Graduated from Brock University in 1991 with an Honors Degree in Geography, I also took several Environmental Studies courses to complement the Geography dominated degree.

While I can’t technically classify myself as a Geography Professional, I do seem to spend a lot of my time urging public sector clients and prospective clients to take more advantage of Geospatial Technologies in their everyday work.

To those Geo-professionals out there who have not yet found their area of specialty, I would say to you it may be in the last place you expect. After completing my post-graduate certificate in GIS, I was granted with a few opportunities as a recent graduate, and one of those happened to be with the Niagara Region as a Waste Management Intern.

The Ontario Oil, Gas & Salt Resources (OGSR) Library is a not-for-profit organization that provides prospectors, drillers, consultants, the general public, and numerous other interested parties with information related to Ontario’s petroleum industry.

Hello, my name is Ashley, and I am currently on contract with the Niagara Region (sadly, only for a few more weeks) as a Waste Management Intern. Waste management refers to the prevention, monitoring, handling and treatment of various types of municipal waste. The Niagara Region provides weekly curbside collection to low density residential, multi-residential and industrial, commercial and institutional sectors to increase the diversion rate of Blue/Grey Box and Green Bin materials to extend the use of existing landfills and reduce their effect on the environment.

With a love for nature, geography and the world around us, I graduated from Brock University with a Bachelor of Arts in Geography and a Bachelor of Education with a Basic Qualification in Junior/Intermediate divisions with a teachable in Geography. This past fall, I returned to academia and earned a Graduate Certificate in Geographic Information Systems/Geospatial Management from Niagara College, and shortly after acquired a temporary internship with the City of Welland.

Spatial Research on the ethics of state-managed conservation and the rights of vulnerable groups.

To tell the story about how I became a geographer and what I do every day today, I feel the need to first explain how I first came to the subject, and what geography means to me. I actually came to geography by chance. Following high school, I was trained as a chemist for a couple of years. At the age of 20 when came the time for me to specialize further, I wanted two things: I wanted to work in biochemistry and I wanted to do research. However, at the time I thought that my grades were not high enough to follow this career path, and so instead I decided a complete change of field entering a geographic science school. I thought that maps were cool, so why not learn how to make them?

One of my favorite projects to work on for Chartwell Consultants is Forage Fish Mapping. For this project we provide GPS post-processing, data management and mapping support to a biologist who searches for beaches in British Columbia which are suitable spawning habitat for forage fish.

MMM Group Limited (www.mmmgrouplimited.com) is an Canadian employee owned engineering consulting firm servicing our clients in the Transportation, order Environmental, Civil, Geomatics, Water Recourses, Landscape Architecture, Planning, Airports, Renewable Energy, and IT information systems sectors.