Staff Spotlight: Preston Evans
December 12, 2018Today we are sharing another staff spotlight in honor of GIS Week. Meet Preston Evans, GIS Analyst at Latapult (formerly geothinQ)! Preston has been on the team for four years and is a graduate of the University of Kentucky. Preston’s interested in all things spatial began very early in his life.
I was always intrigued with where things were in the world and how I was situated in those places. I think I had an interest in GIS before I even knew what it was.
Preston Evans
After noticing his peaked interested, he received a computer atlas for Christmas (before the days of Google Earth) that included road layers, aerial imagery, and topography. Preston recalls spending hours exploring the atlas and studying different parts of the globe. Preston’s aunt was his geography teacher in high school who also helped foster these interests as he got older.
It is very rewarding to use my spatial way of thinking, something I have done my entire life, to create a map, visualization, or web app to help someone else solve a problem or answer a question.
Preston Evans
After a stint as an engineering major, Preston’s aunt suggested giving GIS a try, “once I switched my major, I knew immediately that GIS was the career path for me,” he said. Before joining the geothinQ team, Preston completed internships with a property valuation administration and another with a college professor who was studying Twitter-based location data. Preston’s favorite part of working in GIS is the ability to visualize spatial analysis on a map and how it can be used to influence or make informed decisions. When asked what the most rewarding part of his career is, Preston goes back to his days as a kid with his computer atlas.