Our Team

We make the Web more useful, data more open, and cities more livable. Our extraordinary team makes it possible. OpenPlans is home to talented software engineers, community organizers, journalists, and policy experts.

Mark Gorton

Founder and Chairman

Mark Gorton has spent the past decade building a series of innovative financial and technology companies.

He is the founder of Tower Research Capital LLC, a money management firm specializing in quantitative trading and investment strategies, as well as the founder of Lime Brokerage LLC, Lime Wire LLC, and Lime Labs LLC.

Mark founded OpenPlans in 1999 after realizing the incredible potential of the open source movement to create tools that catalyze civic engagement. Mark is OpenPlans’s primary funder, and in his role as Chairman he draws on a strong background in urban transportation advocacy and open media.

Mark holds degrees from Yale, Stanford, and Harvard Business School.
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Nick Grossman

Director of Civic Works

Nick enjoys thinking about how to make cities more usable and livable through the application of technology.  As the Director of Civic Works, he oversees development of new products around sustainable transportation, “open city” IT infrastructure, participatory planning, and local civic engagement.

Previously, Nick worked as an urban design consultant, dot-com startupper, and independent web designer and developer.  He originally joined OpenPlans in 2006 to produce Streetsblog and Streetfilms.

Nick holds a degree in Urban Studies from Stanford University.  He tweets daily @nickgrossman and blogs periodically at wrkng.net.

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Vanessa Hamer

Director of Operations

Vanessa manages the OpenPlans’ central operations as well as our portfolio of civic-minded media projects including Streetsblog, Streetfilms, GothamSchools and Streets Education. She is a big fan of wikis, bike lanes, and other simple technologies that level the playing field.

Before OpenPlans, Vanessa worked at Duke University & Health System, where she looked for ways to shrink the institution’s environmental footprint by reshuffling the supply chain. She has also worked with small businesses and studied pollution in the desert.

Vanessa graduated from Duke with majors in English and Biology. She is interested in helping innovations move around, whether in software or crop genes. 

Chris Holmes

Director of OpenGeo

Chris began his work in open source geospatial software when he joined OpenPlans as the lead developer of GeoServer in 2002. He served in this role until 2005, when he chose to pursue a Fulbright Scholarship in Zambia to examine the potential for Open Source Geospatial software to implement Spatial Data Infrastructures in developing countries.

In 2006 he returned to OpenPlans as its Managing Director. Managing GeoServer development and nurturing the project’s sustainability, he grew OpenPlans’s geospatial division into OpenGeo.

Chris has served on the Project Management Committee of GeoTools, the most advanced Open Source Java toolkit, since 2002, and is now the chair of the Project Steering Committee of GeoServer. Chris is additionally a founding board member to the Open Source Geospatial (OSGeo) Foundation, which is giving diverse spatially oriented projects a common banner. He graduated from Stanford.

Chris Abraham

Technical Lead, Civic Media

Chris leads development of our growing Civic Media properties, including Streetsblog, Streetfilms, and GothamSchools.

Chris previously worked IT consulting for Fortune 500 companies and trained for several years at a Zen Monastery. Chris joined OpenPlans in 2006 in an effort to find work better aligned with his personal vision and values. He considers working at OpenPlans to be a nourishing part of his life as it provides meaningful projects to contribute his talents and energy.

Chris graduated from the University of Waterloo with a degree in Systems Design Engineering.  He blogs at cjyabraham.com.

Andrea Aime

Lead Software Engineer

Andrea is an expert geospatial technologist with specialties in large data systems and spatial data analysis algorithms.

Over the past 8 years, Andrea has been a leader in major open source software projects, including Geotools and GRASS. His interest in GIS stems from their unique applications across the
whole IT field, and he is partial to open source software because of the great communities.

Andrea joined the OpenGeo team in 2006. Before OpenGeo, he spent four years developing research prototypes sponsored by the European Union and the Italian state administration. He is a talented Java developer with an intimate understanding of technologies like Hibernate, Swing, and Spring.

