JACOB ALEXANDER COOPER

Curriculum Vitae 2024

Contact Information
Christiansburg, VA 24073
256-656-6271
[email protected]
E-Portfolio: JACoop.weebly.com
ORCiD: orcid.org/0000-0002-4334-4079
GitHub: github.com/cooperjaXC

Education
2018-2020. M.S., Geography. The University of Tennessee, Knoxville (Knoxville, TN).
Master’s Thesis: Making Orange Green? A Critical Geographic Approach to Carbon
Footprinting Tennessee Football Tourism. Defended 9 March 2020.
https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes/5629/.
GPA: 4.0/4.0.

2013-2017. B.A., Geography and History. Emory and Henry College (Emory, VA).
Honors Thesis: All Our Teams: The Geography of SEC Fandom and Southern Identity.
Defended 18 April 2017. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_selectug/9/.
GPA: 3.98/4.00. Summa cum Laude.
Honors Program Scholar. Honors Diploma, Department of Geography.

2015. University of Exeter (Exeter, UK). Foreign Exchange.

Coursework in History, Anthropology, and Politics.

Scholarship
2023. “Community Engaged Regenerative Mapping in an age of Displacement and COVID-19.” In
Geographies of Displacement/s, Routledge (edited by Kendra Strauss), pp 48. Solange Munoz,
Elizabeth Walsh, J. A. Cooper, and Jeremy Auerbach. 2022. (Republished article from
Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 2022).

2022. Annals of the American Association of Geographers 112(3): 847-858. “Community Engaged
Regenerative Mapping in an age of Displacement and COVID-19.” Solange Munoz, Elizabeth
Walsh, J. A. Cooper, and Jeremy Auerbach.
https://doi.org/10.1080/24694452.2021.1978838.

2021. “Cancelling March Madness Exposes Opportunity for More Sustainable Sports Tourism
Economy.” In Global Tourism and COVID-19 Implications for Theory and Practice, Routledge
(edited by Alan A. Lew, Joseph M. Cheer, Patrick Brouder, Mary Mostafanezhad), pp 71-81. J.
A. Cooper and Derek H. Alderman. 2022. (Republished article from Tourism Geographies,
2020).

2021. Journal of Cleaner Production 318. “Bracketing sustainability: Carbon footprinting March
Madness to rethink sustainable tourism approaches and measurements.” J. A. Cooper and
Brian P. McCullough. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.128475.

2021. Southeastern Geographer 61(4). Cover Art Essay: “Festival Lights in the Scruffy City.” J. A.
Cooper. https://doi.org/10.1353/sgo.2021.0014.
2020. Tourism Geographies 22(3): 525-535. “Cancelling March Madness exposes opportunities for a
more sustainable sports tourism economy.” J. A. Cooper and Derek H. Alderman.
https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2020.1759135.

2020. Journal of Sport & Tourism 24(1): 31-51. “Making orange green? A critical carbon footprinting
of Tennessee football gameday tourism.” J. A. Cooper.
https://doi.org/10.1080/14775085.2020.1726802.

2020. FOCUS on Geography 63. “Tweeting Images of Fandom: A Geographic Photo Analysis of
Southeastern Conference Football Support.” J. A. Cooper.
https://doi.org/10.21690/foge/2020.63.3p.

2020. Southeastern Geographer 60(4): 360-362. Book Review: Belonging: A Culture of Place (by bell
hooks). J. A. Cooper. https://doi.org/10.1353/sgo.2020.0029.

2019. Northeastern Geographer 11: 1-29. “Fandom on the Air: Assessing Regional Identity through
College Football Radio Networks.” J. A. Cooper and Edward H. Davis.
https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_geogpubs/27/.

Technical Proficiencies
ArcGIS Desktop/Pro/Online/API, Python, Git, GitHub, PostgreSQL, PostGIS, QGIS, R, Linux OS,
CI/CD, Arcade, ChatGPT, AWS S3, Streamlit, Microsoft Excel, Google Maps & Earth, SPSS, Tableau,
Map Cruncher.

Professional Geographic Experience

2024-Present. Child Care Aware® of America (Arlington, VA). Director of GIS Research. Research
Team.
Duties: Leader of GIS data analyses on the Research Team. Director of research incorporating
geospatial technologies to evaluate trends in US child care.
Projects: Child care supply and demand mapping, spatial dynamics of CACFP participation,
early childhood health and wellness evaluation, ECE policy evaluation with spatial data.
Programming: Maintains seven (7) organizational GitHub repositories used to automate
research workflows (e.g., ETL unstandardized business-level data, spatially model child
care supply and demand, establishing and updating ArcGIS Online map dashboard
with qualitative policy data).
Presentations: Presented research processes and results in five (5) presentations at four (4)
academic and professional conferences.
Member: CCAoA Leadership Team, CCAoA Data Strategy Council.

