Kansas Association of Mappers

EXECUTIVE BOARD NOMINATIONS

Nominations are accepted through the online form listed below, or in person at the opening business meeting of the Kansas Association of Mappers, to be held at 10:00 am on Wednesday, October 7, 2026 at the Drury Plaza Hotel Broadview in Wichita, Kansas.

Open positions include:

President-elect (serves 1 year, then serves 1 year as president and 1 year as past president)
Secretary (serves 1 year)
Treasurer (serves 1 year)
Director (two open positions, each serving 2 years)

The people listed below were nominated via our online form, and is updated as nominations are recieved.

President Elect

Regina Thomas

Regina B. Thomas is GIS Database Administrator currently serving her third year at the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE), she manages and administers enterprise GIS system, application development and is actively implementing an agency-wide geospatial strategy. Her experience spans process improvement, application development and spatial analysis at the intersection of conservation, climate change, geohazards and health. She was a Dangermond Enterprise GIS Fellow with the National Audubon Society, holds a M.S. in Geography from The University of Kansas and is a participant in the Emerging Leaders Academy with the KU Public Management Center (Fall 2026).

Secretary

Teona Marko

Teona Marko is a transportation planner at HNTB in Overland Park, Kansas with five years of experience applying GIS to transportation, environmental and mobility projects. Teona is a young professional working on continuing expanding her technical skills and is looking to network with like-minded GIS professionals!

Treasurer

Marie Dawes

I am the Mapping Technician for the Department of Public Works in Pottawatomie County. My work involves managing and tracking asset data and integrating that with our asset management software. I started my professional life as a structural engineer, took a break to raise twins then fell into mapping as a second career in 2022. Last year I accepted a leadership role in KAM as Treasurer. This past year has been a learning curve; it makes sense to put that to use in another year - I'll do my best for the organization.

Director (Two-Year Term)

Lori Emerson

After working in the private industry a computer programmer, I earned a Master's in Geography with a GIS certificate from Kansas State University in 2005. As a student employee in the GISSAL lab, I learned Model Builder to automate site selection for the agricultural scenario. For the past twenty years, I've in worked as a GIS professional for tribal, county, and state agencies. My duties have ranged from COGOing roads, plats, and rights-of-way, automating processes using arcpy scripts and using ArcGIS API for JavaScript 3.0 and 4.0 to create stormwater management web apps, travel impact maps, and stormwater billing. Now I work with Esri Roads & Highways to create City Connecting Link maintenance agreements between KDOT and cities, and also with managing the KDOT mobile LiDAR data extraction portal. In 2010, I was on the Northwest GIS conference planning committee in Spokane, WA, and the KAM conference 2025 planning committee here in Manhattan, KS. In addition to being inspired by the presentations, I also take advantage of the Esri hands-on learning lab at these conferences. I hope you all have a great conference.

Lisa Olson

Lisa Olson is honored to be nominated for Director on the KAM Executive Board. Lisa has 26 years of service at Seward County, 20 of those in GIS. Lisa holds a Bio/Chem degree from Wichita State University and has been an active member of KAM since 2006. She earned her KM designation in 2007. Throughout her KAM membership, Lisa has served as Treasurer, as both a member and chairperson of the Awards Committee, and as a presenter at the annual KAM Conference. If elected, she looks forward to the opportunity to serve as Director and hopes to contribute fresh perspectives and ideas to the KAM Board.