Ashley Chappell earned a B.A. in Geography from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1991, and a Master’s degree in Geography and Cartographic Sciences from George Mason University in 1997. After an exciting stint at National Geographic, she joined the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as an aeronautical chart cartographer in 1992. Her childhood summers spent at Virginia Beach and a love of the sea soon necessitated a move to nautical charting for NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey in 1995, where she produced charts of Alaska, the Pacific and Great Lakes waters. In 2000, she moved to policy, strategic planning, and budget formulation to support the worthy mission of safe and efficient marine transportation. Since then, Ashley has focused in large part on the emerging threats and opportunities from a warming Arctic, and the national need for better marine transportation system infrastructure and foundational geospatial data to support good decision-making in the coastal zone. She currently serves as NOAA’s Integrated Ocean and Coastal Mapping Coordinator.
