2008 IGIC Board Candidate List

COMMUNITY COLLEGE & K-12 SECTOR (2)

Scott Ermer

Professor and Chair, Agriculture and Natural Resources Department, Hawkeye Community College
Scott Ermer, Professor and Chair for the Agriculture and Natural Resources Department, has been teaching at Hawkeye Community College in the Agriculture and Natural Resources Department since 1999. Scott’s area of expertise is in the geospatial technologies, Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS), as they relate to the Agriculture Industry. Currently, Scott serves on the board of directors for the Iowa Geographic Information Council. Scott actively promotes geospatial education by co-hosting an annual Eastern Iowa GIS Conference, instructing courses for high school teachers, serving on the Education Committee and Chairman of the 2009 IGIC Conference Committee for the IGIC. Scott also serves as the lead faculty member representing Hawkeye Community College in their partnership with AgrowKnowledge, the National Center for the Advancement of Science, Math and Technology in Agriculture Education, A National Science Foundation Center for Excellence. Scott earned his B.S. and M.S. degrees from Iowa State University in Agriculture Education. Formerly, Scott has taught High School Agriculture Education at Shellsburg Community Schools, Shellsburg, Iowa and North-Linn High School in Troy Mills, Iowa. Scott has also worked for the Iowa State University Cooperative Extension Service.

Terry Brase
Associate Professor, Agricultural GPS/GIS, Kirkwood Community College
Terry has taught applications of geospatial technologies since 1993, currently teaching introductory courses in precision farming and ArcView, Geospatial Data Collection and Agricultural Spatial Analysis. He has assisted the integration of GIS into Kirkwood’s business and emergency services programs. His involvement in IGIC includes serving as treasurer and organizing the ESRI statewide education license. Terry is also the Principal Investigator (PI) of AgrowKnowledge, The National Center for Agriscience and Technology Education and recently named a Co-PI of the National Geospatial Education Center Planning Grant. He has recently authored a textbook “Precision Agriculture”, published by Delmar Publishing, which covers the process of agricultural spatial analysis.

COUNTY GOVERNMENT SECTOR (4)

Micah Cutler
GIS Coordinator, Hardin & Franklin Counties
Micah has been the GIS Coordinator for Hardin and Franklin Counties for since July 2006. She has worked in county government for nearly 8 years. She is very active in GIS issues in Iowa and has been an IGIC member since 2002, currently serving as the Secretary for IGIC. Micah has also served as President of the Iowa Counties Information Technology (ICIT) organization, an ISAC affiliate. She has a M.S. in Geography from the University of South Carolina and a B.A. in Geography and Earth Science from the University of Northern Iowa. Go Panthers! She lives with her husband, Brad, and their two sons in Iowa Falls.

Lawrence Hartpence
GIS Coordinator, Jasper County
I have been in the GIS field since 1992 beginning in Idaho at the Department of Fish and Game. While in Idaho, I was associated with their statewide GIS Council, the Idaho Geographic Information Advisory Committee (IGIAC). I moved to Iowa in 1999 at which time I began working for Jasper County. I have been involved with IGIC since that time.

Paula Lemke
GIS Coordinator, Cerro Gordo County
Paula enjoys the fun, excitement and constantly changing methods and results of playing with GIS. She earned an A.S. in GIS from Iowa Lakes Community College and a B.S. in Community and Regional Planning with a GIS emphasis from Iowa State. Working with GIS for over 10 years now – at the Iowa DOT, CTRE and as GIS Coordinator in Cerro Gordo County the past 4 years she will continue learning and adapting as the science grows and evolves. Paula is actively involved with several organizations such as the IGIC (since 1998 and current Vice-chair), MAGIC (since 2000) and ICIT (since 2004). She teaches continuing education classes in GIS at North Iowa Area Community College and enjoys assisting smaller counties, businesses and individuals get started with their own GIS program.

