David Coley

Background

About David Coley

I have always loved to think about problems in terms of place and space. It is why I attended the University of Florida so that I could concentrate in Geography, knowing that the knowledge and academic training I achieved there could help me to land a career where a holistic approach to problem solving is required - one where the discipline of Geography is paramount. I soon came to realize that not only does Geography provide solutions to problems that cannot be solved without a cross-discipline approach, but that the primary tool of geographic communication- the map - would become so powerful when combined with modern databases, giving rise to the Geographic Information System, GIS. I took advantage of this knowledge to seek out and find any position where GIS is used. Because my interests are in environmental and water resources, I was able to gain employment with the St Johns River Water Management District, one of 5 districts in the state of Florida dedicated to preserving and conserving our precious water resources. These same interests led me to another position at the USGS Aquatic Research Center in Gainesville, and then on to the City of Gainesville. While at the City of Gainesville, I got my first full time experience in developing Spatial Databases, the Geodatabase, to employ ESRIs ArcGIS Hydro tools to help their stormwater department not only map their stormwater assets but to help them meet the FEMA's Community Rating Score that helps communities lower their flood insurance costs. A similar position then became available to me with the County of Sarasota, FL. Sarasota, FL is my hometown, and as such I could not wait to apply my skills and experience to solving similar problems back at home. While at Sarasota County, I have held a variety of positions, but my essential roles and tasks have remained the same: To use GIS to help solve problems that improve the lives of state and county residents. And so I began my career at Sarasota County as essentially a technical manager, where I led the GIS group responsible for mapping and cataloging stormwater, potable water, sanitary water and natural drainage systems so that the Water Resources and Utilities groups could meet their required inventory, status, and planning requirements. This work continued as my position as the Geospatial Unit Manager became the ArcGIS Server Administrator, where I fully built out our ArcSDE versioning workflows, and then on to my current position as the ArcEnterprise Administrator as I detail in my experience above.