Andrea continues to teach at his alma mater, the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy. When not playing with technology, Andrea enjoys spending time with his family, playing tennis, and reading.

Philip Ashlock

Open Government Program Manager

Phil coordinates municipal open governance initiatives, including Open311 and OpenMuni. Phil is also an accomplished web-designer, and his work is showcased in such websites as OpenGeo and GothamSchools. Previously, he designed and built websites at his alma mater, Western Washington University.

In addition to design, Phil enjoys exploring the natural world, photography, programming, and of course: pragmatic utopian idealism. He also enjoys his daily bicycle commute across the East River. You can follow him @philipashlock.

Sebastian Benthall

Project Manager

Sebastian has assisted artificial intelligence courses, worked on interaction design, and studied the game theory of funding open source software.

At OpenGeo, he is a committer to GeoExt and contributor the OpenLayers and GeoServer. His work has been focused on building collaborative mapping applications like Community Almanac and Vespucci, a graphical front-end to GeoServer’s versioning capability. A firm believer in both open source software and the importance of its financial sustainability, Sebastian is also a member of OpenGeo’s Business Development team.

Sebastian graduated from Brown University, where his research included financial models for open licensing systems, and where he advocated for reform of state campaign finance laws.

Beverly Blake

Director of Development

Beverly has been a fundraising executive for the past ten years. A scientist, lawyer and chief development officer, she believes in OpenPlans’ social enterprise model. She is particularly excited about applying open source software and principles to civic work.

Before joining OpenPlans, Beverly spearheaded the fundraising efforts at a range of organizations, from modest start-ups, to some of New York’s long-standing community based non-profits, to national and international institutions.

Beverly obtained her degree in Engineering Chemistry from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and her J.D. from the University of Iowa School of Law.bblake2

Evan Carter

Senior Systems Administrator

Evan is an entrepreneur with a background in network security, open source solutions and transportation advocacy. For nine years, Evan ran a successful network security business, consulting for everyone from Fortune 500 companies to small businesses on a range of emergency and forensic projects.

Evan has been involved in local politics and advocacy for some time. He co-founded the Young Progressive Majority in his native Los Angeles, and he has worked for the Tri-State Transportation Campaign.

He is finishing up his degree in political science at Columbia University.

Carly Clark

Graphic Designer

Carly makes beautiful things.  Like streets full of happy people. She combines technical expertise in making successful streets and places with a flair for making information fun and useful.

Before joining OpenPlans to lead the branding of Streetsblog, Streetfilms, and Streets Education, Carly was the Art Director for the Project for Public Spaces, a non-profit public space design firm.

Carly holds degrees from Wellesley College and Pratt Institute.

Andy Cochran

Senior Designer

Andy provides the creative vision for a range of successful projects. He has designed interfaces for community mapping tools like Community Almanac and FixCity Bike Racks, and he developed the look and feel for Streetfilms.

Outside of OpenPlans, Andy enjoys drawing, painting, writing and recording music, and Alton Brown-inspired cooking when he’s not designing websites, logos, and printed materials. He loves living in New York City, even though his heart is buried in the bluegrass of Louisville, KY. He likes his art contemporary, his food spicy, and his country music old-timey. Andy’s ridiculously ginormous music collection is comprised mostly of quirky indie-rock, twee, and Hank Williams Senior albums.

Andy holds a BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art,
and he has a decade of experience in design,
both print and web.

Philissa Cramer

GothamSchools Associate Editor

Philissa founded GothamSchools’ newsroom in September 2008 and previously launched Insideschools’ first news blog. At Insideschools, she also visited and reviewed schools all over New York City and contributed to the third edition of New York City’s Best Public High Schools. She is also a founding member of the Brooklyn Food Group supper club.

Philissa studied the history and policy of education at Brown University, where she edited the Brown Daily Herald student newspaper.

Justin Deoliveira

Technical Lead

Justin, a long-time GeoTools and GeoServer developer, has been building geospatial solutions since 2001. As part of OpenGeo, Justin leads most major architectural decisions for GeoServer, such as the transition to Spring and Maven. He has also lead core WFS work and KML support. In GeoTools he maintains the PostGIS datastore, and he has done cutting edge work on a new model for JDBC classes.