2023-2024. Child Care Aware® of America (Arlington, VA). Senior Data Analyst. Research Team.
Duties: Principal GIS data analyst using geospatial technologies to evaluate trends in US child
care.
Projects: Child care supply and demand mapping, ECE policy evaluation with spatial data.
Programming: Maintains six (6) organizational GitHub repositories used to automate research
workflows (e.g., ETL unstandardized business-level data, spatially model child care
supply and demand, establishing and updating ArcGIS Online map dashboard with
qualitative policy data).
Member: CCAoA Data Strategy Council.

2020-2023. Child Care Aware® of America (Arlington, VA). Geospatial Research Analyst. Research
Team.
Duties: Principal mapping and GIS researcher using geospatial technologies (e.g., ArcGIS Pro,
Online, python API) to evaluate past and current trends in the US child care industry.
 Projects: Child care supply and demand mapping, ECE policy evaluation with spatial data,
child nutrition program story mapping, playspace equity, google trends data extraction
and analysis.
Presentations: Presented research processes and results in eight (8) presentations at six (6)
academic and professional conferences.
Programming:
Sole creator and developer of internal python package to automate research workflows.
Author of programmatic repositories that extract, transform, and load unstandardized
program-level child care data into ArcGIS Online dashboards; model supply
and demand for child care using geoprocessing tools; and daily automatically
extract Google relative search intensity data.
2021-2023. Member: CCAoA Data Strategy Council
2021. Appointed by Executive Management Team.
Member: Data Policy & Governance Committee, Data Architecture & Training
Committee.
Project lead – organizational data use standards creation and implementation.
Supervision – 1: Intern (1).

2020. Globeville, Elyria-Swansea Coalition Organizing for Health and Housing Justice (Denver, CO).
Remote Technical Contractor.
Cartographer and researcher on a grant-funded project constructing an equitable development
plan for a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood of Denver, Colorado.

2019. Oak Ridge National Laboratory (Oak Ridge, TN). Geospatial Database Developer. National
Security Emerging Technology Division, Human Dynamics Group. Subcontractor, Ingenium
Professional Services.
Projects: LandScan HD.
Aided in the LandScan HD transition from an ArcGIS-based workflow to one based upon
PostgreSQL/PostGIS.
Internally published an updated PostgreSQL/PostGIS version of the internal python package
lshdpopwork that automatically generates land-use geographic layers custom tailored
to the LandScan HD population estimation workflow for any given country.
Developed a custom and automated worldwide country-level “border creation” workflow in
which varying international border datasets are synthesized and combined according to
downstream workflow needs.
Re-built a PostgreSQL database from scratch to house a weekly self-updating planet file of
Open Street Map data using PostGIS, osm2pgsql, and osmosis.

2017-2018. Oak Ridge National Laboratory (Oak Ridge, TN). Post-Bachelors Research Associate.
Computational Sciences & Engineering Division, Geographic Information Sciences and Technology
Group, Population Distribution and Dynamics Team.
Projects: LandScan HD.
Developed, organized, and automated geospatial data input and analysis workflows for
LandScan HD using Python for compatibility with ArcGIS 10+.
First author/co-developer of the internal python package lshdpopwork.
Built a PostgreSQL database from scratch to house weekly self-updating a planet file of Open
Street Map data.
Generated high-resolution GIS polygon samples for training of a building-detection deep
learner in Yemen via remote sensing.
Principle developer: custom ArcGIS Desktop extension that mirrors ArcMap view extent in
Google Earth. Language used: Python.
Researched relevant geographic data for population estimation in Yemen including land cover
and census information. Constructed high-resolution GIS borders for Yemen and its
subsidiary administrative regions.
2017. Oak Ridge National Laboratory (Oak Ridge, TN). ORISE Post-Bachelors Summer Researcher.
Computational Sciences & Engineering Division, Geographic Information Sciences and Technology
Group, Population Distribution and Dynamics Team.
Projects: LandScan HD, LandScan Global.
Generated over 20,000 high-resolution GIS polygon samples for training of a building-
detection deep learner in Yemen and North Korea via remote sensing.
Identified non-residential areas in the Democratic Republic of the Congo via remote sensing.
Learned the basic functions and syntax of Python 2.7.

