Dr. Randy Bertolas is a geography professor and chair of the History, Politics, and Geography Department at Wayne State College. Before teaching at WSC, he taught high school algebra and earth science and coached wrestling and baseball in New York.
On campus, Dr. Bertolas is advisor of the Explorers Club, Pi Gamma Mu (the social sciences honor society), Phi Kappa Phi (an all-discipline honor society), and Gamma Theta Upsilon (the geography honor society) which he also served as International President in 2011-12. He is a member of the American Association of Geographers (AAG), the National Council for Geographic Education (NCGE), and the Nebraska State Council for the Social Studies.
Honors include the Excellence in Teaching Award from the State University of New York at Buffalo (1993), AAG Outstanding Ph.D. Dissertation Award (1997), WSC Student Senate Professor of the Year (2005, 2009), the NCGE Distinguished Teaching Achievement Award (2006) and Distinguished Mentor Award (2018), the Pi Gamma Mu Award of Excellence (2008) and Hall of Fame Induction (2017), the Gildersleeve-Stoddard-Stone Award for Service to Geography Education (2011), and the Paul Beck Award as Outstanding Social Sciences Educator in Nebraska (2012). In 2018, Dr. Bertolas received both the State Nebraska Bank & Trust Teaching Excellence Award and the Nebraska State College System Teaching Excellence Award.
Education
Ph.D., Geography, State University of New York at Buffalo, 1995
M.A., Geography, University of Vermont, 1982
B.A., Geography, University of Minnesota-Duluth, 1980
Academic Interests
Dr. Bertolas's teaching interests include world regional, political, and human geography; geographic information systems (GIS); and the study of Russia, Nebraska, the United States, and Canada. His research interests include the geography of recreation, tourism, and sports; natural disasters; geography education; and utilizing GIS in mapping.
