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The Need for Diversity in Surveying

By: Trent J. Keenan, PLS & Kristina Poulter
An abstract of The Geoholics Podcast from July 2020.
Opportunity. Inclusion. Potential.

These are just a few inspiring words that can sum up the benefits of diversity in the
workplace.
Surveying has long been the domain of white men. But there are many other voices that
are interested in having a seat at the surveying table.

Diversity is more than just an office that’s made up of half men and half women. It’s about
cultivating talent across the social spectrum.

Anna, Hasmitha, Roxanne, and David are four surveyors who are proud to represent
diversity in surveying. On a recent episode of the Geoholics Podcast, they teamed up to
discuss the importance of prioritizing diversity in the surveying profession today.

Diverse surveying voices

Anna Rios is an RPLS and president Aerios Geo LLC in Georgetown, Texas. She’s been in the surveying profession for nearly 20 years.

Hasmitha Rayasam was born in India and moved to the US to obtain her master’s degree from Boston University in remote sensing and
geospatial science. Hasmitha is a Project Scientist for Satelytics, in Perrysburg, Ohio .

Roxanne Nimmer is a professional survey and is currently semi-retired. She was the fourth native New Mexican female to be registered in
the state. Surveying since the 1980s, she’s seen much negativity and injustice through the years—but sees room for hope today.

David Acosta, also of New Mexico, is part-owner of a survey company called Construction Survey Technologies. Inc. (CSTi).

Each of the four surveyors identifies with a diverse group, such as female, Hispanic, Indian, or multiple labels. And each one believes in the
positive power of further promoting diversity across the profession.

The power of diverse perspectives

Diversity isn’t just a checkbox or a buzzword. It’s an asset.
The more diverse perspectives that your company can offer, the better work you can do, and the more effectively you can complete
complex projects and serve a diverse set of clients.

When a profession or a company is not diverse, it’s the equivalent of not seizing its full potential.
“If we don’t become diverse, we’re just really bottle-necking who we are and also the path that somebody could take coming in,” David said.
“If we don’t diversify, then we’re just really pinching ourselves down to only being able to do specific things by specific people.”
He recalled attending a meeting a year or so ago in Orlando for the NSPs chapter. Looking around the room, he quickly realized he was one
of the few Latinos in the group.
It was a wake-up call to the important fact that when you don’t see your image reflected in existing leadership, you feel like you don’t have
a viable pathway to success. And that’s demoralizing.

Diverse leadership is important because the citizens of today are global citizens, and surveyors play an important role in land development,
city planning, and landscaping.

“If all those spaces we live in are being studied and planned by men, it is obviously being designed for men,” Hasmitha said.

She recalled seeing a picture of a woman with a baby stroller not being able to use a sidewalk under a flyover, because the stroller didn’t fit
in there. “She had to walk on the road, which also had cars passing by at really high speed,” Hasmitha said.

A more diverse and inclusive approach would have taken a mother’s experience into account, and perhaps lent to a more inclusive sidewalk
design with the ramp.

According to Anna, diversity comes back to the idea of creating opportunity: most specifically, the opportunity to increase the stagnating
surveying workforce.

14 The Nevada Traverse Vol.49, No.3, 2022