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St Louis '26Speakers

Katie Picchione

Response Coordination Lead at NASA Disasters Response Coordination System (DRCS).

About

Katie Picchione has been working at the intersection of technology and disasters since 2018, with a special focus on applications of remote sensing in emergency management. She is currently the Response Coordination Lead for the NASA Disasters Response Coordination System (DRCS). She previously served as an Emergency Management Specialist at FEMA and held a research position with the Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief Systems group at MIT Lincoln Laboratory. She holds a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and a master's in Technology and Policy from MIT.

In a volunteer capacity, Katie is also an advisor for the GISCorps/NAPSG PhotoMappers project and recently provided technical advice to Common Space as a member of the Satellite Team. In her free time, Katie rings tower bells at Washington National Cathedral and is part of the North American Guild of Change Ringers. Opinions expressed are her own and do not represent her opinions as a Federal employee or that of NASA.

On the agenda

  • When It's Go Time

    Nov. 18 '26, 03:00pm Panel Paperboat Gallery

    From the Ebola response to the Colombia-Venezuela earthquakes to the Nepal floods, the same cycle keeps repeating: the imagery could have changed everything if only it had reached the right hands in time. This session asks what it will actually take to break that cycle, so imagery shows up early enough to help save the day instead of just documenting it afterward

    Moderators

    1. Madison Musgrave

    Speakers

    1. Michael Budde
    2. Ziad Al Achkar, PhD
    3. Katie Picchione
  • Clash of the Damage Data!

    Nov. 19 '26, 10:00am Workshop Council Room

    Satellite-based damage data was a critical resource for first responders on the ground following the devastating earthquakes in Venezuela in June 2026. However, after the response settled, we observed a stark contradiction: the damage data sources showed high disagreement and generally reached different damage status conclusions on the building-level, even when using the same underlying remote sensing data. This 1 hour, 15 minute interactive workshop will feature lightning talk-style presentations from a panel of experts involved in the humanitarian response following the earthquakes in Venezuela. This will be followed by a brainstorming session where participants can contribute their expertise to help the humanitarian sector as a whole find ways to improve processes for the next response. This workshop is intended for EO practitioners working on damage mapping in either natural hazard or armed conflict scenarios. Each expert presenter will offer to workshop attendees a prompt or call to action for how to improve analytical workflows and processes moving forward so that we can better support life-saving efforts on the ground in the future.

    Workshop space is limited. Sign-up will happen in-person when you check in for the conference.

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Sponsors

Silver

  1. LGND

Hosts

  1. Development Seed

  2. Common Space

  3. Taylor Geospatial

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