
GIS Week at NC State University
GIS Week at NC State University is designed to be an accessible learning and professional development event series centered around geospatial analytics and spatial data science. Drawing inspiration from NC State's motto "Think and Do," GIS Week is designed to connect researchers, practitioners and industry partners across varying sectors and disciplines.
Our Team

Izzi Hinks
GGSO Co-President
Isabella ("Izzi") is a third year Ph.D. student in the Center for Geospatial Analytics working with Dr. Josh Gray. Her research goal is to develop strategies to improve food security and human-nature interactions in the wake of climate change. She is dedicated to open source science and increasing the accessibility and reproducibility of computationally intensive research.

Caitlin Haedrich
GGSO Co-President
Caitlin is a third year Ph.D. student in the Center for Geospatial Analytics working with Dr. Helena Mitasova. She is focused on developing open-source tools to help stakeholders understand mitigate the impact of our changing climate. She also is a contributor to GRASS GIS and works with Tangible Landscape, an open-source tangible user interface developed at the Center.

Andrew Shannon
GGSO GIS Week Marketing Chair
Andrew is a second year Ph.D. student in the Center for Geospatial Analytics working with Dr. Robert Scheller. He focuses on applying landscape-scale simulations of forest management practices to understand interactions between vegetation, climate, and disturbances like harvest and fire. He has an interest in user engagement through spatial modeling and is excited to be working with land managers from The Nature Conservancy and the U.S. Forest Service through his research.

John Polo
GGSO Treasurer
John is a third year Ph.D. student in the Center for Geospatial Analytics working with Dr. Chris Jones and Dr. Ross Meentemeyer. His work is focused on developing and applying analytics tools that help in the detection and prevention of crop disease, thereby improving food security.

Ariel Saffer
GGSO Secretary
Ariel is a third year Ph.D. student in the Center for Geospatial Analytics working with Dr. Ross Meentemeyer. Her work is focused on understanding and forecasting the global spread of plant pests and pathogens.

Zach Tunstall
GGSO Distance Education Representative
Zach is a Master's Student in the final year of the MGIST program. He currently works for the mapping department with the Global Security Communications Center at the Walt Disney Corporation. Zach's focus is in using remote sensing techniques to monitor global phenomenon related to climate change mitigation and adaptation.

Christina Perella
GGSO Representative to Graduate Student Association, First Year Representative
Christina is a first year Ph.D. student in the Center for Geospatial Analytics working with Dr. Adam Terando and Dr. Jelena Vukomanovic. She is focused on quantifying habitat connectivity in the Southeast United States under a range of future land use and climate change scenarios.

Shannon McAvoy
GGSO Social Chair, Graduate Workers Union Chair
Shannon McAvoy is a second year PhD student in the Center for Geospatial Analytics. Her research is focused on mapping forest ecosystem services and environmental justice. She enjoys working with GGSO to foster a sense of community among graduate students and plan fun social events!

Felipe Sanchez
GGSO Forum Chair
Felipe is a second year Ph.D. student in the Center for Geospatial Analytics working with Dr. Gustavo Machado. His work is focused on investigating spatial, temporal, and spatiotemporal disease dynamics in livestock animals.