2016. New River Land Trust (Blacksburg, VA). GIS Intern.

Assisted in land conservation through a compilation and analysis of myriad public and private
geographic environmental and infrastructure data.
Pre-processed eight Virginia counties' tax parcels for a risk assessment and prioritization
model with creative ArcGIS geoprocessing and extensive metadata manipulation.
Created a conservation web GIS tool with all relevant conservation and property datasets along
with model in a user-friendly format for Board of Trustee members.

Conference Presentations
May 2024. Child Care Aware® of America Symposium: Raising Child Care, Raising America
(Arlington, VA).
“Developing Successful Strategies through Mapping Child Care Providers.” Alex Cooper &
Anne Hedgepeth. Session Presentation.
“Visualizing Emergency Preparedness: How Data Help CCR&Rs Respond to Disasters.” Alex
Cooper, Julie Coats, Holly Nett, & Nicole Higa. Session Presentation.

“Charting CACFP Success Strategies by Mapping Child Care Providers.” Alex Cooper. Presented:
22-26 April 2024. National Child Nutrition Conference (Orlando, FL). Workshop.
6-8 May 2024. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention DNPAO National Training (Atlanta,
GA). Workshop.

“Where Can We Play? A Conversation about Playspace Equity, Mixed-Methods Mapping, & Early
Learning.” Alex Cooper & Alyssa Young. Presented:
29 November – 1 December 2023. BUILD Initiative 2023 Meeting (Los Angeles, CA). Session
Presentation.

May 2023. Child Care Aware® of America Symposium: Stand Up for Child Care (Arlington, VA).
“Strengthening Children’s Health through Child Care: A Case Study Review of Mapping
CACFP.” Alex Cooper, Roshelle Payes, & Kaitlin Chamberlain. Session Presentation.

“Characteristics of Child Care Supply during Nonstandard Hours: Findings from 6 States.” Alex
Cooper, Kristina Haynie, Clare Waterman, Johayra Bouza, Veronica A. Fernandez. Presented:
23-25 March 2023. Society for Research in Child Development Biennial Meeting (Salt Lake
City, UT). Flash Paper Presentation.

May 2022. Child Care Aware® of America Symposium: Unite, Disrupt, and Transform (Arlington, VA).
“Accessible, Timely Data to Disrupt and Drive ECE Transformation.” Kristina Haynie, Alex
Cooper, & Samantha Sulsar. Session Presentation.
“Data-Driven Advocacy for Advancing Long-Term Funding for Child Care: A Texas Case
Study.” Alex Cooper, Kim Kofron, & Diane Girouard. Session Presentation.

“Using Google Trends to Approximate Child Care Demand.” J. A. Cooper. Presented:

21-22 November 2021. Southeastern Division of the American Association of Geographers
(Florence, AL). Paper Presentation.
May 2021. Child Care Aware® of America Symposium: A New Way Forward (Virtual).
“Enrollment-based Vouchers: A new way forward for the child care subsidy system?” Alex
Cooper, Diane Girouard, Amy O’Leary, Susan Savage, & Cara Sklar. Session
Presentation.
"Looking Back while Moving Forward: What State Policies Worked Best in 2020 and How We
Can Go Further in 2021." Miriam Calderon, Mario Cardona, Diane Girouard, & Alex
Cooper. Session Presentation.

“Displacement In and Of Geographic Research during COVID-19.” Jeremy Auerbach, J. A. Cooper,

Solange Muñoz, & Elizabeth Walsh. Presented:
6-7 November 2020. Southeastern Division of the American Association of Geographers
(Virtual). Paper Presentation.

“Making orange green? A critical carbon footprinting of Tennessee football gameday tourism.” J. A.
Cooper. Presented:
4-10 April 2020. American Association of Geographers (Denver, CO). Paper Presentation.
Accepted. Conference canceled (COVID-19 pandemic).
24-25 November 2019. Southeastern Division of the American Association of Geographers
(Wilmington, NC). Paper Presentation.

“Fandom on the Air: Updating the Geography of Collegiate Radio Football Broadcasting.” J. A.
Cooper and Edward H. Davis. Presented:
3-7 April 2019. American Association of Geographers (Washington, DC). Poster.
20-21 November 2018. Southeastern Division of the American Association of Geographers
(Johnson City, TN). Paper Presentation.

“Fusing Land-Use Data and Population Density Estimates for High Resolution Population Mapping:
LandScan HD.” J. A. Cooper, Cassidy Levy, Sean Reid, Eric Weber, and Jessica Moehl. Presented:
10-14 December 2018. American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting (Washington, DC). Poster.
28 March 2018. Urban Dynamics Institute Spring Poster Presentation, National Center for the
Computational Sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (Oak Ridge, TN). Poster.

