Welcome!

​Nine days after graduating in May of 2018 with a BS in Business Analytics and Technology, I started my career as a Data Integrity Specialist for a small technology company in Austin, Texas. Two years later, the COVID-19 pandemic struck and half of my office was immediately furloughed. Luckily, I belonged to the half that was able to keep working as a fully remote employee. The following months of quarantine allowed me invaluable time to reflect and consider what was important in my life. My fondness for the outdoors grew into a passion for exploring nature and learning about the environment around me. To nurture this growing fascination, I moved to Denver in the summer of 2021.

 

It’s here, in Colorado, that I’ve embraced what is truly important to me. Throughout human history, our planet has never faced such a dire future. I’ve seen firsthand the forests, wildlife, and water systems that humanity’s actions have threatened. Using my skills to help improve the environment and the human experience would be a fulfilling, motivating, and inspiring career. Because of my environmental interests and data analysis experience it became apparent that the field of geospatial science was perfect for me. This led me to begin pursuing a master’s degree in Applied Geography and Geospatial Science at the University of Colorado – Denver.

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During my MA program at CU Denver, I took several courses that provided me with new geospatial analysis and cartographic skills while simultaneously reinforcing my data and communication abilities. Through various projects, I created posters, reports, original maps, and StoryMaps, applying methods like overlay analysis, cost surface analysis, statistical modeling, remote sensing analysis, and more. Beginning January of 2024, my roles with the National Park Service and the USGS allowed me to deepen my technical, analytical, and communication expertise. At the National Park Service, I used Remote Sensing tools in QGIS to train classification models and update water levels for reservoirs around the US. During my time with the USGS, I worked with my supervisor on an 11-month research project that focused on using soil data to train a random forest classification model that predicted eolian sediment across the Great Plains region at a 90% accuracy.

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In July of 2025, I began a full-time position with the State of Colorado's Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management (DHSEM) as a Geospatial Analyst. As one of only two geospatial professionals at the DHSEM, I'm given an abundance of creative freedom and the leeway to take on new exciting geospatial projects myself. In only a few months, I've written custom tools using Python to automate analyses in ArcGIS Pro, created over a dozen dashboards that summarize live survey data and promote situational awareness, written Python scripts to automate the capture of live data through APIs, and much more. On top of numerous geospatial projects, I'm working with my colleagues to stand up an ArcGIS Enterprise system and develop a data governance plan for the future.

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Looking back at my decision to pursue GIS as a career, I feel nothing but joy. I'm constantly inspired and motivated to continue learning within the field of geospatial science and GIS, and I’m excited about future opportunities.