Brandon Krumwiede: Great Lakes Geospatial Coordinator

Geographers study the Earth and the distribution of its land, features, and inhabitants. They also examine political or cultural structures, and study the physical and human geographic characteristics of regions ranging in scale from local to global.

Brandon grew up on a farm, and joined the Army to broaden his horizons. He has continually sought ways to keep learning throughout his career. Brandon got his B.A. in Geography in 2006 and went on to study water resources in Mongolia as a graduate student, monitoring glacial change with satellites. Brandon has also worked as a Geographic Information Systems, or GIS, procurement officer, collecting GIS data for multiple corporate and government entities. He even worked for the World Bank, studying infrastructure investments, like building a dam, from a geological perspective. Brandon’s work for NOAA's Office for Coastal Management as a geospatial coordinator is varied which keeps it interesting, he says. One day he might give a presentation on his work and the next he’s analyzing satellite or LIDAR data. For Brandon, finding the connections between people, the land, and the water is what makes his work valuable.