The Department of Geography is pleased to announce the recipients of the first annual Joseph Dymond Award. The Joseph Dymond Award was established in 2019 through the generous contributions of family, friends, and colleagues in memory of Professor Dymond who passed away that year. This is the first year that the Department is able to award the scholarship.
Geography Professor Joseph Dymond believed in the power of geography and mapping to do practical things, and to make people’s lives better. He enthusiastically supported the department’s cutting-edge efforts to teach GW students new geospatial technologies in open source mapping and, particularly, OpenStreetMap (OSM). He attended workshops in the US and around the world through his engagement with YouthMappers. He took special pride in the establishment of the student-run Humanitarian Mapping Society at GW (HMSGW). This group is part of the MissingMaps network, founded by American Red Cross, British Red Cross, Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team and Doctors without Borders. The Humanitarian Mapping Society is also a founding chapter of YouthMappers, an international network of student-run chapters in 250 universities around the world.
The 2021 scholarship honors his advocacy for student service on behalf of others, his support for mapping that empowers vulnerable communities, promotes development and enables international and local organizations to improve their response to crises.
The 2021 recipients are Natalie O’Dell, President of HMS GW and Amy MacKinnon, Vice President of HMS GW.
About the Recipients
Natalie O’Dell is President of HMS GW. She was inspired to become involved with YouthMappers in the Intro to GIS class her sophomore year. Afterward, Natalie became involved in the school’s YouthMappers chapter, the Humanitarian Mapping Society at GW (HMSGW) serving as the chapter’s Outreach Coordinator during her Junior year and the chapter’s President this year. She believes that OSM and other open-source GIS software is valuable because it is easy to use and accessible (free), which opens doors to using GIS around the world. She says “my experience with HMS and YouthMappers Validation Hub has really taught me more about open source GIS technology, specifically OSM, and how it can be used in real-world scenarios to assist with humanitarian aid and response. It has also helped to show me how OSM can be used in all sorts of different fields and areas of interest. I am personally interested in the intersection between urban planning and public health and how GIS can be applied to these two fields so I hope to apply my experience with OSM and everything I’ve learned during my time with the Hub and HMS to these two areas as I continue with my academic and professional career.” Natalie loves making coffee and enjoys finding new music, she also has her own show as a part of the school’s radio station, WRGW. She also previously was a GIS Intern at Central Park and loves exploring different parks in cities around the world.
Amy MacKinnon is Vice President of HMS GW. She first learned about OpenStreetMap at a mapathon in 2018. She found it rewarding that the data and mapping she created is being used by local communities thousands of miles away. She said “it was originally just a fun time to hang out with other students, but I realized that there was an entire community surrounding OSM and I became more interested in YouthMappers and opportunities with other organizations that work with HMS.” Through HMS, Amy has become interested in international development issues and understands the importance of working with open source data to solve important policy issues and provide humanitarian assistance. She has worked on various projects, with topics from analyzing urban design to mapping global internet prices. In the future, Amy plans to work in international development and urban geography, possibly in disaster response or food security. Her work with HMS GW has taught her about the importance of open-source data and she plans to use different aspects of OSM in her future research or jobs. Amy is originally from Pennsylvania, and is a senior pursuing a BS in International affairs and Geography, with minors in Geographic Information Systems and German.