About NiJeL

NiJeL is shiny and new, started by three people who saw a global need for maps that tell compelling stories and have real community impact. Each of us has a unique expertise, but we share a common goal. We want each of our maps to help, even if in a small way, alleviate the suffering of the poor around the globe. We hope that our maps provide a powerful vision of the problem so that the world sits up and takes notice. That is who we are.

We're NiJeL. Welcome to the new way of thinking about maps.

Staff

JD Godchaux
Executive Director

JD Godchaux is the co-founder and executive director of NiJeL. JD is a trained policy analyst and a program evaluator always seeking to improve the impact of nonprofit and governmental programs. He is also a trained geologist and has extensive experience with numerous geospatial technologies both in the physical and social sciences. In the humanitarian space, JD has a particular interest in protecting vulnerable populations through the use of simple, affordable technologies, such as SMS.

Prior to founding NiJeL, JD was a senior policy analyst at Morrison Institute for Public Policy , Arizona's oldest think tank and part of the School of Public Affairs at Arizona State University. Prior to joining Morrison Institute, JD served as an environmental protection specialist with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in Kansas City and also worked as a research assistant to Dr. Laura Peck at ASU's School of Public Affairs and used mapping to analyze the spatial relationships between poverty, employment, and nonprofit service supports. JD also worked as a GIS specialist for the United States Geological Survey's Earthquake Hazards Team. JD holds a Master in Public Administration from ASU and Bachelor of Science in Geosciences from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas.

Nancy Jones
Co-Founder

Nancy Jones is Research Associate at the Decision Center for a Desert City at Arizona State University. Her work focuses on bridging science with professional practice to inform decision making in the areas of water management, climate, land use, and population change in Arizona. Previously she worked as a consultant, performing environmental site assessments and asbestos abatement. She got her start working with GIS in 1997 when she took a class at ASU and has been having fun with maps since then. Though a desert dweller, she is a Baltimore native with a strong love of the Chesapeake Bay - once the focus of her first job as an undergraduate lab assistant studying estuarine water chemistry. Nancy holds a B.S. in Biology from Old Dominion University and a Masters in Urban and Environmental Planning at ASU.

Lela Prashad
Chief Technology Officer

Lela Prashad is the Chief Technology Officer for NijeL and is also the Director of the 100 Cities Project at Arizona State University. Lela is also on the board of directors for Flowers of Hope,a non-profit that supports women and children in Nicaragua. Prior to her current work, Lela established and ran the water program for the environmental non-profit Arizona PIRG.. She has also worked with the United States Geological Survey's Earthquake Hazards Team , and Arizona Departments of Environmental Quality and Water Resources and has 10+ years of GIS and remote sensing experience. Lela holds an Master of Science in Geological Sciences from ASU and a Bachelor of Science in Geosciences from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas.

Layal Rabat
NiJeL Intern

Layal Rabat is a student in the MA of Social Justice and Human Rights program at Arizona State University. She is currently also interning at Techsoup.org's NonprofitCommons.org as the volunteer manager at the Nonprofit Commons in Second Life. Layal hails from Syria originally, and is a desert baby through and through. She is active in the community and at her school, she participates and helps organize events that focus on all sorts of issues that deal with marginalized populations. Layal is a GIS newbie hoping to be an oldbie. Her interest in GIS started when she discovered the usage of maps in analyzing needs within a community. Being a visual and an analytical person, she joined us eager to learn more about GIS, and feels her role is ultimately to be a bridge between technology and the average person, helping translate "geek to human," as she puts it. Layal holds a B.S. degree in Psychology which she earned from Arizona State University. Go earth!