Over the last year, we carried out a continued search for new faculty members in the area of Human Dimensions of Global Change (HDGC).  Dr. Chris Justice headed a search committee that conducted several interviews seeking junior and/or senior individuals to join our faculty.  The first successful outcome of the search is the recruitment of Dr. Julie Silva.  A graduate of UCLA and Rutgers University, Dr. Silva is an economic geographer with regional expertise in Africa, already published in these research areas.  She received the 2005-06 AAG J. Warren Nystrom  award  for her dissertation research.  She currently serves as principal investigator on an NSF CAREER award under which she is carrying out field studies in Namibia and Mozambique.  She will continue to work on the NSF award here at Maryland. Dr. Silva will begin working here in the Fall 2010.  We look forward to her contributions to our emerging focus on Human Dimensions of Global Change.