Jim Geringer is fond of saying that he is an engineer by education, farmer by choice and governor by accident. He has a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Kansas State University that enabled 10 years active and 12 years reserve service in the U.S. Air Force working with unmanned space programs of Air Force and NASA. He worked on the Global Positioning Satellite System, remote-sensing early detection/warning systems, the Interim Upper Stage for the Space Shuttle, the Mars Viking Lander, activation of the Peacekeeper missile system and disaster recovery from nuclear, biological and chemical warfare. Upon leaving active duty, he signed on as contract administrator for the construction of a 1700 megawatt coal-fired electric power generation plant near Wheatland Wyoming, then took up agricultural pursuits along with serving in the Wyoming Legislature from 1983 to 1994, including six years each in the House and the Senate.
Geringer served two terms as Wyoming Governor during which he focused on improving education through standards, accountability and technology, modernizing Wyoming’s economic base to extensively include technology, changing how natural resource agencies among state, federal and local governments worked together, establishing community-based health and family services programs and implementing strategic planning and information systems.
He is a member of the Committee on America’s Climate Choices under the National Academies, served on the Mapping Sciences Committee under the National Research Council; Western Interstate Energy Board; Association of Governing Boards for higher education; Operation Public Education; the Board of Governors of the Park City Center for Public Policy; Board member of NatureServe; and as co-chair of the Policy Consensus Initiative. He is the current Chair of the Board of Trustees, Western Governors University.
Geringer joined Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) in summer 2003 as Director of Policy and Public Sector Strategies to work with senior elected and corporate officials on how to use geospatial technology for place-based decisions in business and government.
His recent keynotes include conservation, education, energy, climate change, health care, health data standards, alternative energy, education policy, natural resources, homeland security, disaster response, the importance of government services enabled through web services, information infrastructure, e-government planning, and building consensus on divisive issues.