Career

I Started Out Making Maps.

That grew into a career helping governments, utilities, and health programs build systems they can actually run in Maryland, Washington DC, Ethiopia, and Burundi. Along the way I founded a company in Addis Ababa to give my city something it didn’t have: street addresses.

The technology is rarely the hard part. What I care about is whether the people left holding the system can keep it running once everyone else has gone home.

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Dec 2025 – Jun 2026

Adam Smith International

Senior GIS Engineer · Public-Sector & Utility Advisory · Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Advised Ethiopian utility and public-sector executives on a roughly $5 million enterprise modernization investment, covering digital strategy, governance, implementation sequencing, and operational readiness.

Cut proposed Esri licensing costs by around 10% through technical restructuring and commercial negotiation, without giving up any required enterprise capability.
Defined the integration requirements between GIS, ERP/SAP, SCADA, outage management, metering, customer, and asset-management systems, so the utility could stop running them as separate islands.
Assessed data ownership, workflows, governance gaps, and staff capacity before deployment rather than after it, which is where modernization programmes usually fail.
Reviewed ArcGIS Utility Network requirements and advised stakeholders on architecture considerations, data readiness, governance, integration dependencies, and operational workflow requirements.
Assessed utility GIS modernization requirements with consideration for Utility Network topology, validation, editing, tracing, data quality, and enterprise-system integration.
Supported utility stakeholders in defining requirements and readiness considerations for migration toward a modern ArcGIS Enterprise and Utility Network environment.

Oct 2025 – Dec 2025

Palladium

Regional GIS & Digital Health Consultant · Data.FI Project · Burundi / Remote

Advised Burundi's Ministry of Health and national partners on the interoperability, governance, and sustainability of national HIV information systems.

Advised Burundi's Ministry of Health and national technical partners on digital health architecture, interoperability, data governance, analytics, and sustainable integration of national health information systems.
Assessed existing workflows and system relationships across SIDAInfo, IBIPIMO, eLMIS, DHIS2, and OpenHIM and translated findings into integration requirements, architecture decisions, implementation actions, and technical documentation.
Co-developed interface control documentation and functional requirements for OpenHIM-based interoperability, defining expected data exchanges, system responsibilities, integration dependencies, and standards-based approaches including HL7 FHIR where appropriate.
Worked with government and technical stakeholders to clarify data flows, system ownership, integration responsibilities, readiness requirements, and implementation sequencing for national interoperability activities.
Translated program and user requirements into technical specifications and practical implementation recommendations that software, interoperability, and Ministry teams could use to move from architecture discussions into implementation.
Supported data-pipeline and synchronization planning between clinical, laboratory, logistics, and national reporting systems to improve the flow and use of health information across platforms.
Tracked architecture decisions, technical risks, system readiness, responsibilities, dependencies, and implementation actions to strengthen follow-through and reduce ambiguity between participating teams.
Led GIS, dashboard, and analytical work that integrated program and geographic information to identify service gaps and support national and facility-level decision-making.
Produced technical guidance, architecture documentation, decision-support materials, and stakeholder briefings that translated complex system issues into clear actions for Ministry and program leadership.
Supported institutional capacity by working with national technical teams on system architecture, data governance, interoperability concepts, analytical use, and long-term ownership of digital health capabilities.

Oct 2022 – Jul 2025

USAID/Ethiopia Mission

Senior Digital Health Advisor · Health Office · Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Senior adviser and digital health lead for a $63 million national Digital Health Activity, covering strategy, budgets, procurement, performance, risk, interoperability, and sustainability.