When not coding and leading development, Justin writes and delivers workshops on the OpenGeo Stack and GeoServer. He graduated from The University of Victoria with a BSC in Computer Science.

Ashley DeVries

Project & Office Manager

Ashley joined OpenPlans after spending five years as a Project Manager in architecture and construction. In addition, she was formerly the Operations Manager for the Community Food Resource Center, a direct service non-profit organization.

As an advocate for beautiful buildings and habitable neighborhoods, Ashley earned an M.S. in Historic Preservation from Columbia University. Having watched freeway development destroy neighborhood after neighborhood in her hometown of Houston, she’s happy to be at OpenPlans, contributing to a future with fewer cars.

In her spare time, Ashley enjoys hanging out with her incredibly awesome kids and playing bass in bands around the city.

Clarence Eckerson

Director of Videography

A widely-regarded expert on environmental and transportation filmmaking, Clarence has been a fixture in the NYC transportation advocacy movement since the mid ʼ90s. After serving three years as chair of the Brooklyn T.A. Committee, he yielded to his true passion and started bikeTV, a cable show dedicated to showcasing bicycle phenomenons and bike advocacy in the NYC area and beyond.

Since joining OpenPlans in 2004, he has produced more than 100 short films on sustainable transport and livable streets issues, almost all entirely one-person productions.

His work has been featured in dozens of bike and film festivals around the world. Under his stewardship, Streetfilms has exploded as the world-wide media hub for sustainable transport advocates. He has been called “the hardest working man in transportation show biz” for his years of dedication to create videos that are both enlightening, entertaining and inspiring.

Nearly all of Clarenceʼs video is shot while walking, riding a bike or using mass transit – he does not own a driverʼs license.clarence_poster.thumbnail_1.jpg

Ben Fried

Streetsblog NYC Editor

Ben provides the editorial vision for Streetsblog NYC, where he has been breaking stories since 2008.

He previously spent seven years at The Project for Public Spaces, a non-profit public space consultancy. He loves the Mets, and he holds a Master’s in Journalism from Columbia University.

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Bryan Goebel

Editor, Streetsblog San Francisco

Bryan leads Streetsblog San Francisco, the influential news source covering transportation and planning issues in the Bay Area. Bryan has been a broadcast journalist for twenty years and most recently worked as an anchor and editor at KCBS radio, pushing stories typically ignored by mainstream media. He has reported and produced pieces for a range of media outlets, including CBS, ABC, NPR newscasts, Associated Press Radio and the BBC.

Bryan’s key areas of interest have been politics, human rights, bike-friendly streets, marginalized communities, LGBT issues and literature. He gave up driving in 1998 along with “cheeseburgers, smokes and cokes” and lost sixty pounds riding his bicycle. He fell in love with the bike and has been pedaling ever since.

He’s also working on his first novel and a play and lives in the Tenderloin.

Elizabeth Green

GothamSchools Editor

Before joining GothamSchools in 2008, Elizabeth covered education at The New York Sun and U.S. News & World Report magazine. She has appeared on CNN, MSNBC, and The Brian Lehrer Show to speak about education news.

Elizabeth graduated from Harvard in 2006 with a degree in social studies, and she is presently a Spencer Fellow at Columbia University.

Claudia Hassbach

Controller

Claudia joined OpenPlans in late 2009, looking to return to her non-profit roots after more than a decade managing financial operations in corporate environments. She previously worked as the controller for the U.S. subsidiary of Messe Dusseldorf – one of the world’s leading trade show organizers – and as a senior international accounting consultant for Bloomberg LP.

Living Brooklyn is so much fun that she barely has time to miss her native Germany. Since she can’t get enough of forms, she spends her free time volunteering with New York Cares, tutoring SAT students.

Claudia holds a BA from the University of Michigan and an MBA from Baruch College.

