Board of Directors
Jerry Johnston
Board Chair Location Intelligence Practice Deloitte
Anne Hale Miglarese
Board Treasurer Program Executive Officer, Saildrone & Founder, Radiant Earth Foundation
Hamed Alemohammad
Advisor Radiant Earth Foundation
Claudia Juech
Board Secretary Vice President of Data and Society Patrick J. McGovern Foundation
Sives Govender
Research Group Leader, Spatial Information Systems CSIR South Africa
Jed Sundwall
Executive Director Radiant Earth Foundation
Our team
About Jed Sundwall
Executive Director
Jed Sundwall is passionate about using the Internet and shared data to improve the quality of governance throughout the world. Jed has over 15 years of experience working at the intersection of data, product development, cloud computing, economics, and policy. Before joining Radiant Earth, he created various data sharing and sustainability initiatives at Amazon, including the Amazon Web Services Open Data Program, which makes over 100 petabytes of data available for analysis in the cloud. He has helped create patterns of efficient data sharing that have been adopted by USGS, NASA, Geosciences Australia, Esri, and the Brazilian Space Agency. He serves on the Board of Directors of NatureServe and has a master’s degree in foreign policy from the University of California in San Diego.
About Louisa Nakanuku-Diggs
Marketing & Communications Manager
Louisa Nakanuku-Diggs is enthusiastic about storytelling and visualization and their possibilities to transform complex topics into simple, yet engaging and effective narratives. Louisa has helped governments, development organizations and NGOs focusing on environmental issues in Africa with approaches to convert data to information, and information to knowledge and attitudinal changes. Before joining Radiant Earth Foundation, she served as an international communication consultant, working with conservation organizations to develop behavior change strategies, incorporating digital communications channels, and generating science information products for laypersons.
About Kevin Booth
Engineering Manager
Kevin Booth is passionate about using technology to leave a positive impact on the world. Kevin is the lead maintainer of the STAC QGIS plugin and is an active contributor to various open-source projects. Before joining Radiant Earth Foundation, Kevin taught students GIS and Geoprogramming, wrote software for NASA's Orion Spacecraft program, and developed Android applications for Fortune 100 companies. Kevin received his B.S. in Geographic Information Science from Texas State University in 2018 and is working on his M.S. in Geography.
About Magdalena Benza
Lead Geospatial Data Scientist
Magdalena Benza is passionate about using remote sensing and geospatial analysis to understand how human-environment interactions transform the Earth's surface. Having worked with Geospatial Data for over a decade, she has focused on different approaches combining raster and vector data for geospatial modeling applications in demographics and digital agriculture. Prior to joining Radiant Earth Foundation, Magdalena was a Geospatial Scientist at The Climate Corporation, a postdoctoral research scientist at San Diego State University, and a research assistant at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). Magdalena holds a Ph.D. from the joint doctoral program in Geography at San Diego State University and The University of California Santa Barbara.
About Alex Rice
Full Stack Developer
Alex Rice is interested in all kinds of maps and geospatial data, especially for Environmental, Ecological, and Sustainability applications. Alex has been a developer and open source software enthusiast since 1995. Prior to joining Radiant Earth Foundation in 2021, he worked at Development Seed, Descartes Labs, and National Center for Genome Resources. Alex received his Postbaccalaureate Certificate in Geographic Information Systems and Science (GIS) from Pennsylvania State University in 2016, and his Bachelor’s in Linguistic Anthropology from the University of New Mexico in 1994.
About Daniel Nwaeze
Data Scientist
Daniel Nwaeze (currently on sabbatical) is passionate about helping organizations uncover and develop data patterns, allowing them to make better decisions.
He has previously worked with Humanity Data Systems, developing machine learning models responsible for capturing operational data to monitor aid delivery for the Yemen Relief and Reconstruction Fund (YRRF) to enhancing performance.
Daniel has also led a team of tutors at Efico Resources, where he advised and mentored West African students on state-of-the-art data science tools for analysis.
About Renee Pieschke
Technical Project Manager
Renee Pieschke likes to take a proactive approach toward problem-solving to mitigate risks. She is a passionate advocate for developers, enabling them to do their best work while making sure projects stay on track. Her background in geography and information science help her understand and organize the work around her. Before joining Radiant Earth Foundation, she spent five years working as a contractor in the geospatial industry for government and commercial partners through Development Seed, KBR, and Innovate! Inc.
About Kendall Lee Smith
Geospatial Data Engineer
Kendall Smith is passionate about the possible solutions to climate change and sustainable global development found at the intersection of state-of-the-art deep learning algorithms and Earth observation data. Prior to joining Radiant Earth Foundation in October 2021, he served as data engineer for six months at the George Kostas Research Institute developing scalable machine learning pipelines to serve inference for multimodal object detection. Kendall also worked in business intelligence for over ten years at several Fortune 100 companies and startups automating operational workflows and improving customer experience. Kendall received his B.A. in International Political Economy from the University of Washington and his M.S. in Computer Science (specializing in Artificial Intelligence) from Northeastern University.
About Gregory Essuman
Geospatial Data Engineer
Gregory Amponsah Essuman is a goal-oriented individual passionate about leveraging the power of geospatial technologies and Earth observation to drive organizational policy and business decisions. Gregory has helped companies fast-track their operations by providing geospatial and training services. With a Bachelor’s Degree in Geography and an MSc in Geo-information Science, Gregory applies spatial thinking in all his professional works. Before joining Radiant Earth Foundation, he worked as a Geospatial Backend Developer at Where Geospatial. Gregory has also worked as a Geospatial Consultant for several Ghana and the United States companies for over four years.
About Michelle Roby
Geospatial Software Engineer
Michelle Roby is a passionate individual with a drive to provide quality open Earth observation data and machine learning models to aid those working to address environmental and global development challenges. She is particularly enthusiastic about agricultural efficiency, soil health, and how these topics relate to each other and to combating climate change. Michelle received her B.A. in Environmental Studies and Spanish Language & Literature and a Geographical Information Systems & Computational Science Certificate from the University of Colorado Boulder in 2019. After her graduation, she volunteered in Morelos, Mexico, on a team that implemented ecological WASH projects in rural communities. Before joining Radiant Earth Foundation, Michelle worked at Ocean Imaging, mapping ocean and coastal habitats for partners such as The Nature Conservancy, the U.S. Navy, and The City of San Diego.
About Emmanuel Siaw-Darko
Machine Learning Intern
Emmanuel completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Ghana in Economics and Linguistics. His interest in EO was sparked as he got enthusiastic about the many uses of data science and machine learning. Emmanuel now strives to explore the many possibilities that EO data holds to solve both environmental issues within and out of his reach.
About Megan Cole
Science & Tech Communications Intern
Megan Cole is a Junior at Michigan Technological University, majoring in Scientific and Technical communications and minoring in Art. She is passionate about communicating information to try and help others gain access to information they may not have had access to before. Megan is an enthusiastic writer, photographer, and loves to create graphics to help communicate stories to the world.
Fellows
Chris Holmes
Technology Fellow Planet Labs
Matthias Mohr
Technology Fellow University of Münster | OpenEO