Samantha is a Geographer at the NGTOC in Denver. She is a certified planner (AICP) with two degrees and 10-years' experience in Urban Planning. Samantha currently works on the Hydro section of the National Geospatial Program.
Samantha is a Geographer at the NGTOC in Denver. She is a certified planner (AICP) with a bachelor's and a master's degree in Urban Planning, along with 10-years’ experience in the environmental engineering industry and 20-years' experience with ESRI products. Upon relocating to Colorado, Samantha returned to school to pursue a lifelong passion for natural resources. In 2019, Samantha received her Masters of Natural Resource Stewardship degree from Colorado State University, after which USGS hired her as a full time Geographer. Samantha first came to USGS as a TNMCorps volunteer, after which she received a student contract and then a pathways position. Since joining the USGS in 2017, Samantha has worked for the National Geospatial Program, first on the TNMCorps crowd-sourcing project and now under NGP's Hydro section.
Professional Experience
2019 - present | Geographer | USGS | Denver, CO
2017 - 2019 | Pathways Intern | USGS | Denver, CO
2016 - 2017 | Transportation GIS Specialist (Student Contractor) | USGS | Denver, CO
2016 | Map Editor (probono) | USGS | Denver, CO
2004 - 2015 | Environmental Planner / GIS Specialist | CDM Smith | Cincinnati, OH
Education and Certifications
Master of Natural Resource Stewardship, Colorado State University, 2019
Master of Community Planning, University of Cincinnati, 2004
Bachelor of Urban Planning, University of Cincinnati, 2002
Affiliations and Memberships*
2014 - Present | American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP)
2002 - Present | American Planning Association (APA)
Science and Products
Oases of the future? Evaluating springs as potential hydrologic refugia in drying climates
An analysis of the factors that control fault zone architecture and the importance of fault orientation relative to regional stress
The National Map Corps
The National Hydrography Dataset (NHD)
Science and Products
- Publications
Oases of the future? Evaluating springs as potential hydrologic refugia in drying climates
Springs in water-limited landscapes are biodiversity hotspots and keystone ecosystems, disproportionately influencing surrounding landscapes despite their often small areas. Some springs served as evolutionary refugia during previous climate drying, supporting relict species in isolated habitats. Understanding whether springs will provide hydrologic refugia from future climate change is importantAuthorsJennifer M. Cartwright, Kathleen A. Dwire, Zach Freed, Samantha J. Hammer, Blair McLaughlin, Louise W. Misztal, Edward J. Schenk, John R. Spencer, Abraham E. Springer, Lawrence E. StevensAn analysis of the factors that control fault zone architecture and the importance of fault orientation relative to regional stress
The moment magnitude 7.2 El Mayor−Cucapah (EMC) earthquake of 2010 in northern Baja California, Mexico produced a cascading rupture that propagated through a geometrically diverse network of intersecting faults. These faults have been exhumed from depths of 6−10 km since the late Miocene based on low-temperature thermochronology, synkinematic alteration, and deformational fabrics. Coseismic slip oAuthorsJohn Fletcher, Orlando Teran, Tom Rockwell, Michael E. Oskin, Kenneth W. Hudnut, Ronald Spelz, Pierre Lacan, Mathew Dorsey, Giles Ostermijer, Thomas M. Mitchell, Sinan Akciz, Ana Paula Hernandez-Flores, Alejandro Hinojosa-Corona, Ivan Peña-Villa, David K. Lynch - Science
The National Map Corps
Using crowd-sourcing techniques, the US Geological Survey’s Volunteered Geographic Information project known as “The National Map Corps (TNMCorps)” encourages citizen volunteers to collect and edit data about man-made structures in an effort to provide accurate and authoritative spatial map data for the USGS National Geospatial Program’s web-based The National Map and US Topo Maps.The National Hydrography Dataset (NHD)
The National Hydrography Dataset (NHD) represents surface waters of the United States including, rivers, streams, lakes, and coastal features. The Watershed Boundary Dataset (WBD) is comprised of hierarchical polygons called hydrologic units that represent surface area over which water drains to a point. Both datasets are updated by stewards and are available by subsets of the United States.
*Disclaimer: Listing outside positions with professional scientific organizations on this Staff Profile are for informational purposes only and do not constitute an endorsement of those professional scientific organizations or their activities by the USGS, Department of the Interior, or U.S. Government