student at University of Florida and Hydrologist II at St. John's River Water Management District.
- UF Dept of Geography, 3141 Turlington Hall Gainesville, FL 32611
- 850-274-6525
- hcapps65@gmail.com
Education
PhD & Geography
2021 - 2026
University of Florida, Gainesville, FL
Dissertation topic: Broadly Extreme value analysis and hydro-climatology. Concentrations in Climate Science and Earth System science.
Master of Science & Geography
2019 - 2021
University of Florida, Gainesville, FL
Thesis: Spatial and Temporal Variability in the Characteristics of Extreme Daily Rainfalls in Ghana. Concentration in Climate Science.
Bachelor of Science & Environmental Science
2015 - 2019
University of Florida, Gainesville, FL
Honors Thesis: Predicting monthly streamflows and their variability from limited historic records in the Tárcoles watershed, Costa Rica. Double Minor in Geography and in Soil and Water Science.
Research and Work Experience
Graduate Teaching Assistant: GEO2242 Extreme Weather
Fall 2019 - Fall 2022
University of Florida, Gainesville FL
- Lead grading (~100 undergraduate students)
- Responded to students as primary contact, created and managed Canvas shell.
- Delegated tasks, such as grading & responding to students, to TAs.
- Taught TAs how to use Canvas as instructors.
Graduate researcher
August 2019 - May 2021
Geography Dept, University of Florida, Gainesville FL
- During Masters investigated characteristics of extreme daily rainfall at 19 Ghana locations to determine the interannual variability of extreme rainfalls nationally, and assess recovery from West African drought.
- Used Excel, ArcMap, R and other programs to perform analysis on precipitation data.
- Wrote thesis as part of Masters degree, and Selected research results for journal publication.
College Intern, Groundwater Modeling Group
Juna 2022 - September 2022
St. Johns River Water Management District, Palatka FL
- Completed a literature review of existing baseflow separation methods.
- Helped develop a modeling framework for the evaluation of baseflow separation methods.
- Performed data analysis using USGS Groundwater Toolbox and Hydrologic Toolbox, R and other programs and tools to analyze baseflow and compare results from different methods.
- Generated Technical Report summarizing results for District use.
Contact
You are welcome to contact me at the Department of Geography, or my emailing me at either my personal or UF email. Also, feel free to contact me using the contact form below! I'm happy to chat, or answer any questions.
Location:
Department of Geography, University of Florida, Turlington Hall
Email:
hcapps65@gmail.com (or hcapps65@ufl.edu)
Text:
850-274-6525