Andreas Hocevar

GeoSpatial Solutions Engineer

Andreas made first contact with geospatial software 15 years ago as a student of Urban and Regional Planning at the Vienna University of Technology. Starting as desktop GIS user, he developed plugins for better thematic mapping as part of his master’s thesis. When he discovered that existing planning methods involve huge barriers to positive change, he decided to create software for better planning.

Andreas has been programming since his first Sharp pocket calculator.As a core committer to OpenLayers, he is known for contributing major improvements to vector rendering and for integrating OpenLayers into Mapbuilder. As a founding PSC member of GeoExt he is involved in creating a rich collection of web mapping widgets based on the Open Geospatial Consortium’s standards. Andreas also shares his knowledge teaching at the Vienna University of Technology, speaking at conferences, or training clients.

Andreas’ favorite means of transportation is his bicycle. In his spare time he enjoys mountaineering and backcountry snowboarding, as well as sailing and yacht racing.

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William Huber

Project Assistant

Will joined OpenPlans in 2010 as a project assistant to aid with cost accounting and general project administration. As a planner and livable cities advocate, he has worked on projects across New York City aimed at reclaiming and recreating public space. While a car-free Manhattan may not (yet) be a reality, Will is really excited about all of the progressive pedestrian and bike-friendly initiatives being embraced in his adoptive metropolis.

When he’s not pedaling across the East River, Will enjoys skiing, collecting odd bits of trivia, and relaxing alongside glacial lakes in the Canadian Shield. He also likes honing his “fire escape gardening” skills.

Will holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Cultural Studies from McGill University in Montreal and a Master of Urban Planning degree from Hunter College in New York City.

Rebecca Jacobs

Streets Education Outreach Coordinator

Rebecca’s background in education includes working at the American School of Milan, where she taught creative writing, digital art, and dance to middle schoolers. She has also led an environmental service-learning class at a summer program in Romania, been the head counselor for pre-K at an environmental camp in Larchmont, NY, and designed and taught conflict resolution curriculum to 5th grade classes in Washington Heights and Harlem.

As the Special Projects Coordinator at Planned Parenthood’s national office in New York, Rebecca worked on advocacy campaigns with PPFA’s high-profile supporters in the arts and entertainment industries. Previous to that she worked as a consultant to the World Heritage Centre at UNESCO headquarters in Paris.

Rebecca graduated from Columbia with majors in Anthropology and History.rjacobs

Noah Kazis

Streetsblog NYC Reporter

Noah joined Streetsblog in early 2010, after writing at TheCityFix DC. When he was a kid, he collected subway paraphernalia in a Vignelli-map shoebox.

Noah is a recent graduate of Yale, where he wrote his senior essay on the importance of social class in the politics of transportation reform in New York City.

Michael Keating

Business Development Manager

Michael helps launch new projects and businesses within OpenPlans, with an emphasis on applications for public transit. He previously worked as a management consultant, entrepreneur, and urban designer, focusing on the value of environmental sustainability and clean technology in each of these roles.

Michael holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, a Masters in Urban Planning from the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and a BA from Wesleyan University.

Robert Marianski

Software Engineer

Robert began his software career in the financial sector. While he was initially excited to work on projects that had significant impact, he found himself unsatisfied with an emphasis on quick-and-dirty solutions. He joined OpenPlans to create better software, and to date his project have ranged from community organizing tools to mapping applications.

Robert graduated from the Georgia Institute of Technology.marianski_1_1.jpg

Damien Newton

Streetsblog Los Angeles Editor

Damien is the force behind Streetsblog Los Angeles, the advocacy journalism site that’s bringing better transportation options to the City of Angels. Before moving west, he was the NJ Coordinator for the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, and he has lent his media relations know-how to a number of advocacy campaigns. Damien graduated from American University.

You can follow Damien @lastreetsblog.

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Sharon Panelo

Marketing Intern, OpenGeo

Sharon Panelo has a marketing communications background in financial services. In her post-corporate life, Sharon wears more denim, and is a freelance writer, brand strategist, and professional “daylighter” balancing work and passion projects.

