2011 MAGIP Elections

Miles Wacker

Meghan Burns

Meghan Burns is a Landscape Ecologist for the Montana Natural Heritage Program, where she has been employed since 2007.  She has a M.S. in Geographic Information Science from Michigan State University and has been a member of the GIS community for almost ten years. 

 Her responsibilities at MTNHP include managing the wetland and riparian mapping of Montana as of one the Montana Spatial Data Infrastructure (MSDI) Wetland Layer stewards.  Additionally, she works closely with NRIS staff and other MSDI stewards to collaborate and provide data and information to users.  Specifically, this includes publishing metadata to the Montana GIS Portal, designing new web map services for the wetland layer, and creating new tools for the MTNHP MapViewer Web Map Application.  Additionally, she and a colleague at Montana DEQ teach two Introductory GIS and GPS courses for professionals each year.

 If elected to a member-at-large position with the MAGIP board, Meghan would continue to look for opportunities to collaborate within the GIS Community.  Through her work on the metadata work group committee, she recognizes the importance of documentation and making data products discoverable and accessible.  Meghan is interested in creating and promoting the Best Practices and Standards that are hosted on the MAGIP web site, such as File Naming Structure.  Moreover, she would like to generate more awareness for the Mentoring SubCommittee. As a professional geographic information organization, Meghan feels MAGIP has a responsibility to provide strong stewardship of GIS technology.

Thank you for your consideration for a member-at-large position on the MAGIP Board of Directors.

Eric Spangenberg, GIS Coordinator - Lewis & Clark County / City of Helena

Eric joined the Lewis & Clark County / City of Helena GIS ‘team’ as a GIS Database Analyst in May 2005, approximately one year later, April 2006; he was offered the job as GIS Coordinator.

In his various roles with Lewis & Clark County he has been responsible for the maintenance of core Enterprise GIS features as well as enterprise databases utilizing ArcSDE and SQL Server.  His current role has him managing and supervising the GIS program, and coordinating the development, implementation, maintenance, support, and use of spatial information throughout the city and county enterprise.  One of the on-going projects he is most excited about includes the development and deployment of the local government GIS Web services.  This has become a powerful tool in providing information to people who need and can use it.

Eric holds a Bachelor of Science (BS) in Urban Forestry/Resource Management from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and a Masters in Landscape Architecture (MLA) from Ball State University.

Eric’s other work experience in GIS includes:

• 1.5 years as the GIS Coordinator for the City of Marshfield, Wisconsin.
• 6.5 years as the GIS Manager for Cascade County, Montana, and
• 1 year as a GIS Specialist for South Carolina Parks, Rec. & Tourism

Andrew Gordon, CDM

Andy is a Helena native who has been working for CDM for the past 10 years and as a GIS specialist for the last 8. He graduated from The University of Montana with a B.A. in Geography. His experience as a GIS specialist in Denver and Helena included work on numerous projects involving environmental remediation, wastewater CIP, stormwater modeling, and transportation planning.

Andy's goals as a MAGIP board member will be to help facilitate the organization and growth of one of the nation's finest statewide GIS organizations while continuing the tradition of trailblazing GIS excellence demonstrated by Montana to the rest of the international GIS community.

Tom Kohley, Ranch Maps

Tom is the principle and founder of Ranch Maps, a company that provides mapping services and custom map products for farm and ranch operations in the northwestern US.  He also provides GIS/GPS consulting services in the areas of emergency services, rural addressing, E911 map systems and wildland fire mapping.  For the past 20 years, Tom has collaborated on GIS projects with many state and federal agencies, private companies, non-profit organizations and universities.  He received undergraduate and graduate degrees in geography with an emphasis in natural resource management and geo-spatial technologies.  After completing his graduate degree at the University of Wyoming, he remained with the University as a research scientist and was also involved with the Wyoming Geographic Information Advisory Council, a state entity similar to MAGIP.  If elected as a board member, one of Tom's goals would be to recruit additional private sector membership into the Association, especially engineers and land surveyors who could potentially contribute valuable data to the geodetic control framework.

Appointed Board Positions Open:

Education Committee Chair: please contact Stephanie Anderson, current chair