Jennifer Sims
Jennifer Sims is Niyam IT’s GIS Director with over a decade of experience leading geospatial analysis, data strategy, and innovation for federal, state, and local clients. She has supported a range of agencies and organizations, delivering solutions across disaster management, infrastructure, and environmental programs. Jennifer provides technical and program leadership on large-scale geospatial initiatives, specializing in integrating data, analytics, and emerging technologies to improve risk modeling and decision-making. She leads Niyam’s GIS Center of Competency, advancing best practices, partnerships, and professional development. Her work focuses on delivering scalable, data-driven solutions that enhance community resilience and support informed planning.
Andrea Aime
Open source enthusiast with strong experience in Java development and GIS. Personal interest range from high performance software, managing large data volumes, software testing and quality, spatial data analysis algorithms, map rendering. Full time open source developer on GeoServer and GeoTools. Received the Sol Katz's OSGeo award in 2017.
Jeremy Herzog
Jeremy Herzog is the co-founder and CTO of Fulton Ring, and the lead developer for HIFLD Next, an effort to rebuild and actively maintain the discontinued HIFLD Open dataset catalog as a community-stewarded public resource. Jeremy brings over a decade of software engineering experience across startups and large enterprises, designing systems that are both functional and durable.
Galen Scott
Galen Scott has spent over 20 years as a Federal civil servant with the National Geodetic Survey (NGS), the nation’s oldest science agency. He currently serves as the NGS Constituent Manager, responsible for engaging the broad array of NGS stakeholders to help them prepare to transition to and reap the benefits of the modernized National Spatial Reference System. This includes serving as a science translator explaining the esoteric concepts and substantial value of geodesy, soliciting feedback on NGS’ evolving suite of products and services, helping NGS incorporate that feedback into the product development life cycle, and working with industry to ensure that NGS’ authoritative models and tools are accessible in commercial geospatial software. Galen was the project manager for GEOID18 and the GPS on Benchmarks program to crowd-source data for the 2022 Transformation Tool. He holds Master’s Degrees in Environmental Science and Policy from Johns Hopkins University and Environmental Science and Management from the University of Rhode Island.
Michael Arthur
Michael Arthur is a Geographer at the U.S. Census Bureau, where he supports Census geographic partnership programs and stakeholder engagement initiatives. His work focuses on open data, federal collaboration, and census outreach efforts. He has contributed to key programs such as the Local Update of Census Addresses Operation and the Redistricting Data Program which works closely with partners across government and the private sector. During FedGeoDay, he will share insights on strengthening collaboration and advancing the use of open geospatial data. he is passionate about using Census geographic data to support data driven decision making.
Rajan Desai
Rajan Desai is the co-founder and CEO of Fulton Ring and one of the core members of HIFLD Next project, an effort to rebuild and actively maintain the discontinued HIFLD Open dataset catalog as a community-stewarded public resource. Rajan has deep domain expertise in data science, renewable energy, and climate-tech.Rajan handles business development and client relationships. He works with organizations to understand their data challenges and translate those into actionable project scopes. His background in data science helps him bridge the gap between technical capabilities and business needs.
Casey Marwine
CDR Casey S. Marwine serves as Chief of the Requirements Branch at NOAA’s Remote Sensing Division, where he leads emergency response operations, coastal mapping, and topo-bathymetric survey efforts supporting the nation’s shoreline. A NOAA Corps officer since 2012, he brings extensive experience in both crewed and uncrewed aviation, with prior roles at the Aircraft Operations Center and Naval Air Test and Evaluation Squadron VX-30. He has logged over 2,000 flight hours across Twin Otter and King Air 350ER missions, supporting coastal mapping, marine mammal, environmental monitoring surveys. A University of Maryland graduate in Geographic Information Systems, CDR Marwine began his career as a geospatial analyst and has built a diverse background spanning hydrographic surveying, aviation operations, and remote sensing.
Heath Hayward
Heath Hayward is a Geographer and Data Scientist in the Center for Economic Studies (CES) at the U.S. Census Bureau. He has developed data tools for the Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics (LEHD) program since 2006. Prior to working at the Census Bureau, Mr. Hayward completed his master’s degree in Geographic Information Science at the University of Denver and his bachelor’s degree in economics from DePauw University in Indiana.
