I started working at Wind Lake Solutions, which was eventually acquired by SSP Innovations, in January 2016 as a GIS Specialist. In August 2019, I transitioned to a position with the System Implementation team as a Software Engineer. For my first blog post, I’d like to discuss a little about myself and my unconventional path to becoming a developer.

I earned my bachelor’s degree in Economics and my master’s degree in Urban Studies both from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM). I first discovered GIS in graduate school while I was researching the relationship between historic preservation policy and economic development. I took one GIS class and I was hooked. I was excited to discover such a powerful (and cool) technology that I could use for analysis and acquire a technical/marketable skill. I completed the graduate level GIS certificate program at UWM and used GIS to perform spatial analysis as my thesis research method.

While working on my GIS certificate, my favorite GIS course was Internet GIS.  The final project was to create an ArcServer web application that linked to a project website. Along with consideration for standard map element display, I had to consider how I would configure the specific functionality of the application. I loved that I was able to create web map applications that were immediately available to the outside via a web browser.

After the Internet GIS course ended, I continued developing ArcServer web apps for fun. At that time, William Huxhold, GISP, the director of the GIS program at UWM, found out about my time spent at the lab and asked me to teach the course. I agreed and taught Internet GIS for 7 semesters during graduate school and after I finished, as an adjunct professor.

When I began teaching, the web map applications were created using ArcServer Manager, they were simple OOTB web applications, not many options to configure the look or style. Shortly after, the ArcGIS Adobe Flex API and the Silverlight API became popular (and easy) ways to consume restful GIS web services.  Using restful services also gave the developer the ability to allow editing, which was a very big deal at that time. My favorite part of teaching was the student final project presentations at the end of the semester.  Along with the sense of accomplishment, there was a wide variety of creative projects that spanned across different disciplines. I now get the opportunity to work with one of my previous students, Stephen Hudak.  If you’ve ever read one of Stephen’s blog posts before (and there are quite a few to choose from), it won’t be hard to imagine what it was like having him as a student!

During my time at UWM, I attended as many GIS conferences as possible as both a participant and presenter.  I taught half a dozen workshops on ArcServer development and google mashups, including an Intro to ArcGIS JavaScript API. In 2011, I was fortunate enough to attend the ESRI International user conference in San Diego, California. I had a great time and was able to get my picture taken with Jack Dangermond.

Shortly after I stopped teaching, I began working at Wind Lake Solutions (now SSP) as a GIS Specialist. At my first annual review, I expressed interest in continuing to develop my programming skills. I was given the opportunity to meet with the development team where I was able to discuss a little about my background, it was suggested that if I would like to pursue this path that I learn C#.

Over the next few years, I completed two programming classes and a database course. I was also assigned to work projects developing ESRI Survey123 and Collector applications. Since the beginning of this year, I’ve been working on a project doing GIS IT for a large utility company.  In my IT position, I’ve successfully developed programs to help the business, assisted users by trouble shooting all sorts of ESRI and ArcFM issues, and built GIS servers. Along with continuing to develop my programming skills in my free time, I’ve been given work assignments that have helped me to cultivate my skills.

This past year, I was presented with the opportunity to transition from the Data Management team to the System Implementation team.  The transition went very well, right now I’ve been working on developing my JavaScript and Angular JS skills. I’m grateful for my position as Software Engineer and very happy to part of the SSP team.

Throughout my career, I have found GIS to be an exciting technology. Whether as a grad student, university instructor, or now as a Software Engineer, GIS has given me the opportunity to be creative and solve real-world problems. As with any technology, there are also daily opportunities to learn and improve my skill set. I’m looking forward to continuing to grow into my new role at SSP and can’t wait to see what the future has in store!