Honors Thesis, Emory & Henry College. All Our Teams: The Geography of SEC Fandom and
Southern Identity. J. A. Cooper. Presented:
22 April 2016 & 21 April 2017. Ampersand Day, Emory & Henry College (Emory, VA). “TED
Talk” Styled Presentation.
5-6 April 2017. Virginia Association for Mapping and Land Information Systems, Virginia Tech
(Blacksburg, VA). Lecture.
20-21 November 2016. Southeastern Division of the American Association of Geographers
(Columbia, SC). Poster.
12-16 October 2016. National Collegiate Honors Council Annual Conference (Seattle, WA).
Poster.
15-16 April 2015. Virginias Collegiate Honors Council Spring Conference, Lynchburg College
(Lynchburg, VA). Poster.

Technical Reports
2023. “Putting Advocacy on the Map: Using GIS Technology to Inform Advocacy.” Diane Girouard,
Alex Cooper, & Jasmin Springfield. https://info.childcareaware.org/blog/putting-advocacy-
on-the-map-using-gis-technology-to-inform-advocacy.

2023. “Safety is Key for Child Care Access to Playgrounds.” Alex Cooper & Jasmin Springfield.
https://info.childcareaware.org/blog/safety-is-key-for-child-care-access-to-playgrounds.

2022. “Data-Driven Advocacy for Advancing Long-Term Funding for Child Care: A Texas Case Study.”
Alex Cooper, Diane Girouard, & Kim Kofron. https://info.childcareaware.org/blog/data-
driven-advocacy-for-advancing-long-term-funding-for-child-care-a-texas-case-study.
2021. “Child Care Payments: Attendance vs. Enrollment.” Alex Cooper and Diane Girouard.
https://info.childcareaware.org/blog/child-care-payments-attendance-vs.-enrollments.

2021. We Decide the Future: Turning Equitable Development Upside Down. M. De La Luna et al.
https://www.wedecidethefuture.net/.

Teaching Experience
The University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
2019 Spring & 2020 Spring. GEOG 101 – World Regional Geography. Graduate Teaching
Assistant.
2020 Spring. GEOG 121 - Human Geography: People and Places. Graduate Teaching Assistant.
2018 Fall & 2019 Fall. GEOG 131 – Weather, Climate, & Climate Change. Graduate Teaching
Assistant.
2019 Spring. GEOG 373 – Latin American Landscapes, Cultures, and Geographies. Graduate
Teaching Assistant.

Awards
2023. Employee On-the-Spot Award. Child Care Aware® of America.
2020. Winner (Tie). Southeastern Geographer photo contest. Southeastern Division of the American
Association of Geographers.
2020. Runner up. Graduate student paper competition. American Association of Geographers
Recreation, Tourism, & Sport Specialty Group.
2019. Finalist. Master’s paper competition. Southeastern Division of the American Association of
Geographers.
2016. Winner. Undergraduate poster competition for exceptional research in human geography.
Southeastern Division of the American Association of Geographers.
2016. Runner up. Top printed maps in Virginia created with GIS. Virginia Association for Mapping
and Land Information Systems.

Academic Journal Peer Reviewer

Cybernetics and Systems
Journal of Sport & Tourism

Professional Memberships
2018-Present. American Associations of Geographers.
2016-Present. Southeastern Division of the American Association of Geographers.
2023-2024. Society for Research in Child Development.
2015-2018. Virginia Association for Mapping and Land Information Systems.

Graduate Record Exam (GRE) Scores

Verbal: 161
Quantitative: 158
Writing: 4.5

Cartographic Contributions
2023. “Early Care and Education Providers’ hours of Operation.” J. A. Cooper. In “Who provides
care for nontraditional-hours?” Kristina Haynie. Child Care Aware® of America Blog.
https://info.childcareaware.org/blog/nontraditionalchildcare

2019. State-Run Retirement Plan Status Series. J. A. Cooper. In Analyzing the Presence of State-
Run Retirement Plans for Private Sector Employees. Ruthann Froberg. MPA Capstone Project
 #316, University of Kentucky: pp. 26-32.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/mpampp_etds/316?utm_source=uknowledge.uky.edu%2Fmpa
mpp_etds%2F316&utm_medium=PDF&utm_campaign=PDFCoverPages

2017. “Respondents by County.” J. A. Cooper. In Border Voices: Cross-Border Identity in North-

West Ulster. Jackson B. Feezell. Undergraduate Honors Thesis, Emory & Henry College: pp.
59.
2016. Map part of winning poster by Jackson B. Feezell, social sciences poster competition.
National Collegiate Honors Council Annual Conference (Seattle, WA).

