Solís is Director and Co-Founder of YouthMappers. She is the Executive Director of the Knowledge Exchange for Resilience at Arizona State University, and an Associate Research Professor in the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning. Solís serves a diplomatic appointment as the first woman President of the PanAmerican Institute of Geography and History for the Organization of American States.

Pronouns: she/her/hers Preferred Greeting: Patricia

Marcela Zeballos is the Managing Director for YouthMappers. She received Bachelor's degrees in International Affairs and Geography from The George Washington University in Washington, DC. Previously, she worked for the Association of American Geographers and for the IEE. Marcela is fluent in English, Spanish, and Portuguese and she spent a year teaching English at a university language center in Soledad, Colombia.

Pronouns: she/her/hers Preferred Greeting: Marcela

Michael has worked for more than 25 years in GIS and urban planning. Since 2015, Michael has served as the USAID GeoCenter’s Deputy Director where he leads all aspects of the team’s operations, and manages the YoutMappers program.  Michael represents USAID on various geospatial and earth observation programs that connect geospatial technology with international development and humanitarian assistance. Prior to joining USAID, Michael managed geospatial activities across several federal and state government programs. While working full time with the GeoCenter, Michael serves as an officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve. Michael holds an MS in Geography and Environmental Planning from Towson University and completed his joint professional military education at the U.S. Naval War College.

Pronouns: he/him/his Preferred Greeting: Michael

Jennings is a GeoInformation Scientist with expertise on OpenStreetMap. He completed his PhD in 2019 at the University of Colorado Boulder where he built analytical tools to interrogate the complete history of OpenStreetMap. He has studied the impact of both humanitarian groups and corporate editing teams on OSM over the years. He also maintains the YouthMappers activity dashboard at activity.youthmappers.org

He currently works as a Software Engineer at Meta where he works on open geospatial data projects

Pronouns: he/him Preferred Greeting: Jennings

Adele Birkenes is a Geospatial Analyst with the USAID GeoCenter. In her current role, she supports the management of the YouthMappers program and the development of USAID’s Geospatial Strategy. She joined the GeoCenter in 2020 after graduating from Vassar College with a bachelor's degree in Geography and minors in Biology and Hispanic Studies. While at Vassar, Adele co-founded a YouthMappers chapter, Hudson Valley Mappers, and served as the president for two years. She also worked as Vassar's first-ever Community Geographer.

Pronouns: she/her/hers Preferred Greeting: Adele

Chad Blevins is a Geographer and open source champion who piloted the first project in Kathmandu, Nepal that validated the importance of student engagement in OSM. This project led to Chad being a Co-Founder of YouthMappers where he currently serves as Technical Advisor. Through his work Chad has pioneered the use of open geospatial data for humanitarian and development projects around the world. With a background in emergency management, he currently serves as Chairperson to the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) Membership, Chair’s the Data Quality Working Group, and is a regular contributor to the Governance Working Group. Chad remains an active contributor to OSM in his professional role as Director of Business at Kaart.        

Pronouns: he/him/his Preferred Greeting: Mr. Chad

Nuala is research faculty at The George Washington University, Department of Geography, and is one of the co-founders on the YouthMappers Project, a university consortium initiative funded by the Geocenter at USAID. Youth Mappers is an international network of student societies dedicated to harnessing the power of open geospatial technologies for disaster and development initiatives. 

In her day job, Nuala is a member of the Digital Earth Partnership (DEP) Team at the World Bank. As part of GFDRR (Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery), DEP supports World Bank clients, associated Bank task teams and project beneficiaries to create, access, and use localized earth observation, and geospatial data and services to enhance the outcomes of development operations.  Before joining DEP Nuala was a member of the Open Data for Resilience (OpenDRI).  The open OpenDRI program worked with governments to embrace open-source tools and data, and supports local communities to play a greater role in risk management through projects like community mapping. Nuala was a core team member on the Open Cities Africa project, a cohort of 16 city teams, working toward the collaborative collection of disaster risk management data for their cities.

