Public Safety Heroes

Meet our GIS heroes

Esri is honored to feature GIS heroes who have made a positive impact in public safety using GIS technology. They are heroes because their innovative solutions have helped keep communities safe, secure, and resilient. They inspire others to do more and to commit to helping build a safer and more resilient future for all. To each of them, Esri says thank you.

Amanda Pick | Missing Children Society of Canada

Amanda Pick has been the CEO of the Missing Children Society of Canada (MCSC) since 2010. Joining MCSC, she quickly understood that outdated data collection and information sharing methods needed to be modernized. Together with Esri Canada, the organization created the Child Search Network and MCSC Rescu app. Rescu uses GIS-based tools to share real-time, location-specific missing child information with police and community stakeholders, increasing the odds of locating and bringing them home.

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Portrait photo of Amanda Pick smiling in a red sweater with a charcoal gray background

Kassem Chaalan | Lebanese Red Cross

Kassem Chaalan leads the disaster risk reduction program for the Lebanese Red Cross (LRC), an organization dedicated to providing aid to people in need. His work is focused on documenting needs and vulnerability for the people of Lebanon and pioneering the use of GIS to help build emergency preparedness in more than 200 schools across the country. His vision and use of GIS to facilitate nationwide resilience is improving lives and helping LRC achieve their mission to promote peace and alleviate human pain without discrimination based on nationality, political affiliation, or social class.

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Portrait photo of Kassem Chaalan smiling in a red vest and white shirt with a charcoal gray background

Susan Olson | City of Frisco

Susan Olson is the assistant director of technology for the City of Frisco, Texas, and is responsible for leading the development of SAFER (Situational Awareness for Emergency Response) in 2008, which gets school floor plans into the hands of first responders. Since then, SAFER is now a fully realized geospatial platform that provides public safety personnel with a common operating platform that integrates multiple data and sensor feeds and gives first responders real-time information for complete situational awareness.

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Portrait photo of Kassem Chaalan smiling in a red vest and white shirt with a charcoal gray background

Past GIS heroes

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