URISA Honors Two Leadership Award Recipients

October 24, 2008 (Park Ridge, IL) - During URISA's 46th Annual Conference in New Orleans this month, the association recognized two recipients of its Leadership Award. The URISA Leadership Award is presented to members who have demonstrated exemplary leadership to URISA, creativity, innovation, and dedicated support of URISA programs. This year’s Leadership Award recipients were Kenneth Dueker and Cindy Domenico.

Kenneth J. Dueker, emeritus professor of urban studies and planning, is an experienced educator and researcher in transportation, land use, and geographic information systems.  He directed the Center for Urban Studies from 1979 to 1998 and the Transportation Studies Center from 1997 to 2002 at Portland State University.  His areas of interest include: transportation and land use interactions, travel and parking behavior, and Geographic Information Systems - Transportation.

He has chaired the Transportation Research Board Subcommittee on Geographic Information Systems - Transportation.  He is a past-president of URISA and was a co-editor of the URISA Journal from 1989 to 1999.  He was also the 1999-2000 president of the Oregon URISA Chapter.

In 1997 URISA awarded Dr. Dueker the Horwood Service Award, and in 2000 the Transportation Research Board appointed him as emeritus member of the Spatial Data and Information Sciences Committee.  In 2001, Portland State University honored him with the Millar Award for a distinguished research record.  In 2002 the Oregon Chapter of URISA awarded him its first Distinguished Service Award.

Dueker was an original member of URISA and served as its first Treasurer, 1967–1970. His major professor was Edgar Horwood, URISA’s founder.

He earned his BS (1960), MS (1963), and PhD (1967) in Civil Engineering, from the University of Washington.

Ken Dueker has been published numerous times over his long and respected career.

Susan Johnson presents Cindy Domenico's award.

Cindy Domenico was appointed as Boulder County Commissioner on July 2, 2007, to complete the term of Commissioner Tom Mayer, who passed away in June 2007. Prior to appointment as Commissioner, Domenico served as Boulder County Assessor for ten years. She was appointed Assessor in 1997, followed by three consecutive 4-year term elections in 1998, 2002, and 2006. Domenico was a member of the Assessor's Office staff since 1984. Her office was responsible for the valuation of 126,000 properties, currently worth an approximate $50 billion in market value. Domenico managed an office that has received numerous awards from public policy and appraisal organizations for excellent public service and technological innovations. Development of Boulder County's GIS and implementations of the technology for appraisal analysis have been a focus of her work as assessor.

Cindy is a Past President of URISA (2005-2006) and served as Board Treasurer during her first term on the URISA Board of Directors, 2000-2003. She has also been an active member of the International Association of Assessing Officers (IAAO), where she served as Chair of the IAAO Mapping Council and was recognized with the 2007 Distinguished Assessment Jurisdiction Award. Naturally, Cindy has been instrumental in the growth of the Integrating GIS & CAMA Conference… she was Chair of the 1999 conference and is a frequent presenter. She has held numerous leadership positions for the Colorado Assessor’s Association and was named Assessor of the Year in 2003. In 2006-2007, Cindy served on the Land Parcel Study Committee for the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences and was a contributing committee member for NRC’s report, "National Land Parcel Data: A Vision for the Future".