My Journey

My path into GIS runs through some unusual terrain. I came to spatial analysis through years of work where geography was never abstract -- reconnaissance routes, embassy threat assessments, solar array siting across remote federal land. I kept noticing that the people who understood the landscape had a real advantage over the people who were just reading reports about it. That observation eventually turned into a degree.

At San Diego State University, I've focused on environmental systems and geospatial methods: watershed hydrology, terrain analysis, drone photogrammetry, and field data collection. I've done stream cross-section surveys on Alvarado Creek, processed point clouds from UAV flights, and built full-stack web mapping applications handling hundreds of thousands of records. The technical side has grown fast, but the underlying instinct -- go look at the place, understand the landscape -- comes from the Army.

I'm particularly interested in applications where spatial data can support land stewardship: watershed management, forest health monitoring, riparian corridor analysis, and conservation planning. These are problems where getting the geography right actually matters, and that's where I want to do my best work.