Women in GIS: The Next Generation - Kaylan Soares on Finding Her Path

What does the future of GIS look like? In this episode, it sounds a lot like Kaylan Soares.

As part of our Women in GIS series, Kaylan joins host Erica Phillips and guest host Eva Reid to share her journey into the geospatial world—from a spark of curiosity in environmental science to building powerful GIS projects focused on environmental justice.

Kaylan brings energy, insight, and a deep belief in the role GIS can play in creating more equitable communities. She discusses her work analyzing access to green space and water, her passion for storytelling through data, and how mentorship and community have helped her navigate the transition from student to professional.

If you're just starting out—or looking to reconnect with why this field matters—this episode is for you.

NOTE: During the episode, you'll hear mention of Kaylan's Lightning Talk. You can find that here - https://youtu.be/XVEdJSgwnyM?si=xi7UwnOtbVjIH_bs

Transcript

Kaylan Soares Interview

​Erica Phillips: Okay, we are back with another episode of the North Star Gaze podcast. I'm really excited Today we have Eva Reid again with us. Eva is my co-host in these segments where we're focusing on women in GIS. And if you weren't on for the last episode, please go back and take a listen to [00:01:00] it.

Eva is the program manager for Geospatial Solutions and Analytics at Dewberry. And prior to Dewberry, Eva served as the senior IT program manager for. The District of Columbia, department of Health. She also worked for the DC Office of the Chief Technology Officer, and she is just a powerhouse in bringing women together who are working in this field of GIS.

And Eva helped me find Kaylan Soares, who is our guest today. Kaylan recently graduated from the University of Washington. While there she studied environmental science and natural resource management, and while staffing the GIS lab in Zalo libraries recently, she's been working on her own GIS projects and working as a legal assistant while

looking for that entry level GIS position. So many of you who are listening I think are in the same position as Kaylan, trying to figure out what your first steps are going to be into this arena. And I'm going to ask Kaylan [00:02:00] to just share with us what her experience is and to talk with you and me and Eva about how she is moving forward.

Um, Eva, do you mind kicking off the questions for us today? 

Eva Reid: I will be happy to. Kaylan, really excited to have you here today and we're just gonna dive in with the very beginning question. What got you into GIS in Environmental science? 

Kaylan Soares: Yeah. So, um, in high school, actually, I had a teacher named Mr. Birch, believe it or not, and he was my biology teacher.

And one day he told me a story about a slime mold that he collected off of a tree in college and. I just thought it was so fascinating how he was able to just keep it alive off of newspapers alone, and it made me just think of what are the other wonderful, wonderful things that could exist in the forest and what other ecosystems are out there for me to explore?

So inspired me to apply to environmental science [00:03:00] programs. I ended up with. Applying to University of Washington on a whim very last minute. I never toured the school. I didn't know much about the school, but as I did more research, I found out their environmental science program was actually perfect for me.

I ended up there and the program requires that you take an intro level GI. Course for your degree. So I took that my freshman year and I just really enjoyed the initial class and I didn't think much about it until my following year, my sophomore year. And I was just exploring campus really for the first time after COVID VID and I went into Sula Library and I was in the basement and I came across the GIS lab and their current staffer there, Mike Lang, was in there and I started asking him questions about just like what other courses they offered because he happened to be in the same major as me and with the same focus. So I asked him what other courses were offered and I just fell in love and took all the courses that were listed in the environmental science program for GIS or remote [00:04:00] sensing.

Eva Reid: Love it. Love it. So you came to GIS through environmental science as opposed to the other way around, which is really interesting. That's kind of how I ended up doing it as well. And I told my story in the last episode, so, folks can go back and hear that later. But I wondered too, um, was there something about GIS that really just drew you in?

Was there anything in particular. 

Kaylan Soares: Yeah, I would definitely say so. , For me, it was when I was taking my Airborne lidar class my sophomore year, we were running 3D models in Arc Pro to do watershed analysis. And it's gonna sound silly, but I was able to, to make it all hot pink, like a hot peak gradient when I made the the final 3D model.

I thought it was so cool that I could [00:05:00] take this data and just display it in such amazing and wonderful ways, but it also tells such a great story at the same time, it's a mix of science and art and environmental justice and community work, and I just, I loved it. I, I couldn't stop it.