2017. “Distribution of Interviewees.” J. A. Cooper. In The Impact of Stereotypes on Young

Appalachians: An Interdisciplinary Argument for Continuing the Conversation. Elizabeth
Hogg. Undergraduate Honors Thesis, Emory & Henry College: pp. 29.

Relevant Coursework Projects at Emory & Henry College

2016. “Food Demographics in North Carolina.” Geospatial Techniques, Dr. Edward H. Davis.
Used existing survey data from North Carolina college students concerning food consumption
and home gardening habits in a group project.
Produced a descriptive, composite choropleth map describing food preferences across North
Carolina for types of leafy greens, meat, and barbecue with ArcGIS 10.2.2.
Cartography especially emphasized in final assessment.

2016. “Social Demographics in the Holston Annual Conference.” Advanced GIS, Professor Michael
Armbrister.
Used available online data to construct maps representing the social demographics of the
region of the Holston Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church, i.e. East
Tennessee, Southwest Virginia, and Northeast Georgia.
Class was operated in the style of a GIS firm. Teamwork was a priority.
Maps were delivered to the United Methodist Appalachian Ministry Network (UMAMN) to aid
its ministries of local social aid.
Other Work Experience
2015. Emory & Henry College (Emory, VA). Honors Program Intern.
Organized and planned three-day off-campus orientation for 25 incoming honors students.
Managed information databases, wrote and edited blogs and content for the Program’s
website, and innovatively displayed maps of Program alumni.

2014. Blacksburg United Methodist Church (Blacksburg, VA). Children’s Ministries Intern.
Mentored children in church; organized weekly events; recruited and scheduled volunteers.
Co-directed vacation bible school for 200 children.

Volunteer Experience
2022-2023. Faith United Methodist Church (Rockville, MD): Community Garden Lead.
Developed the idea for, executed the construction of, and administered the church's
community garden. Served as lead of the church's garden team.

2014-2017. Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl (Atlanta, GA). Post-Game Celebrations Assistant.

Managed the collection, transport, and placement of large quantities of confetti up in the
catwalks of the Georgia Dome.
Manually released confetti from 31 stories directly above the field during post-game
celebrations.

Extracurricular Activities and Accolades at Emory & Henry College

2013-2016. Varsity Cross Country.
2016. Emory & Henry Male Scholar Athlete of the Year Recipient.
 2016-2017. Male Scholar Cross-Country Runner of the Year Recipient.
2016. U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association All-Academic Team.
Sixth Highest Team GPA of Cross-Country Teams in the United States.
2014-2016. Captain.
2014. Old Dominion Athletic Conference Runner of the Week recipient.
2013-2016. Academic All-ODAC Athlete.

2017. Outstanding Senior in Geography Award Recipient.

2017. Student Body Award for Outstanding Seniors Recipient.

Bestowed by college-wide faculty decision.

2014-2017. Gamma Theta Upsilon International Geographical Honor Society, Chapter Nu.
2015-2017. President.

2014-2017. Hermesian Literary Society.

2015-2017. Vice President.
Engaged in public speaking and debate (Lincoln-Douglas, Parliamentary, and Oxford Styles.)
4-0 debate record.

2016-2017. Pi Gamma Mu Social Sciences Honor Society.

Inductee.

2014-2017. Phi Eta Sigma Honor Society.

Inductee.
 JACOB ALEXANDER COOPER

References

Dr. Derek H. Alderman

Past President – American Association of Geographers
Betty Lynn Hendrickson Professor of Social Science, Department of Geography and Sustainability
The University of Tennessee, Knoxville
408 Burchfiel Geography Building
Knoxville, TN 37996-0925
(865) 974-0406
[email protected]

Dr. Clare Waterman

Principle Research Associate
Urban Institute
500 L'Enfant Plaza SW
Washington, DC 20024
(860) 908-9128
[email protected]

Dr. Edward H. Davis

Geography Department Head & Social Sciences Division Chair
Gamma Theta Upsilon Sponsor
Emory & Henry College
P.O. Box 947
Emory, VA 24327
(276) 944-6203
[email protected]

Dr. Solange Muñoz

Assistant Professor, Department of Geography – The University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Senior Technical Contractor – GES Coalition for Health & Housing Justice
410 Burchfiel Geography Building
Knoxville, TN 37996-0925
(865) 974-8357
[email protected]