Doug Marvel
with
Spatial Marvels, an Indianapolis-based
GIS consultant. Doug’s college focus
resulted in a degree in Engineering
Technology.
During high school, Doug had a special interest
in then emerging technologies – before personal computers.
Course work that helped in accomplishing his goals include
drafting and lots of math. Drafting provided the foundation
for visualizing a GIS, thus, implementing the software.
College courses that have been invaluable to Doug’s
professional career have been math, engineering and
design, and relational database management systems.
Doug encourages students to become aware of the concept
of a GIS as most data available today is utilized to solve
problems in some type of a GIS.
Doug provides consulting expertise in
setting up, researching, maintaining, and
enhancing a Geographic Information
System (GIS) for many types of indivduals
And organizations/business entities.
From small start-up companies to local, city,
township, and state governmental
agencies and to large corporations, Doug
enables an entity to better utilize its
human and financial resources through
streamlining GIS accessibility.
The most enjoyable aspect of Doug’s job
is watching a business/entity work their
way from no GIS, to the beginnings of a
GIS (training, hardware, software, nervousness), through to a fully robust and
established GIS. The final phase - where
everything is proceeding smoothly and
everyone is comfortable using the software
and grasps the possibilities that GIS
offers, in terms of problem-solving, makes
Doug feel like a proud parent. Everyone then
Is better able to serve the public.
Becky McKinley with the
Hammond Sanitary District.
Becky’s leadership and tutelage have brought the
northwestern corner of Indiana into the light in terms
of geo-spatial technology use, applications, problemsolving, and outreach. She thoroughly enjoys
collaborating with colleagues, learning from others,
and sharing possibilities – all revolving around GIS,
including aerial photography.
Bruce Nielsen, USDA-NRCS Indianapolis Office, Jill, SaligoeSimmel, IGIC President, Jack Dangermond (ESRI Founder,
CEO and owner) and Becky McKinley. Photograph was
taken in San Diego in 2002 when the Indiana Geographic
Information Council won an ESRI Special Achievement in
GIS Award.
Course work that Becky finds useful from
high school would be math, drafting and computer
design. Communications and writing were also
vital course work from both high school and college
training. Much GIS work revolves around the
manipulation of data and the production of visuals, but
in order to explain the visuals, a good written report
must accompany the project.
Becky will visit with schools in the area. She can be
reached at bmckinley@hammondsd.com .
Becky is the GIS Manager for the Hammond
Sanitary District. Her job encompasses all data,
hardware and software work revolving around the
use of geographic Information systems addressing
the Hammond, Indiana area sanitation issues.
Becky is quite active in providing connections with
geo-spatial technology colleagues around the state,
with K+ educators in the area, and with business and
political leaders throughout the state. Spending time
educating those not familiar with GIS is a task that
Becky takes on graciously. She also spends time
assisting GIS professionals in the northwestern
portion of the state enabling data sharing, problemsolving, and cost sharing. Connecting Indiana’s
students (future geo-spatial technology professionals)
with GIS, GPS, and aerial photography makes
Becky feel positive about the direction that GIS
will take in Indiana’s future.
Kelly Johnston with the
Indiana Department of
Environmental Management.
Kelly is an Environmental Manager with IDEM. He
has a Masters of Science in Geographic Information
Science.
Kelly creates custom maps, trains users on GIS
software, provides support for GIS users, maintains/
updates/enhances GIS data, and works with aerial
photographs.
Some of the college courses that have proven
valuable to his job: Geographic Information
Systems (GIS), remote sensing, cartography,
spatial statistics, and research methodologies.
Some of the high school courses that have proven
valuable to his job: algebra, trigonometry, and
drafting.
Kelly would be willing to visit your school in central
Indiana to discuss GIS or to talk about
environmental issues and the use of GIS to
develop solutions; e-mail at kjohnsto@idem.in.gov
The aspects of his job that he likes include using GIS
technology to protect the environment, working with
lots of maps, learning about cutting-edge
technologies, and working with individuals from
diverse fields (chemists, geologists, and others).