I think it's the coolest technology in the world. I think it has so many applications. I just had an insatiable hunger to just learn more and more about it. 

Eva Reid: Absolutely. I, I feel like that's, a lot of us in the fields are that way. Can you tell us a little bit more about the storytelling aspect of this?

Kaylan Soares: Yeah, of course. For me, when it comes to using GIS to tell a story you really have to know a, what question you're trying to answer, and B, what audience you're trying to, to display the information to. And it's really important to, while you're going through your analysis, to keep going back to that.

And then when you finally have the data and you collect that data, it's a question of like, [00:06:00] how can I make this make the most sense for the people that I'm trying to explain it to? You can use colors for that. You can use word in your maps for that. You can add in graphics.

There's just so many different ways , you can change the size of different points to really just tell the story. And I think that's just really cool that. There's just endless options about, oh, different ways that you can say the same thing through GIS. 

Erica Phillips: You know, I'm so happy to hear you saying this because I often encounter people who are much further along in their careers who haven't yet figured out that thing that you are saying, right?

Like, what question am I trying to answer and who am I speaking to so that I can put this information in a way that they can. Receive it. Right. And sometimes people do get so caught up in doing something that looks good, that they forget about the real thing. This is geographic information systems. Right.

So we still have to inform somebody. 

Kaylan Soares: Exactly. Exactly. And 

Erica Phillips: help them to make a [00:07:00] decision. I've got a former client, I. I am bragging a little bit who talks about the Erica Phillips method because I always say, so what are you going to do? You're, you're requesting this map or you're requesting some data, but what are you going to do with it after?

What question are you trying to answer? So even though you are early in the trajectory, I think you've hit upon something really important that sometimes it takes people years and years to get to. Are you seeing that also Eva? 

Eva Reid: Yeah, I absolutely am. I think the other piece of this for me is the asking questions.

My, whole philosophy is ask questions, and so it's really great to hear you talk about, asking the questions and identifying what question is it that you want to answer? And then thinking about that process. And as Erica said, there are people who are midway through their career and still haven't really gotten to that piece yet.

So really exciting to hear that. [00:08:00] 

Kaylan Soares: And it's like a lot of times when it comes to the ways we implement GIS. We are representing a group of people, or it could be a group of animals, a type of plant, but we're representing something and we have to remember that and when it comes to approaching our work.

Erica Phillips: Absolutely. So we just finished a whole three months where we were talking with people about GIS and environmental justice, and I know this is an area where you've done some work. Can you talk to us a little bit about what you've done? What has your work? Ben that relates to environmental justice. 

Kaylan Soares: Yeah, so I would say my biggest project that's specific to environmental justice is a project I did analyzing water and green space access and trends in LA County.

I used Google Earth Engine to do this, and I found, um. A paper that had run equations for tassel cap transformations for [00:09:00] NDVI and NDWI. Essentially a way to calculate presence of water, presence of greenery, how healthy plants are, and an area. My. Professor at the time, David Butman had given me access to, um, some code that he had run that had land surface temperature data on it.

Well, I knew from my work in environmental science, I'd also minored in Urban Ecological Design. So I knew, through my classes and just through my experience, conversations I had with my dad. He grew up on, um, the east side of Providence, so I just knew there's

a very complicated history when it comes to inner city areas and their access to green spaces. And there's a lot of things that tie into that where there's the racial aspect of things, but there's also that socioeconomic aspect of things. And that's really one what I wanted to focus on when it came to approaching this project was like, how

does socioeconomics affect people's ability to engage with the outdoors and their ability [00:10:00] to appreciate the outdoors? So many stereotypes can come from barring access. So I just really wanted to get into that and I, um. Used Google Earth engine to run tassel cap transformation.

What people would expect to find that, like in LA County, it's the wealthier areas not only have , better access to green spaces, but they also have more water. But on top of that, they have lower effects of the urban heat.

Key island effects and those things are all interconnected. At the end of the day, it's like, you know, the tree trees not only provide shade that can reduce that heat, but they can also help their roots, help retain water, which can also be very crucial in areas like Southern California where drought is really common and prevalent, which is another way that these things can really have greater effects.

Erica Phillips: I'm 

gonna ask you to go back a minute because you mentioned a number of different types of data that you were working with and you used a lot of acronyms. So not everybody in our audience has worked with [00:11:00] these data resources. Can you talk a little bit more and, and let's unpack some of those. I thought you said NDVI and I, I don't even know what NDVI is.

