Spotlight

Meet Kate Doiron, Senior GIS Analyst

Where are you from and where do you live now?

I am from the small town of Gardiner, Maine, and after living in Massachusetts for a decade, I moved back to Maine to the small town of Rockland! Rockland is on the coast between Portland and Acadia and is the home of the Maine Lobster Festival.

What do you do at FLO?

I am a Senior GIS Analyst and I love learning how to do anything new including designing maps, wrangling complex data in Alteryx, creating visualizations in Tableau, and creating compelling Esri StoryMaps. I love applying new skills and ideas to our work.

What’s rewarding about your job?

I love being able to live in mid-coast Maine and have a very satisfying GIS career. The FLO team is the most rewarding, it’s a great group to work with every day!

Why is what you do important?

I see firsthand, both with clients and in my volunteer work, that what people mostly need is organization and clear paths forward. This might look like well-designed maps, client or public education, incorporating community feedback into a boundary review process in order to make informed and transparent decisions, keeping a design process moving along, or clearly showing how data is being used. At FLO we get to provide all of this to our clients.

What skills do you bring to your work?

Aside from GIS skills, I have a strong desire and ability to learn new tools and improve analyses for our clients. I used to lead dog adoption events in my free time, and I currently lead birdwatching tours, so I really enjoy working with the public. Working with FLO clients in cities, counties, and school districts at the local level is very fulfilling.

What’s the best advice you’ve received from a work colleague?

Overcommunicate! Especially in a virtual working environment, open communication helps project work stay on schedule and understand both the successes and frustrations of the project team.

If you were not a Senior GIS Analyst, what would you be?

I would love to work for the Maine Coastal Islands National Wildlife Refuge or one of the local land trusts doing something that gets me outside in nature. Or I would be an interior designer, I love updating my 150-year-old house and helping friends with their ideas!

What’s on your bucket list?

I just crossed something big off my bucket list: holding a baby Atlantic puffin! I would love to go birdwatching in more new places to add more birds to my list.