Brianna R Lopez Hetland

Brianna received a B.S. in Geosciences from Virginia Tech in 2008 after which she joined USGS as a student employee for the first time. She received her M.S. from Michigan Tech in 2013, where she used kinematic GPS to study the active Pacaya Volcano in Guatemala. Brianna also served as a United States Peace Corps volunteer in Guatemala where she provided rural community environmental education and volcanic hazard awareness. In 2022, Brianna obtained a Master’s Certificate in Geospatial Information Science from Oregon State University while simultaneously serving as a sixth-grade science teacher. 

In 2024, Brianna joined the USGS as a Physical Scientist, Pathways Recent Graduate in the National Cooperative Geologic Mapping Program supporting STATEMAP, FEDMAP, EDMAP, GLGMC, the National Geologic Map Database, and other USGS mapping initiatives. She currently serves as the Associate Program Officer for the Great Lakes Geologic Mapping Coalition.