Fireside Chat with Nadine Alameh, CEO of the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC)
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Fireside Chat with Nadine Alameh, CEO of the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC)

Recorded on Wednesday, September 21, 2022 1:00pm-2:00pm EST   Virtual, ON24

The world is a map, and mapping tells a story about the world around us. The development and use of geospatial information is critical to building that map and building out those stories. We are pleased to have OGC’s CEO Nadine Alameh join us to discuss how OGC is improving the world of geospatial for their members. OGC was created 29 years ago to ensure there are standards for geospatial data and technologies that improve collaboration and data sharing. OGC hosts the largest formal geospatial community of experts, and the only forum where industry, government and academia. The dynamics have shifted so much in the last few years alone where geospatial is not in a bubble anymore, and location is everywhere. OGC also started a dialog on ethics and responsible use of geospatial information. OGC has been dealing with big data, historical data, forecasting, modeling & simulation, integration of multidisciplinary data, you name it!

Our moderators will be Heather Frazier and Steve Ambrose. Heather leads the new SAIC Geospatial Accelerator, a new center of excellence bringing new technologies to SAIC customers Steve leads SAIC’s Climate Enterprise, bringing climate science to SAIC for a better understanding of the challenges of Climate Change for our customers and the Nation. Topics will include climate change, disaster management, new technologies, digital twins, infrastructure and the metaverse. Join us for an insightful conversation about the geospatial world and what the future holds.

  • Dr. Nadine Alameh
    Dr. Nadine Alameh -
    CEO, Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC)

    Dr. Nadine Alameh is the CEO of the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) – a collective problem-solving body convening the global community of geospatial experts and users that use open consensus-based standards, collaborative innovation projects, and industry partnerships to make Location information Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR). Dr. Alameh is a passionate leader with a mission of accelerating the impact of organizations using or producing geospatial/location information, with a proven track record in a multiple of domains including Aviation, Earth Observation, Public Safety, and Defense. Nadine sits on the board of the Private Sector Network (PSN) of the United Nations Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM); and on the board of the US National Geospatial Advisory Committee, a federal Advisory Committee sponsored by the US Department of Interior. Prior to OGC, she held various roles in industry from the Chief Architect for Innovation in Northrop Grumman’s Civil Solutions Unit; to CEO of an Aviation data exchange startup; to senior technical advisor to NASA’s Applied Science Program. Nadine graduated from MIT with a Ph.D. in Information Systems Engineering, and 2 Masters Degrees in Civil Engineering and Urban Planning with a concentration in Geospatial Information Systems. She holds a BS degree in Computer Engineering from the American University of Beirut.

  • Steve Ambrose
    Steve Ambrose -
    Chief Climate Scientist, SAIC

    Stephen D. Ambrose has been a meteorologist, physical scientist, and program manager in his long federal and private sector career. He has directed teams and groups in the development of science and technology research and reapplications in Earth Science. He now serves as Chief Climate Scientist at SAIC. His research and application interests include: natural disaster reduction; climate data and information, and implications of a changing climate on people, ecosystems, and the planet. From 1978 to 2014 he worked for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Department of Interior Fish and Wildlife Service and antecedent agencies. After years of work related to meteorology, climatology, and oceanography at the National Ocean Service, National Weather Service, and the National Environmental Satellite Data and Information Service, he joined the Department of Interior Fish and Wildlife Service as Director of the National Wetlands Inventory Center, from there he joined NASA as Program Executive for Disasters in the Science Mission Directorate encouraging applications of NASA’s cadre of satellite and airborne missions towards decision support systems for government and private industry. In 2008 he was awarded NASA’s Exceptional Achievement Medal for efforts responding to the nation’s weather and wildfire disasters. He retired from civil service in 2014 as NOAA’s Data Operations Manager in the development of their geostationary satellite ground system supporting satellite ingest and product generation. From 2014 to now, he worked in private industry as Program Manager and Director supporting NOAA, NASA, and the EPA missions in operations, research and development. This included working at NASA’s Center for Climate Simulation developing services to access downscaled climate information and working to utilize NASA’s supercomputer cloud services to support Arctic climate research. At NOAA’s Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, he led a program of over 50 specialists, analysts and scientists supporting the Climate Program Office, Sea Grant, the Weather Program Office, and the Uncrewed Systems Research office. In 2018, joining Woolpert, a geospatial and architecture firm, as Program Director for Government Solutions, he supported the firm’s work with critical infrastructure, natural disasters, GIS, and information systems. Lastly, joining General Dynamics Information Technology in late 2019, he led a group of scientists and engineers at the EPA supporting research and development in geographic information, environmental protection, chemical analysis, and disaster resilience. Now at SAIC he leads the growth of a climate program office supporting federal, industry, state, and local customers as well as utilizing SAIC’s deep experience in science and technology for solutions to benefit society. He received a B.S. in General Physical Sciences that included meteorology, geology, and astronomy from the University of Maryland in 1977, and did graduate studies in geography and climatology at the University of Maryland, Geography Department from 1981 to 1985.

  • Heather Frazier
    Heather Frazier -
    Sr Dir BD, DOS, SAIC

  • 1:00pm - 1:05pm EST

    Welcome & Opening Remarks

  • 1:05pm - 1:55pm EST

    Fireside Chat: Nadine Alameh, Steve Ambrose (moderator) and Heather Frazier (moderator)

  • 1:55pm - 2:00pm EST

    Closing Comments

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