Sharon was a military brat and grew up mostly in Germany and the Deep South. She has a B.A. English from the University of South Carolina and is a graduate student at Columbia University’s M.S. in Strategic Communications program.spanelo

Chris Patterson

Web Designer / Front-End Web Developer

Chris has been hand-writing markup since the mid-90s, and enjoys standards-oriented web design well beyond the point of embarrassment. His work is featured in such sites as Community Almanac, Streetsblog, and Streetfilms.

Chris is a passionate believer in the ability of the web to precipitate change. He is excited to be at OpenPlans to help ensure that those changes remain solidly in the plus column.

Chris lives in Madison, Wisconsin, with his favorite wife, Molly. He graduated from Kenyon College.tenzo.jpeg

Sophia Parafina

OpenGeo Director of Operations

Sophia has been involved in geospatial software for over a decade. In her career she has been a programmer, scientist, project manager, venture capitalist, and CTO. A long-time champion of OGC standards, she brings an invaluable wealth of industry and management experience to OpenGeo.

After managing a series of Web and GIS projects for organizations like the Texas Department of Transportation and Los Angeles Airport, Sophia joined In-Q-Tel, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency’s venture capital fund, as their Senior Program Manager. There she ran programs that funded development of GML 2.0, WFS, and WMC.

In 2000, Sophia founded Ionic Enteprise, a joint venture to bring mapping technology based on Open Geospatial Consortium standards to the U.S. market. Ionic Enterprise grew to 15 employees with annual revenue of $8M before being acquired by Leica Geosystems, now Erdas, in 2007.

In 2009 Sophia joined OpenGeo, where she manages our Outreach team and guides the OpenGeo Suite toward being the greatest enterprise level web GIS solution around. She blogs at sproke.blogspot.com.

Rolando Peñate

Lead Designer

Rolando joined OpenPlans in 2006 and soon became our first staff web-designer. Today, he is OpenGeo’s lead interaction, graphic, and web designer. In addition to working with all of their software, he works on GeoSilk, a set of icons for geospatial applications.

Rolando first began working with geospatial software while still an undergraduate and found the experience so frustrating that he vowed never to use it again unless he could make it better. A few years later he found himself working with OpenGeo to make the user experience of the OpenGeo Suite the best in the industry.

Before OpenGeo, Rolando worked at Brown University’s Instructional Technology Group developing educational uses for emerging technologies. He graduated from Brown magna cum laude with a degree in Sociology and Urban Studies.

Anna Phillips

GothamSchools Staff Reporter

Anna Phillips joined GothamSchools in the spring of 2009. She covered the debate over how to govern the New York City schools and is now following the 2009 city elections.

Before joining OpenPlans, she interned for Politico senior politics writer Ben Smith, the New York Sun, and City Limits. Anna holds a bachelor’s degree in U.S. history from Columbia University, where she was the editor-in-chief of The Blue and White, the undergraduate newsy magazine.

Eddie Pickle

Director of Business Development

Eddie has been working in the geospatial industry for over 25 years as an entrepreneur, manager and analyst. He is a founder and former Chief Operating Officer of OGC web services pioneer IONIC Enterprise, and he led the successful negotiation of its purchase by Leica Geosystems (now ERDAS). Eddie was previously Executive Vice President of Claritas, the world leader in marketing information (now part of Nielsen), and Managing Director at IXI, a leading financial services data firm.

Eddie’s experience includes a wide range of applications, from GIS to market segmentation and market analysis.  He began his career as a site location specialist and demographer for CACI, and has worked with emergency managers, banks, retailers, telecommunications companies, government agencies, media companies and others on their geospatial and marketing applications.

With OpenGeo, Eddie works to support clients, to develop partnerships and to help OpenGeo management develop and implement strategic and marketing plans.jepickle

Elizabeth Press

Filmmaker

Elizabeth joined Streetfilms after four years as a producer for the independent TV/Radio program, Democracy Now!  Her videos have screened in festivals all over the world, including a grassroots organized tour with her most recent documentary, Still We Ride. You can see a list of her Streetfilms here, and you will usually find Elizabeth commuting on her second-hand spectrum bicycle.

