He earned his Ph.D. in geography in 2010 from Ohio State University. He is a broadly trained human geographer with deep interests in citizen science GIS, community geography, qualitative GIS, and critical GIS. Professor Hawthorne is Principal Investigator of the Citizen Science GIS Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Site in Orlando and Belize, funded by the National Science Foundation, and Co-Principal Investigator on a grant from the National Science Foundation Coupled-Natural Human Systems Program. He serves as Chair of the Applied Geography Specialty Group for the Association of American Geographers. He also is an associate editor for both the Journal of Geography and The International Journal of Applied Geospatial Research and is the founding director of The Geospatial STEM Academy, a K-12 STEM initiative.