Supported digital health services reaching more than 8,000 health posts and 1,300 health facilities, across community health, EMR, supply chain, workforce, facility registries, pharmaceutical regulation, and health information exchange.
Built a sustainability model around 15+ youth-led digital enterprises and 100+ young technology professionals servicing roughly 400 health facilities, a locally staffed alternative to permanent external support.
Developed the monitoring framework for the Activity: its theory of change, indicator set, and the baselines performance was measured against.
Oversaw collection, cleaning, and analysis of quantitative and qualitative data in DHIS2, KoboToolbox, and Tableau, and led the data quality audits, partner training, and field supervision behind it.
Reviewed work plans, budgets, vendor proposals, and procurement packages, turning findings into recommendations executives could act on.
Provided senior technical leadership for national digital health investments, translating Ministry of Health priorities, frontline requirements, and implementation constraints into system requirements, technical guidance, rollout plans, and program decisions.
Reviewed digital health solution architecture, interoperability approaches, infrastructure requirements, data governance, hosting models, security considerations, and implementation readiness across national platforms including eCHIS, EMR, DHIS2, eLMIS, workforce systems, regulatory systems, facility registries, and health information exchange.
Worked with Ministry of Health leaders, implementing partners, software teams, donors, universities, and local technology organizations to align digital tools with national health information architecture, data-governance requirements, interoperability standards, and long-term government ownership.
Translated field-level needs, user feedback, operational workflows, and government requirements into functional requirements, technical recommendations, procurement inputs, acceptance criteria, and implementation priorities for digital health teams.
Supported interoperability and data-exchange planning across national health systems, including APIs, health information exchange, shared data standards, and integration approaches designed to reduce fragmentation between platforms.
Reviewed implementation plans, testing approaches, deployment readiness, performance indicators, technical deliverables, risks, and corrective actions to strengthen quality and reliability during national system rollout and scale-up.
Advised on emerging technologies, including AI-enabled analytics and digital health innovation, assessing potential value against government priorities, data governance, maintainability, infrastructure constraints, and implementation risk.

May 2021 – Oct 2022

USAID/Ethiopia Mission

GIS & Knowledge Management Specialist · Program Office · Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Advised Mission leadership on enterprise GIS, spatial analytics, and information governance across health, humanitarian, resilience, and infrastructure programming.

Produced the Mission's enterprise data strategies, dashboards, spatial analyses, metadata standards, and governance frameworks.
Shaped the design of what became the $63 million Digital Health Activity, contributing the evidence, technical requirements, and stakeholder priorities behind it.
Served as a technical bridge across GIS, infrastructure, databases, applications, security, and business operations.
Translated operational requirements into scalable enterprise GIS architecture, data models, workflows, and technical specifications.
Supported production GIS environments through troubleshooting, performance analysis, data-quality controls, and coordination across technical teams.

Nov 2020 – May 2021

USAID / Credence Management Solutions

GIS / Data Specialist · Office of HIV/AIDS · Washington, DC

Supported PEPFAR analytics across eight USAID Missions, turning programme, geographic, and contextual data into targeting and management decisions.

Built the maps, dashboards, and scenario analyses used for HIV programming, outbreak response, and resource targeting across eight country programmes.
Automated recurring analytical workflows in Python, SQL, ArcGIS, and ETL, improving both turnaround and consistency of multi-country products.

Mar 2020 – Nov 2020

Geospatial Consulting Group International

GIS Solution Engineer · U.S. Census Bureau support · Alexandria, Virginia

Translated federal requirements into working technical concepts across population mapping, emergency response, and enterprise GIS.

Designed enterprise GIS solutions for federal-government requirements spanning ArcGIS Enterprise, cloud infrastructure, databases, web applications, dashboards, Python automation, and SQL.
Gathered business and technical requirements and translated them into scalable GIS architecture, applications, data models, and implementation approaches.
Supported integration between GIS applications, enterprise datasets, APIs, databases, analytical tools, and automated processing workflows.
Developed Python and SQL automation to improve repeatability, data processing, and operational efficiency within enterprise GIS workflows.
Supported technical evaluation and troubleshooting of GIS applications, data services, database workflows, and system configurations.
Worked within multidisciplinary technical teams to coordinate GIS requirements with infrastructure, database, application, and cloud environments.
Developed enterprise mapping and decision-support capabilities supporting population analysis, emergency response, and government operations.
Contributed technical documentation and knowledge transfer supporting solution adoption and maintainability.

Sep 2019 – Mar 2020

DC Water and Sewer Authority

GIS Technical Lead · Washington, DC

Led enterprise geospatial technology across GIS, IT, engineering, and field operations for a major water and wastewater utility.

Led enterprise GIS and data support within a major water and wastewater utility, coordinating technical requirements across IT, engineering, field operations, and operational teams.
Supported business-critical GIS applications, enterprise spatial data, web services, and information workflows used by engineering and field personnel.
Provided technical leadership for GIS platform, application, database, and data issues and coordinated troubleshooting across technical and operational teams.
Supported enterprise geospatial data-management and multi-user editing workflows to maintain reliable infrastructure information.
Worked with engineering and operational stakeholders to translate business requirements into GIS data, application, and workflow improvements.
Supported maintenance and evolution of corporate GIS capabilities within an operational utility environment where system reliability and authoritative data were important to daily operations.
Provided technical support and knowledge transfer to users working with enterprise GIS tools and operational workflows.

