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From Field Geologist to CEO: Brunton Is in New Hands

Corporate engagement has long been a crucial part of the devel-
opment and financial support of the GSA Foundation and GSA pro-
grams. Our partners are highly committed to the next generation of
geoscientists, and we are thrilled to highlight recent, exciting hap- Brunton’s Lauren Heerschap
gets help from the littlest field
penings at GSA’s organizational partner, Brunton. Brunton is now assistant: Hannah, Lauren and
a family-owned, geologist-owned—and, for the first time, woman- David’s daughter, who is “now
too heavy to carry for miles
owned—Wyoming small business. up into the mountains—she
The Brunton brand is known and sold worldwide, especially in has to hike it herself!”
the geology community, where a pocket transit of any model is
simply called “a Brunton.” The Geological Society of America is
eager to continue working with the company under its new owner-
ship. In Lauren Heerschap, GSA has a true partner with deep con- Two years later, the Axis transit was born—renamed and
nections: She received a GSA graduate student research grant rebranded, with Lauren and Dave involved throughout the product
while working on her master’s degree and participated in a GSA development and rollout phases. The Heerschaps worked the
Penrose Conference in Taiwan. She became a student member of Brunton booth for several geological conferences to help introduce
GSA in 2002 and has attended, presented, and worked at many the Axis and support the rest of the product line. Their increasing
GSA annual and Section meetings since then. involvement led to a job opportunity and career switch for Dave
Lauren remembers the day she first learned how to use a Brunton when the previous Brunton engineer of 40 years was nearing
pocket transit. She was 20 years old, at an outcrop of Cambrian retirement. A few years later, in early 2021, Lauren also officially
sandstone in the Black Hills of South Dakota, and it was the first joined the Brunton team as pro & international sales manager.
week of an eight-week undergraduate geology field camp. “I argued And that’s when things got interesting. The Heerschaps were
with my team for over an hour about how to measure strike and approached by the previous brand management, who presented
dip,” says Heerschap. “The sandstone bed was almost horizontal, the opportunity to acquire the Brunton brand and all of its assets.
and we couldn’t figure out how to do it.” A fortuitous combination of a favorable offer from the previous
So began Heerschap’s journey with Brunton compasses. After brand owner and family investors made the acquisition possible.
seven or so years of using Bruntons in teaching field methods, The company is an organizational partner that supports GSA’s
she came up with the idea for a new pocket transit model that annual meeting through sponsorship and an exhibit hall booth,
solved many of the issues she had experienced as a student. That and provides demo fleets of compasses for some of GSA’s field
idea was prototyped into reality by her husband, David Heerschap, trips. In 2021, the company solidified its partnership with the
in their garage over winter break. Dave was also a science educa- Society in yet another meaningful contribution, specifically to
tor at the time and had just started a company that offered home- students: Brunton provided a personalized, engraved ComPro
made teaching tools and field equipment for science teachers and Transit for each of GSA’s 2021 J. David Lowell Field Camp
students. Lauren and Dave patented the idea, tested it with field Scholarship recipients. In 2022, they will increase this already
camps that summer, then approached Brunton in the fall of 2014 generous gift to an Orange Standard Transit for all 30 field camp
about licensing the idea. scholarship recipients. The contribution further decreases equip-
ment expenses for each of these students while providing them
with the geologist’s most essential instrument.
Together, GSA and Brunton can maximize the collective ability to
foster current and future leaders in the geoscience community. We
Brunton’s new Orange Stan-
dard Transit, being awarded strive to engage business and industry as a positive force to advance
to each of the 30 GSA 2022 science, stewardship, and service, joining with corporations in the
J. David Lowell Field Camp
Scholarship recipients. meaningful impacts of partnership. If you want to learn how you
or your employer can join these efforts, please contact Debbie
Marcinkowski at +1-303-357-1047 or dmarcinkowski@geosociety.org
For more information about Brunton, go to www.brunton.com.

www.gsa-foundation.org