Hi everyone! My name is Catherine DuBreck and I am a GIS professional in the Upstate/Western NY area. I have been in the GIS world since I took my first GIS class in 2014 during my undergrad program 10 years ago. Since then, I got my BA and MSc in Geography, a certificate and micro-credential in GIST, and I am currently working on an A.A.S. in GIST because why not?!
I have GIS experience in the public (government, transportation planning, regional planning, municipal planning, education) and private (project management, consulting, change management) sectors and I work as a GIS Change Management Consultant full-time helping clients navigate the changes that come with migrating from ArcMap/geometric network to ArcGIS Pro/utility network. I also work part-time teaching intro GIS as an adjunct at a local university and with my local community college to promote their new GIS programs and will be visiting a few different high school events this Spring to teach young students about GIS. I sit on the Board of Directors for the NYS GIS Association and also volunteer on the NYS GIS Communications Committee.
I am so happy to finally join the YPN and look forward to connecting with you all. If you are near the Rochester, NY area, although we do not have a formal YPN chapter, there is an annual one-day GIS conference coming up hosted by the GIS/SIG (GIS Special Interest Group) that I wanted to share. There are usually a couple Esri reps sharing the latest and greatest during the different sessions, and they have a booth with Globey and other swag 🙂 Any students that present a lightning talk can register for free and they are still accepting abstract submissions until 3/15. I will be there and it's always a great time! https://gis-sig.org/2024-conference/