Mark in the Field
Overlooking Lake
Teslin in the Yukon Territory-Fall 2007
Professional Background
Mark Rivera received his B.S. in Geology from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh in 1996. He then accepted a teaching assistantship and enrolled at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces New Mexico. Under the guidance of Dr. Katherine Giles, Mark successfully completed an M.S. in geology specializing in carbonate sequence stratigraphy and sedimentary petrology in 1999. While writing his Master's Thesis, he worked at the NASA-White Sands Test Facility in southern New Mexico doing environmentally-related field geology. In the winter of 2000, Mark moved to Fort Collins, Colorado and worked as a geologist for Lidstone and Associates. In the summer of 2001, Mark and his wife Marny moved to Ashland, Oregon. During this time, Mark decided to go back to school to become a high school science teacher. In 2004 he completed Southern Oregon University's Master of Art's in Teaching program. Mark taught for three years at Rogue River High School in southern Oregon. In the summer of 2006 he and his wife Marny, accepted teaching positions at the University of Anchorage-Alaska.