From Nobody to GIS: How I Found My Path to Environmental Data Analytics

Deanna Mellon — Tue, 04 Aug 2026 05:20:41 +0000

From Nobody to GIS: How I Found My Path to Environmental Data Analytics

The Early Years

I graduated from high school in 2013 with no idea what I wanted to do. At the time, I did not take anything seriously, and money did not matter to me. Over the next four years, I bounced between jobs in different fields. I hopped between positions in fast-food, direct care, call centers, and warehouses. I experienced different industries at the ground level, seeing firsthand what some of the worst work positions are like. When I think of this in the present, I am ashamed.

The truth is I hated all of those positions. Each lacked a bigger picture that would matter to me long-term. I discovered I am not cut out for food service; I respect anybody who can tolerate Sunday mornings. If I never see a burger or sub-sandwich again, it will be too soon.

I even enrolled in college twice. The first time, I officially withdrew from general studies. The second time, I was in business administration and just stopped going to class. I worked to pay for concerts, events, and travel. Nothing more. I was like a Sims character with no skills and growing debt.

But underneath all of that, something else was building.

What Actually Caught My Attention

Outside of work and school, I had become obsessed with fractals, research papers, data, waste pollution, loss of wildlife, fisheries and marine life, coral reefs, air quality, and mycorrhizal networks. I read everything I could get my hands on. Yes, that is a mouthful. My brain was collecting niche interests like Pokémon cards. How could I turn this into a career when my interests were familiar but broad?

Then I became pregnant and had my daughter in 2017. I worked at American Woodmark for a few months and then WebstaurantStore for three years. I was waiting. Waiting for my daughter to become school age. Waiting for the right moment. Also, my back was wrecked.

That moment came in January 2022.

The Pivot

At 26 years old, I went back to community college at Potomac State. I had spent years in warehouses, packing and picking orders, flexing for material handling, handling quality control audits, and reconciling spreadsheets against physical stock. It paid the bills, but I knew I could not spend the rest of my life in labor, working odd shifts without growth opportunity. I needed something better.

I went to Potomac State for a year straight to get my Associate of Arts in Wildlife and Fisheries. I wanted to do Forestry, but there were no Forestry programs nearby, so Wildlife and Fisheries was the closest I could get. I started volunteering with the Central Appalachian Spruce Restoration Initiative and joined forestry clubs to get as close to the work as I could. I also co-founded a tree care business, Coherence Tree Care LLC, where I supported my husband, who is an arborist, with residential work. That gave me hands-on experience and a taste of running my own operation. Finally, while I was in community college, I became a math tutor. I discovered I liked breaking down complex problems into clear steps for people. That patience and clarity would serve me well later.

From there, I transferred to Frostburg State University, still chasing Wildlife and Fisheries. I was similar to a lost puppy following a scent.

Finding GIS

I attended Frostburg for two years straight, working toward my BSc. I quickly realized I hated memorizing the massive amount of information required for Biology courses like Genetics, Animal Physiology, and Mammalogy. I would rather eat a brick than attempt to memorize another taxonomic hierarchy. Additionally, the courses felt shallow in terms of real-world applications, staying mostly at a theoretical level. At the time, I did not understand why, although now it makes sense.

So, I pivoted my major to Environmental Science. This let me enroll in more Earth Science, Geography, Biogeography, Geographic Information Systems, and Remote Sensing courses. Each of these courses had its benefits, but none of them fully addressed the interdisciplinary, hands-on approach I was looking for. I wanted to combine biology, ecology, geography, geospatial technology, Python, RStudio, and technical tools to address complex issues. For the first time, I could see an overall picture of the career I wanted that felt right. It legitimately reminded me of the first time I put on glasses and found out other people saw individual leaves on trees, rather than blurry green clouds on sticks.

I graduated with my BSc and walked straight into a full-time GIS position. Finally, it seemed all those years of aimlessness would come to a close.

The State Job

I took a position as a Transportation GIS Technician for the West Virginia Division of Highways. I digitized maps, built and cleaned asset spreadsheets, researched road history, and developed reports with suggestions of road changes for commissioners' orders. I navigated old straight-line diagrams, field notes, rights-of-way, parcels, mile points, and more for each report. I created standardized maps and focused on explaining GIS concepts to engineers and colleagues unfamiliar with the technology.

Out of curiosity, I designed a mobile map package/project with ArcGIS Pro and ESRI Field Maps using the national hydrography and transportation dataset to determine where water intersected roadways. Then, I made a feature class of points that were spatially joined with transportation data such as route IDs. Finally, I began a Survey123 form alongside the project to describe assets in District 5. This project was meant for interns who would be hired the following summer to help them gain familiarity with our assets and roadways.

However, I was dealing with a high-risk pregnancy during my employment, and I could see there was very little room for career growth where I was. Essentially, my department was reporting; their idea of support was creating spreadsheets by searching old documents for unmapped assets, which would take many years to complete. The mobile map project was from my own determination to speed the process along. While spreadsheets are a large part of data entry, data cleaning, and ArcGIS Pro, I wanted to solve challenges. I found the spreadsheets becoming monotonous and decided to research better ways to handle the information.

I started looking into Python scripting for GIS automation and integrated development environments (IDEs) like RStudio and VS Code. Initially, I wanted to automate tedious tasks like organizing and cleaning Excel spreadsheets, converting state project numbers to route ID's quickly, creating and editing feature classes (points, lines, and polygons), and applying labeling and symbology. At the level I was at with the DOH, many tools were blocked from my access for security and even budget concerns. The truth is I needed better technology, a larger storage capacity, and in-person guidance.

Plot twist: five months later, I left.

Where I Am Now

Now I am a stay-at-home mom of two, homeschooling my nine-year-old and preparing to take graduate courses one at a time. I applied to Unity's MSc in Environmental Data Analytics and was accepted.

I am not working full-time right now, but I am still building the interdisciplinary skillset I dream of when I have free time.

What's Next

I am not sure exactly where this path ends, but I know I will keep moving forward.

That is the whole point of this post, really. I am not writing this because I have it all figured out. I am writing this because I am figuring it out, and I think that is worth documenting.

If you are also in the middle of a career pivot, teaching yourself to code, or wondering if it is too late to start over... it is not. The dev.to community has shown me that learning in public is not about being an expert. It is about being honest about where you are and letting other people learn alongside you.

So here I am. New. Honest. Learning. Still figuring it out.

Let's do it together.

Thanks for reading my story. I'll be writing more about my journey, things I'm learning, and projects I'm working on. Stay tuned.

DEV Community: Deanna Mellon

From Nobody to GIS: How I Found My Path to Environmental Data Analytics

From Nobody to GIS: How I Found My Path to Environmental Data Analytics

The Early Years

What Actually Caught My Attention

The Pivot

Finding GIS

The State Job

Where I Am Now

What's Next