Azavea has welcomed a few new faces to our team over the past two months! 

Maya Gutierrez joins Azavea as a Product Manager for Elections and Politics. Maya has over four years of experience working with GIS and managing databases.  She recently completed her Master’s degree in Urban Spatial Analytics at the University of Pennsylvania.  She comes to Azavea from the Research and Evaluation Group at the Public Health Management Corporation, where she worked on program evaluations, needs assessments, and technical assistance projects.

As an undergraduate at Macalester College, Maya studied political science and sociology.  She has a particular interest in the role of civil society during democratic transitions and humanitarian crises.  Maya is excited to explore the intersection of mapping and politics at Azavea, where she works on the Cicero team.

In her free time, Maya enjoys cooking without measuring ingredients and playing Boggle without keeping score.  She would like to one day grow her own vegetables and herbs, but has so far only succeeded in growing basil.

Rick Mohr joins Azavea as a Software Developer on the Civic Applications team.  He brings a broad software background and longtime interest in mapping and urban sustainability to his work on the team.  Rick graduated from Yale University with a Ph.D in Computer Science and from Macalester College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Math and Physics.

In previous software lives he has built systems for genome mapping, personalized publishing, WYSIWYG page layout, and parallel computing.  His side project Vocola helps people control their computers by voice.

When not working, Rick enjoys hanging out with his wife and son, playing fiddle tunes, calling contra dances, walking in the Wissahickon, and working on his personal website http://rickmohr.net.

Rob Emanuele joins Azavea as a Software Developer on the GeoTrellis team. He graduated from Rutgers University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Mathematics. Before joining Azavea, he worked in the field of power transmission, providing visual displays and data analysis for the largest Regional Transmission Organization in the world, as well as the field of fatigue risk management, designing software to assess and manage behavioral alertness for customers such as NASA and the FAA. His technical interests include distributed computing, machine learning, and clean code.

He is a musician who has played in bands such as American Landscapes, and is currently the front man for the band We Are Fauna. When not swimming in code or making noise, you can probably find Rob motorcycling in the Catskills or enjoying all the fine amenities Philadelphia has to offer.

Azavea’s own Tamara Manik-Perlman has been selected as a 2013 Code For America fellow!

Code for America is an 11-month program, where fellows will receive a crash course in municipal government, and unparalleled networking, mentoring, and support throughout the year, while they work in teams to develop open-source applications for their assigned cities.  Tamara has been assigned in San Francisco.  She will be venturing out to California in early January to begin her fellowship.

Tamara says, “I’m extremely excited to be joining 28 other amazing 2013 CfA Fellows in January.  I’ve heard great things about the experience from former Azavean and 2011 Fellow Aaron Ogle, and I’ve encountered current CfA Fellows and staff at a number of conferences and events throughout the past year.  I’ve been consistently impressed by their optimism, dedication, smarts and sense of humor approaching the task of making municipal government work better for and with citizens. I think that the CfA Fellowship is in many ways an extension of the good work that Azavea does developing tools that enable civic engagement, government transparency and sustainable community development.”

Congratulations, Tamara, and best of luck!