Hi, I'm Chad. I'm a web developer with a geospatial focus. I’m drawn to technology's capacity to disrupt and create change, especially towards environmental and humanitarian innovation.
I currently work for Indigo Ag., an agriculture technology company whose goal is to help farmers sustainably feed the planet. At Indigo I build data visualizations and web application prototypes, typically with the goal of driving farmer profitability.
Away from the computer, I enjoy spending time outdoors (skiing, hiking, paddle boarding, surfing), exploring new places, and taking pictures.
I'm a native New Englander, raised near Burlington, VT and currently based in Cambridge, MA.
Background: I discovered "GIS" (i.e., mapping and data visualization writ large) my junior year at Bucknell University during an environmental justice class, specifically in the form of a study on asthma and air pollution in the Bronx. I was immediately impressed by its effectiveness as a communication medium and intrigued by its amalgamation of data and design. While Bucknell's GIS curriculum was just starting to take form at the time, I was able to stay on campus the summer after graduating in 2011 to learn it on the job as a GIS research assistant. This marked the beginning of my endeavor in the mapping and data space.
My career started to take form thereafter, landing an internship with an early-stage Mapbox in 2012. My time at Mapbox was formative, instilling in me the ethos of open data and open source technology, along with the value of code and command-line tools over desktop GUIs as a novel approach to conventional GIS tasks.
From there I secured contracts with John Snow, Inc. and GeoPoll to develop custom web maps and guide their initial web map development strategy. I then joined USAID's Office of Transition Initiatives as a Geographic Information Specialist, excited by the opportunity to apply my technical skills to an international development context. I joined the National Park Service thereafter, lured by an opening with a small and innovative team of technologists whose work in open data and web map development I had long admired, NPMap, where I helped guide the agency’s foray into modern data management practices and web mapping technologies. After hearing of their acquisition of Tellus Labs I discovered Indigo Ag., where I currently work at the intersection of web development, GIS, and agricultural and environmental innovation.
Email: cwlawlis802@gmail.com