An Educational Continuum

Introducing USGIF’s new director of academic programs

VantagePoint-1

Good things do indeed come to those who wait. It took USGIF far too long to find the right person to fill our Director of Academic Programs position, but we couldn’t be happier with the outcome of that search. Dr. Camelia Kantor recently joined the team, on the heels of a successful tenure at Claflin University in South Carolina.

We first met Camelia via our ongoing outreach efforts with schools in the Historically Black College and University (HBCU) program. We quickly recognized that her passion as an educator combined with her commitment to the inherently multidisciplinary nature of geospatial intelligence studies would make her an ideal candidate for our academic director role. You can read more about Camelia here

Camelia joins us at a critically important time, as the Foundation’s continuum of education and professional development programs begins to mature. As you’ll see reflected in this issue, our K-12 educational efforts continue to blossom, we are making progress in the St. Louis area with our Workforce Development Pipeline Initiative, and our Certified GEOINT Professional designations recently achieved national third-party accreditation.

Every USGIF organizational and individual member should be justifiably proud of the progress we are making, none of which would be possible without your continued support.

USGIF CEO Keith Masback addresses the crowd at the GEOINT 2017 Symposium in June.

Of course, all this builds upon our ever-expanding collegiate accreditation and scholarship programs, to include our first endowed scholarship, unveiled at the GEOINT 2017 Symposium. Every USGIF organizational and individual member should be justifiably proud of the progress we are making, none of which would be possible without your continued support. Our 2016 annual report is now available, and tells a compelling story about the breadth and depth of USGIF programs.

In this issue of trajectory, we offer insight into two areas that emerged at GEOINT 2017 as decidedly hot topics: the growth of business opportunity around providing analysis-as-a-service; and acquisition reform at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. Our anecdotal experience in San Antonio and our formal survey results both indicated there is deep and sustained interest in these subjects across the GEOINT Community.

Finally, we’re proud to publish our annual USGIF Membership Directory. The capabilities represented in the directory—page after page—are indicative of the power of GEOINT and the dynamic nature of the ongoing GEOINT Revolution. The sheer number of companies that continue to support the work of the Foundation is humbling, and everyone on staff is mindful of the responsibility that accrues to us implicit in that support.

Please enjoy another great trajectory. I eagerly look forward to seeing you in the halls of USGIF, at one of our events, and around our extended GEOINT Community.

Posted in: Vantage Point   Tagged in: 2017 Issue 3, Education

Supporting Diversity

A message from USGIF CEO, Ronda Schrenk

Fueling Academic Excellence

A letter from USGIF's CEO, Ronda Schrenk

Looking Back, Looking Forward

Reflecting on the past six months' journey and previewing what's to come