P. R. Truesdell

I grew up in the mountains of North Carolina, studied geology and geography, and somehow wound up in "environmental consulting," which mostly meant overbilling corporations while helping them dodge liability. I left for a job hauling hazardous waste, which was exactly as glamorous as it sounds, but at least it got me out of that corporate hellscape.

After a promotion, I had more time to sit at a desk pretending to work, so I used it to develop my growing interest in information science, redesigning our website for accessibility and running usability tests on 90s-era web apps. But making meaningful change involved navigating a lumbering bureaucracy where even fixing a minor typo required an IT ticket. The red tape made me realize I wanted more independence to make things with my own hands.

To get that freedom, I decided to pursue a GIS master's via VU Amsterdam because it tied together everything I cared about ("Geography" + "Information Science" = "GIS". Get it?). I ended up in Flanders, where I now help clients turn complex information into stories that (hopefully) don't make people's eyes glaze over.