{"id":64,"date":"2020-10-13T16:29:04","date_gmt":"2020-10-13T16:29:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/geog-in-practice\/?page_id=64"},"modified":"2026-10-08T17:30:38","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T17:30:38","slug":"panel-discussion","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/geog-in-practice\/panel-discussion\/","title":{"rendered":"Panel Discussion"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Thursday, November 19, 2026<\/h1>\n<\/p>\n<p>6:00-7:00<br \/><strong>Introduction<br \/><\/strong><br \/><strong>Panel Discussion Moderated by Sarah Elwood<br \/><\/strong>Professor and Chair, Department of Geography<br \/><strong>Audience Questions Facilitated by Gretchen Sneegas<br \/><\/strong>Assistant Teaching Professor, Department of Geography<strong><br \/><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>7:00-7:30<br \/><strong>Small Group Discussions<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Meet Our Panelists<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Derek Huling | Program Analyst, FEMA<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Derek is a program analyst at FEMA, where he leads a dedicated team of data scientists specializing in predictive modeling, program evaluation, reporting, and data visualization. He and his team focus on individual and household recovery programs using Python, R, ArcGIS, PowerBI, and SQL.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A Seattle native, Derek graduated from University of Washington in 2011 with a B.A. in Geography and a concentration in GIS. He then contracted with Google in the Geo division to help build out the early versions of Google Maps and Google Earth. He then earned an M.S. in Geography from Western Washington University, where he researched disaster recovery processes related to housing and sheltering. In 2017, Derek moved to Washington, D.C. to work for FEMA as a field analytics specialist, deploying to disasters to provide situational awareness and analytics products for emergency managers. He has held various roles during his tenure with FEMA, including in the areas of performance metrics, strategy and innovation, and strategic operations.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He currently lives in the Shenandoah Valley in northwestern Virginia, and when not at work he tries to learn various instruments, watches horror movies, and travels internationally with his wife.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Krystle Jumarawan | Geospatial Specialist II, Woven by Toyota<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Krystle is a Geospatial Specialist II at Woven by Toyota, where she works on the maps that make automated driving possible. Krystle oversees map production end to end \u2014 from the initial map request through to customer hand-off \u2014 and has facilitated launching a number of large mapping projects along the way. Much of Krystle\u2019s work happens at the seams between teams, coordinating across groups to keep map production running smoothly.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Krystle\u2019s path to autonomous-vehicle mapping wound through a lot of geography career paths. She eventually got her start at a startup company building maps for autonomous vehicle companies, which sparked her interest in AV mapping. Before that, she created and maintained geodatabases for water, wastewater, and sewer systems for cities and counties across Washington State for Gray &amp; Osborne, a civil engineering firm, and produced maps for city and county planning. Krystle also worked on the terrain database behind Honeywell Aerospace&#8217;s Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System, created maps for a birding book published by the Seattle Audubon Society, and supported NPACT air-pollution study with the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences at the University of Washington.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Krystle holds a B.A. in Geography and a Master&#8217;s in GIS, both from the University of Washington, and is a Certified GIS Professional (GISP). <\/span><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Helen Elizabeth Olsen | Deputy Director, The Gates Foundation<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Helen Olsen is Deputy Director for Special Initiatives in the Global Development Office of the President at the Gates Foundation, where she leads cross-foundation work on key global health &amp; development priorities, including the foundation\u2019s Fragile Contexts Learning Agenda. She previously served as interim Deputy Director for Strategy, Planning &amp; Management in both the Global Development Office of the President and the Nutrition Program Strategy Team.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Before moving into these leadership roles, Helen spent two and a half years with the Institute for Disease Modeling, where she led a research-focused strategy and program management team, supported IDM\u2019s strategy development and integration into the foundation, and helped build its work on gender, vulnerability, and health equity.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Helen is a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow and holds an M.A. in Geography from Rutgers University, as well as a B.A. in Geography from the University of Washington.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A health geographer and mixed-methods researcher by training, Helen conducted her graduate research in Tanzania and has held roles across the global health ecosystem, including at UW&#8217;s Institute for Health Metrics &amp; Evaluation, Medic, and the Community Health Impact Coalition. Across these roles, her work has focused on connecting mixed-methods research, program strategy, and partners to better understand drivers of complex global health challenges.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A Seattle native, Helen enjoys Pilates, cooking, reading, and making art with her partner, Shane, and her two dogs.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/geog-in-practice\/event-archive\/\">Event Archive<\/a><\/strong><\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thursday, November 19, 2026 6:00-7:00IntroductionPanel Discussion Moderated by Sarah ElwoodProfessor and Chair, Department of GeographyAudience Questions Facilitated by Gretchen SneegasAssistant Teaching Professor, Department of Geography 7:00-7:30Small Group Discussions Meet Our Panelists Derek Huling | Program Analyst, FEMA Derek is a program analyst at FEMA, where he leads a dedicated team of data scientists specializing in&#8230;<\/p>\n<div><a class=\"more\" href=\"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/geog-in-practice\/panel-discussion\/\">Read more<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-64","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/geog-in-practice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/64"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/geog-in-practice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/geog-in-practice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/geog-in-practice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/geog-in-practice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64"}],"version-history":[{"count":45,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/geog-in-practice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/64\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":283,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/geog-in-practice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/64\/revisions\/283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/geog-in-practice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}