Cynthia A. Brewer is a professor of geography and head of the Department of Geography at The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State). She has been a member of the Penn State faculty since 1994. Her research and teaching focus is cartographic design. She has authored approximately ninety publications, including four books. She is an affiliate faculty member at the US Geological Survey (USGS) Center of Excellence for Geospatial Information Science (CEGIS). She has also consulted with the US Census Bureau, National Park Service, National Cancer Institute, National Center for Health Statistics, and Esri. In 2013, she received the Henry Gannett Award for Exceptional Contributions to Topographic Mapping from the USGS. She has also been recognized with the Mitchell Award for Innovative Teaching in 2005 and the Wilson Award for Outstanding Service in 2014 by the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences at Penn State. She earned her doctorate in geography with an emphasis in cartography from Michigan State University in 1991, supervised by Dr. Judy M. Olson. Brewer is well known for her ColorBrewer online tool for selecting map color schemes. Her research interests include map design, color theory in cartography, topographic map design, multiple-scale mapping, and atlas design.