Kelly feels that he learns something every day from
the people he encounters. Kelly feels that through
GIS and geo-spatial technologies, the environment
will be made a better place by mitigating the human
impact and maximizing the relationship between
humans and the environment.
Charles Hickman with the
United States Geological Survey
Charles is a Geographer with the USGS. He
has a Masters of Arts in Geography from
Ohio State University.
Charles is a Mapping Liaison between the
United States Geological Survey and the
state of Ohio. In this capacity he helps to
coordinate mapping and geographic data
activities among Federal, State and local
governments and programs and projects.
Some of the college courses Charles took that
help him in his job were physical geography,
cartography, communications, and Geographic
Information Systems (GIS).
Some of the high school courses that Charles
took that have helped in his career are algebra,
geometry, trigonometry, calculus, and art.
If you would like further information on the USGS
“Community Map” program, contact Charles at
chickman@usgs.gov.
Some aspects of Charles’ job that he really
enjoys are meeting a variety of people and
sharing his love of data. Charles believes
that spatial data is fun! Most people like
maps, and Charles benefits from this
commonality as people share their
enthusiasm for GIS and for maps.
Jennifer Wayman
with Pinnacle Mapping, Inc., is a
Photogrammetry Technician.
Jennifer received her Associates Degree
in Photogrammetry and has been mapping in
three-dimensions ever since!
The course work that Jennifer found most
valuable to her current career would include
all math and drafting at the high school level.
And at the college level math, technology, and
photogrammetry courses were the reason
that she determined this type of career.
Jennifer enjoys exploring new and remote
places from a different perspective, yet, the
feeling is as though you are really there.
Her job entails planimetric and topographic
mapping in a 3-D environment. This means that
she wears stereoscopic lenses (see them in the
photo at left – they look like black glasses)
that add the three-dimensionality to an aerial
photograph. From the three-dimensional aerial
photograph, she can capture ground features by
“tracing” them. – or the x/y coordinates on the ground
can be matched to the same coordinates on the
aerial photograph. This refined data can then be used
in a GIS to solve problems. By doing this highly
specialized job, contours and depth are added to
the computer visual images that are accessed by
users of the GIS software and data.
In this type of work, experience and training are
invaluable. Reliance upon the human eye is key
in determining planimetric applications.
There are still many facets that the human
eye can detect that a computer cannot.
Bill Holder
is the GIS Director for the Kosciusko County
Government. He manages the acquisition,
use, distribution, and management of the
various pieces/layers of GIS data available in
the county in order to solve problems, to
enhance commerce, and to outreach to the
public. Bill works with many individuals at all
levels of government and within business and
at-home citizens.
Bill received a Bachelor’s Degree in Geography
from the University of South Alabama and
a Master of Arts Degree in Geography from
Appalachian State University. He loves geography
and the possibilities that it brings to better
understand humans and the world in which
they live.
Looking back, Bill finds that the most helpful courses
taken in high school that help in his employment
today were English composition (because he has to
write many reports and proposals), Architectural Drawing,
and Speech. Courses in college that enable Bill to better
accomplish his professional goals were any type of GIS
or Computer Mapping/Cartography, Map and Aerial Photography Interpretation, Plane Table Survey, Hydrology,
Digital Image Processing, and Writing.
Bill would be willing to visit classrooms in the Kosciusko
County area (and surrounding counties).
His e-mail is bholder@kcgov.com. Telephone is 574.372.2485.
A few items that Bill especially enjoys about his
job are making maps that help people, finding
ways to improve the quality and functionality
of the county mapping website, using GIS data
to resolve problems, working with aerial photography, and knowing that every day will be different, challenging, and exciting.
The best part about his job is working with so
many different types of people with so many
various needs.
Dawn Torok
Dawn’s title is the GIS Coordinator with the
City of Lawrence,
Dawn works a lot with local school groups
familiarizing the educators and students with
a GIS and other geo-spatial technology possibilities. One of the best ways to outreach about
GIS is through the use of aerial photography.
