Puneet Kollipara is a geospatial data scientist and outreach/communications specialist in Washington, DC. Leveraging open source, open data and open science, he helps clients find, analyze, provide, translate and integrate data for the benefit of people and the planet. He works with Fulton Ring and the Public Environmental Data Partners on HIFLD Next, a community-shaped geospatial data hub with tools for exploring and downloading archived layers from HIFLD Open, an infrastructure data portal discontinued in 2025. To support open ecosystems, Puneet mentors aspiring technologists via The Upskilling Labs and other apprenticeships, and helps plan convenings like FedGeoDay, FOSS4G North America and the SciPy Conference. Previously a science, environmental and public-policy journalist and blogger, Puneet holds a bachelor’s degree in physics and economics from Washington University in St. Louis, MO.