VITA

Jeff Williams graduated summa cum laude from Stephen F. Austin State University (SFASU) in 1995 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Geography and Anthropology.  While at SFASU, Jeff worked for Dr. James E. Corbin in the Archaeology and Anthropology Laboratory as Archaeological Crew Chief under contract with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department to conduct archaeological surveys for five State Parks within eastern Texas.  Working closely with Dr. Corbin, Jeff developed a GIS incorporating archaeological field survey data for Cultural Resource Management (CRM) planning.

After college, Jeff worked for several years as a Landscape Geographer in the Land Use and Planning Department of the Ecological Division of PBS&J (formerly EH&A), a nationwide employee-owned environmental consulting business located in Austin, Texas.  While at PBS&J, Jeff developed client based applications incorporating geospatial technologies.  Jeff also developed geospatial applications used in marketing environmental services to a broad base of customers including utility companies, municipalities, river authorities, and private development corporations.  As staff Geographer, Jeff created and managed a multi-year GIS application for a major oil and gas exploration company wishing to develop extraction and distribution technologies within biological and culturally sensitive zones of the Kisatchie National Forest in Louisiana.

Leaving the private sector, Jeff Williams entered public service as GIS Manager for the Resource Protection Division's Coastal Studies Program of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department also in Austin, Texas.  Jeff's responsibilities included monitoring over 6,800 square miles of submerged aquatic habitat along Texas' coast using remote sensing imagery.  Jeff developed a web based GIS managed landscape assessment tool for evaluating the impact to the fragile Laguna Madre from the landfall of Hurricane Bret in 1999.  Jeff also developed a near real-time geospatial application for Harmful Algal Bloom (HAB) monitoring and evaluation for the emergency Kills and Spills Response Team of TPWD.

Entering federal service in 2001, Jeff Williams was influential in developing the U.S. Geological Service (USGS) sponsored National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII) presence in Texas.  Housed at the Houston Advanced Research Center (HARC) in The Woodlands, Texas, the NBII engaged in partnerships with institutions of higher learning that housed biological collections related to native, invasive, and exotic plants and animals.  As Geospatial Project Manager for the Environmental Division of HARC, Jeff was responsible for creation of the regional NBII program and was instrumental in developing NBII strategic partnerships while creating GIS applications for spatially enabling the biological collections for web based application discovery.

After growing up in East Texas, Jeff Williams returned to Nacogdoches just in time to participate as a Geospatial First Responder during the Space Shuttle Columbia's failed reentry tragedy.  Throughout the first critical days of the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003, Jeff provided volunteer "around-the-clock" GIS and remote sensing support for local law enforcement; cumulating in over 250-hours of remote sensing and geospatial analysis during the first 14-days of the massive search and recovery efforts.  Jeff's article My Story documents the early days of the all volunteer response by the Texas geospatial community.

 Space Shuttle Columbia Debris Field Analysis

Jeff at the 2003 ESRI International User
Conference in San Diego, California with
his award winning map (Second Place
for Best Analytical Presentation -
P.R. Blackwell co-author).

Jeff Williams received a Master of Spatial Science from SFASU in 2007.  Jeff's thesis was titled GIS Aided Archaeological Research of El Camino Real de Los Tejas with Focus on the Landscape and River Crossings along El Camino Carretera.  For over 16 years Jeff conducted archaeological investigations across East Texas with Dr. Jim Corbin, and recently, utilizing the late Dr. Corbin's 30-year research, Jeff has located, identified, and surveyed existing segments of El Camino Real de los Tejas.  Jeff has developed an integrated research oriented GIS leading to the discovery and identification of additional existing remnants of early Spanish road features through eastern Texas.  Working with the National Park Service's National Historic Trail's Intermountain regional office out of Santa Fe, New Mexico, Jeff has been inventorying existing trail resources of East Texas not previously known.

Jeff Williams is a geospatial scientist specializing in remote sensing and GIS applications development for natural and cultural resource monitoring, management and sustainability.  Jeff is currently employed as the GIS Systems Administrator for the Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture where he maintains the GIS laboratories while working with students applying geospatial technologies to ecological research.