My wife and I hiking in the Adirondacks in 2022.

I’m a passionate GIS professional and data analyst with an abiding love of the natural world. From an early age growing up in the Berkshires of Massachusetts, where summer meant attending Audubon camp, overnights in the Adirondack Mountains, and exploring my own backyard, I developed a deep appreciation for nature, natural spaces, and the value of time spent outdoors. I seek to honor that appreciation by applying my skills in ways that enhance environmental conservation efforts, contribute to ecological research, and promote sustainable practices.

I’ve been fortunate to develop my professional skill set in a variety of arenas. This includes working as a GIS analyst with the City of Newport News on a range of projects, including gun violence mapping and analysis and laying the groundwork for an urban tree inventory. I continue to collaborate on the Urban Land Evaluation and Site Assessment research team at VCU, providing GIS and technical support to increase equity and intentionality in site selection for urban agriculture initiatives through the use of geospatial modelling. And I provide services like programmatic data wrangling, analysis, visualizaition, and scripting in R in support of important research around environmental water quality and climate change with the Buckaveckas Lab at VCU.

Professional growth is essential. I constantly work to refine my abilities and to learn and develop new skills. Recently I have been digging in to PostgreSQL with PostGIS to build and host a relational spatial database; working with Google Earth Engine to access remotely sensed data; and using the Natural Earth public vector dataset for enhanced cartography.

I am bilingual in English and Spanish, and hold a Master of Spanish from Middlebury College. Prior to pursuing a career path in GIS and data analysis, I worked for many years teaching Spanish at the secondary school level. The COVID-19 pandemic provided me the time and opportunity to think seriously and with clarity about redefining my professional life. I was fortunate to be in a position to take the leap, and to have a supportive partner at home who encouraged me throughout the process.

And I love birds and birding. They provide intellectual fascination, aesthetic richness, and a unique connection to the natural world. Nothing gives greater pleasure than to spend time deep in an eastern hardwood forest during early summer, falling asleep to the sound of whip-or-wills and owls and waking to the dawn chorus of thrushes, warblers, and vireos. What a gift to be able to experience it all.