Please join us in Honoring
2023 Lifetime Achievement Award recipient
Kevin Schultz
Kevin has more than 37 years of experience in the geospatial information technologies industry and more than 20 years of experience in conducting business analysis and developing software requirements. He is a founding member of the Mississippi Association for Spatial Technologies (MAST), a Certified GIS Professional (GISP), an Entellitrak Certified Administrator (ECA), and a Certified Scrum Master (CSM).
Kevin earned a BS degree and an MS degree in Forestry, with a specialization in Outdoor Recreation Resource Management and a Minor in Plant and Soil Science, from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale in 1982 and 1989, respectively. After finishing his graduate studies, he started his career in December 1985 working at the U.S. Army Engineer (USAE) Waterways Experiment Station (WES) in Vicksburg, MS and worked there for more than 3 years. With his mentor, Dr. Bruce E. Davis, Kevin co-developed methodologies for use in allocating resources and minimizing conflicts (e.g., cultural, natural resource, forestry, wildlife habitat, and military use) for Fort Benning, GA. As part of this work, he co-authored a paper titled “Conflict Resolution for Natural Resource Management”, which he presented at the GIS/LIS ’88 Proceedings: Third Annual International Conference, Exhibits, and Workshops in San Antonio, TX.
In January 1989, Kevin joined Dr. Davis at Jackson State University (JSU) where they established the Center for Spatial Data Research and Applications (CSDRA), conducted research, developed GIS and Remote Sensing databases and applications, and taught GIS and Remote Sensing classes. He and Bruce co-authored the “Geographical Information Systems: A Primer” as a Final Contract Technical Report for the USAE WES Information Technology Laboratory, which included a comprehensive bibliography. In July 1990, Kevin began working for the JSU Biology Department, where he continued teaching science classes and helped establish an interdisciplinary Earth System Science (ESS) academic curriculum, a community outreach program for minority students, and an Earth Observing System (EOS) research program. He conducted GIS and Remote Sensing workshops and hands-on training sessions for participating ESS faculty and students.
For the next 12.5 years, Kevin worked as the GIS Manager for the City of Jackson, MS, Waggoner Engineering, Inc., Sverdrup Technology, Inc., the Mobile Area Water and Sewer System (MAWSS), the City of Gulfport, MS, and the MS Department of Marine Resources (DMR).
For the City of Jackson, he managed all municipal GIS-related activities, digitized Hinds County tax/parcel maps, established RFP requirements and evaluation criteria for a citywide digital orthophotography and digital planimetric mapping project, and gave William “Sonny” Beech his first full-time job before he joined Geographic Information Services, Inc. (GISinc (now Axim Geospatial)) and ESRI.
For Sverdrup, Kevin worked on several projects, including developing an Environmental Site Management System (ESMS) for Environmental Management Services, Inc. to better visualize and manage their hydrological and geological datasets, boring logs, soil lithology/geology, water flow measurements (well and groundwater treatment system), laboratory chemical analysis, contaminant plumes, and remediation activity results.
For MAWSS, he developed long-range GIS program goals, objectives, and resource allocations and supervised, coordinated, and managed all GIS activities for scanning engineering drawings and using digital orthophotography to update GIS planimetric base map data layers and utility features.
For the City of Gulfport, he managed all municipal GIS-related activities; established RFP requirements and evaluation criteria for the citywide digital orthophotography acquisition, chaired the City’s GIS Policy Committee, served as the 2001 & 2002 ESRI SCAUG MS State Representative, used digital orthophotography to update planimetric feature data layers and critical infrastructure data layers, supervised the 2003 City of Gulfport Redistricting Plan, and helped organize, host, and conduct “GIS Day 2001 at Gulfport High School”. Kevin also gave David “The Kracken” Hansen his first internship to help the city with its street address updating tool.
For DMR, Kevin supported the Comprehensive Resource Management Plan (CRMP) Bureau, participated in regular coordination meetings with the MS Coast GIS Consortium (6 coastal counties and 15 cities), and provided geospatial data layers, ArcView, PCs, and technical support to the MS Coast GIS Consortium. He planned and coordinated GIS training program with PRCC, MGCCC, USM GCRL GCGC, and USM Center for Higher Learning. He served as the 2003 & 2004 ESRI South Central Arc User Group (SCAUG) MS State Representative and organized, hosted, and conducted “GIS Day 2002 at DMR” and “GIS Day 2003 at USM Gulf Park – Long Beach”. Kevin developed aerial photography/digital imagery, scanning, and georeferencing requirements for a seagrass mapping project and designed, conducted, and supervised GPS ground control point and seagrass habitat point field data collection on / around the MS Barrier Islands for georeferencing aerial imagery. In 2003, he co-authored the paper titled “Coastal Mississippi Land Development Suitability Model” in the “Twenty-Third Annual ESRI International User Conference Proceedings” and presented it at the conference. At the CRMP Coastal Development Strategies Conference in 2004, he and Jeffrey Taylor presented the “Harrison County Smart/Sustainable Growth Plan”. Kevin also provided input for 2 of the state’s Geospatial Framework layers – Orthoimagery and Cadastral.
For the next 5.5 years, Kevin served as the Proposal Manager for 3001 International, Inc. and NVision Solutions, Inc. He worked for 3001 for 5 years and achieved a 60%-win rate for proposals greater than $1M and a 50%-win rate for proposals less than $1M. While he was with NVision, he authored an article in 2009 titled “NVision Adapts HazNet Emergency Management System for NASA Projects” in the NASA Technology Innovation publication and gave a presentation titled “Post-Katrina Emergency Response Data Sharing” at the 2009 American Association of Geographers (AAG) Annual Meeting / Conference, Las Vegas, NV.
After leaving NVision, Kevin did some consultancy work for GISinc before he joined General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT) in November 2010. For 11 years, he supported the US Department of the Interior (DOI) Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) & Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) in the petroleum industry. He served as the Principal Business Analyst for overall IT and GIS requirements and application development for 9 years. For the last 2 years, he served as the Program Manager on the BSEE Geotechnical Data Management Services contract. In January 2021, he began supporting the USDOI Fish and Wildlife Services (FWS) enterprise ECOSphere application based on the Entellitrak Case Management solution and specifically supported the Fish and Aquatic Conservation (FAC) Program’s Fisheries Information System (FIS).
