Virtual Education & Webinars

GIS at the Core of 9-1-1: Indoor Mapping, Z-Axis, and Federal Legislation

Tuesday, November 4, 2025 @ 3 PM ET/2 PM CT/1 PM MT/ 12 PM PT

Accurate location is the foundation of effective emergency response, and today’s advances in GIS are reshaping how 9-1-1 call centers and first responders pinpoint those in need. The FCC’s recent Report and Order 24-78, new requirements for Z-axis (vertical) location accuracy, and legislation such as Alyssa’s Law are driving major changes in how agencies must collect, manage, and share location data. Indoor mapping and GIS are now at the core of meeting these mandates, ensuring that responders can find the right room, floor, or office when seconds matter.

In this one-hour webinar, public safety and GIS professionals will:
• Gain an overview of FCC 24-78 and what it means for Z-axis data and dispatchable locations.
• Explore the role of GIS and indoor mapping in meeting federal requirements and improving situational awareness.
• Understand how Alyssa’s Law connects school safety initiatives to actionable GIS data.
• See examples of how agencies are leveraging GIS to integrate NG9-1-1 and building-level data into emergency response systems.
 
Join us to learn how GIS is transforming 9-1-1 from the ground floor to the top floor—helping agencies stay compliant, improve response times, and ultimately save lives.

Speakers:
Keri Brennan, GISP, ENP, Subject Matter Expert for Public Safety GIS Content and Mapping, GeoComm, Inc. 
Kathrine Cargo, GISP, GIS Manager, Orleans Parish Communication District

The Geography of Law

Wednesday, November 12, 2025 @ 3 PM ET/2 PM CT/1 PM MT/ 12 PM PT

In 2022, a grass roots organization successfully pushed a federal law into place to solve a statutory dilemma impacting people spanning 47 states and 3 foreign countries, to include individuals from Kentucky and surrounding states like Indiana, Ohio and Tennessee. They did this through strategic grass roots mobilization campaigns over the course of eight months, which culminated in adding 25 cosponsors and motivating 14 representatives across the aisle to push the bill through Congress to law. This presentation will discuss the utilization of open-source GIS to target, guide, communicate and facilitate mobilization efforts and feedback.

Moderator: Trisha Brush, GISP, PMP, Director, LOJIC
Speaker: Chris Alldredge, GISP, Database Administrator, LOJIC

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Portraits of Resilience: Enriching resilience and vulnerability metrics with mapped qualitative data in historically marginalized communities

Friday, November 14, 2025 @ 2 PM ET/1 PM CT/12 noon MT/ 11 AM PT

Photovoice has emerged as a powerful participatory method for understanding sources of resilience in marginalized communities, offering a platform for those traditionally excluded from research to share their lived experiences. This study employs mapping, photovoice (Wang & Burris, 1997), and grounded theory (Glaser, Strauss, & Strutzel, 1968) methodologies to identify sources of risk and resilience in historically marginalized and disadvantaged communities in Indianapolis’ Far Eastside, Martindale–Brightwood, Arlington Woods, and Near Eastside communities. Over a four-week period in March of 2025, participants in this study captured photographs (n = 200) and accompanying reflections guided by the photovoice SHOWeD Method to add meaning to their photos. Following data collection, participants participated in one-on-one interviews with researchers and engaged in a group photovoice listening session to analyze and reflect on sources of risk and resilience captured in their photographs. Participants identified access to food, accessible spaces, green spaces, faith-based communities, intentional design, local businesses, neighborhood engagement, and social infrastructure as sources of community resilience; and abandoned buildings, distrust of movement, Infrastructure mobility challenges, physical renewal not being matched by social investment, risk of abandonment and vacancy, and unfinished intentions as sources of community risk. This study imparts important implications for policy and practice in disadvantaged urban communities by identifying sources of community resilience, providing insights into risks that policymakers have overlooked, and enriching vulnerability and resilience challenges spatial data designed to assist policymakers to build resilient communities.

Portraits of Resilience A media piece that features the Portraits of Resilience exhibition in May of this year: "Hope and resilience: Indy artists photograph the east side: Four Indy artists participated in Portraits of Resilience, an IU Indianapolis research project." 

Moderator:
Kevin Mickey, GISP, Director Professional Development and Geospatial Technologies Education, The Polis Center, Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering

Speaker: 
Dr. Courtney Page-Tan, Assistant Professor of Public Affairs and Community Resilience, O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at IU Indianapolis