Dawn Wright (a.k.a. "Deepsea Dawn") is lead UCGIS delegate from Oregon State University (OrSt), where she is Professor of Geography and Oceanography, and the director of the Davey Jones' Locker Marine GIS/Seafloor Mapping Laboratory. Her past service to the UCGIS includes Board of Directors, Chair of Communications, Local Arrangements Chair for the UCGIS Summer Assembly in Oregon, Education Committee, Coordinator of the 2nd UCGIS Virtual Seminar, Chair of the Distance Education Working Group,  twice on the presentation team of a UCGIS Congressional Breakfast, and contributor to a chapter in the UCGIS book, "A Research Agenda for Geographic Information Science." She is currently on the Membership, Education, and Communications Committees, and was recently appointed Vice-Chair of the Research Committee.

Dawn's research interests include geographic information science (particularly data modeling, visualization, and marine applications of GIS), marine geography, tectonics of mid-ocean ridges, and the processing and interpretation of high-resolution bathymetry, video, and underwater photographic images. She has completed oceanographic fieldwork (often with GIS) in some of the most geologically-active regions of the planet, including volcanoes under the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans, and has had 3 dives in the Alvin submersible.

Dawn serves on the editorial boards of the "International Journal of Geographical Information Science," "Transactions in GIS," and "Geospatial Solutions", and was a member of the National Academy of Sciences' National Needs for Coastal Mapping and Charting Committee. Her recent books include "Marine and Coastal Geographical Information Systems" (Taylor & Francis, 2000), "Undersea with GIS" (ESRI Press, 2002), "Place Matters: Geospatial Tools for Marine Science, Conservation, and Management in the Pacific Northwest" (OrSt Press, 2005), and "Arc Marine: GIS for a Blue Planet" (ESRI Press, forthcoming in 2006). Awards include the NSF CAREER award (1995-’98); Fulbright to Ireland (2004); Milton Harris Award for Excellence in Basic Research, OrSt College of Science (2005); Excellence in Mentoring, OrSt College of Oceanic & Atmospheric Sciences (1998, 2001); and Woman of the Year in Education, Clarity magazine (1999). She holds degrees from UCSB (Ph.D. in Physical Geography and Marine Geology), Texas A&M (M.S., Oceanography), and Wheaton College in Illinois (B.S. cum laude, Geology).