Elizabeth received her MFA in Electronic Arts at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute with a focus on community media. While working on her thesis, Elizabeth spent a year teaching youth video in the Dominican Republic on a Fulbright.

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Mike Pumphrey

Outreach Engineer

Mike has been working in technical support for over a decade, from his college media lab and system administration to the retail world.  He considers himself an advocate on behalf of users of software, and is reviving the lost art of quality documentation. At OpenGeo, Mike is the co-architect of a complete rewrite of the GeoServer documentation, as well as frequent author on the GeoServer Blog.

Mike Pumphrey once drew a map of all the streets in his hometown from memory when he was growing up.  Today, he collects vintage road atlases. Coupled with his desire to help people understand technology, he feels ideally suited to have been OpenGeo’s first Outreach Engineer.

Mike has a Bachelor of Science in Physics from Rutgers University.  He longs to travel the world and to not be tied to an office.mike_barrel_cropped_1_1.jpg

Dahlia Ramsay

Streetfilms Intern

Dahlia is spending the summer with Streetfilms, blending planning advocacy and film. She is a New Yorker born-and-raised and a recent graduate of Portland State University, where she studied Community Development. She loves filmmaking, teaching, and live music.

A licensed NYC sightseeing guide, Dahlia can often be found atop double decker buses, and she recommends you shout hello if you spot her – the tourists love it.

She has spent a total of two years living abroad in Ghana, Guadalajara, San Miguel de Allende and Mexico City for varying lengths of time. She has plans to use footage taken during recent work in Mexico into a promotional video for CASA, a public health non-profit.dahlia photo

Paul Ramsey

Geospatial Architect

Paul Ramsey has been working with spatial data and databases for a decade, yet remains startlingly lucid.  As an entrepreneur, he founded and ran a software consultancy for eight years, growing from one staff member to twenty-five.

As an open source evangelist, he speaks and teaches regularly at geospatial conferences.  As a programmer, he continues to work happily and productively on the PostGIS spatial database project he started in 2001.  As a father and husband, he lives happily with his family in Victoria, British Columbia.  As a homeowner, he paints regularly and tries to stay on the good side of the neighbors.  As a gardener, he plants potatoes every spring and eats them every summer.  As a poet, he is not any good at all.

Gabriel Roldán

Software Engineer

Gabriel has been a GIS and open source developer for over a decade, working on route finding, vehicle tracking, and web mapping.

He began in the GIS and Remote Sensing Department in the Instituto Politecnico Superior in Rosario, Argentina, and since then he has worked at various companies in Argentina and Spain. Over the past six years he has been improving corporate GIS and SDI software components for local government agencies, often introducing GeoTools and GeoServer as core components of their GIS software infrastructure.

Gabriel lead the first migration from ESRI web mapping software to GeoServer, by building the ArcSDE datastore and WMS for GeoServer, and adding SVG output. When he joined the GeoTools community in 2003, he contributed the first ArcSDE data reader, which he still maintains. He recently rearchitected its raster support to match ArcSDE’s capabilities.

Working in professional open source is an incredible opportunity for continuous learning and improvement, both technically and as a human being. OpenPlans’ vision and mission provide Gabriel a platform for full ethical commitment to his technical work.

Gabriel graduated from Universidad Nacional de Rosario, Argentina, where he studied architecture and computer science.gabrielr_1.jpg

Matthew Roth

Streetsblog San Francisco Reporter

Matthew Roth is a writer and journalist living in Bernal Heights, San Francisco. He’s very happy to be involved in starting Streetsblog San Francisco and hopes to elevate the dialogue around people-oriented transportation policy in the Bay Area.

In New York City, after a stint as a fact checker and researcher at The Nation Magazine, he worked myriad jobs, from school teacher to recruiter for Doctors Without Borders.  In 2004, he was arrested for riding his bicycle during the Republican National Convention protests and subsequently organized legal defense and press support for the more than 400 cyclists arrested that week.  He managed Norman Siegel’s campaign for NYC Public Advocate, and he did public relations for Reverend Billy and The Church of Stop Shopping on their cross-country tour for the Morgan Spurlock film, What Would Jesus Buy?