Matt Boeck
GIS Coordinator, Story CountyMatt has a B.S. Degree in Community and Regional Planning from Iowa State University.  He worked as an intern for PMC, ProMap Corporation for two years and then took a full time position after graduation.  In 2004 he became the GIS Coordinator for Mahaska County Iowa.  He had the opportunity to move back to the Ames area in April 2006 to take the position as Story County GIS Coordinator.  Matt has served on the ICIT Board since 2005 as Technology Advocate and Vice President and is the current President.

FEDERAL AGENCY SECTOR (2)

Gregg Hadish
State GIS Specialist, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service
Gregg has been involved with IGIC since its inception in 1998. He has served on the IGIC Board of Directors for the past six years. He is a member of the IGIC Remote Sensing and the Natural Resources Committees. He also served on the IGIC Conference Committee. Gregg is the State GIS Specialist for the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service in Des Moines, a position he has held since 1997. From 1992 to 1997 he was the GIS/Project Director for the Golden Hills Resource Conservation & Development office in Oakland, Iowa. He graduated from Iowa State University in Landscape Architecture in 1992.

Robert Lemen
Cartographer, USGS
USGS Geospatial Liaison for Iowa (Cartographer)
Bob has been with the USGS for nearly 32 years and is located in Rolla, MO. He has served in many positions and has been assigned to various details throughout his career. In his current position as State Liaison he works with Federal, State, and local government organizations, academia, and the private sector to carry out the mission of the Geospatial Information Office by promoting and implementing NSDI. This is accomplished in part by partnering with the wide variety of organizations that develop and work with geospatial data. Developing and sustaining long-term partnerships for the acquisition and maintenance of geospatial data along with working with other organizations to develop web services to display this data are primary goals. Bob has served on the IGIC Board of Directors since 2005 and is member of the Clearinghouse Committee. He is also serving on the 2009 IGIC Conference Committee.

MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT SECTOR (3)

Herb Kuehne
Crime Analyst, Sioux City Police Dept.
Crime Analyst - 2001 to present; applying GIS in law enforcement. Longtime member of IGIC. Formerly Board representative in the university category. Current Board representative in city government. Secretary (01-03); Vice-Chair (04-05); Chair (05-06); Past Chair (06-07); Conference committee member for several conferences. Presentations at 2005 IGIC conference: "Using GIS to Catch the Bad Guys" and "GIS Tricks Learned by a Crime Analyst." Presenter in workshop at 2006 MAGIC Conference "Using GIS in Law Enforcement." Also presenter and workshop instructor at 2007 IGIC Conference. Does several talks annually on GIS in law enforcement to local community groups. Active member of Siouxland GIS User's Group.

Dave Croll
GIS Coordinator, City of Johnston
Dave holds a Bachelors degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Iowa. Almost three years ago, Dave joined the City of Johnston as the GIS coordinator and has been actively building and improving Johnston’s GIS capabilities. Prior to working for Johnston, Dave spent 4 years as a Civil Engineer/GIS Specialist for the City of Ames. His responsibilities included creating and maintaining GIS data primarily of urban infrastructure. Early in his career he worked as an Engineering Technician for a private consulting firm for 4 years. This led to an interest in GIS. When not at work, you might find Dave paddling his kayak on one of Iowa’s rivers or organizing a stream cleanup event. Dave enjoys gardening and home improvement projects with his two children and wife in and around Urbandale, Iowa.

Nikki Breitsprecker
GIS Coordinator/Analyst, City of Dubuque
Nikki has worked for the City of Dubuque for two years, and has over eight years experience in both government and private consulting with GIS.  She holds a bachelors of arts degree in Geography with an Environmental Emphasis from the University of Northern Iowa.  Nikki has been actively involved in IGIC, the Eastern Iowa GIS Users Group, and Eastern Iowa GIS Day, and is currently a member of the 2009 conference planning team.  Nikki is also involved in the volleyball community in Dubuque, having coached club and high school teams, and is also a Board Member of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Eastern Iowa.  Outside of her activities, Nikki and her husband spend their time diggin' dirt with their two sons. 
If elected to the IGIC board, Nikki would work hard to give cities with GIS a stronger voice in the IGIC, and work with the cities throughout the State to identify what common issues unite them.  She would also like to give eastern Iowa a stronger voice in GIS issues in the State.

