After a Retirement, Longtime Exec Named to Top N.C. GIS Role

Matthew McLamb will serve as the new geographic information officer in North Carolina, a change that also places him as the executive director of the N.C. Center for Geographic Information and Analysis (CGIA).
McLamb had been serving as the assistant director of CGIA, a department housed within the North Carolina Department of Information Technology (NCDIT). He replaces Tim Johnson, who retired in December.

Building and putting to use GIS-related data is essential for a wide range of state and local government services such as NextGen 911 and other forms of emergency response.

“Matt has already demonstrated a tremendous capability to take on a strategic role in serving the state's geographic data needs,” state Chief Data Officer Christie Burris said in a statement, adding she expects McLamb will “build upon the CGIA’s decades of work to expand the application of GIS and geospatial data into additional enterprise projects.”

McLamb will advise in policy direction and the operation of the CGIA, and support the N.C. Geographic Information Coordinating Council in its role to grow GIS data collaboration across state and local agencies and the private sector.

“I look forward to making a difference in the lives of North Carolinians by improving on the robust data collection and collaboration that we are so privileged to have in our state,” McLamb said in a statement.

GIS data serves as the backbone for supporting numerous state-level emergency services initiatives, and has proven essential during disaster response.

Mike Cox, director of fire and emergency medical services solutions for Esri and a retired fire official in Henrico County, Va., recounted how during the response to Hurricane Helene in western North Carolina, GIS technology was used to help catalogue events such as human as well as pet rescues.

“And all of that’s being recorded in real time. So you’re on the command post … and you’re literally looking at this data-enriched map and watching these symbols pop up,” Cox explained in an interview with Government Technology last week. “It’s an amazing way to communicate where the issues are, where the resources are, and more efficiently deploy those resources to deal with the incident,” he added.

McLamb has worked with local governments across North Carolina and the nation in strategic planning and offering technical expertise for developing GIS data. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in computer information systems from the University of Mount Olive and a master’s degree in GIS and technology from North Carolina State University.