Christopher A Ellison

I served 25 years in the U.S. Air Force beginning in 1976 and retiring in 2001 as a Senior Master Sergeant.  During this time I worked as a Geodetic Survey Technician for the Defense Mapping Agency assigned to F.E. Warren AFB, WY. As a Geodetic Surveyor, I deployed to locations in and outside the U.S. to position points for latitude, longitude, and elevation using conventional survey methods (pre-GPS) in support of navigation systems for missile systems, aircraft, and naval ships and submarines.  I changed career fields in the USAF in 1997 and worked as a computer programmer on the Airborne Battlefield Command and Control Center (ABCCC) in Italy and Bosnia, Yugoslavia.  I ended my career as the manager of Yokota Air Base computer network in Japan in 2000 and at Barksdale AFB in 2001.  From 2001 through 2008, I attended the University of Wyoming and completed a PhD in 2008 in Rangeland Ecology and Watershed Science. In December 2008, I began my career with USGS in Minnesota and developed numerous sediment-related studies for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, and numerous watershed districts. In 2016, I moved to the USGS office in Helena, Montana and am currently a supervisory hydrologist as the water quality unit chief supervising 11 staff, overseeing multiple water-quality related projects, and continuing to develop sediment-related studies in Wyoming and Montana.

A.S. Geodetic Survey Technology, Community College of the Air Force

A.S. Computer Science, Community College of the Air Force

B.S Computer Science, Park College, MO

M.S. Rangeland Ecology & Watershed Science, University of Wyoming

PhD. Rangeland Ecology & Watershed Science, University of Wyoming