What are the types of data you worked with? 

Kaylan Soares: NDVI is normalized difference Vegetation Index and then N-D-W-I-N-D-W-I is normalized difference water index. , I learned about NDVI my first year in undergrad. It's, it's one of the first things that you learn in those intro level GIS courses, at least at University of Washington.

It's a function of the NIR band and the red band on a satellite. Um, and then. NDWI is a function of, oh my gosh, it's been so long since I ran those equations. But it's, similarly it's and equation that allows you to where NDVI, um, uses the infrared and near infrared band and the red bands to be able to pick up , what the health levels of the greenery [00:12:00] are. NDWI does similar things for water. And then the tassel trap cap transformation I used allows, um, for a more amplified version of that. So I combined that with the tass. Cap transformation, the NDBI with the tassel TRA cap transformation for bareness and greenness and the NDWI with the tassel cap transformation for water to really like emphasize, where's the water, where's the green spaces?

Erica Phillips: This is the kind of thing people in communities often they know something is happening, right? And that they are not getting perhaps the things that they need, but they don't always have these tools to help them articulate exactly what's happening. I hope this work got into the hands of some of the community organizations that are working on the topic of environmental justice, because

you put that into somebody's hands, then they can go to a legislator and they're not just griping and saying, well, I don't have the same things that are in Brentwood or in Beverly Hills. [00:13:00] They're saying there's an impact on my health, on my children's wellbeing because 

Eva Reid: mm-hmm. 

Erica Phillips: X, Y, Z, we don't have the water, therefore we don't have the green space, or we can't grow.

, Foods in our, our backyards, because we're not getting this or my children are, uh, disproportionately impacted when the temperature goes above 90 degrees . I'm so excited about this and I I'm hoping that we can put some of the maps in the work that you created online somewhere, because that, that's really important work and it, it, it's a good transition from the segments that we just did on environmental justice.

Eva you started asking about storytelling. Do you wanna pick up and ask a little bit more about that? 

Eva Reid: Before I even do that though, I have another question. I wanna know what's next, what's next out of the research that you did? 

Kaylan Soares: So I took the data and I downloaded CSVs of the raster layers, and I brought it into Arc studio [00:14:00] to do some graphical analysis on it, um, to really put that into a more visual way, like you could see really like where, where the money is compared to where the green space is on that graph. But next I would say

the main reason I did this project, I had done it from a, for a class and then my next step for that, I wanted to present it as a way to show how to get high quality raster layers and Arc GIS Pro, another way of doing it that was free because Google Earth Engine is a free software, so I

presented it at illa libraries as like, here's a resource for how you can get these roster layers and run more detailed analysis. 'cause depending on the layer, you can get more precise pixels in terms of that and resolution. But next I would say I definitely wanna expand on this and look in other areas to see if the pattern is the same.

When I was talking to my professor, we had talked about other ways that I could make this project more [00:15:00] specific in terms of things and how to run more, intense analyzations to really display that knowledge. But I definitely do wanna expand on this project .

I had taken a break from it for a little while to work on other stuff after I got to the point of running things in Arc Studio because I had come to my conclusions and I just wanted to take, take a pause for a little bit and try some other projects in Google Earth Engine.

But I've refined the paper I wrote for it in the past years, and I'm always refining it. So probably just continuing to change the approach I went on as went to it as I think when I did it, there's some islands that are attached to LA County that I included in the analysis. That's something that I need to go back and remove to refine the data and get more precise data that way.

When we're looking at NDWI, if I'm including towns that are along the coast, then it's like those are areas where that's gonna impact the data at the end of the day, because those areas along the coast are more affluent and they're also along the coast, so they have more water there naturally.

So things, [00:16:00] I think it's more just refining the project to be able to tell the story for. Better. And then once I do that, I can apply it to other areas and may. And in that case, um, it's a program where you can just change the county name and Google Earth engine, click enter and it does it for the next county.

Eva Reid: That's exciting and I love that you're also thinking about how you can use the resulting work and share that with other people. That's just so cool. You are doing a project, but it's not just you doing the projects, it's then what are the resulting elements of that, and then how do I get that out into the world?