In 2006, Matt worked for Transportation Alternatives as Director of the NYC Streets Renaissance Campaign, where he became a parking wonk, spearheaded the campaign to eliminate parking permit abuse among civil servants, and helped bring Shoupian dogma to town.

Tim Schaub

GeoSpatial S­olutions Engineer

Tim thinks every problem has a spatial solution. He has been working with web technologies since web browsers first made their splash, and began developing geospatial software in 2001. Tim is a project steering committee member and core contributor to OpenLayers – the coolest toolset around for maps in a browser.

As a member of the OpenGeo front-end team, Tim helps guide product development and pushes for enhancements on our core open source projects. His work has included extensive contributions on vector handling in OpenLayers, OWS Context and KML parsing for the OWS-5 testbed, and lead on the Community Almanac project for the Orton Foundation. He also enjoys giving professional trainings and workshops .

Before finding OpenPlans, he earned his keep as an independent software developer, worked for a remote sensing shop, and spent a number of years bringing quality mapping solutions to conservation organizations in the Northern Rockies and Pacific Northwest.

On his wall hangs a BS in Mathematics and Natural Science from University of Puget Sound and an MS in Geology from University of Washington.

Robin Smith

Streetfilms Associate

Robin shoots, edits, and manages the operations of Streetfilms, the video site that spreads transportation best practices worldwide. Her short films include Daylighting: Make Your Crosswalks Safer, and Stop the Pollution, Pick A Solution.

Robin was born and raised in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in a tiny village, where she experienced the power a small group of dedicated citizens can have. Bearing witness to some of the most negligent regional land use and transportation decisions this side of the Mississippi, Robin was inspired to pursue a degree in Environmental Studies at the University of Vermont, where she discovered video as a tool for motivating social and environmental change. You’ll find her making music, chasing maple seed pod helicopters, cooking, and riding her bicycle.

Luke Tucker

Senior Software Engineer

Luke is a salty Rhode Island expat, a long time advocate of open source, and a believer in the ability of technology to facilitate positive change. Previously, he worked for Tazz Networks, Context Media and contracted with a variety of businesses around Providence.

When he’s not tinkering with gadgets and code, he can be found running sailboats aground or wrestling quahogs into submission. Luke graduated from Brown University.

David Turner

Software Engineer

David builds web-based tools for transit, including OpenTripPlanner, and he is a long time advocate for free software and open data.

David can cook anything. In his previous life, he enforced the GPL at the Free Software Foundation. Now he can be found programming at the back of the office where the ninjas can’t get him.novalis.png

Maura Walz

GothamSchools Staff Reporter

Before joining GothamSchools in the summer of 2009, Maura reported on charter schools around the United States for the Carnegie-Knight Foundation journalism initiative News21.

She came to journalism and the education beat after working as an editor of scholarly research databases outside of Washington, D.C.

Maura holds degrees from the University of Chicago and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

Kim Wiley-Schwartz

Streets Education Director

Kim is an educator, teaching artist and afterschool advocate who has worked with at-risk youth for the past 20 years. Her work on Livable Streets education brings progressive urban design and livability ideas to NYC students.

Kim first combined the Arts and education with advocacy while living in Indonesia after the 1999 overthrow of Suharto. Connecting youth through music and drama emboldened expatriate students to work for better education for Indonesian children.

A music-theatre specialist and professional development expert, Kim has worked with The Metropolitan Opera Guild, TADA! Youth Theater, Project Ikat, Partnership for After School Education (PASE) and the 92nd Street Y. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband Andy and her two bike-savvy children, Isaac and Nora.kimws.jpeg

Ivan Willig

GIS Developer

Before joining OpenGeo, Ivan worked extensively with GIS and GPS technologies; in particular ArcMap and other ESRI products, but also open source alternatives like Grass GIS and QGIS. He had also worked with Mapserver, Openlayers and PostGIS.

