About me
Working in private and public sectors, large and small organizations, the field and the office has offered so many opportunities to see geography’s role in solving problems.
After earning a B.Sc. from the University of Toronto, Zinta Smidchens began at the Indiana Geological Survey, mapping Lake Michigan’s post-glacial shoreline history and much older deposits exposed on the rock faces in Indiana’s limestone quarries. On the west coast, Zinta joined Weyerhaeuser’s pioneering tech team, integrating GPS and desktop mapping to ground-truth timberland characteristics interpreted from remotely sensed data.
Zinta’s career evolved further at a consulting firm, where she worked on a team that modeled fish habitats in Washington State, and later in public service, leading GIS teams for the City of SeaTac and the City of Seattle.
Today, Zinta manages Seattle IT’s GIS & CADD Programs and Initiatives team, which works across analyst, developer, data, and operations teams. Whether navigating new vendor technologies, adapting to regulatory shifts, or addressing platform changes, this team is the go-to for forging new paths that guide the City’s GIS community.