And I think that's one of the things that we, as geographers and, and GIS people and geospatial professionals, . That's something that we all get very excited about. It's not just what we're doing, but it's how can we then, you know, provide that to other people and how do we extend the research [00:17:00] ourselves, but also how do we extend that or help other people take it and run with it and extend it there as well.

And it kind of leads me back to. What is the story that you're trying to tell? How are you communicating that to people? We obviously have tools to do that, but, you know, what does that look like from your perspective? 

Kaylan Soares: In terms of this project or In terms of my work in general? 

Eva Reid: In terms of this project, but also in general.

Kaylan Soares: Um, in terms of this project, I really just wanted. To tell the story that when it comes to environmental justice, how interconnected all of these issues are . A lot of times it's a, it's a positive feedback system where it's like one thing happens and it makes the next thing worse and worse and worse.

It's like the more you reduce the access to green spaces, the more you're increasing the effects of urban heat islands . If you're increasing the er, urban heat island effect in the [00:18:00] area, but you're also increasing the amount of drought that can occur in that area. And then you're also, that increases when it comes to drought and you're having less access to water.

'cause water can help purify soils, water can help like you it, you come into the toxins that are included into the air and it's just showing how, because we say these things are an issue, but it's hard a lot of times for people to picture that if they're not living it.

So I, I feel like the story I'm trying to tell is not only that, this is happening now, but we can change it. And also if we don't change it, this is gonna happen elsewhere as well. 

Erica Phillips: It's the definition of a systemic wrong, right? What you are describing is a systemic problem,

I can see the same approach being applied to other issues like access to food, right? Access to water, access to food. When you talk about heat deserts or heat [00:19:00] islands, we have food deserts and I would bet you money that the same places that are most impacted by the lack of access to water are the same places that are.

Suffering from being in food deserts are the same places mm-hmm. That have elevated levels of asthma, diabetes, other comorbidities. Uh, so I, I can, what I hear you describing is a workflow that can be applied to multiple different issues, but there are not enough people who know how to do what you're doing and have the interest in applying this to.

Communities that are underserved . I don't know what Eva's pulling at, but what I'm hearing is you've got some skills that could be useful to all sorts of organizations that are striving to create more just outcomes. That's what I'm hearing and I'm getting pretty excited as I'm listening to you talk about this work.

Eva Reid: It makes me kind [00:20:00] of want to go back to school because and I, I don't really wanna go back to school, but at the same time, just the opportunities that you've had to. Really dig into some of this is really wonderful and, and it makes me remember how supportive that environment was.

And I, I do feel very lucky because I still feel like I get that from the community and it's one of the things that the GIS community really does well is 

Kaylan Soares: a hundred percent. 

Eva Reid: Yeah, it's, it's like we all get excited about what we're doing. We get excited about what other people are doing, and then just the idea that, you know, someone's over here doing this thing and now I wanna learn about it and I want to get involved in it.

And it's just, it's very exciting. I think too, you're, you're energy really. Is pulling us in a little bit too. So that's really exciting to see. And I, I it makes me think about, you know, some of the questions that we had thought about ahead of time were around, like getting into the field.

That made [00:21:00] me think about, you know, what has your experience been like getting into GIS? Because what I'm hearing from you is just this intense excitement about it, which is something that I also feel even now having been in this for field for a long time, but tell us a little bit about what your experience has been .

I know you're looking for a position, but you, you've already entered the field, so what has that been like for you? 

Kaylan Soares: At first, like my first year outta undergrad, I definitely was struggling a lot more until I found programs like women in GIS, women Plus in Geospatial.

I think it's, it, is it vpn Vanguard? The, the, the GPN Vanguard. 

Vanguard, 

Kaylan Soares: yes. GPN Vanguard. And I came across those programs about a year ago on LinkedIn. And once I started getting involved there, I think it completely changed how my experience was going in this industry for sure. It was definitely hard for me to [00:22:00] find someone in

in the industry to talk to about this because it's such a it's a niche industry. I would go to my mom, my mom's in hr, and I would sometimes get advice from her, but she didn't have like really intense experience and like a, a STEM focused career or

Experience, giving advice and like a job is specialized as a GIS one would be where you need that very specific experience. So I was finally able to talk to people that could give me advice and to like, what are things that I can do to strengthen my skills, even if I don't have a job?

