We are happy to welcome Michael Maurizi, Sarah Cordivano,
Amelia Longo and Chris Brown to the Azavea team!

Michael Maurizi is a Software Developer on the Civic Applications team. He graduated from Temple University in 2011, where he worked with Professor Longin Latecki on robotic computer vision. After graduating, Michael joined Vanguard as part of the Technology Leadership Program, and became a lead web developer on a new ETF trading website. Outside of work Michael spends most of his time reading, playing video games, learning about new technology, and doing DIY home improvement projects. On most Monday nights you can find Michael at the Philadelphia Juggling Club working on his club passing and trying not to hit himself with his own props.

Sarah Cordivano is the Project Manager for the Data Services team. She found her interest in enabling the power of civic data as a GIS Specialist with the City of Philadelphia supporting the Mayor’s Executive Order on Open Data.  With a background in spatial analysis and map production, she was eager to mobilize her GIS skills to contribute to the open data movement and insure that the most accurate and detailed data was released to the public. Sarah initially discovered her love of geography and maps at Temple University while pursuing her Bachelor’s degree.   After taking some time off to bake professionally, she decided to return to school for a Master’s in Urban Spatial Analytics at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Design.  Once she completed her master’s, she spent time working on consulting projects and digitizing and georeferencing excavation sites for the Gordion Archaeology site at the Penn Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology. In her spare time, Sarah attempts to refine her baking skills which includes perfecting the long-rise boule.  She also enjoys travelling and has visited 19 countries and 27 states with plans to explore more.  But she has been proud to call Philadelphia home for the past 9 years and would feel a little lost without hearing the native Philadelphian accent on a daily basis.

Amelia Longo is a Business Development Associate at Azavea. Amelia studied Economics and German at La Salle University, where she continues to serve on the University Art Museum’s Advisory Council. Before joining Azavea, Amelia worked in arts administration and fundraising with various local nonprofits, including FringeArts, the Mural Arts Program, Painted Bride Art Center, and the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts. You can still find her volunteer ushering around town most weekends. Outside of the office, she works with APIARY Magazine, an all-volunteer organization dedicated to cross-cultural understanding through the literary arts. Amelia also volunteers with Mighty Writers and Camp Sojourner. Amelia is a writer, and has picked up a few good tricks from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia Stories, the Greater Philadelphia Wordshop Studio, and the Rutgers Camden Summer Writing Conference. Her work has been performed as part of the First Person Arts Festival, and her dance writing has been published on Thinking Dance. She enjoys writing poems about whales and/or bicycles that appear to be metaphors, but are actually about whales and/or bicycles.

Chris Brown joins Azavea as a Software Developer on the Justice and Election Services team (JEST). He has extensive experience working with complex data as part of his research in the political science PhD program at the University of Pennsylvania.  Chris has extensive experience using advanced statistical techniques to model complex phenomena, machine learning, and natural language processing as part of his research. Prior to joining Azavea Chris was enrolled in the political science PhD program at the University of Pennsylvania. While a student at Penn, Chris worked on a diverse set of research projects. His dissertation uses natural language processing to examine the Congressional Record and measure political polarization based on the speeches that members of Congress give. Additionally, Chris has developed a knack for finding, analyzing, and visualizing data that has previously been hard to reach by political scientists. In his free time you can find Chris tinkering with Python or civic data at Philadelphia area meetups and hackathons. Lately he has been busy adding features to StateRep.Me – a website he helped create that enables Pennsylvanians to easily monitor the activity of their state legislators. When not in front of the computer screen you can usually find Chris in the kitchen trying to perfect his cheesecake recipe.