Crystal Wespestad is a Project Manager and Geospatial Data Scientist on the Environmental Mapping Team at Spatial Informatics Group. She has expertise in remote sensing technologies, unbiased area estimation, Google Earth Engine, and Collect Earth Online. She has also worked extensively on capacity building efforts via leading virtual and in-person training workshops and developing instruction manuals.

Before joining SIG, Crystal was a geoinformatics fellow and location lead for NASA DEVELOP, where she collaborated with stakeholders to design and manage projects related to urban heat and solar energy viability. For her graduate studies she conducted InSAR analysis and visualization of ground deformation hazards, and she has completed research on ambient noise seismic tomography at a volcanic field in Chile to better understand its destructive potential. Crystal is interested in using remote sensing technologies to look at the Earth in new ways in order to address critical issues.

Crystal holds a master’s in Geographic Information Systems Technology from the University of Arizona, as well as a master’s in Geophysics from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She also holds bachelor’s degrees in both Geology and Anthropology from Indiana University, Bloomington.