Like, so how am I gonna be, how can I get quote unquote professional experience? Without having that professional level job. And, and it was for that, I was taking the Esri MOOC courses and I was on the Esri website following tutorials and using those to come up with my own projects after, I would say on top of that, I, I definitely think joining the organizations , are the number one, because especially when you're struggling like [00:23:00] I have been with finding a job, it's a way to show your interest.

That you still care about GIS. You're working towards strengthening your skills even though you might not have the perfect position at the current moment. And I think that's really what I've been focusing on. And I've met my amazing mentor, Jen Murdoch. That's been so, so helpful since August , allowing me to navigate this industry, meet new people, add people to my network, figuring out how things work in the professional sector.

This was the first year for how they did the women in GIS mentorship. But I would really recommend, um. Signing up for that one. They have local mentorships. I know the Portland chapter did one this year, so it, I definitely would look out for those. They're posting on their LinkedIn accounts all of the time, like you could scroll two seconds and you can find an opportunity for you to get involved.

So I really, really recommend getting involved with those organizations. 

Erica Phillips: What's 

the name of your mentor? Let's give a [00:24:00] shout out again. What was the, your mentor's name? 

Kaylan Soares: Jennifer Murdock. 

Erica Phillips: Okay. Jennifer, thank you so much for being an ally. Right. 

Kaylan Soares: She's and 

Incredible. 

Eva Reid: So Jen is awesome and funny story about how Kaylan got connected to us is through Jen.

So I had posted about the opportunity to be on the podcast in the women in GIS Slack and I got some messages. One of them was Jen saying, Hey, I think I have someone really great for you to talk to. And then I was on a women in GIS event, I don't know, maybe a week or two later. And Jen and I happened to be in the same breakout room.

It was just really funny. It's the small world connections that really start to build. Your community and help you connect to the community. And then, I [00:25:00] will be surprised if you don't have a job in like a couple of months because you've already done the work to build your network or your community, and I see, good things happening.

Kaylan Soares: Thank you. 

Erica Phillips: Absolutely. There are going to be people who will want to talk to you because you have that energy, as Eva pointed out, and the willingness to do work. Right. Even though it's not your job right now. I love hearing you say that you did the MOOCs that Esri offers, I mean these are free and they're available to people who want to learn, and there are a lot of people who might.

Say they wanna learn, but they're not taking the those extra steps. Good for you for making the effort and putting yourself out there in this way, and for being willing to be here on the North Star Gaze Podcast. Thank you. 

Kaylan Soares: I would say one more thing I wanna shout out is the woman in GIS Lightning talks.

If you have a project that you have been really passionate about that you wanna share, sign up for a lightning talk. It's. Such a supportive community. I did one, [00:26:00] my first one recently and it was so wonderful to be able to put myself out there , for the first time. There's not a lot of pressure on it, and you meet so many wonderful people and they also record the session so you can , share your work even further later down the line if you want to.

But I definitely recommend. Trying it out because it gets yourself out there, it gets your work out there, and um, it makes it so you're more comfortable with explaining the work you're doing because in this field, you have to be able to do that. So 

Erica Phillips: I'm gonna count on you to give us a link to your Lightning Talk.

When we make this episode live, we're going to include a caption that has a link to your Lightning Talk. What was the topic? 

Kaylan Soares: It was, I called the project Bogged down and I used Google Earth Engine to calculate and predict cranberry weights from 1985 to 2025. And then I used Arc GIS pros, hotspot analysis to see if the operating cranberry bogs are [00:27:00] located, where those, um, where cranberries are supposedly growing the largest.

Erica Phillips: Did it prove out? Did you predict, were you able to 

Kaylan Soares: predict it did. Yes it did. At least for the state of Wisconsin. Most of, i, I would say it's, it's like a little bit south central, not really, it's more central Wisconsin. But, um, there's a lot of historical oscillating hotspots popped up in that area and many of the bogs were located around there.

Eva Reid: So, 

Kaylan Soares: and hopefully in the future, 

Erica Phillips: implications for agricultural development, right? Here. We already use a lot of these tools in agricultural development, but in the quote unquote, global south, these tools are not used as much. But that same thing that you did to predict where cranberry weights are going to be heavies.

