Bredder, Allison

Bio

Allison Bredder is a geographer and environmental health researcher at the intersection of space science, public health, and agricultural resilience.

As Strategic Engagement Officer for NASA Acres, NASA’s U.S. agriculture consortium, she works to ensure that cutting-edge satellite data translates into real value for American farmers and rural communities. Her role spans research collaboration, workforce readiness, and direct producer engagement: bridging the gap between what orbits the Earth and what grows on it.

Allison holds a PhD in Geographical Sciences from the University of Maryland, where her research combined remote sensing and machine learning to track the human health impacts of wildfire smoke. That thread of using spatial data to understand how a changing environment shapes human lives runs through everything she does, from epidemiology to food systems.

A proud double Terp, she also earned her B.S. in Environmental Science and Policy (with a GIS minor) from UMD. Her deepest passion lies in science communication and data visualization: taking complex, often overwhelming datasets and turning them into insights that people can actually use.

Degrees

  • Ph.D. in Geographical Sciences, University of Maryland

  • Degree Details B.S., Environmental Science and Policy, Concentration in Politics and Policy

Areas of Interest

  • spatial epidemiology, remote sensing, machine learning

Research Topics

  • Geospatial Information Science and Remote Sensing
  • Human Dimensions of Global Change - Coupled Human and Natural Systems
  • Land Cover - Land Use Change
  • Remote Sensing
  • GEOG646: Intro to Programming (Spring 2026)
  • GEOG579: Intro to GIS (Summer 2026)