Wisconsin Geospatial News

Elza receives WLIA Emerging Leader Award

Hayden Elza, GIS Developer with the State Cartographer’s Office, was honored with an Emerging Leader Award at the 2023 Wisconsin Land Information Association (WLIA) Annual Conference held February 22-24 in Wisconsin Dells, WI.

The WLIA Emerging Leader Award is given to an individual in the first seven years of their land information/GIS career who demonstrates exemplary individual technical achievement and/or leadership within the Wisconsin land information community.  Each year WLIA recognizes individuals and organizations for excellence across five different categories.  The Emerging Leader Award is new as of 2020, and was created to acknowledge the important contributions of individuals who are new to the profession.

Hayden first joined us in April 2019 to develop and maintain the geospatial data infrastructure required for our Wisconsin Coastal-Management Data Infrastructure (WICDI) project.  He later transitioned to become a GIS Developer, where he is now responsible for creating geospatial Web applications, implementing improved data processing pipelines, conducting research on new/emerging geospatial technologies, mentoring student employees, and much more.  Hayden is our go-to tech expert on a wide range of issues, and as such, has an impact on all of our ongoing projects and initiatives.

Congratulations Hayden!