Faculty Member
Dr. Atkins is a fluvial geomorphologist who studies the intersection of water, geology, and humans.
Dr. Atkins' has worked on projects spanning geologic timescales, spatial scales from local to global, and even various planets. Her NASA-funded work aimed at understanding the thermal history of Mars through the investigation of large thrust faults across the planet, the surface expression of which are lobate scarps. She also studied the fluvial impacts of hillslope farming in the North Carolina Piedmont by European settlers in the mid 19th century which led to excessive erosion and eventual abandonment of hillslope terrace farming in the piedmont, but not without consequence. Forests still tell the story of this legacy of farming through the erosion of legacy sediment, which impairs stream health.
More recently, Dr. Atkins has also worked on issues relating to water quality and quantity at the U.S. Geological Survey. She has studied the anthropogenic, biogenic, climatic, and geologic impacts to salinity in the upper Colorado River basin, leading to the implementation of changes in land management by various federal agencies. She has also worked with various agencies to identify the human, ecological, and hydrological impacts of active and abandoned mined lands for hazard and risk mitigation.
At UVU she continues to engage in impactful hydrologic research and connect undergraduates with professionals in geo- and geo-adjacent career paths.
Outside of work, Dr. Atkins can usually be found outdoors mountain biking, running, hiking, and camping (though it looks more like van glamping these days).
Major: Geology
Major: Geology
Major: Geological Sciences and Adolescent Education
Field Experience, Summer 2026
Careers in the Earth Sciences, Spring 2026
Earth Science Seminar, Spring 2026
Hydrogeology, Spring 2026
Introduction to Geographic Information Systems, Spring 2026
This project aims to engage undergraduate students in a research project that develops, validates, and refines a geospatial workflow to predict dinosaur fossil localities using multispectral satellite imagery, terrain derivatives, and geologic constraints. While I am the primary PI on the project and will take on the GIS and data lead role, Dr. Doug Czajka is also a Co-PI and will serve as the fossil prospecting and statistics lead. We will both co-advise students on geologic field mapping.
Students will work alongside PI’s on data acquisition and cleaning, model training and testing, and ground-truthing field campaigns. Major project outcomes include predictive suitability maps and uncertainty layers for the target geologic member, source code for iterative model improvement, discovery of new potential vertebrate sites in the target member, and high-impact student outcomes (e.g., presentation, posters, code). By increasing ground-truthing and focusing our fieldwork on model-predicted zones, we expect to improve fossil prospecting efficiency by reducing search time and area while increasing discovery rate.
I was awarded a faculty externship through the UVU Innovation Academy for the summer of 2026 to work with an industry partner external to UVU. The purpose of this externship is to engage in meaningful experiences with an entity external to UVU that could potentially employ our students in the future. I am working with the Utah Water Science Center, a branch of the U.S. Geological Survey located in Salt Lake City. This partnership will allow me to work directly with hydrologists and hydrologic technicians at the Survey and understand skills that our students need to be successful in the field, which will primarily benefit my teaching and mentorship of students.
This was an award to participate in a professional development activity such as training, attending a conference, or certification. It is sponsored by the Association for Women Geoscientists Utah chapter and is awarded to successful applicants who demonstrate a need for support of professional development activities.
I was awarded an annual faculty award from the UVU College of Science for research travel to conduct a research project with students over the summer. We did a field day and spent a few days in Logan, UT at Dr. Tammy Rittenhour's Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) Laboratory to process samples for research.
I was awarded a summer award from the UVU College of Science to conduct a research project with students over the summer. We did a field day and spent a few days in Logan, UT at Dr. Tammy Rittenhour's Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) Laboratory to process samples for research. This award was to collect data, process samples,
