Thank you to all those who sent in their submissions to this contest. We had so many excellent entries, and it was really a pleasure to see all the creativity and passion that went into all the submissions.

Become a member and join the listserv to get announcements about the 2026 GIS Colorado Mapping Contest!

Student Map Section

(Name)
Undergraduate Certificate
Front Range Community College

Student Artistic Section

(Name)

Master’s Degree in Forest Sciences, Emphasis on GIS
Colorado State University

Student App Section

(Name)
Bachelor’s Degree, Geography and the Environment
University of North Texas

Pro Map Section

(Name)
Director/Senior Cartographer, Tombolo Maps & Design

Pro Artistic Section

(Name)
Director/Senior Cartographer, Tombolo Maps & Design

Pro App Section

(Name)

David is a GIS Analyst/Drone Program Coordinator for the City of Grand Junction
Jackson is an IT Engineering Manager for the City of Grand Junction

Peoples’ Choice

(Name)
Undergraduate Certificate in Geographic Information Systems
Colorado Mountain College

Student Section

This section is for individuals enrolled in or within one year post graduation from a certificate, undergraduate, or graduate program in GIS or related field.

Student Map Category

Maps are stand-alone images and analytical in nature. The integration of data is a key component of the project. This category recognizes achievement in cartographic representation through creative, effective, beautiful, and insightful integration of geospatial data.

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Winner of the Student Map Category!


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“My map came as an idea somewhat related to a project back in a class, Intro to GIS, where I worked with the available Storm Prediction Center data then. More recently, I started making maps for fun, at first just in ArcMap, and using different data that was mostly weather focused. This is one of those looking specifically at tornadoes happening overnight. Really think it’s an important theme to show because of how much more difficult and dangerous tornadoes are at night. I made this in ArcGIS Pro and utilizing the vector tornado paths data as a layer of focus. I then did a kernel density raster with the tornado point data to help visualize areas most impacted. The target audience would be those in the meteorological community, weather enthusiasts and general public.”

Student Artistic Category

Artistic maps celebrate achievement in cartographic representation through experimental map-making practices, innovative visual expression of geographic concepts, and artistic interpretation of cartographic forms using any type of physical and/or digital media.

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Winner of the Peoples’ Choice Award!


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Winner of the Student Artistic Category!


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Student Apps Category

Apps are generated using interactive applications that may be consumed on a desktop or mobile device, such as a web mapping application, native app or Esri Story Map. This category recognizes achievement in cartographic representation through creative, effective, beautiful, and insightful uses of geospatial data in a dynamic and interactive application.

Winner of the Student App Category!


Professional Section

Open to GIS professionals that are current GISCO or WyGeo members, and Elevations Geospatial Summit attendees and presenters.

Professional Map Category

Maps are stand-alone images and analytical in nature. The integration of data is a key component of the project. This category recognizes achievement in cartographic representation through creative, effective, beautiful, and insightful integration of geospatial data.

Winner of the Professional Map Category!

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Professional Artistic Category

Artistic maps celebrate achievement in cartographic representation through experimental map-making practices, innovative visual expression of geographic concepts, and artistic interpretation of cartographic forms using any type of physical and/or digital media.

Winner of the Professional Artistic Category!


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Professional Apps Category

Apps are generated using interactive applications that may be consumed on a desktop or mobile device, such as a web mapping application, native app or Esri Story Map. This category recognizes achievement in cartographic representation through creative, effective, beautiful, and insightful uses of geospatial data in a dynamic and interactive application.

Winner of the Professional App Category!


Judges

Our judges represent a wide variety of backgrounds, including education, software development, environmental science, public sector, and Esri. 

Steven Hick, GISP

GIS Director and Professor of the Practice in Geographic Information Science, Department of Geography and the Environment at the University of Denver

Steven Hick, GISP, is the GIS Director and Professor of the Practice in Geographic Information Science in the Department of Geography and the Environment at the University of Denver. For over twenty-seven years Steven has been directing the Geographic Information Science academic and research facilities in the department. Steven is currently the Director of the GIS Certificate Program and the Master of Science degree program in Geographic Information Science at the University of Denver. He was instrumental in the creation of one of the nation’s first Master of Science degrees in Geographic Information Science. For nearly fifteen years, Steven taught crime mapping and analysis at the University of Denver in the Crime Mapping and Analysis program under the auspices of the US Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice. He continues to provide crime mapping and analysis technical assistance to law enforcement agencies across the country.

