Kelly Swanson

Dr. Kelly Swanson has been involved in geography education for over 27 years including teaching one of the first AP Human Geography courses in the world in 1997. He has authored the Kaplan AP Human Geography Guide since 2008 and the Teacher’s Edition for Bedford/Freeman’s Human Geography for the AP Course. Kelly’s advisory work has included being a geographic consultant for the Onion’s Our Dumb World. Kelly has served on the National Assessment in Educational Progress Geography (NAEP) standing committee with the United States Department of Education. Kelly completed his Ph.D. at the University of Minnesota with an emphasis on geography assessment. He currently teaches university courses at the University of Minnesota and Metropolitan State University in St. Paul. Currently, Kelly is the Dean of Academics at Mount Paran Christian School in Kennesaw, Georgia. In addition to his publishing work, Kelly is a co-founder of GeoPolaris Publications publishing a human geography textbook Human Geography: A World of Interactions with author Kyle Tredinnick. Kelly enjoys spending time and traveling with his wife Jolaine, and children Rebecca, Jake, and Zach. In 2021, Dr. Swanson won the National Council for Geographic Education (NCGE) award for Outstanding Support for Geography Education for his work supporting geography education around the world.