Seema Iyer – Associate Director, Jacob France InstituteSeema D. Iyer PhD is associate director of the Jacob France Institute (JFI) in the University of Baltimore’s Merrick School of Business. Dr. Iyer oversees the Baltimore Neighborhood Indicators Alliance at JFI, which is also part of the Urban Institute’s National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership of sites that provide longitudinal, community based data on demographics, housing, crime, education and sustainability.
Her research focuses on the role of data sharing in collaborative public innovation processes. From 2016-2017, she served as a consultant to the Baltimore Mayor’s Office of Information Technology on the city’s Open Data program. She is the 2021 recipient of the University System of Maryland’s Board of Regents faculty award for Excellence in Public Service.
Academically, Dr. Iyer is the director of the undergraduate program in Real Estate & Economic Development. at the University of Baltimore. She teaches courses on real estate principles and local economic development.
In 2017, she was a Fulbright-Nehru Scholar in Bangalore, India, researching the relationship between master planning processes and urban governance reform. Prior to joining UBalt, Dr. Iyer served as Chief of Research & Strategic Planning for Baltimore City’s Planning Department.
Contact Seema Iyer at (410) 837-5797 or E-mail: [email protected]
Cheryl Knott is the Research Manager for the Baltimore Neighborhood Indicators Alliance-Jacob France Institute. For fifteen years Cheryl has worked to ensure the accuracy, consistency, and reliability of community indicators that describe the quality of life for Baltimore City communities. She coordinates with staff and external data-creating agencies to produce customized statistical and research reports and evaluations that examine neighborhood-level trends on socio-economic characteristics, crime and safety, public health, housing and community development, educational achievement, and sustainability.
Cheryl also provides training to the public on using data resources, community asset mapping, evidence-based practices, and communicating data for grant writing. Cheryl is involved in coordinating Baltimore Data Day, an annual event that brings together a diverse audience to talk about data and resources in the city. She is a proponent of data democratization and has a strong interest in making data open and usable to the public as well as other professionals.
Prior to her arrival at BNIA-JFI in 2007, Cheryl studied at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), receiving her Bachelor’s degree in Geography and Environmental Systems and a certification in Cartography in 2007 and a Master’s degree in Applied Sociology in 2013. She received a graduate certificate in Organizational Leadership from the University of Baltimore in 2022. Her research interests include the relationship between crime and the built environment, including developing new quantitative measures for studying urban crime risk at the block level.
In 2017 Cheryl was awarded the University of Baltimore Staff Award for Extraordinary Public Service to the University and Greater Community for her work on communicating data and information. She recently served two terms as the Data and Resources Subcommittee Chair for the Maryland State Geographic Information Committee (MSGIC) and is currently appointed to the Maryland Council on Open Data. In her spare time, Cheryl is a co-organizer for MaptimeBmore.
Contact Cheryl Knott at (410) 837-4377 or E-mail: [email protected] | Personal Site
A Baltimore City resident and University of Baltimore alumnus, Logan is a Research Analyst at BNIA-JFI. In addition to geographic analysis for the preparation of the annual Vital Signs report, he communicates the organization’s work to the general public and contributes to custom data projects that range from database design for public agencies to educational programs on the economics of sustainable infrastructure. He also assists in coordinating Baltimore Data Week, a week-long event that focuses on data-backed stories/initiatives from the past year. Logan attends community association meetings and other group gatherings to introduce city residents to the data and exploration tools, in order to grow BNIA-JFI’s user base and inject community data into the everyday conversations of Baltimoreans.
Contact Logan Shertz at [email protected]
“I was born in Boston, Massachusetts, but I lived in Guatemala all my childhood. After living in Guatemala for about 13 years, my family and I moved back to the U.S. in 2014, and I have been living in Columbia, Maryland since. Most of my interests involve things related to digital art, video games, and animation, but I also enjoy working with technology as well. Due to my interest in both digital art and technology, I will be completing my Bachelor’s degree in Information Systems with a track on Interface Design during the Spring 2022 semester at Towson University. Although my degree is focused on UX design and HCI, I have been involved in data science since 2021. During that year, I had the chance to take a Data Mining and Visual Analytics class, I had the chance to be part of the Baltimore Data Science Corps during the summer and fall, and I developed an R Shiny application during the Fall semester as well. Currently, I am a few weeks away from completing my degree, and I have begun to work with BNIA as a Data Entry Specialist.”
Contact German Paredes at [email protected]
“Ashley Edwards is a proud Baltimore City native with a Geographical Sciences degree from University of Maryland College Park. During her academic career, she has tailored her studies to all dimensions of sustainability; people, environment and economics within an urban landscape. She has been involved in the research of University of Maryland’s Garden of Reflection and Remembrance and its contribution to restorative justice on the campus community. After obtaining her degree, Ashley sought to serve the public and work on outreach strategies to generate housing for residents in the Baltimore-and Harford County regions. Ashley currently works as a liaison between BNIA and the Baltimore City community with the goal of building and engaging a network geared towards the knowledge and utilization of open data.”
Contact Brittany Mcmullan at [email protected]