Current & Past Roles

I currently work as a Research & Data Associate II for the Philadelphia Department of Public Health (PDPH). In this role, I use R and Python to conduct spatial and statistical analyses primarily focused on reducing firearm injuries in Philadelphia. My work also contributes to broader public health initiatives, including efforts to address the health impacts of poor air quality and extreme weather, and to improve equitable access to green space. One of my major projects is to build a citywide identified firearm injury database integrating data from community partners, hospitals, police, and other city departments. Another major project is to develop a web mapping application using ArcGIS Experience Builder Developer Edition to visualize the landscape of firearm injury prevention/intervention efforts and identify active initiatives and collaboration opportunities among community, hospital, and city partners.

I also worked as a Research Assistant within the Temple University Remote Sensing and Sustainability Lab (RSENSUS), where I used remote sensing techniques to quantify and characterize deforestation attributed to oil palm expansion in dry tropical forests of the Magdalena River Valley in northern Colombia. I built gap-free annual Analysis Ready Data (ARD) Landsat mosaics; collected training data for supervised land cover classifications; processed regional forest thematic maps and other supplemental data (SAR imagery, DEMs); and conducted supervised land cover classifications and change analyses using R.

In summer 2021-spring 2022, I worked as a GIS Technician for Philadelphia Parks & Recreation (PPR). In this role, I maintained, edited, and designed the schema of internal and publicly shared datasets; created internal web applications and printed maps to aid event planning and land management using ArcGIS Pro and ArcGIS Online; and automated repetitive reports, tasks, and analyses using Python.

In the spring of 2021, I worked as an Urban Forestry GIS Intern for the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS) and Philadelphia Parks & Rec; in this role, I conducted an urban tree canopy prioritization analysis for the City of Philadelphia to aid strategies developed under the Philadelphia Urban Forest Strategic Plan. The resulting map highlighted Philadelphia streets that are 1) most in need and 2) have the most capacity for additional street tree plantings.

In the summer of 2020, I was one of the GIS Summer of Maps Fellows at Azavea. I served as project manager, GIS analyst, and cartographer for two non-profit projects, and I also presented the results of my findings at the end of the summer through presentations, blog posts, and a remote GIS conference hosted by Azavea. The goals of the projects were 1) to highlight Philadelphia streets within the Hunting Park neighborhood that were the most in need of additional tree canopy and 2) to identify areas along the existing and proposed U.S.-Mexico border wall that have the highest numbers of at-risk species. Read more about these two projects in the Home section.

My other past roles include a Geospatial Stylization Consultant at NRECA International, the GIS Analyst Intern at Temple University's Facilities Information Resources & Management (FIRM) office, and the GIS Research Assistant at Temple University Ambler Campus.