Meet the Industry: Geospatial

Several industry panelists will discuss geospatial career opportunities:

Dr. Tara Mott, Esri
Dr. Tara Mott is a co-chair for the USGIF St. Louis Area Working Group and an NGA Account Manager for Esri in St. Louis since 2013. Tara is also an adjunct professor at Saint Louis University teaching the Introduction to GIS course. Prior to coming to Esri, Tara lived in Germany for 8 years supporting the DoD in the European theater. This is part of a series of 4 panels this semester to give students a deep dive into the possibilities of engineering careers within various industries. We will also be inviting faculty so they can learn more about the geospatial footprint in the St. Louis region.Tara earned a BS in Geological Engineering at Missouri University of Science & Technology, an MBA from DePaul University, and PhD in Interdisciplinary Studies in Organizational Leadership at University of Oklahoma.

Dr. Benjamin T. Tuttle, Arturo.ai
Benjamin T. Tuttle is a Geographer and the CTO at Arturo.ai. He holds a BA in Geography and a BA in Environmental Studies from the University of Colorado, Boulder and an MS in GIS and PhD in Geography from the University of Denver. His research interests include human environment interactions, nighttime satellite imagery, automated/predictive analytics, and the intersection of geography and technology. Ben is currently focused on the use of AI/ML for analysis of geospatial data to derive near real time insights about the world. He has authored and co-authored papers in journals including PE&RS, Geography Compass, GeoJournal, Environmental Management, and Remote Sensing of Environment.

Dr. Carter Christopher, Oak Ridge National Lab
Dr. Carter Christopher is Head of the Human Dynamics R&D Section at Oak Ridge National Lab. Dr. Christopher leads Human Geography, Built Environment Characterization, and Geoinformatics Engineering research groups at the lab, to solve national- and global-scale challenges for National and Energy Security. Prior to joining ORNL, Dr. Christopher was Head of Geospatial at an aerospace start-up, and he had a distinguished 12-year career in the Intelligence Community (IC). Dr. Christopher spent more than 10 years at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) where he led a number of modernization efforts, including leading organizations and programs that delivered ML/CV-driven object detection and mapping, cloud modernization and SaaS provisioning for the IC, data science and advanced geospatial analysis, and global GIS training. Dr. Christopher closed his Federal career at the US State Department as Deputy to the Geographer of the United States, where he helped stand up the Department's enterprise GIS. Prior to Federal service, Dr. Christopher held analyst and project management roles in the geospatial private sector. Carter has a PhD in Earth Systems and Geoinformation Science, and a MS in Geography and Remote Sensing.

Jen Marcus, Planet Labs
Jen Marcus is Vice President, US Government Strategic Partnerships at Planet Labs. She has spent the last 10+ years growing the US Defense and Intelligence Community (DoD/IC) vertical market within geospatial start-ups. Additionally, Jen has over 20 years of experience leading strategic geospatial technology programs for business growth at a number of companies in the market. Jen currently resides in St. Louis Missouri with her family.

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