Charles C. Plummer
Professor Charles “Carlos” Plummer grew up in the shadows of volcanoes in Mexico City. There, he developed a love for mountains and mountaineering that eventually led him into geology. He received his B.A. degree from Dartmouth College. After graduation, he served in the U.S. Army as an artillery officer. He resumed his geological education at the University of Washington where he received his M.S. and PhD degrees. His geologic work has been in mountainous and polar regions, notably Antarctica (where a glacier is named in his honor). He taught at Olympic Community College in Washington before joining the faculty at California State University, Sacramento. At CSUS he taught optical mineralogy, metamorphic petrology and field courses before his semi-retirement. He continues to teach introductory courses. He flies airplanes, skis, and recently became a certified open water SCUBA diver.

David McGeary
Professor Emeritus of California State University at Sacremento, David McGeary was born and raised in central Pennsylvania, learning to love the Nittany Lions as well as shoofly pie for breakfast. He earned his B.S. degree at Williams College, M.S. at University of Illinois, and PhD at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. He helped pay for grad school by teaching scuba diving. David has been married to his wife for more than 30 years, has two grown sons, and a handmade house he built with his brother on 10 country acres. He taught geology at California State University for more than 23 years, specializing in physical geology, sedimentary petrology, oceanography, and field methods. David McGeary retired from teaching in 1992 and from textbook writing in 1995. His activities today are non-geological -- tending his house and land, traveling, carpentry, blacksmithing, and acting in community theatre.

Diane Carlson
Professor Diane Carlson grew up on the glaciated Precambrian shield of northern Wisconsin and received an A.A. degree at Nicolet College in Rhinelander and her B.S. in geology at the University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire. She continued her studies at the University of Minnesota-Duluth where she studied the structural complexities of high-grade metamorphic rocks along the margin of the Idaho batholith for her master’s thesis. The lure of the West and an opportunity to work with the U.S. Geological Survey to map the Colville batholith in northeastern Washington, led her to Washington State University for her PhD. Dr. Carlson accepted a position at California State University, Sacramento after her PhD and teaches physical geology, structural geology, environmental geology, and field geology. Professor Carlson is a recipient of the Outstanding Teacher Award from the CSUS School of Arts and Sciences. She is also actively engaged in researching the structural and tectonic evolution of part of the Foothill Fault System in the northern Sierra Nevada in California.