Shelby Hines

Senior Solution Engineer, Esri

Shelby is a Solution Engineer at Esri and supports Colorado and New Mexico local governments in applying GIS technology across domains. She brings 15 years of experience in GIS and emergency management and has a MS in GIS from the University of Denver.

Heidi Ragsdale, M.A.Ed

STEM and GIS Educator Professional Development Trainer at Grand Junction MakerSpace

With 20 years in public education, I have worked to blend STEM and GIS technologies, to support professional development for Earth-centered problem based learning. I enjoy GeoArt, all things geography, Astronomy, Environmental advocacy and outreach.

Seth Frame

GIS Supervisor/Analyst, Tyler Technologies

Raised in the Middle West, Seth Frame has over a decade of experience in GIS; most of that time has been spent in cultural resource management. In a previous life, he performed GIS services for archaeological companies in the intermountain West, he now lives in upstate New York where he is employed as a GIS Supervisor/Analyst for a software development company. Seth has a Bachelor of Arts degree in anthropology from Colorado State University and is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Cartography and Web Mapping Masters program.

Sarah Marie Kelly

Teaching Assistant Professor, University of Colorado – Boulder

For nearly 5 years I have been sharing my love of maps and GIS with students at CU-Boulder. Prior to that, I spent more than a decade working as an environmental scientist focused on wetland ecology in the Southeast, Midwest, and Pacific Northwest.

Mary Lackner, GISP, PMP

GIS and Technology Manager, Pitkin County, Colorado

Mary has spent the past 30 years working with GIS technology in the public sector. She is currently a technology manager at Pitkin County, CO where she works with people and processes and longs for the days when mapping was the focus of her position. Mary earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Hawaii, Manoa majoring in Resource Planning and a certificate in Marine Science and she obtained a master’s degree from UCLA in Urban Planning.

What is a work of cartography, application of GIS, or similar that has influenced your GIS career?

The extreme growth and popularity of ESRI StoryMaps has become a direct link to connect with all levels of learners in classrooms across the world. I look forward to seeing how these powerful tools will continue to support a geo-literate population and better future for all life on Earth!  Colorado River Drought StoryMap

Heidi Ragsdale

STEM and GIS Educator Professional Development Trainer at Grand Junction MakerSpace

Growing up, I always loved looking at the atlas when on road trips. I would follow our route and keep the driver updated on where we were. I think that really got me started with my love of maps and the transfer of information through them.

Seth Frame

GIS Supervisor/Analyst, Tyler Technologies

While completing my undergraduate studies I was an intern for a county in Florida where I was tasked with mapping endangered species habitats and wetland restoration efforts. This experience not only reinforced my love for GIS and cartography, but directed my career for 14 years working in environmental science where I used GIS/maps daily.

Sarah Marie Kelly

Teaching Assistant Professor, University of Colorado – Boulder

The Esri Denver Office Hub has influenced my career as it is a site that I configured and maintain for the region. I add public-facing GIS apps and sites from organizations across the region on the Community page. I’ve built upon the knowledge I’ve gained about ArcGIS Hub and Web GIS through this process by supporting Esri customers with their Hub sites and creating a Local Hazard Mitigation Planning Hub template for communities to deploy and configure.

Shelby Hines

Senior Solution Engineer, Esri

I started working with command line ArcInfo in 1995 and the maps we created were rudimentary colored shapes that represented points, lines and polygons. They were rough and took patience and effort to create. At this same time, Jeffrey Nighbert, a BLM cartographer in Oregon, was creating absolutely amazing maps and one of his maps was featured on the cover of Vol 11 (1996). This map was “revolutionary” as it was a natural colored shaded relief map of the Pacific Northwest. What I found truly inspiring, was his map illustrated that a capable, creative and dedicated user of GIS was able to produce a work of art from the computer and geographic data. This insight has kept me interested and excited in the field ever since!

Mary Lackner, GISP, PMP

GIS and Technology Manager, Pitkin County, Colorado

Prizes

Thanks to the generosity of many quality companies and individuals, we have some truly excellent prizes for the winners!

Thank you to the following!