Home: Richardson, Texas
UT Dallas Degree: MS’00 GIS and have completed all but my dissertation for a PhD in GIS.
Profession: Since 2012, I have been working for the North Texas Tollway Authority (NTTA) as a GIS Analyst/Developer.
I received a scholarship from the National Science Foundation (NSF), as part of the Cyber-Mapping Lab and the INTERFACE program. I was also a teaching assistant and research assistant for Professor Carlos Aiken.
I perform geospatial analysis for issues such as traffic accident hot spots and habitual violators’ geospatial analyses. I am also in charge of building and maintaining the GIS applications, such as live traffic on the tollway system.
Everything I do in my field of work is directly related to my GIS degree from UT Dallas. The diversity of skills gained, as well as working with great professors such as Dr. Ronald Briggs, helped shape my career.
In 1999, I conducted a GPS project for the City of Richardson as part of my GPS class at UTD. After being hired as an intern, I was promoted to a full-time GIS analyst. I enjoyed working for the City of Richardson for eight years.
Before working for NTTA, I was the GIS programmer and, subsequently, the GIS manager for the City of McKinney, Texas.
I had the privilege to work on different, great projects as part of the Cyber-Mapping Lab and the INTERFACE Program. One of the great projects was a 3-D mapping of a sinkhole in Daisetta, Texas, with terrestrial laser scanning and close-range digital photogrammetry.
GIS was fairly new when I started. Dr. Briggs was my adviser and mentor. He was also my No. 1 reference, which helped tremendously with obtaining my first professional job. I am still enjoying a great relationship with Prof. Briggs. He’s always going to be my reference and my mentor. In the GIS world, you really need to get to know your professors. They will be a valuable and appreciated resource for you for years to come. The GIS profession is a small and very tight-knit community.