View a PDF of my full CV (June 2025)
Education
The Pennsylvania State University (2024-present, currently ABD)
PhD in Geography
Advisor: Anthony C. Robinson
Committee: Cynthia Brewer, Mark Ortiz, and Pamela VanHaitsma
Dissertation: Evaluating the Production and Use of Mobile and Responsive Thematic Maps
The Pennsylvania State University (2022-2024)
MS in Geography
Advisor: Anthony C. Robinson
Committee: Cynthia Brewer and Helen Greatrex
Thesis: Mobile Thematic Map Design in Data Journalism: An Evaluation of Techniques, Challenges, and Opportunities
University of Wisconsin-Madison (2018-2022)
BS in Cartography/GIS (Honors), Human Geography, and Anthropology. Certificate in Archaeology
Advisor: Robert E. Roth
Honors Thesis: Mapping Presidential Elections: An Empirical Analysis of Effective Design Techniques
Selected Publications
Roth, RE, A Iverson, A Kagawa, G Le Sourd, B Ricker, T Andersen, G Baldrica-Franklin, L Houtman, F
Ilunga, M Lee, M-J Kraak. 2025 Making and remaking Mapping for a Sustainable World: a
retrospective and prospective analysis as a case study in Processual Cartography. International
Journal of Cartography, p. 1-40. DOI: 10.1080/23729333.2025.2458895
Houtman, L., AC Robinson, D McLaughlin, and C Grozinger. 2025. Evaluating the Usability and Utility
of a Spatial Decision Support System for Pollinator Ecology. Ecological Informatics, 89, p. 1-12. DOI: 10.1016/j.ecoinf.2025.103182
Houtman, L. 2025. Techniques, Challenges, and Opportunities in Mobile Thematic Map Design for Data
Journalism. Cartography and Geographic Information Science, p. 1-20. DOI: 10.1080/15230406.2025.2484210
Houtman, L., D Cuomo, M Dennehy, M Forman, A Zea, and S Hannan. 2025. The Harm Mapping
Project: Navigating Ethics and Collaboration in Map Design. Cartographic Perspectives, 104,
p. 27-33. DOI: 10.14714/CP105.1943
Song Z, RE Roth, L Houtman, T Prestby, A Iverson, and S Gao. 2022. Visual storytelling with
maps: An empirical study on story map themes and narrative elements, visual storytelling genres
and tropes, and individual audience differences. Cartographic Perspectives, 100, pp. 10-44. DOI: 10.14714/CP100.1759
Selected Awards
National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP), Grant No. DGE1255832
$37,000+tuition per year
Fall 2024-present (three year award)
Penn State Graduate Student International Travel Grant
Fall 2025
$1,500 for international conference expenses
Doctoral Student Scholarship Award, CaGIS
Summer 2024
$1,500 for research expenses
Penn State EMS NSF GRFP Proposal Poster Competition Award
Academic year 2024
$5,000 for research and travel
USNC Early Career Scholar Funding for Participation at ICC
August 2023
$2,700 for international conference expenses