Pronouns: she/her/hers Preferred Greeting: Nuala

Ryan is a Professor of Geography and the Director of the Data Science program at George Washington University. He is on the steering committee of YouthMappers and has been a part of the project since it's inception. His background is in remote sensing and has worked on projects around the world with a wide array of private companies, government agencies, and non-governmental organizations.   

Pronouns: he/him/his Preferred Greeting: Ryan

Richard has been working with YouthMappers since its founding in 2014. As part of his role with YouthMappers, he manages the YouthMappers Validation Hub.

Richard has worked for over 20 years in the geospatial industry and for the past 10 years, has worked for the Department of Geography at the George Washington University.  At GWU he manages the Spatial Analysis Laboratory and teaches cartography and GIS as an adjunct professor. In May 2015 Richard deployed to Nepal with Shelter Cluster as an Information Officer to assist with the international earthquake response.   

Pronouns: he/him/his Preferred Greeting: Richard

Mike Mann, PhD is an experienced Assistant Professor at The George Washington University, with a background in economics, statistics, GIS and environmental modeling.  He is skilled in ArcGIS, R, Python, Policy Analysis, Environmental Issues, and Stata.  He recently completed an free online book on geospatial programming in Python. 

Pronouns: he/him/his Preferred Greeting: Mike

Dr. McCusker is a Co-Founder of YouthMappers and oversees fieldwork and research efforts. He is a Professor of Geography and Department Chair in the Department of Geology and Geography at West Virginia University. He is concerned with how the environment is produced, reproduced, and commodified to promote development in historically lesser developed areas, specifically sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia. His research is focused around two themes (environment and development) with an interest in interaction between academia and policy makers, specifically the international development donor community. 

Pronouns: he/him/his Preferred Greeting: Brent

Rory is a broadly trained International Development GIS professional. He previously worked at iMMAP, USAID/OTI, and Creative Associates International. He is currently working at the USAID/GeoCenter helping run the YouthMappers project.

Pronouns: he/him/his Preferred Greeting: Rory

Boat is a postdoctoral scholar at ASU's Knowledge Exchange for Resilience. A member of the original cohort of YouthMappers Leadership Fellows, he graduated recently with his PhD from the Department of Geography and Regional Planning, University of Cape Coast. His research interests are natural resources management using GIS and Remote Sensing. His interests also include social sciences fields such as gender and transport and renewable energy use. Quantitative biased with qualitative skills, he uses geospatial for community resilience. 

Pronouns: he/him/his Preferred Greeting: Boat

Elodie Nix, based out of NYC, is a Technical Project Manager at YouthMappers where she supports the network's programming and global activities. Additionally, Elodie works at the American Geographical Society (AGS) where she runs their educational programs and supports the development of the TeenMaptivists initiative. She joined YouthMappers in 2023 after graduating from the George Washington University with a BA in Geography and minors in GIS and Sustainability. Prior to joining YouthMappers and AGS, Elodie worked with the YouthMappers Validation Hub and was the Training Coordinator for her university's chapter. 

Pronouns: she/her/hers Preferred Greeting: Elodie

Sawan is one of the Regional Ambassadors of YouthMappers and a voting member of the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT). He is currently listed as the top contributor on MissingMaps Global Leaderboard and one of the champions of the 2019 Global YouthMappers Challenge. He was the founding president of YouthMapper Dhaka College Chapter. By profession, he is currently working as deputy coordinators and validation lead of the Bangladesh Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Operational Team; known to all as Team BHOOT. He loves traveling and exploring new places.

Pronouns: he/him/his Preferred Greeting: Sawan

Marcela Zeballos is the Managing Director for YouthMappers. She received Bachelor's degrees in International Affairs and Geography from The George Washington University in Washington, DC. Previously, she worked for the Association of American Geographers and for the IEE. Marcela is fluent in English, Spanish, and Portuguese and she spent a year teaching English at a university language center in Soledad, Colombia.

Pronouns: she/her/hers Preferred Greeting: Marcela