After graduating from Brown University in 1991 with a bachelor's degree in Economics and a minor in Computer Science, I went to work in the environmental field. I took a summer internship with the American Littoral Society, where I wrote a research paper on the cost-benefit analysis of wetlands protection versus housing development. I then spent three years as a GIS analyst at an environmental consulting firm. My responsibilities included wetlands and habitat mapping, non-point source pollution modeling, land use interpretation and 3D modeling.
I finished my Master's in City Planning 1996 in the MIT Department of Urban Studies & Planning. In that program I focused on using GIS for environmental management and urban design, culminating in a Master's thesis on spatial algorithms for sketch planning. I entered the department's PhD program directly after finishing the Masters.
In late 1997 I took a hiatus from the PhD program to found Syncline, a company that developed Internet-based GIS software. I served as the company's chief technology officer. I also spearheaded Syncline's participation in the GIS standard's setting activities of the OpenGIS Consortium, and formed strong client relationships with MassGIS and MetroGIS.
I am currently back in the PhD program at MIT, writing a
dissertation on new paradigms for distributed, collaborative urban
modeling and analysis based on emerging Internet technologies,
particularly Web services. I've supported myself during this time with
work on many projects. Last year I served as technical architect on the
OpenGIS Consortium's compliance and
interoperability testing and evaluation program. I'm currently
project manager for the Community
Mapping Project, and providing technology advisory services to the Waitt Institute and their
community partners.