Reflection

GIS for Disaster Response

In 2025, I started volunteering with Team Rubicon, a national nonprofit organization that organizes international disaster response efforts to disasters like hurricanes, wildfires, and floods. On their GIS team, I provide GIS support to a range of projects, from creating interactive dashboards for use in planning disaster response to labeling flooded roads and fallen trees in high-resolution satellite imagery taken in the aftermath of a disaster. Living in South Florida, I have seen the impacts of hurricanes and other disasters on our communities. As a geography and data science student, much of my work and research involves geographic information systems (GIS), which allow us to visualize data on maps and analyze spatial patterns.

Friday, November 21, 2025 | 1 minute Read

Reflecting on a Summer of Mapping for Impact

Mapping Justice: Gulf Coast This summer, I supported Mapping Justice, our 8-week summer program for high school students, where they learn about geographic information systems (GIS), environmental challenges along the Gulf Coast, and how they can design tools for impact. From helping with parts of the curriculum to editing recordings, I learned so much about all the behind-the-scenes work that ensures the program runs smoothly. I am inspired by the students’ incredible work throughout the course of the program. You can view their projects here, exploring environmental issues along the Gulf region. Helping with this program reminded me of my first time learning about GIS in high school, and how I found it so fascinating how we can use GIS to uncover spatial patterns and tell stories with data.

Thursday, August 14, 2025 | 3 minutes Read

Reflecting on the Gulf Scholars Conference in Mobile, Alabama

I have been working with trubel&co since December 2023 and have loved every moment of it, from helping with EcoGIS workshops to Mapping Justice. Having been born in New Orleans and raised in South Florida, the Gulf is a region especially close to my heart. When I learned that trubel&co is expanding the Florida Mapping Justice program to all Gulf Coast states, I was very excited to be able to help.

Friday, May 16, 2025 | 2 minutes Read

Geospatial Data Workshop at the Student Sustainability Summit

Combining my passions for climate action, data science, and geography, I had the incredible opportunity to present at the 2025 Student Sustainability Summit. Along with two other University of Florida students, I led a workshop introducing how to analyze spatial data about wildfires in California as part of our presentation about the intersection of data science and sustainability. Data Science for Sustainable Development In August 2024, I co-founded Data Science for Sustainable Development (DSSD) at the University of Florida as a chapter of the nonprofit DSSD. DSSD’s mission is to apply technology for positive impact in support of the Sustainable Development Goals. We provide technical services to nonprofits, startups, and researchers for web development, data analysis, and other projects—all led by innovative teams of students passionate about data, computer science, and sustainability. At the Student Sustainability Summit, we presented about our ongoing projects and led an interactive coding workshop about analyzing fires in California.

Friday, March 7, 2025 | 2 minutes Read