Featured Speakers

Alicia Edwards is the principal director of the National Spatial Data Management Branch (NSDMB), Ministry of Economic Growth & Infrastructure Development, Jamaica. With over 20 years in geospatial data management, she drives GIS integration across Jamaica’s government.

Alicia has led national projects in sustainability, infrastructure, and forest resource management, and serves as Jamaica’s focal point for the United Nations Initiative on Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM). She represents Jamaica on regional and international geospatial platforms, advocating for the use of spatial data to advance development and resilience.

Ryan Lanclos is the director of national government and public safety solutions at Esri and leads the Disaster Response Program. An expert in GIS for emergency management, he is a former appointee to FEMA’s National Advisory Council. He serves on Japan’s International Advisory Board on Disaster Risk, and on the XPRIZE Wildfire Advisory Board.

He was Missouri’s first geographic information officer. He was a member of the governor’s Homeland Security Advisory Council, and was the director of state and local government for the National Alliance for Public Safety GIS (NAPSG) Foundation. He has an MS in cartography and GIS from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.