About me
Nyla is an enthusiastic GIS and cartography teacher and life long learner. She loves finding brand new ways to solve tangled messes of problems, learning endlessly from her peers, and teaching anyone that is interested. In her work at the Center for Health Disparities Research (CHDR) Nyla is partnering with her colleague, Cassie Sanford, to build the capability to geocode tens of thousands (dare I say hundreds of thousands??) of historic addresses. They want it to be accurate, account for spelling errors, and to be able to handle messy data (uffdah). If there was a trivia category covering cities in multiple counties across the US over time, they would be clutch on your team. Cassie and Nyla are hoping to expand their data set to even include historic roads - it is a big dream, but hey they're dreamers!
Nyla’s background in community building and disaster response informs her geospatial approach. She has worked in environmental restoration, flood hazard community mapping and education, public schools transportation, and public health. To Nyla, data is never just data – it is attached to lived experience. In her free time she likes to bike on all terrains, garden slowly, eat yummy food, and talk to old and new friends alike.