Avencia welcomes several new additions to our team. We continue to experience unprecedented growth and, in recent months, have opened several positions and met with many exciting candidates. Since September we welcomed five new staff members.
Carissa Brittain joins Avencia as a software developer on our Sajara team. Carissa has over 9 years experience in software design, development and maintenance. Most recently she was employed by the United States Air Force with the 2nd Weather Group, HQ Air Force Weather Agency, where she supervised a weather report customization/GIS team and developed GIS applications. Carissa enjoys computer and tabletop games, great restaurants, hiking and backpacking, and is an avid reader. She has recently moved to Philadelphia from Omaha, Nebraska with her husband, Delany, and Great Dane, Bella.
Aaron Ogle joins Avencia as a software developer with over five years of industry experience and will be working with our Land Records team. He most recently comes from Seattle, WA and the Varolii Corporation where he was responsible for developing client-specific communications software and integrating it with corporate enterprise systems. Avencia was able to lure him away from the Great Northwest with the opportunity to join his passion for urban sustainability with his skills as a software developer (and to allow his baby boy to be closer to his grandparents). Besides being a tech geek, Aaron is a distance runner, a transit advocate, an amateur theologian, an environmentalist, a liberal, a conservative, a backpacker, a coffee aficionado, a writer, a reader, a husband, and a dad.
Josh Marcus has ten years of experience applying his software engineering, system architecture, and management experience to building sophisticated, scalable web-based applications. He has also focused on solving social and organizational problems for governmental organizations and non-profits using innovative technology solutions. Prior to joining Avencia, Josh served as Chief Technology Officer for Solutions for Progress, a public policy technology company. In that role, he led the development of The Benefit Bank for several state governments, a web-based application that helps low income households gain access to tax credits and public benefit programs.
Deborah Sting, project assistant, will be supporting the Sajara® and PhillyHistory teams. Prior to joining Avencia, she worked with the Winnetka Historical Society, where she assisted with exhibit development and implementation, catalogued and processed artifacts, and coordinated the first phase of a historic photograph preservation project. She also held a position in the Education Department at John G. Shedd Aquarium, where she developed educational programming for diverse audiences and interacted with guests through presentations and activities.
Dana Bauer joins us as an intern and will be spending most of her time working with the Cicero team. She is pursuing a master's degree in geography and urban studies at Temple University, where her research interests are in the areas of GIS, spatial statistics, and the urban environment. Ask her about her thesis on Philadelphia green spaces; it's almost all she thinks about these days. In her previous life, Dana worked as a science writer and PR flack at a major research university in central Pennsylvania (Go State!). Dana likes reading, running, hiking, politics, urban sleuthing, digital photography and her husband's gourmet cooking. She truly believes that GIS can make the world a better place.
Welcome to all!
