GIS in Transit Opening Keynote Speaker

URISA & NCTR are honored to welcome Polly Okunieff as the opening keynote speaker to the GIS in Transit Conference in St. Petersburg, Florida

Paula (Polly) Okunieff, Senior Technical Staff
Consensus Systems Technologies Corporation
Shenorock, NY

Unlocking the Benefits of GIS in Tough Times: 
Moving GIS from the “Sidelines” to the Heart of the Enterprise

For many transit agencies, GIS and GIS staff must do more with fewer resources and meet greater expectations of customers and senior managers.  In the past, the role of GIS in transit agencies has focused primarily on making pretty maps and simple planning studies.  With the tools that are available today, it can be used as an integration engine for core transit data, serving a critical role in ensuring quality transit information and operating efficiencies.  The need is manifested in the specialized tools that scheduling and ITS applications – like Computer Aided Dispatch and Automated Passenger Counting Systems -- use to implement transit service.  Many of these tools still manage data in stove-pipes, missing the integration opportunities to support a multitude of other transit business processes.  Ms. Okunieff will discuss strategies and initiatives to expand the role and value of your agency’s GIS investments. 

Ms. Okunieff has over twenty two years experience of system engineering development, sixteen of which is dedicated to transit ITS planning, design and deployment. Her experience ranges from developing Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite and transceiver navigation algorithms, risk assessment of medical information systems, to planning, designing and building transportation information systems that use a variety of information technologies (IT) including GPS, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), IT standards (such as XML/XSLT), and communications systems.

Ms. Okunieff worked for over fifteen years defining and editing transit ITS standards specifically for transit. She is the architect and technical project manager for the Transit Communications Interface Profiles (TCIP) family of standards. She represents transit needs on the GeoSpatial One Stop standard transportation advisory committee, and she is a U.S. Delegate to the International Standards Organization Technical Council 204 Working Group 8 on Intelligent Transportation System for Public Transport and Emergency.

Prior to joining ConSysTec in April 2005, Ms. Okunieff was president of Systems & Solutions, Inc (SASI), a recognized leader in Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) and Information Technology (IT) planning and implementation. Ms. Okunieff holds a MSEE from Boston University.