Fredrick J. Rich,^1,*,** R. Kelly Vance,^1,*** Clara R. Rucker<sup>1,****

1</sup>Department of Geology and Geography, Georgia Southern University, P.O. Box 8149, Statesboro, GA, 304

^*Corresponding author. Email: frich@georgiasouthern.edu
^**Fredrick J. Rich is a professor of geology at Georgia Southern University (GSU). He has been on the faculty at GSU for 26 years. Fred earned his BS in geology from the University of Wisconsin in 1973, then attended Southern Illinois University for one year of graduate work, before moving to Pennsylvania State University where he enrolled for a PhD. Working under the guidance of Drs William Spackman and Arthur Cohen, he conducted research in the Okefenokee Swamp of southern Georgia. Fred was on the faculty of the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology for nearly 10 years before taking his position at GSU. Most of his palynological research focuses on the characteristics of modern and ancient wetlands along the southern Atlantic coastal plain of the USA.
^***R. Kelly Vance is an Associate Professor of Geology at Georgia Southern University, where he has been a faculty member since 1987. He earned his BS in Geology from the University of Kentucky in 1978, and an MS in Geology from the same institution in 1984. Kelly was awarded a PhD from the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in 1989, focusing on the geochemistry of Early Proterozoic rocks from Arizona. He is an economic mineralogist by training, but has taken on supervision of the St. Catherines Island Sea Turtle Conservation Program and has been an active proponent of field-based science education for many years.
^****Clara R. Rucker is a graduate of the Department of Geology and Geography at Georgia Southern University (GSU). She completed her BS in Geology in 2014, working on the clay chemistry and mineralogy of sediments from St. Catherines Island. Prior to GSU she attended the University of Wisconsin, where she graduated with honours and earned a BA with double majors in French and Sociology in 2009.