Elaine is the National Map Liaison for North Dakota, South Dakota, and Montana. Elaine also directs the development of the U.S. contribution to the Integrated Map of North America, which is overseen by PAIGH/IPGH, and participates in the FGDC Transportation Subcommittee.
Applied Research
Formerly, Elaine was an applied researcher in the National Geospatial Technical Operations Center, focusing on multi-scale mapping and topographic data enrichment.
Education and Certifications
Ph.D., Geography, The Pennsylvania State University
Advisor: Dr. Cynthia Brewer
Dissertation: "Where cartography meets typography: choosing typefaces and semantic effects for maps using microaesthet
M.S., Geography, The Pennsylvania State University
Advisor: Dr. Alex Klippel
Thesis papers: "Spatial cognition in animated events" and "Visual perception of dynamic map symbols"
B.A., French Literature, Cornell University
Abstracts and Presentations
Presentation at American Association of Geographers (AAG) Annual Meeting,"The Integrated Map of North America: Creating, generalizing, and harmonizing data across borders," 9 April 2020, online.
Presentation at North American Cartographic Information Society (NACIS) Annual Meeting, "95% automated multi-scale cartography," 18 October 2018, Tacoma, WA.
Coordinator for Practical Cartography Day workshop, NACIS Annual Meeting, 16 October 2019, Tacoma, WA.Coordinator for Practical Cartography Day workshop, NACIS Annual Meeting, 16 October 2019, Tacoma, WA.Coordinator for Practical Cartography Day workshop, NACIS Annual Meeting, 16 October 2019, Tacoma, WA.Coordinator for Practical Cartography Day workshop, NACIS Annual Meeting, 16 October 2019, Tac
Invited map submission for Map Quilt (a seamless map of the conference city made by individual contributors for different sections), NACIS Annual Meeting, 16 October 2019, Tacoma, WA.
Presentation at GIS in the Rockies, "How the sausage is made: a peek into specialized cartography," 18 September 2019, Denver, CO.
Submission to International Cartographic Conference Map Gallery with Sara Boyer, "Congressional District Maps," 15 July 2019, Tokyo, Japan.
Submission to International Cartographic Conference Map Gallery, "Lake Tahoe," "Tri-Cities, Washington," and "Columbia River Basin," 15 July 2019, Tokyo, Japan.
Submission to Esri UC Map Gallery with Sara Boyer, "Congressional District Maps," 8 July 2019, San Diego, CA.
Invited keynote speech for GIS Day at Indiana University, "Mistakes I've made: getting it right when it seemingly went all wrong," 29 November 2018, Bloomington, IN.
Presentation at NACIS Annual Meeting, "Cities, towns, villages, boroughs: populated places through scale," 19 October 2018, Norfolk, VA.
Submssion to NACIS Annual Meeting Map Gallery, "Lake Tahoe," 17 October 2018, Norfolk, VA.
Coordinator for Practical Cartography Day workshop, NACIS Annual Meeting, 17 October 2018, Norfolk, VA.
Invited map submission for Map Quilt (a seamless map of the conference city made by individual contributors for different sections), NACIS Annual Meeting, 17 October 2018, Norfolk, VA.
Presentation with Jeremiah Greif at GIS in the Rockies, "What a relief: Designing multi-scale terrain representation for The National Map," 19 September 2018, Denver, CO.
Article for the University Consortium for Geographic Information Science (UCGIS) Body of Knowledge, "Typography," 1 May 2017.