TL;DR:
Behind the computer I'm a GIS Analyst with a web development focus.
I currently work for the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency building digital mapping applications and data services. I'm also pursuing a Master of Science in Cartography, GIS, and Web Map Programming from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Away from the computer I enjoy being active in the outdoors, traveling, and hanging out with my wife and dog.
I'm a native Wisconsinite, raised in Spring Green, WI, but now call South Lake Tahoe, CA home.
BACKGROUND:
I discovered GIS during my sophomore year at the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee while visiting the American Geographical Society Library. There, I secured a position filing maps away, re-shelving old National Geographic’s, and cataloging geospatial data. From that point on I was hooked. I knew I had found my life's work, so I took every GIS class that UWM had to offer, both in the Geography and Urban Planning departments, and spent an inordinate amount of time tinkering in ArcMap.
In the summer of 2007 I landed an internship with the City of New Berlin that allowed me to apply my newly acquired GIS knowledge. It was an amazing experience working on projects across the Public Works, Engineering and Community Development departments. I was exposed to all aspects of GIS, and the internship evolved into a year-round-full time GIS Specialist job after I finished my Bachelor's degree. During my time there I was able to digitize the entire backlog of easements, GPS, attribute, and map the entire storm sewer network, standardize the GIS process for updating zoning using coordinate geometry, and hyperlink all of the scanned as-built drawings to a spatial index.
I got an itch to travel and broaden my GIS experience, so I jumped at the chance to map black bear home ranges in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. This experience provided my first real taste of the Sierra Nevada mountains, and I couldn't get enough. I ran around in the mountains tracking Bears with radio telemetry and then analyzed their foraging habits by spatially interpolating temporal GPS location data and correlating that with vegetation data. In the years following I filled various roles in the National Park Service and United States Forest Service; applying my GIS skills to biological science, forestry, wildland fire, and engineering projects.
Eventually I landed in Placerville, CA working for the El Dorado National Forest as a GIS Specialist. I gained a deep understanding of how to integrate geospatial analysis and maps into the environmental review process (NEPA). I was the primary GIS professional on multiple interdisciplinary teams working on restoring forest health. I was sent out as a GIS Specialist on active wildland fire and burned area emergency response teams, working long days to ensure the mapping and data collection needs of the teams were met. The experience of working on an emergency response team taught me how to meet tight deadlines in a fast paced environment.
In October of 2016, I became the GIS Analyst for the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency. I immediately began working on automating the update of the parcel data using Python scripting. I spend most of my time building web and mobile applications for staff. I love providing geospatial tools that make their job easier. I've grown my data science skills with Python, took on managing projects and staff, trained end users in GIS, built a network of Tahoe GIS professionals, and enhanced my skills to develop web and mobile mapping applications. At TRPA, I've really stepped up to manage all aspects of our Enterprise GIS deployment.
I am nearing the completion of my Master's degree. I've learned a tremendous amount through the course work, and have been able to put many new tools in my "tool-belt". It's helped me advance to the next level, and become a GIS developer. The Gecomputting in Python course deepened my understanding of Python and gave me the confidence that I could complete any GIS coding project. The Graphic Design in Cartography course dove deep into cartographic theory and strategy, while also challenging me to create professional products using Adobe Illustrator. The Interactive Cartography and Visualization class instilled the foundations of open source web mapping, using Leaflet and D3 JavaScript libraries, while also exposing me to ESRI's JavaScript API. The Spatial Databases course was a nice refresher in SQL, and introduced me to PostgreSQL/PostGIS, an open source enterprise geodatabase solution. The Spatial Analysis course has been very challenging, covering all aspects of spatial autocorrelation and interpolation, as well as their various implementations. I have one class to go (Spatial Web and Mobile Programming) before completing the Practicum and Capstone courses in the Spring of 2020. For my capstone project, I plan to build a web map application that allows the citizens of Lake Tahoe to better understand the development constraints and opportunities at the parcel level.
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