PRIVATE SECTOR (4)

Anne Packard
GIS Coordinator, Fox Engineering
Anne is the current Chair of IGIC, has been working with GIS for almost 10 years, and joined FOX Engineering in fall of 2004. At FOX she provides GIS support for the engineers, geologist, and CAD technicians, primarily for municipal utilities. Prior to FOX she worked as the GIS Coordinator for Story County and was a member of the Data Repository group. Earlier she worked for the City of Ames Planning Department and was involved in the GIS collaboration between the City of Ames and Story County. She is a member of ICIT (Iowa Counties Information Technology) and participates in IGIC's Outreach and Education Committees. She is interested in promoting the use and understanding of GIS in Iowa and collaboration among agencies.

Jeremy White
Iowa Account Manager, ESRI
Jeremy has a degree in Geography from Northwest Missouri State University. Upon his graduation in 1999 he accepted a position working for in the Platte County Assessor’s Office. A few months later he became the GIS Manager, where he converted 390 CAD maps to a Geodatabase. A few years later he took a digitizing position at Midland GIS Solutions, where he helped create GIS for Buchanan County and the City of Saint Joseph Missouri. In October of 2005 Jeremy accepted a position at ESRI in Inside Sales. In July of 2007, he became the Account Manager for the State of Iowa, and a handful of counties in Missouri and Arkansas. When not at work, you will find Jeremy spending time with his wife and two children, or catching up on the latest New England Patriots or Boston Red Sox scores, as a transplanted New Englander he still has to follow his teams.

Sonja Sebree
Senior GIS Analyst, Kirkham Michael & Associates
Sonja has been in the GIS field for 10 years. As a GIS Specialist for the U.S. Geological Survey, she worked on water quality/quantity projects, including the High Plains Aquifer, Bathymetry and RTK GPS. More recently, Sonja has worked with Pottawattamie County, Iowa, as well as Natural Resources agencies, Counties and City Governments. Always interested in promoting GIS awareness and learning, she has served on the Nebraska Steering Committee, Nebraska GIS/LIS Board, and most recently presented at the National Geospatial Infrastructure and Technology Association (GITA) in Seattle, Washington. With Kirkham Michael, she is involved in the IDOT I-80 Data Warehouse and Portal Development. Sonja has a B.S. in Geography from University of Nebraska at Kearney, a M.A. in Geography from the University of Nebraska at Omaha, and is an ESRI ATP.

Scott Mattes
Geospatial Group Leader for the Community and Technology Resources Business Unit at the Howard R. Green Company.
Scott has extensive experience managing the architecture, development, and implementation of geographic information systems (GIS). Scott has developed project-wide GIS deployments for numerous municipal and transportation clients. He has experience developing mobile data collection applications linked to customized automated reporting tools. Scott manages the design and configuration of several interactive web mapping “geo-portals” that integrate a variety of project data (CAD, GIS, and tabular) into a seamless web browser interface powered by ArcGIS Server technology.  As a licensed Professional Engineer and Certified Industrial Hygienist, his engineering background includes technical oversight and management of projects dealing with groundwater contamination, drinking water, hazardous waste and materials, and environmental risk assessments. He has managed industrial hygiene surveys for industrial work centers and designed solutions to mitigate physical, chemical, biological and radiological hazards. Scott was previously an instructor with the US Air Force Academy where he instructed cadets on GIS and environmental engineering.

Jeff Corns, GISP
Vice President of GIS, The Schneider Corporation
Jeff is a Certified GIS Professional (GISP) and has been active in the Iowa and Midwest GIS community for almost 15 years, primarily working with State and Local Governments.  Jeff has previous served IGIC for a number of years as a Board Member, Treasurer, and Vice-Chair, as well as assisting with strategic planning and many conferences.  Jeff has served on many industry boards across the Midwest, and due to term limits has recently transitioned off of the Indiana Geographic Information Council where he has served as a Board Member, Executive Board Member, and Treasurer.  He accepted an appointment to the Finance Committee of IGIC(IN) and continues to advise the board on Indiana GIS topics.  Jeff also serves on the Advisory Board for the Masters of Geography program at IUPUI, and as a member of the GIS Certificate Institute’s Review Board.  Jeff leads the GIS division of The Schneider Corporation
(http://gis.schneidercorp.com), with offices in 4 states, including Ames, IA.  He has worked with over 40 local governments in Iowa and has been active with GIS in Iowa his entire career.  Jeff has a B.S. in Geography from the University of Iowa.  You can read more about Jeff at:  http://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffcorns.