Everyone loves to see places from above: home,
school, lakes, rivers, interstates and other structures,
and natural places. She enjoys introducing young
people to possibilities that will be a part of their
everyday personal and professional lives as they
get older.
The parts of her job that she enjoys the most is working with
great colleagues, helping local citizens better understand
property issues, and teaching others about the beauty of geospatial technologies. She also enjoys knowing that people can
actually use her work to solve problems.
High School courses that Dawn believes were valuable to her
career today: math, geography, history, business, and language
arts. College courses that were valuable to Dawn’s career were
everything related to location, location, location! English,
Business, Geography, Math, Science, History, Planning.
Dawn would be willing to visit your classroom to teach about
geo-spatial technologies. dtorok@cityoflawrence.org
Dawn has worked with the Indiana Technology
Educators Association in providing guidance and
classroom ideas and resource possibilities to
many high school technology educators. She has
also worked with the Geography Educators’
Network of Indiana in facilitating outreach. And
Dawn has assisted local Scouting groups to
work toward their GPS/GIS badges.
Phil Worrell
Phil is the GIS Director with Pinnacle
Mapping, Inc.
Currently, Phil oversees all GIS-related
activities undertaken by Pinnacle. Whether
training (internal and external), consulting,
problem-solving, or resource management,
Phil ensures that Pinnacle maintains a
professional image, a quality product, and
a task-oriented staff for timely completion.
“Hind-sight is 20/20 they say”. And Phil looks
back to his high school and college days
remembering the academics that enable him
to better facilitate his job today. In high school,
Phil took all of the math available and the drafting
courses that were available. The mechanics of
math enable the mind to better utilize and understand
data management and GIS software.
Any computer-related course available in college was
helpful as they each teach and familiarize you with something
valuable.
Phil received an Associates of Science in
Computer Technology and a Bachelor of Science
in Business Information Systems.
The aspects about Phil’s job that he enjoys
The most are working with local and state
governments: maximizing their resources (human,
capital, hardware) to obtain reliable, high-quality
results with the promise of future shared data to
enable quicker problem-solving in the coming
years.
High school may seem not too important, but in the long run of
your life, it can be the little things that you learn that become the most
valuable in your future life.
Layne Young with the
Department of Natural Resources,
GIS Division.
Layne enjoys working with educators and
Students throughout the Indianapolis
metropolitan area in his capacity as an
employee of the DNR and in his capacity
as an avid geo-spatial technology specialist.
Layne’s imagination in terms of classroom
curriculum and applying geography and geospatial technologies is immeasurable. He
creates ideas and methodology on a weekly
basis. The trick is to type up the ideas!
The Indiana Orthophotography Map Puzzle
(http://www.iupui.edu/~gst/ortho.html) and
the M&M Community Map Activity
(http://www.iupui.edu/~gst/gps.html) are examples
of Layne’s education-oriented mind.
In high school, Layne believes that math, science, and geography
enhanced his ability in the workplace. As well, Layne believes that
college courses such as creative writing, science, geography,
and planning provided a solid foundation for his success in the
workplace.
Layne may not have time to visit your classroom, but you can e-mail him questions at Layne.Young@indy.gov
Invite your county GIS specialist to visit the school/classroom and to introduce
your students to local spatial data, local problems being solved spatially, and
local solutions. Look for your county GIS webpage, too.
Visit the IGIC (Indiana Geographic Information Council) website for access to
IndianaMap --- a free, on-line resource that provides data for all 92 counties in
the state and that can create various maps with the data – including
orthophotography (aerial photography). Students can learn a lot about their
state and county. http://www.indianamap.org
Visit the IndianaView Project via Purdue University. The site offers various
spatial data materials that students can utilize to solve problems and plan for
the future. View images, learn about GIS (through a free software package
called MultiSpec), and link to AmericaView to learn about other states.
http://www.indianaview.org
Visit the Indiana Spatial Data Portal for more Indiana spatial data. View
maps, aerial photographs, and learn about where data comes from (metadata). http://gis.iu.edu