By using historical data. Imagine if that was wheat production or palm, kernel nut production unit. I, this is so replicatable. , I can't wait to watch this lightnings talk. That's going to be a lot of fun to listen [00:28:00] to. . Good for you. 

Kaylan Soares: Thank you. 

Erica Phillips: Okay. You, you are already answering questions that we had planned to answer of, you're ahead of us.

What advice would you give to young women who are interested in entering into this arena? 

Kaylan Soares: As I mentioned before, is definitely joining the women in GIS group and the Women Plus in Geospatial group for sure. Those would be my number one recommendations. I would also say to reach out to other young women on LinkedIn that are in the GIS industry because they are so kind and they are very like willing to get to know you and help you out and just reach out to them and get to know them.

Ask them about. What they're doing in your, their career, so you can get a better idea about what it is that you wanna do in your career. I would also say I. Reaching out to, outside of GIS specifically, you can reach [00:29:00] out to people in different industries where GIS might be needed and get to learn a little bit more through their perspective about how GIS is used.

But also you get your name out there in that other industry and then maybe down the line, someone's looking for someone to do something in GIS and they're like, Hey, I, I actually met with someone a little while ago. I've been told in the past also you can. Send cold emails to different companies with your work, your portfolios, if, if you're really trying to get your name out there.

It might not be coming off through this screen, but I tend to be run a little bit anxious and a little shy sometimes, so like I totally get. Like sending a cold email to people. It's very nerve wracking. But, it's really the name of the game in today's job market , is making these connections are the way that you're gonna really be able to get your name out there.

So. It's nerve wracking, but the worst they can do is say no. The worst they do is don't respond to the email and then, uh, and they're lost. You know, at the end of the day, [00:30:00] it's, it's you're still capable. You still are putting in the work, and you have a place in this industry and you will find your place in this industry.

I 

Erica Phillips: love that. I absolutely love that. Uh, you're right, it's not coming across on this screen at all. What I'm getting from you is a young person who is confident, capable, has some skills, willing to do what is necessary, and I'm around other young people who I would say in general are less. Able to communicate than you.

So I think you're head of some of your peers and age cohorts in your willingness and ability to speak to I, I think, Ava, what are you seeing when you encounter 

Eva Reid: young people? I'm seeing enthusiasm. The, the word that jumped into my head was enthusiasm. And I think you obviously have sort of an inherent enthusiasm.

And, it's probably partly about the GIS but it's also, in general, it seems like you're really enthusiastic about the work that you're [00:31:00] doing and, and the things that you're interested in. And I, again, I mean, you know what Erica just said your ability to communicate is very natural and it might feel anxious to you on the inside.

And quite frankly, I totally get it because that's me all the time. And no one believes that. They're like, really? And just, you know, the. The work that you're, I don't even wanna say the work that you're doing, but you know, whatever it is that you're doing, keep doing it because it's coming across I am really interested in this and I want to do more and, and do really great things.

And I think that's just such a good attitude to have. I think too, again, so many people in this field just absolutely are. Enthralled, by, how can we apply the technology and, and what can we do with it? And, again, my question before, what's next?

That is a question that we're constantly [00:32:00] asking ourselves. And I, see that in you. I see that, effervescence, so yeah, I just keep doing whatever you're doing because it's working. 

Kaylan Soares: Thank you. Thank you. 

Eva Reid: I, um, 

Erica Phillips: We're coming up on the close of our time together, but we have a few more questions.

Kaylan. One that I have is, you know, I know what I'm seeing as where GIS can make an impact in environmental justice, but what, what do you see, where do you see GIS having the ability to make, make the world a better place in terms of environmental justice? 

Kaylan Soares: I would say community mapping is the next, is the biggest thing in terms of environmental justice and GIS right now deep South Center for Climate Change does incredible work with David Pageant.

I love going to, whenever he has a talk I am, I'm seated. I am signing up. He. So intelligent. He has such amazing ways of, of approaching this work, and he has results. The results are [00:33:00] there and it's, he puts the power. Back into the hands of the community. And that's what community Mapping does. It's, it really centers community in terms of finding these climate change solutions.

Some of my favorite work that he did, involved, the community went around and they took GPS pictures of where flooding was occurring. And they used that to create flood maps and emergency response maps. I believe they went in and they talked to the community about like, what structures are most important to you, what would get the community back running quickest for you?