At OpenGeo Ivan is the ‘demo czar’, ensuring that our demos meet the highest standards. He also leads work on a set of high quality map tiles derived from OpenStreetMap data served by the OpenGeo Suite, showcased at maps.opengeo.org. He specializes in applying OpenGeo technology to meet client needs. After putting together prototypes and styling data to show what is possible with the OpenGeo Suite, Ivan works with clients to turn their ideas into reality.

Ivan graduated from College of the Atlantic in Bal Harbour, Maine.

Paul Winkler

Software Engineer

Paul Winkler is a largely self-taught programmer who has been a member of various open-source software communities for over a decade. At OpenPlans, he has developed collaboration tools for community organizing and participatory transportation planning. When not mucking around with Python and Linux, he plays bass and guitar. Paul lives in Brooklyn with his wife Abby and baby daughter Riley; among other things, the three of them share an irrational and exuberant love for The Who.

Paul is a graduate of Bard College, with a degree in Rather Unpopular Music.

David Winslow

Technical Lead

David has been working with open-source software for more than 6 years, as user and developer, and is currently a core committer on the GeoServer, GeoTools, and GeoExt projects, as well as contributing to OpenLayers and PostGIS.

As a team member with OpenGeo, David implements features and fixes bugs on several pieces of the OpenGeo stack, encouraging collaboration and synergy within the stack. He also leads training sessions on the stack and speaks at conferences.

David is a graduate of Duke University who likes solving problems (not puzzles), sharing knowledge, and caffeine. Occasionally he leaves his terminal window to investigate foreign languages and other perplexing fuzzy things. He blogs at dwins.wordpress.com. dwins

Sam Wong

OpenMuni Intern

Sam is working on OpenMuni’s database/wiki of best practices in open government. He hopes that cities and nations can use OpenMuni as a guiding tool to greater government transparency and collaboration with the netizen.

Sam served as a legislative aide on technology for Council Member Gale A. Brewer. He is a 2009 graduate from Fordham University with concentrations in economics and mathematics. He is currently finishing Masters in economics at Fordham Graduate School, with primary interests in dynamic systems, urban planning and technology policy. Previously, Sam was a Mayoral Service Fellow working on community involvement and civic engagement in the Bronx, Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Sam is a crackberry traitor, having recently joined the Android-open source world. He’s into the philosophy of Middle Earth and Harry Potter. And baseball. Big time.

Alyssa Wright

Outreach Engineer

Alyssa has a wealth of experience in information architecture, editing, graphic and interaction design, and project management. Past projects include Hero Reports, Cherry Blossoms, and Selectricity. In 2009, she joined OpenGeo as an Outreach Engineer, where she applies her skills to open geospatial solutions for our clients.

Alyssa holds degrees from MIT’s Media Lab, NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program and Wellesley College.

Zozo

Big Purple Friend

Zozos thrive in livable streets—places with bike lanes, great mass transit, and lots of people on foot. At one time, New York was filled with Zozos, but their numbers have dwindled since the early 1900’s, when the streets were still filled with people rather than cars.

New York has recently been making strides toward more livable streets, and we’ve had reports of a few Zozo sightings. Zozo made his first public appearance with Streets Education at Celebrate Brooklyn’s family day in 2009. He is thrilled to be out and about, joining in the celebration of better public spaces in New York! zozo

Colin Zwiebel

Transit Software Intern

Colin is a rising Junior at the crazy little experiment we call Olin College. After a stint in the electrical engineering world, Colin has settled into computer engineering. He gazes longingly at interaction design. Colin would like to see a more sustainable world, better mass-transit, personalized learning, easy access to information, and design that takes into account human psychology. He hopes computers, open-source, and the internet will help reach these aims so he can contribute.

Coming from Salt Lake City, Colin learned how to ski on the best snow on earth. In the past years, he has switched from downhill skiing to cross country (skate style). Colin likes his fiction dark, his music electronic, indie, and weird, and his art surrealist and striking. He hopes to attend Burning Man sometime in the next decade.

This summer Colin will be working on OpenPlans Transit. A little web-design for OpenTripPlanner, a little interaction design, a little who knows. Exciting!