The Taylor Geospatial Institute (TGI), a St. Louis research institute launched in 2022 to focus on geospatial technology, has named its first executive director.
TGI, located at Saint Louis University, said Tuesday it has hired Nadine Alameh as executive director. She succeeds Vasit Sagan, a professor at Saint Louis University who has been TGI’s acting director since its founding in April 2022.
Alameh’s appointment is effective Sept. 1. She currently is president and CEO of Arlington, Virginia-based Open Geospatial Consortium, a global standards organization whose membership includes more than 500 businesses, government agencies, research organizations and universities. Alameh is also a member of the U.S. Department of the Interior’s National Geospatial Advisory Committee and a board member of the United Nations Geospatial Global Information Management Private Sector Network, a press release said.
Previous roles held by Alameh include chief architect for innovation in the technology services/civil solutions division of airspace and defense firm Northrop Grumman; a technical adviser to NASA’s Applied Science Program; and roles while involved in the creation and management of several startup companies. Alameh has a doctorate in computer and information systems engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She earned master’s degrees in civil and environmental engineering and city planning from MIT and a bachelor’s degree in engineering from the American University of Beirut.
“Dr. Alameh is a champion of collaboration, innovation, diversity, and knowledge sharing in the expanding geospatial ecosystem and considers herself a passionate advocate for the potential of geospatial science and technology to improve the world,” Fred Pestello, president of SLU, one of TGI's member institutions, said in a statement. “She brings a wealth of success and leadership in geospatial science to the Taylor Geospatial Institute, and I am very excited to have her join the TGI team.”
With her role at TGI, Alameh will lead an organization that includes eight regional research institutions and aims to expand St. Louis’ position as a hub of geospatial research and innovation. TGI is targeting research around the topics of food security, geospatial science and computation, health care, and national security.
“I am honored to be selected as the inaugural executive director of the Taylor Geospatial Institute,” Alameh said in a statement. “I see TGI as a transformational actor in the geospatial ecosystem, accelerating our collective research, applications, and impact — on climate, disasters, health, food security, defense and beyond.”
TGI's launch was funded through a “legacy investment” from Andy Taylor, executive chairman of Clayton-based rental car giant Enterprise Holdings Inc., and capital from its eight members. Its member institutions are the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, Harris-Stowe State University, Missouri University of Science & Technology, Saint Louis University, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, University of Missouri-Columbia, University of Missouri-St. Louis and Washington University.
TGI said in a news release that Alameh was selected as executive director through a national search. SLU Provost Michael Lewis and Aaron Bobick, dean of Washington University’s McKelvey School of Engineering, led the search committee, which included participation from all of its member institutions, officials said.