And it's, it's never what you would expect as someone coming in from the outside. So definitely I think community mapping is number one, but it's a matter of like, how do we get that technology into the communities? My dream world, you have a library card, you have a free Esri account. That's my dream.

Erica Phillips: Oh wow. Love of 

Kaylan Soares: that. 

Erica Phillips: Why not that 

Eva Reid: is. That is so fantastic. That is such a good idea [00:34:00] because why, why do we not have that yet? 

Kaylan Soares: Exactly. So then you can get the kids and start introducing the kids to it. . It's just GIS is needed in every single industry, and I think it's important for everyone to at least have a fundamental understanding of what it, is, because it affects

how things run at the end of the day, like they, they need GIS analysts for Pizza Hut. Like it really is in everything. 

Erica Phillips: Pizza Hut has GIS analysts, you trust me there. They, in their whole real estate department, they've got GIS analysts. But I wonder if Jack Ment has been. Ask or post this proposal that you just made?

Put GIS in the hands of students everywhere. I'm gonna make it a point that I know that there are GIS companies that have people who are in charge of educational outreach. I am going to make it my personal mission to connect you with somebody. In one of those positions and you have the conversation.

Have the conversation. [00:35:00] I can't promise anything. I can promise that I can facilitate a conversation 

Kaylan Soares: And. So I was just gonna say, I would love to learn more about what is being done in terms of introducing GIS into communities? Because I know there are high school programs, I forget where I saw, I saw it on LinkedIn.

I forget what state it's in, but I do know high school programs already exist and, you know, you can do things on the, in illustrative level. So, sorry. 

Eva Reid: No, no, you're fine. I was just gonna say, you said high school, Virginia geospatial semester out of JMU. 

Kaylan Soares: Okay. I think that's 

Eva Reid: what I said. 

Kaylan Soares: I've 

Eva Reid: worked, I've, yeah, I've worked with them a bit.

Bob and Katherine Kiernan and all those folks are, have been doing amazing work getting this into high schools. Can't say enough good stuff about that program. I think there are probably some in other states, but definitely Virginia, so kudos, Virginia. I live in Virginia, so, I, the thing that I wanted to say too was, I mean, number one, you heard [00:36:00] it here first.

GIS and libraries. That said, there is also already a precedent for it because I know, and, and Eric, you've met her at my events. A good friend of mine is a professor at American University and she is actually doing some of her work through the library. So , her position is professor, but there is a precedent for that and yes we can do it at college level, but we should absolutely be doing it at community libraries as well. Mm-hmm. It's part of their mission, so, let's get some volunteers in and. Get people working on getting GIS into the hands of, of the communities.

Kaylan Soares: A hundred percent agree. Yeah. 

Erica Phillips: So we've got just about a minute left. I'm gonna ask you finally, what gives you hope about the future of this work? 

Kaylan Soares: I would say the fact that so many new people are getting engaged with it every day or making these career [00:37:00] switches, but also as we talked earlier, just the.

Energy of the GIS community that exists gives me a lot of hope. It's, it's seeing how passionate everyone is and how. Deeply, they care about community and making this world more just and doing that through technology. But also a lot of people that I've met so far in the GIS industry, they do that technology aspect, but it's tied to so many different passions of theirs.

So they're also getting involved in their community in terms of those other passions. And that's really, that really is what gives me hope, is just like the people that work. In this industry are incredible and they are the future , and they're working towards the future and they're trying to make this world a better place, one step at a time, and I think that's just wonderful.

Erica Phillips: Oh my 

goodness. There's nothing left to say. I know that there's a bright future ahead for you. Um, I'm so excited and just [00:38:00] grateful to you for making time to speak with us today. Kaylan, thank you so much, Eva. I could not do this without you. Eva, keep in touch with Eva if you don't keep in touch with anybody.

Kaylan, keep in touch with Eva because she is doing all the things for women in GIS. But I hope to keep in touch with you as well, and I'm, I'm just, I'm grateful to both of you for making time for the North Star Gaze today. Thank you. 

Eva Reid: Thank you, Erica. This has been so much fun. 

Kaylan Soares: Gonna stop so much for happening.

Having me. I just, this was surreal, a dream come true. It's, it, it feels, it feels good to be recognized in this way, and I really appreciate you for, um, highlighting me today. So thank you for that.