Alumni Jessica Rodriguez in Alaska!

Feb 15, 2016 to Sep 30, 2016

Jessica Rodriguez, M.A.   ||   Spring 2015 Geographical and Sustainability Sciences Graduate

After graduating I was hired with the Bureau of Indian Affairs as the Cartographer for the Alaska Region.  The BIA is responsible for the administration and management of surface and subsurface estates held in trust by the United States for American Indians and Alaska Natives.  The state of Alaska has a much different and more recent real estate history than the lower 48.  In Alaska, we have over 23,000 individual Native Allotment parcels and over 100 Townsites for which the BIA keeps records. 

As of current, we are building a database to spatially locate these parcels and Townships into shapefile/digital form. When not working on this major multi-year project, I create maps for all types of Realty transactions, assist other Federal Bureaus, State agencies, and Native Corporations with requests for Land Title Records data, and am receiving an abundance of training in government realty as well as cadastral surveying.  Looking forward, I will be doing some remote sensing work with the BIA’s Division of Forestry & Wildland Fire Management to plan for the Summer 2016 fire season.

I never thought that I would live in Alaska…or work in Realty.  Yet, my life’s goal has remained steadfast; to use my education as a means of supporting Indigenous self-determination.  I am incredibly grateful and proud that the University of Iowa’s Geographical and Sustainability Sciences Department has helped me achieve this.