UMass Global faculty president Sheila Lakshmi Steinberg helping national audiences learn about GIS

UMass Global faculty president and professor of GIS, social and environmental sciences Sheila Lakshmi Steinberg spends much of her time researching, teaching, and publishing articles articulating how geographic information systems (GIS) software can jump-start analysis and problem-solving. This technology, central to several University of Massachusetts Global courses, enables people to create data-enriched maps showing the geographic dimensions of complex topics like social trends, environmental challenges, and business opportunities.

Maps and other visualizations are often effective means of sharing the knowledge obtained from a cache of raw data. Dr. Steinberg’s deep understanding of GIS and its value as a research and communications tool means her expertise is in high demand. Just this month, Steinberg penned an opinion piece outlining a geospatial perspective on voting patterns that appeared in a national outlet and she also delivered the keynote address during a major conference for GIS experts.

Fortune published Steinberg’s opinion piece, “American elections are a question of geography. Here’s how remote workers reshaped the political landscape,” on Nov. 11. Here, she observes that many Americans recently moved to relatively affordable destinations in the South and West while populations declined in expensive metropolises. Steinberg elucidates the political context of this population shift: If voters from predominantly liberal cities are bringing “blue” voting preferences to areas where more conservative “red” voters have won elections with slim majorities, elections in those places may become more competitive.

“Democrats who move into these less dense areas may have a meaningful impact on elections,” Steinberg wrote. “Moving from suburban to rural areas would involve an influx of potentially different voting patterns. Meanwhile, the density of big cities makes their voting outcomes more resilient to these population shifts, since a moderate influx of new voters is unlikely to sway the larger trends. In some smaller communities, a moderate influx may be sufficient to change election outcomes.”

Steinberg later, on Nov. 16, addressed an audience of GIS Day Virtual Symposium at the University of Miami participants, who included students and faculty there. In line with the event’s theme, “Geography and Resilience,” Steinberg spent a portion of her address discussing her study of agricultural pesticide deployments in California’s Monterey and Tulare counties. She emphasized that although good data is essential to geospatial analysis, field observations and connecting with knowledgeable locals are also invaluable.

“Know your culture and community,” Steinberg said. “You as a researcher may not know, but there are people in the community who know.”

GIS Day is an annual event for current and future GIS users. Esri, a leading GIS firm headquartered in Redlands, California promotes the occasion but acknowledges activist Ralph Nader as the individual who, more than 20 years ago, had the notion of setting a day aside to encourage people to learn about this technology.

Esri is also a UMass Global partner supplying learning materials that walk UMass Global students through the steps of using GIS to craft data visualizations, discover patterns and insights within data-enriched maps, and share new findings. University courses centered on GIS are designed to not only help students better understand data but also how to incorporate data visualizations and quantitative evidence into effective professional communications.

In a broader context, Steinberg advised her GIS Day audience that data can be powerful evidence in favor of a change to the status quo. Nevertheless, whosoever uses data-based evidence to call for reforms also needs to be able to share their findings in a way that makes a strong persuasive argument for their position.

“Put it together in a way that tells the story that visualizes what the problem is, where the problem is, and what you’re going to do about it,” she said.

UMass Global offers several certificate- and degree-level programs preparing students to use GIS applications and also incorporates geospatial learning into several other programs. For example, the Bachelor of Business Administration, Master of Business Administration, and Master of Public Administration degree programs all have emphasis options enabling students to concentrate on data analytics and learn with Esri applications while doing so.