Christopher Solberg, AICP
Planner/GIS Specialist, The Schemmer Associates, Inc
Chris has a B.A. in Community and Regional Planning from the Iowa State University.  He has developed the Southern Iowa Council of Government’s (SICOG) GIS from scratch, introducing many cities and counties in an eight county region in southern Iowa to basics of GIS and its uses.  During his employment at SICOG Chris served temporarily on the IGIC Board as a Regional Organization Sector representative’s replacement.  Chris currently manages The Schemmer Associates’ database and works with many entities to expand the knowledge and use of GIS.  Chris is also a member of Nebraska GIS-LIS and MAGIC, following the GIS activities of other states in relation to Iowa.

REGIONAL ORGANIZATION SECTOR (2)

Brad Cutler
Planner/GIS Specialist, MIDAS Council of Governments
Brad is a Planner with MIDAS Council of Governments based out of Fort Dodge. Since starting at MIDAS in 2007, his responsibilities have largely focused on outreach and training of GIS to smaller and underserved communities in addition to learning the ropes as a Planner. Prior to working at MIDAS, he was the GIS Project Specialist for Golden Hills Resource Conservation & Development, Oakland, Iowa. He has served as a Regional Sector representative on the IGIC Board since 2002, and has served as the IGIC Board Secretary, Vice-Chair and Chair during this span. In his time working with IGIC thus far he has been involved with several committees in furthering IGIC's goals but would like the opportunity in the next several years towards accomplishing some objectives that specifically address communicating who IGIC is, and the role our organization should have in leading the development of the Iowa Geospatial Infrastructure. Brad, his wife Micah, and two sons currently reside in Iowa Falls.

Eric Sanders
Transportation Planner/Modeler/GIS Analyst, SIMPCO Council of Governments
Eric has a degree in Geography with an emphasis in GIS from the University of Iowa. Upon graduation he accepted a position as at transportation Planner/GIS analyst at SIMPCO.  In 2007 he took on the responsibility of Transportation Modeler. His duties at SIMPCO include:
creating and maintaining the various shapefiles, conducting studies and analysis using GIS, and creating and maintain the traffic demand model to predict future traffic flows.

STATE AGENCY SECTOR (4)

Chris Ensminger
Environmental Program Supervisor/GIS Coordinator, Iowa DNR
Chris has a B.S. in Biology/Ecology from Winona State University and a M.S. in Resource Analysis from St. Mary's University of Minnesota. He worked for Geospatial Services in Winona, MN before starting with the Iowa DNR in 2000. He was a GIS Specialist for the IDNR non-point source pollution program before becoming the GIS Section Supervisor/GIS Coordinator in 2005. Chris is currently an IGIC Board member.

Jon Paoli
GIS Coordinator, Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management Division (HSEMD)
Jon has worked at the Iowa HSEMD since the fall of 2001. He has over 10 years of experience in GIS and remote sensing with the Federal Government and the State of Iowa. He now serves as the GIS Coordinator for HSEMD and has served three terms on the IGI Board.

Eric Abrams
GIS Technical Coordinator, Iowa DOT
Eric has worked at the Iowa DOT since 1990. For the last 12 years he has worked in the IT division and assisted in the design and implementation of Geographical Information Managment system (GIMS). Eric is currently involved with the Iowa DOT Spatial and GIS Coordination along with LRS implementation and multiple other spatial projects like sign inventory, LiDAR, CARS 511. He has 13 years of Oracle, Oracle Spatial, project management, and GIS software experience.