Marian Westley
Marian Westley, PhD, is the Director of NOAA’s Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services (CO-OPS), the nation’s authoritative source for accurate, reliable and timely water level and current measurements. In this role, she oversees and continues to improve this 24- hour a day operation to provide mariners, coastal managers, and many other users with historic, realtime, and forecast data on ocean conditions along America’s 95,000mile coastline. Dr. Westley's career with NOAA spans over twenty years with much of that time spent advancing climate research and the transition of research to operations. She joined CO-OPS in 2017 as the Deputy Director and has been the acting Director since January 2023. Dr. Westley has a BA in Physics and English from Yale University and an MSc and PhD in Oceanography and a Graduate Certificate in Ocean Policy from the University Hawaii at Manoa.
Miles Weule
Miles has been a cartographer in the office of spatial analysis and visualization at the Bureau of Transportation Statistics since 2021. He studied geography at Clark University and previously supported vision zero implementation for the city of Cambridge, MA.
Marie Urban
Marie Urban leads the Human Geography Group within the Geospatial Science and Human Security Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and has nearly two decades of experience advancing high-resolution population modeling in direct support of U.S. government and national security missions. Throughout her career, she has played a central role in the development, sustainment, and evolution of the LandScan program, leading efforts in data integration, spatial analysis, and remote sensing to deliver authoritative, globally consistent population datasets at national and planetary scales.
Daniel Roman
Daniel Roman graduated from the Ohio State University with an MS in Geodetic Science and Surveying in 1993 and a Ph.D. in Geological Sciences in 1999. Dr. Roman has served for over 25 years at NOAA's National Geodetic Survey developing geoid models, serving as Chief for Spatial Reference System Division, then as Chief Geodesist and now is NOAA's Senior Advisor for Geodesy.
Dominic Menegus
Dominic Menegus is a geographer with the US Department of Transportation’s (USDOT) Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology (OST-R), specifically under the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS). Mr. Menegus has been with BTS for almost 17 years and is the project manager for the National Transportation Atlas Database (NTAD). NTAD is a collection of over 130 different geospatial datasets and tables from the Operating Administrations within the USDOT, along with many different government agencies. Prior to working at BTS, Mr. Menegus completed his master’s degree in Geographic and Cartographic Sciences at George Mason University and his bachelor’s degree in Geography from the University of Delaware.
Dan Gillins
Dan Gillins is Chief of the Observation and Analysis Division at NOAA's National Geodetic Survey (NGS). He holds a Ph.D. in civil engineering from the University of Utah and has served in previous leadership roles at NGS as chief of the Spatial Reference System Division and as team lead for OPUS. Prior to his service at NGS, Dr. Gillins worked as an assistant professor at Oregon State University and as a land surveyor for the Bureau of Land Management and the US Forest Service. Dan has over 20 years of experience in geodetic surveying, cadastral surveying, and surveying education and has published over 50 related articles.
Frank Donnelly
Frank Donnelly is a geospatial information professional whose work integrates geography with library and information science. He has several decades of experience with GIS and geospatial technology, and was an early adopter of open source GIS in higher education. An expert in government datasets, he is the author of Exploring the US Census: Your Guide to America's Data, and is an active volunteer with the Data Rescue Project. He is currently the Head of GIS and Data Services at the Brown University Library, where he supports students, faculty, and staff with GIS and demographic research. He holds an MA in Geography from the University of Toronto and an MLIS from the University of Washington. You can read about his work on his website, At These Coordinates.
Hector Ferronato
Hector Ferronato is Vice President of Engineering and Geospatial at Reveal Global Consulting, where he leads large multidisciplinary teams building AI, geospatial, and computer vision solutions that turn satellite imagery into measurable business value. He specializes in applying geospatial AI to real-world operational problems, helping organizations move from raw imagery to decision-ready insight at scale.
Greg Hanks
Greg Hanks serves as a Senior Technical Project Manager at Imagine Believe Realize, LLC (IBR), providing business development strategy and project management for federal civilian and defense agency contracts. He specializes in advancing geospatial data collection, integration, and collaboration. Before joining IBR, Greg built a distinguished 27-year career at the U.S. Census Bureau, leading major geospatial programs and enterprise IT implementation efforts.
Ghermay Araya
Ghermay Araya is the Founder and CEO of New Light Technologies, where he leads a multidisciplinary team and works closely with partners to deliver cutting-edge geospatial, data science, and cloud solutions. With over 30 years of experience, he has guided impactful projects focused on modernizing address management and advancing sptial data infrastructure. At FedGeoDay, Ghermay will share how he and the team are tackling address challenges to improve accuracy, interoperability, and government service delivery.
Jesse Osborne
Jesse Osborne is a geographer by training with academic specialization in remote sensing and geographic information systems. He earned both his undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). With more than 20 years of experience spanning geospatial analytics and artificial intelligence, Jesse has held a wide-range of roles, from analyst to Chief Technology Officer, supporting over 30 agencies and organizations across the U.S. federal government.