SCARC Executive Committee:

President: Melody Porter

GIS Technician, City of Union
E-mail: mporter@cityofunion.org

Following her training, Melody worked with the Catawba Council of Governments before returning to Union to be closer to home. Since joining the city, she has been instrumental in converting Union’s traditional mapping system into a robust GIS platform. Her work has not only modernized city operations but also highlighted the powerful role GIS plays in decision-making and community development.

Outside of work, Melody enjoys writing novels and volunteering with the local tourism board.

Past President: Alan Rickenbaker

Alan is a graduate of the University of South Carolina where he obtained a Bachelor of Science, a Bachelor of Arts, and a Master of Science degree. Alan started with the City of West Columbia in late June. Alan was previously employed with Lexington County's Planning and GIS Department for 13 years, where he started as a GIS Technician and over the years moved up to eventually become the GIS Manager. Alan and his team were responsible for maintaining and housing the County’s GIS data, supporting the Online Mapping Applications, creating custom maps and apps, and performing numerous other tasks in support of improved spatial awareness for the County.

Past President:  Reginald Odell Sanders II

Reggie started out his GIS career in the Florence County Assessor's office. He moved into the GIS department and was promoted to the Director of GIS at Florence County in 2023. He is a genius.

Secretary: Tamsen Waldron

American Forest Management Inc.

Tamsen has worked for American Forest Management for 27 years.  She has developed and designed mapping products and maintained a large amount of data for AFM’s landowners. She has worked to create custom databases and specialty maps.  She really enjoys training field personnel in ArcMap, and other open source software.  She is also part of a development team as primary tester for new applications created within the organization. Her desire is to teach others to use GIS and to improve on GIS products.  She feels that it is very important that GIS data is useful for the foresters in her organization.  GIS is very important in making decisions.  She always love a good looking map, but what does the map say to you.  Does your map tell a story?

 Past Secretary: Lorelei Kelly-Guiles

Originally a native of New York and graduate of the College of New Rochelle with a MS degree in Gerontology, Lorelei relocated to South Carolina and was introduced to the field of geospatial technology. She has been involved in GIS for fifteen years and joined the newly formed Florence County GIS Department in 2007. Now she is a GIS Technician where she is responsible for the QA/QC of parcel data, creating maps for internal and external customers. editing topology and providing training. Lorelei is also a strong supporter of GIS in education and has coordinated GIS Day activities in Florence County School Districts One and Four since 2008.

Lorelei expresses sincerely, “I am delighted to be working with all of the SCARC members and affiliates, and look forward to helping promote the growth of this exceptional GIS based organization.”

Treasurer : LaKeisha Bryant

GIS Manager, Edgefield County

LaKeisha Bryant is the GIS Manager for Edgefield County. Lakeisha’s career started 25 years ago and continues in Edgefield County. For the last 8 years I have been managing the GIS Department along with Grant Management and Special Projects. I was previously the Assessor for 7 years prior to that. When I was an Assessor, we were mapping on mylars with pens and erasers. GIS was introduced to me 2007.  I became very interested in GIS and the capabilities. I have been actively working towards an enterprise solution for the county. In 2018 we migrated over to ArcSDE. Finally, after lots of hard work on February 2019 we went live with ESINet and have lived to tell about it. In my spare time I enjoy spending time with my family, especially my grandchild, and traveling.