KC↗KEARY CUNNINGHAMCAREER & CURIOSITY
LEADER · INNOVATOR · MENTOR

A career connecting
people & place.

I'm Keary Cunningham. I bring geographic information, technology, and teams together to turn complex challenges into meaningful community outcomes. I’ve also been a business owner since 2013, bringing an entrepreneurial perspective to the way I build solutions and serve clients.

I grew up in a military family, moving often, and have also called Virginia—including Norfolk and Virginia Beach—Maine, and New Hampshire home. My early career with LAW Engineering took me across North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, and Alabama, with work and travel throughout the East Coast. The Carolinas, Georgia, Tennessee, and Alabama still feel like home territory.

I spent summers exploring Maine’s coast and lakes region. During the school year, my after-school adventures often led into the woods behind our house—a landscape I later understood was a large cypress swamp. Years later, hiking in the Everglades brought that familiarity back. I realized these wild, watery places are where I feel most at home.

A scientist’s curiosity. A thinker’s perspective.
A mentor’s commitment. A leader’s vision.

Explore my career ↓
CURRENTLY RESIDING IN SOUTH FLORIDAGIS SINCE 1993PROGRAMMING SINCE 1985
Keary Cunningham wearing a dark suit, standing with arms foldedA journey through geographyTHE BEGINNINGSBUILDING IMPACTWHAT'S NEXTN
A LIFE OF INNOVATION AND GROWTHKeary Cunningham
01 / THE CAREER ATLAS

Explore the journey.

Early milestones and the years I worked at each organization.
Select an organization or move the arrow to explore.

1985 — PRESENT
SUCCESSFUL ENTERPRISE SOLUTIONS PROGRAMS

Establishing a roadmap
for success.

How I turn experience into action

The career above shows where I’ve worked. This roadmap shows how I approach the work: bringing leaders, people, and technology together to build enterprise GIS programs that last.

It reflects the lessons I bring to leadership, consulting, and mentoring. Each step creates the foundation for the next, from shared direction to measurable community outcomes.

Follow the arrows. Select any icon or task to explore the details.

  1. Engage leadership and identify the internal sponsors and champions who will lead the effort. Form a GIS advisory board to represent departmental priorities, agree on the program’s direction, and authorize the next steps.

    Enables the next step: Shared goals, an executive sponsor, and a GIS advisory board.

  2. Hire the right staff to implement the program. Establish a core team that can engage departments, guide the needs assessment, and carry the planning effort forward. Refine additional staffing needs through the strategic plan.

    Enables the next step: A team responsible for moving the program forward.

  3. Interview all departments to understand their priorities, workflows, and GIS needs. Develop a three-year strategic plan with agreed priorities, staffing requirements, resources, and measures of success. Obtain leadership agreement before technical work begins.

    Enables the next step: An agreed three-year plan grounded in departmental needs.

  4. As part of the three-year strategic plan, agree on and establish these responsibilities and processes before any systems are built or any data is configured:

    1. GIS program leadership: Define who is in charge of the overall GIS program and has decision-making authority.
    2. GIS and IT administration: Assign responsibility for the digital system and its GIS/IT administration duties.
    3. Departmental GIS leads: Identify each department’s GIS lead and define their responsibilities.
    4. Internal data-access workflow: Establish the internal process and approval workflow for requesting access to GIS data, including who reviews and approves requests, who provisions access, and how access is documented.

    Enables the next step: Agreed ownership, administration duties, departmental leads, and an approved data-access workflow.

  5. Configure a sustainable enterprise GIS around the organization’s priorities and long-term needs. Apply the agreed administration responsibilities and access controls, document the environment, and establish maintenance and support practices.

    Enables the next step: A documented, supportable foundation for applications and data.

  6. Bring data, applications, and workflows together in the order established by the strategic plan. Work with departments to validate information, test integrations, and confirm that each solution supports the people who need it.

    Enables the next step: Tested workflows that deliver useful information across the organization.

  7. Prepare staff to use and sustain the solutions. Build on individual strengths, shared ownership, and clear responsibilities. Establish a separate employee onboarding process that introduces GIS, assigns role-appropriate access through the approved workflow, and provides ongoing training and support.

    Enables the next step: Prepared users, clear support channels, and a repeatable onboarding process.

  8. Measure results against the strategic plan: better service delivery, public safety, and community outcomes. Gather feedback, identify gaps, and bring the findings back to leadership and the advisory board to guide the next planning cycle.

    Feeds the next cycle: Evidence of impact and priorities for the next cycle.

↺ Results and feedback inform the next strategic planning cycle. Training and improvement continue throughout the program.

03 / WHAT'S NEXT

Good work starts
with a conversation.

Interested in GIS strategy, community-focused technology,
or a creative collaboration? Let's connect.

Connect on LinkedIn ↗Keary Cunningham · GIS leadership & collaboration.
GIS Day
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