Wendy L. Zeller Zigaitis is a doctoral candidate at the Department of Geography. Her research focus is on the synthesis of geospatial data. Specifically, she is investigating how protected areas make sense of device-based and human-generated geospatial data for poaching mitigation.
She holds a bachelor’s degree in geography, with a minor in natural sciences, and a graduate certificate in project management, all from Penn State. She is certified as an Associate Ecologist through the Ecological Society of America (ESA). She also earned a master’s degree in political geography from the University of Maryland, and a master's of natural resources from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. She was selected in 2007 as a federal Research Fellow, where she focused her research on training programs for unmanned systems data analysis. During this time Zeller Zigaitis was part of a team awarded a federal government award for curriculum development.
Zeller Zigaitis is a member of the Graduates of Earth and Mineral Sciences (GEMS) Board of Directors, and the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences Sustainability Council. She is an avid traveler. She has currently visited all 50 U.S. states, 6 continents (Antarctica is remaining), and 48 countries.