Water, Land, Life:

Randy Bissell is a Texas Master Naturalist™ providing geoscience education in his community, at regional colleges, and through training his chapter TMN volunteers. Randy is a retired petroleum geologist with 42 years of experience at Exxon and Headington Energy. He attended the University of Southern Mississippi for his BS (’82) and Oklahoma State University for his MS (’84) degrees in geology. He is a Licensed Professional Geoscientist in Texas and serves at Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi as an adjunct professor, associate researcher, and student project sponsor.

Water • Land • Life explores the coastal landscapes of South Texas as living systems shaped by geology, ecology, and deep human presence. Through maps, shoreline reconstructions, and ecological models, this talk invites audiences to see how water and land structured the lifeways of the Karankawa people over thousands of years. The presentation emphasizes patterns—rivers, bays, barrier islands, and seasonal resources—that reveal a sophisticated mastery of coastal environments. The lecture is grounded in interdisciplinary scholarship, acknowledging both the limits of geology and its value in understanding place. Attendees will be invited to improve this presentation with active discussion – and hopefully come away with a renewed sense of how landscapes remember people, even where history has tried to erase them.

Randy Bissell is a Texas Professional Geologist, Texas Master Naturalist, and adjunct professor in the Geology Program at Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi. With over four decades of professional experience, his work bridges geology, coastal ecology, and public education, emphasizing place-based understanding of South Texas landscapes. His current research and outreach include the recognition Indigenous presence through landscape patterns.