“I have always been drawn towards developing innovative approaches to some of the world’s greatest challenges, including water scarcity, climate change impacts and environmental justice. I wasn’t satisfied with settling for the status quo – I wanted to pursue a career that could generate a real, lasting impact by pushing the boundaries of what we know and accept to be possible. Because of this desire, in every step of my career – whether it was postdoctoral research or in industry - I have intentionally chosen to work in places where, collectively, we are working to make the world a better place through innovation, research, and technology.”
This desire has led Dr Kelsey McDonough to join FloodMapp as a Senior Flood Engineer, based in Boulder, Colorado. With a Ph.D. in Biological and Agricultural Engineering with a focus in Water Resources Engineering, Kelsey works a dual role in our Flood Operations team and our Sales team. Her role includes implementing flood inundation mapping technology while also sharing FloodMapp’s story with potential clients, partners and interested audiences around the world.
“I’m hugely passionate about making the world better through teaching about, understanding and spending time in nature – whether that’s teaching people how to grow their own food and mitigate food deserts through my volunteer work as a Colorado Master Gardener, educating people on water usage and limitations here in my home state, or by communicating to people what’s happening in science today by taking complex, scientific information and disseminating it in the most digestible way possible. I want to enable people to feel comfortable in nature and be able to use it to our advantage to grow food, make our communities more resilient, and improve health outcomes,” Kelsey said.
This passion runs in the family, with Kelsey following in her mom’s footsteps.
“My mom, Dr Kimberly McDonough, has been hugely influential to my career. She was an incredible example of someone who achieved success by exhibiting genuine care and concern for the people that she worked with and served, both in our home community and around the world. Some of my earliest childhood memories are of her returning home from weeks-long trips to the Amazon Rainforest to work with, volunteer with, and learn from indigenous cultures as part of her career in pharmacy. She was known for always leaving the world a little bit better than she found it in every interaction, and I strive to leave the same impact in my career and personal life,” Kelsey said.
Since joining FloodMapp in November 2022, Kelsey has used that passion to fuel her fire in many projects. She’s been instrumental in building awareness of FloodMapp's mission across the United States, including the recent signing of Williamson County in Texas.
“FloodMapp’s work is critically important because we are taking a new, innovative approach to an age-old problem: how do we keep people safe?” Kelsey said.
“By leveraging new and emerging technologies, we can provide intelligence that not only helps to achieve this goal, but enables people to make decisions before, during, and after a flood event that mitigate material losses as well. FloodMapp is a leader in pushing beyond the status quo by leveraging traditional engineering approaches and coupling them with new, innovative technological solutions.
“I am so excited to see FloodMapp take on the world. We are small but mighty, and I’m so proud to be a part of an innovative team that is aiming to make flood intelligence available to people around the globe to achieve our mission of building a safer future. I hope to continue to be an integral part of our team and lead us into future phases of implementation and growth,” Kelsey said.
We’re grateful to have Kelsey on the team and we look forward to continuing to work with her to build a safer future.
Connect with Kelsey via kelsey@floodmapp.com or via LinkedIn.