Ian Von Essen
Ian Von Essen is a member of the Washington State Geographic Information Council and will serve as its incoming Chair in 2010. This will be his fifth one year term as Chair since 2000. Prior to coming to Washington State, Ian was the manager of the North Carolina DOT GIS Project (1988-89) and before that the co-manager of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's GIS and Remote Sensing Lab. He has an MA in Geography from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Ian's work experience includes over ten years of cultural resource surveying and mapping experience and twenty-four years of GIS management experience.
He participated in USGS's Best Practices Model Workgroup and at the request of the Mapping Science Committee of the National Research Council, he was invited as a contributing member to the National Academy of Sciences workshop to review the U.S. Geological Survey Concept of The National Map. In 2004 he received the John Wesley Powell Award which recognizes a representative of state or local governments for outstanding achievements that have made significant contributions to the advancement of the USGS mission.
Ian's current job is as the GIS Manager of Spokane County, a position he has held for the last twenty years. In 1992 he helped establish the Inland Northwest's first Public-Private Digital Ortho Data consortium. Spokane County's GIS Program has twice been given ESRI's Special Achievement in GIS award and cited as Outstanding GIS Program by the Washington Chapter URISA. In 2005 he helped establish the first GIS Center within Spokane's Regional Emergency Operation Center; and in 2006 he helped establish the Spokane's first multi-agency GIS-Based Economic Development Web Site. He has taught GIS at both Washington State University's Interdisciplinary Design Institute and Eastern Washington University's Urban and Regional Planning Department. Ian has been a member of the National States Geographic Information Council (NSGIC) since 2000 and nominated and approved as a member of the Board of Directors in 2010.
Ian lives in Spokane, Washington with his wife, two daughters and son. He enjoys golfing, biking and on winter weekends spends time on the slopes as member of Mount Spokane's Ski Patrol.
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