Dr. Joanne Hall is an Assistant Research Professor in the Department of Geographical Sciences at the University of Maryland, College Park. She received her Ph.D. in Geographical Sciences with an emphasis on Remote Sensing and Geographical Information Sciences from the University of Maryland. She also has two MSc. Degrees, one in Atmospheric and Oceanic Science from the University of Maryland, and the other in Environmental Geoscience from the University of Bristol, U.K. Dr. Joanne Hall has over 10 years of graduate and post-graduate research and teaching experience. Her current research interests lie in the broad areas of satellite mapping of land-cover and land-use change, with a particular emphasis on active fire and burned area mapping. Specifically, her current research focuses on (1) the improvement of global cropland burned area and emission estimates using remote-sensing techniques, (2) the validation and harmonization of a multi-sensor geostationary active fire product, and (3) the overall optimization and improvement of the MODIS fire products.