Lola M. Olsen holds a B.S. degree in Biological Science from Michigan State University, a Masters' Degree in Geography/Earth Science from the University of North Carolina, and has completed course work for a Ph.D. at the University of North Carolina in climatology.  She taught in the Earth Sciences Department at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte through 1985, then served as Project Manager for NASA's Climate Data System until 1994 when she became Project Manager for the Global Change Master Directory.  Ms. Olsen also taught Remote Sensing at the University of Maryland from 1992 - 1995 and annually mentors university students with remote sensing and GIS interests. She chairs the interagency Global Change Data and Information System (GCDIS) subgroup of the US Global Change Research Program.