Patrick Brown
GIS Applications Coordinator, Iowa DNR
Patrick has worked with the Iowa DNR since August 2007 where he works with a variety programs to make water and land information more accessible through various geospatial web applications and web services. Prior to working at the Iowa DNR Patrick worked for the ISU GIS Facility as a GIS Analyst for seven years. At ISU he taught courses in various geospatial technologies and provided support and other GIS services to the ISU GIS community. As an IGIC member he has been involved in the Natural Resources Committee, IGIC conference planning, the IGIC website and the Iowa Geospatial Data Clearinghouse. Patrick is currently a board member representing the University Sector.

UNIVERSITY SECTOR (4)

Dr. Ramanathan Sugumaran

Assistant Professor of Geography, University of Northern Iowa
Dr. Sugumaran is Associate Professor of Geography and Director of GeoTREE project at the University of Northern Iowa. He has over 17 years of experience in remote sensing, GIS, GPS spatial decision support systems (SDSS) applications for natural resources and environmental planning and management, He is and has been working with federal, state, local and tribal government agencies (FSLT) for the past 10 years and he has developed several geospatial techniques and tools. The methodologies developed for FSLT agencies by Dr. Sugumaran was widely published in IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing, PE & RS, Geocarto, Geographical Systems and Canadian Journal of Remote sensing journals. Dr. Sugumaran has served as PI or Co-PI on over $6 million worth of research grants funded by NASA, Raytheon, NOAA, USDA, DOT, US Fish and Wildlife Service. He has also published more than 15 journal articles related to remote sensing, GIS and Spatial Decision Support Systems. Dr. Sugumaran has two PHDs; a Ph.D. from the University of Edinburgh in the UK and the University of Baroda, India.

Chris Seeger
Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture and Extension Landscape Architect, Iowa State University
Chris has worked as the ISU Extension Landscape Architect for the past five years where he has utilized GIS mapping and GPS tools to better understand the role the built environment plays in community health. Chris serves on the ISU GIS Graduate Certificate Committee and teaches GIS workshops and courses that focus on 3D GIS Visualization, Online Mapping and Public Participation in GIS. Chris has served on the IGIC board for the past 6 years and is a member of the State Landscape Architecture Licensing Board.

Dr. Anya Butt
Associate Professor, Environmental Studies, Central College.
Anya received her B.A. at Mount Holyoke College in geography and in geology, her M.S. at the University of Toronto in Physical Geography and her PhD at the University of Nevada, Reno.  As part of her research there, Anya helped intiate the GIS efforts for the LTER Taylor Valley project, and developed stream assessment guidelines for the Lake Tahoe basin streams, available through the Tahoe Environmental GIS group.  Anya taught geography for three years prior to joining Central College and has been teaching geoscience related courses at Central since 2002.  Through Anya’s initiative, GIS became a requirement for all environmental studies majors.  Anya serves as a reviewer for the GISCI.

Kevin Kane
Director, Iowa State University GIS Facility and Adjunct Professor, Iowa State University
Kevin has been practicing GIS professionally since receiving his Masters degree from ISU in 1985. He worked for 12 years at the Iowa Department of Natural Resources as the departments GIS coordinator and also taught GIS courses at Drake University in Des Moines. He returned to Ames in 1997 where he became director of the ISU GIS Facility. Kevin has served two terms as chair of IGIC as well as on many of its committees as an academic representative. He has been involved in GIS coordination in Iowa since 1988 and has also served as a member of NSGIC and MAGIC since the early 1990s.

Dr. Simon Geletta
Assistant Professor, Des Moines University
Dr. Simon Geletta is an assistant professor in the Master’s of Public Health Program at Des Moines University. Dr. Geletta teaches health care research and statistics courses and is involved in several public health research and service activities. In addition to his academic career, Dr. Geletta has more than 15 years of experience in the healthcare IT industry working as data warehousing lead, senior analyst/programmer, statistician, and database application developer. Dr. Geletta attended graduate school at the University of Missouri – Columbia (Department of Sociology) and Boston University (Department of Computer Science).