Sarah Witham Bednarz is professor emerita of geography at Texas A&M University, where she served as associate dean for academic affairs in the College of Geosciences from 2008 to 2014. She also previously served as president of the American Association of Geographers (AAG). Dr. Bednarzs research interests are in the intersection of teaching and learning geospatial technologies and spatial and geographic thinking. She was principal investigator (PI) on two major curriculum and educational research projects; co-authored the national geography standards, Geography for Life (1994 and 2012); participated in the National Research Council Learning to Think Spatially project; and helped to develop the National Assessment of Educational Performance (NAEP) framework in geography. In 2013 she co-chaired the Geography Education Research Committee (GERC) of the Road Map for 21st Century Geography Education Project. Dr. Bednarz has also focused on higher education policies.

As a member of the Healthy Departments Committee, she organized professional development workshops for department leaders and presented sessions on planning for promotion and tenure and mid-career success strategies. She served on the Leadership Team for the Texas A&M ADVANCE grant and was an active participant in the Strategies and Tactics for Recruiting to Improve Diversity and Excellence (STRIDE) component of the grant designed to reduce bias in search and award processes. Dr. Bednarz holds a University Professorship for Teaching Excellence, received the Gilbert H. Grosvenor Honors for Geographic Education (2007) and was an inaugural AAG Fellow. She was educated at Mount Holyoke College (A.B., 1973), the University of Chicago (M.

A.T., 1974) and Texas A&M University (Ph.D., 1992).