Woolpert: Using GIS and AI to Map a Smarter World and Better Decisions

A spontaneous cross-country road trip can change a person’s perspective. For Jodie Gosselin, it changed the direction of her career. 

Gosselin’s friend invited her to drive to San Francisco. Armed with $150, two rolls of 35-millimeter film and a Rand McNally road atlas, she began plotting their route west. 
The pair initially followed Interstate 70 toward Denver. But after stopping at the Denver Public Library to research the next leg of the trip, Gosselin rerouted their journey through southern Colorado and the Four Corners region. As the landscape changed, so did the communities, lifestyles and recreational activities around it. Gosselin became fascinated by the connections between people and the physical environment. 

“That whole journey was life-changing,” she said. “I was fascinated by the way that the landscape or the physical environment affected people.” 

She returned to WVU, changed her major to geography and selected a geographic information systems track. The road atlas had pointed her toward GIS. 
Today, Gosselin is a senior enterprise GIS team lead at Woolpert, a global architecture, engineering and geospatial firm founded in 1911. Woolpert brings the “G” to the traditional architecture and engineering model, using geospatial information to help clients understand infrastructure, manage assets, plan projects and make more informed decisions. 

“It changes the game when you can see it on a map,” Gosselin said. “Data means more when you can actually see it geographically and then act on it.”

Gosselin joined Woolpert through its acquisition of Dawood Engineering and now works from the company’s growing Pittsburgh operation. She leads an enterprise GIS team that is part of Woolpert’s Enterprise Systems and Analytics market. The team connects with more than 200 GIS professionals across the United States, Europe and Australia. 
Their work spans the entire enterprise GIS lifecycle, from creating the foundational systems and data models organizations need for building custom applications, integrating business platforms and preparing clients for technologies such as artificial intelligence and digital twins. 

GIS, Gosselin explained, combines traditional information systems with geographic context. Data that might normally live inside a spreadsheet or database can be connected to points, lines and polygons on a map. A point could represent a fire hydrant. A line could show a gas pipeline or stream. A polygon could define a property boundary. 
That geographic layer allows organizations to see patterns, model scenarios and act on information in ways a spreadsheet alone cannot deliver. 

Woolpert’s applications range from indoor navigation systems for airports, hospitals and large campuses to utility networks that model the impact of shutting down a section of gas pipeline. GIS can show which customers would be affected, how the shutdown could change the flow of gas and where field crews should be deployed. 

For another utility client, Gosselin’s team transformed a spreadsheet-based land management process into a real-time GIS portal. Project leaders could immediately see which properties had been approved for surveying and which required additional attention. The solution earned an Esri award for its innovative use of GIS. 

“It changes the game when you can see it on a map,” Gosselin said. “Data means more when you can actually see it geographically and then act on it.” AI is adding another dimension to that work. Woolpert is using AI to compare datasets, identify discrepancies, assist with coding and prepare information for digital twins. But Gosselin emphasized that advanced tools still require carefully structured, accurately described data. 

When she is not helping organizations prepare for the geospatial future, Gosselin is working to inspire its next generation. 

Every November, she visits the classroom of her identical twin daughters, Madelyn and Addison, to teach a GIS Day lesson. She has introduced mapping to their classmates each year since kindergarten.