Vicki is currently serving as the State Geologist and the Director of the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries (DOGAMI).  She was appointed to the position in January 2004.  As the State Geologist she is responsible for guiding the activities of the two Programs in the agency, the Geologic Survey and Services Program and the Mineral Lands Regulation and Reclamation Program as well as serving as the geosciences advisor to state agencies and the Governor's office. She also serves on several advisory boards to the Executive Office including Ocean Policy Advisory Board and the Oregon State Board of Geologist Examiners.

 

Vicki received her B.S. in Geology/Land Use from Metropolitan State College on the Auraria Campus in Denver, CO in 1983.  She began working for Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1985.  She worked in both Material Sciences and Geoscience Research including work on sol gels, magma and geothermal energy research, and geochemical research of the proposed Yucca Mountain Nuclear Repository.  In 1991 she left Sandia Labs to attend graduate school at the University of Alaska Fairbanks where she studied isotope geochemisty and volcanology.  She recieved her Ph.D. in Geology in 1996. After working at the USGS Alaska Volcano Observatory mapping in the Aleutian Islands and a receiving a post doc appointment at the University of Wisconsin Madison she came to work at DOGAMI as a field mapper in the Baker City Field Office in 1999. Vicki is a Registerd Geologist with the state of Oregon.

 

Students interested in volcanology and geochemistry research and applied geosciences are welcome to contact her at her Portland office: 971.673.1550 or vicki.mcconnell<at>dogami.state.or.us.

 

Vicki's interests and activities usually involve her labweiler (Labrador and Rott Weiler mix), Jezabel.  This will always include a stick.