Our Vision
A future in which communities are empowered, sustainable and resilient.
Our Mission
To empower individuals and communities to make a difference to their local area through the use of mapping and geographical information.
Our Aim
To deliver maps and techniques which enable any organisation, group or enterprise to make a change and improve their environments.
Meet The Team
-
Louise Francis
Louise is a Co-Founder and Managing Director of MfC. She is responsible for the day-to-day management of MfC and oversees the development and delivery of our activities.
She has an academic background in environmental science and has over fifteen years’ experience of working with communities and grass-roots organisations in the UK and throughout the Eastern Caribbean, with a particular focus on justice, sustainability and community development. She specialises in the delivery of participatory mapping and citizen science activities.
-
Professor Muki Haklay
Muki is a Co-Founder and Director of MfC. He is a Professor of Geographic Information Science and the director of UCL Extreme Citizen Science research group, which is dedicated to create new methods for participatory and collaborative science.
His research interests include Public Access and use of Environmental Information, Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Usability Engineering of GIS and Societal aspects of GIS use. He has been involved in participatory GIS since 1999, when during his PhD research he explored how it can be used to involved local communities in understanding new developments in Wandsworth.
-
Chris Church
Chris is a Co-Founder and Director of Mapping for Change.
Chris has 25 years experience working on sustainable and community development. He previously worked as local and regional development manager for Friends of the Earth UK, and is now on the Board or FoE. He also chairs the UK Low Carbon Communities Network. He works extensively as a trainer and advisor to local communities, notably on the Big Lottery 10-year ‘Big Local’ programme. He has also worked extensively with communities and NGOs in Eastern Europe.
-
Hannah Stockwell
Hannah originally joined the team back in 2014 to work on several MfC Air Quality projects. She is now the Community Development Executive where her broad knowledge of environmental and social issues, fundraising and the not-for-profit sector provide a valuable addition to the teams expertise.
Hannah has worked with various communities, including hard to reach groups such as people with a learning disability and young homeless. She has been involved in co-designing and implementing various research and engagement projects in the UK ranging from air quality to urban exploration, despite her inherent lack of direction and thus great love, and need, for maps!
-
Karissa Johnson
Karissa joined as a Community Engagement Officer with a BSc in Global Health from Queen Mary University, London, and an enthusiasm for improving health outcomes in underserved communities. She has a background in community research, involving target groups in the development of health and social care initiatives, and has taught sex education in East London schools.
Karissa works on air quality projects, developing and facilitating workshops for schools. In addition, she coordinates our communications strategy, manages our social media presence and creates content to showcase our projects. With a community-focused mindset, she is eager to promote the impactful work of MfC.
-
Amanda Newton
Amanda brings her passion for creating positive change and fostering inclusivity to her role as a Community Engagement Officer.
-
Eugenia Covernton
Eugenia joined Mapping for Change as a Community Engagement Officer. She studied Biotechnology in Argentina and Science Management in South Korea, before moving to France in 2014 for a PhD in Virology. For the last 5 years, she’s been involved in several projects related to science communication and outreach, and is currently also working in projects related to participatory science and citizen engagement.
Eugenia will be mainly focused on the EU funded UP2030 project and believes that good communication is key when it comes to engaging different stakeholders in science and sustainable change.
-
María Alonso
María joined the team in October 2016 as Business Development Executive.
She has devoted her life to sustainable development and livelihood improvement projects, with more than ten years experience working for NGOs and Social Enterprises. She has an academic background in Environmental Sciences and Rural Development (Erasmus Mundus International MsC in Rural Development).
Positive and proactive, she has taken part in several innovative projects, sustaining that we can work together to re-drive our actions towards a more positive environment.
-
Perrine Machuel
Perrine works part-time at MfC as a GIS Data Analyst for projects around air quality and other environmental issues. She analyses and creates different visualizations using MfC’s data. Before this, she completed a 6-week internship during the summer 2019.
Her year-long experience of living in a community of people with learning disabilities has led to her current interest in working with and for communities. At MfC, Perrine particularly enjoys working on projects which connect social, geographical and environmental issues, and hopes to bring her (newly-acquired) programming skills to bring these issues to life through data analysis.
-
Dr. Artemis Skarlatidou
Artemis is a Research Associate at MfC and a Senior Research Associate and Lecturer at UCL. Her research interests include Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and User Experience aspects (e.g. usability, aesthetics, trust) of geospatial technologies for expert and public use and citizen science applications. She is also interested in evaluation and trust issues within the context of VGI; Risk Communication; philosophical, as well as, ethical issues for the ‘appropriate’ and effective use of geospatial and citizen science technologies.
-
Pablo González Moreno
Pablo is a Research Associate at MfC and a Postdoc researcher at University of Cordoba (Spain). He is a terrestrial ecologist with more than 10 years’ experience in ecological modelling of invasive species and GIS applied for nature resource management. His research focuses on understanding invasive species and pest patterns of agriculture and forest systems in relation to key natural processes. His strong analytical skills in statistical modelling and GIS have been applied to international projects in Europe, Africa, America, and Asia. He is now combining his experience in modelling with people’s needs and engagement in order to deliver useful recommendations for forest and nature management.
-
Mapping for Communities
Mapping for Communities is a partner NGO to Mapping for Change.
Founded in Kampala in 2019, it uses a participative methodology based on the concept of civic communal science and Geographical Information System (GIS). Mapping for Communities carries out research and development of new technologies, tools, platforms and processes aimed at creating improvements for the health and wellbeing of individuals and communities to achieve social and environmental sustainability.
-
Bernadette Uwase Nkalubo
Berna is Director and Lead Engagement Officer at Mapping for Communities.
She has a Bachelor of Arts with a major in Gender and Women studies from Makerere University Kampala and has seven years experience in customer service and administration. Berna’s introduced, led and implemented a Play program that has helped fellow employee’s children enjoy regular exercise in the outdoors during holidays across Kampala.
-
Douglas Uwizera
Douglas joined the Mapping for Communities team in 2019 as Financial Administrator. He manages the NGO accounts and he is in charge of communicating the activities and projects progress through social media.
He has an academic background in Human Resource Management from Makerere University Business School and previous work experience in Human Resources and Accountancy. If you like sports, you’ll have endless hours of good conversation with him.
Acknowledgements
We are very grateful to the following people who somehow contributed to the development of technologies and methodologies used here at Mapping for Change:
London 21
Vinciane Rycroftas, Lucy Glover, Coleen Whitaker and Georgia van Rooijen
UCL Excites Group
Dr Patrick Weber, Patrick Rickles and Gianfranco Gliozzo
UCL Geography
Hanif Rahemtulla, Dan Lewis and Marc Owen Alethea Kimmel-Guy
MSc in GIS at UCL
Paolo Isoardi, Sarah Theakston Yang Liu, Spyridon Spyratos and Nat Evatt
King’s College London
Claire Gibson
Opportunities
We are currently not recruiting. Any new opportunities will be advertised here.
Interns & Volunteers
We are constantly receiving help from Masters students from both UCL and King’s College London, Department of Geography.