2017 – 2020

Concurrent role

eAdrasha

Founder & Chief Executive Officer · Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Founded and led Ethiopia's first digital addressing and location-intelligence platform, built for a city with no street addresses.

Founded and led a location-technology company, taking a digital product from concept through requirements, development, testing, deployment, user feedback, and continuous improvement.
Worked directly with software developers to translate customer and operational needs into product requirements, prioritized features, application workflows, and technical capabilities.
Built and managed a 40+ person multidisciplinary organization across software development, data, field operations, quality assurance, partnerships, customer engagement, and product delivery.
Reached more than 25,000 users within six months and developed partnerships with government organizations, businesses, transport companies, delivery providers, and other institutions.
Developed capabilities supporting business search, digital addressing, routing, geocoding, APIs, and reusable location-data services.
Established feedback loops between users, field teams, customer-facing staff, and software developers to improve functionality and product usability.

May 2014 – Sep 2019

Prince George's County Government

Senior Geospatial Analyst · Office of Information Technology · Largo, Maryland

Led countywide geospatial strategy and enterprise data governance across public works, emergency management, planning, licensing, and citizen services.

Established countywide data governance over five years: metadata standards, authoritative data practices, QA/QC, and cross-department data sharing.
Served as GIS lead during Emergency Operations Center activations and countywide preparedness exercises.
Received the Prince George's County Fire Chief Special Achievement Award in 2016 for the GIS-enabled Adopt-a-Neighborhood emergency management application.
Supervised GIS professionals and advised department leadership on where enterprise geospatial technology was worth extending.

Dec 2012 – May 2014

Deloitte

Geospatial Analyst · Arlington, Virginia

Geospatial consulting to federal agencies, on the kind of problem that looks like a business question until you put it on a map.

Lead geospatial analyst on the USPS Workforce Optimization stream, turning an employee reassignment model into maps and an executive report that showed what the model actually meant under real constraints such as commute time.
Built the geospatial demonstrations Deloitte used with visiting Census Bureau clients, across both open-source and commercial tools, and trained Census staff on the systems they would go on to run themselves.

Jan 2012 – Nov 2017

Concurrent role

Zobel Global Consulting

Senior Geospatial Analyst · USAID Haiti, FHI 360 Malawi · Silver Spring, Maryland / International

Geospatial lead on mobile money programmes in Haiti and Malawi, mapping the physical infrastructure that digital financial services quietly depend on.

On USAID's HIFIVE programme in Haiti, collected GPS coordinates for mobile network towers and for every mobile money agent in Croix des Bouquets, then overlaid the two so stakeholders could see where the agent network could realistically grow rather than guess.
Ran the same exercise across two rounds for Airtel and TNM agents on FHI 360's Mobile Money Accelerator Programme in Malawi, and built the web map application the programme used.
Defined the GIS data management workflow behind both, covering metadata standards, quality control, and data-sharing protocols, so the mapping outlived the fieldwork that produced it.

Dec 2007 – Dec 2012

Greenhorne & O'Mara (now Stantec)

GIS Analyst II · Laurel, Maryland

First enterprise GIS role: production mapping, field data collection, and the databases underneath both.

Database administrator for the office-wide enterprise GIS, ArcSDE on SQL Server, alongside ArcGIS Server and the geodatabases behind it.
Led testing and quality control of GPS field data, including Trimble post-processing and troubleshooting for field crews.
Maintained the geodatabase behind NPDES Pollution Prevention Plans, doing the field collection as well as the data work.
Worked alongside environmental teams on botany, wetlands, and wildlife surveys, where the habit of checking data against the ground started.

Education

Aug 2008 – May 2010

Master of Art, Geospatial Information Sciences

University of Maryland, College Park

Application development, GIS database design and implementation across ArcSDE, Oracle and web APIs, technical planning and quality assurance, and reading land patterns out of remote sensing data. Built working prototypes for internet GIS projects.

Aug 2003 – May 2007

Bachelor of Science, Environmental Science

University of Maryland, College Park

Land use management at watershed scale, and the soil and water dynamics behind non-point source pollution, wetland delineation, and land classification.