Karis Tenneson

Karis is the Director of the Environmental Mapping Domain with expertise in ecology, statistics, natural resources management, remote sensing and GIS. Broadly, she is interested in developing relevant scientific information and knowledge for decision making. Her work focuses on developing decision support tools to monitor land use and land cover dynamics, forest biomass estimation using lidar and structure from motion, assessing ecosystem services, and scenario planning. Her most recent projects include managing cloud based remote sensing research and monitoring efforts with the Mekong and Hindu Kush Himalaya SERVIR hubs. She has also developed various methods and knowledge transfer activities in support of SilvaCarbon capacity building initiatives aimed at more efficiently generating activity data for REDD+ and greenhouse gas inventories. These efforts include the development of OpenForis applications, including Collect Earth Online and tools within SEPAL; food security research; collaborative development of a customizable cloud-based land cover monitoring system; and delivering capacity building activities throughout southeast Asia, south Asia, and Ecuador.

Dr. Tenneson holds an Interdisciplinary PhD in Urban Design and Planning from the University of Washington, Seattle, with a specialization in spatial statistics and environmental planning. She has a Master in urban and regional planning and a BA in biology and mathematics.