05/24/2026
Johns Hopkins University alumna Rhydian Shelley traces her fascination with maps back to a childhood bookshelf. In her family’s home in the Litchfield Hills of Connecticut, she would pull down atlases and pore over coastlines, borders, topography, and terrain.
Her name – pronounced like “meridian,” the lines of longitude that she crossed while serving in the U.S. Navy – feels fitting. Early on, Shelley learned to see geography not just as a place, but as a story.
Today, she brings that perspective into her work, blending skills developed through our MS in Geographic Information Systems program with environmental stewardship and national security – connecting land, people, and purpose.
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