Ryan LANCLOS

Ryan Lanclos is a director of Esri’s global public sector strategy and solutions. He supports national governments, NGOs, and multi-national organizations working to maximize their impact for people, planet, prosperity, and peace using GIS for Good. Ryan is a subject matter expert in the use of GIS for resilience, crisis response, and humanitarian aid with over two decades of experience in applying geospatial technology to solve complex challenges for our planet. 

Ryan’s career has been dedicated to advancing the use of GIS for crisis and emergency management around the world. While at Esri, he formalized the Disaster Response Program (DRP), supporting more than 7,000 organizations around the world as they responded to sudden onsite emergencies like wildfires, earthquakes and hurricanes; and protracted emergencies such as conflict, famine, and climate related emergencies. In this capacity, Ryan led Esri’s global response to the COVID-19 pandemic, working across the public health, government, and NGO community to champion and deploy GIS around the world to help map, analyze, and communicate the spread of the disease. 

Before joining Esri, Ryan served as the director of state and local government programs at the NAPSG Foundation where he built national GIS capacity for emergency responders, trained the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) GIS Cadre for the National Response Coordination Center, and developed GIS methods and tools to help the federal government utilize location-based data and analytics to understand where to focus climate resilience initiatives within vulnerable communities. Earlier in his career, Ryan served as the first State Geographic Information Officer (GIO) for Missouri, advising the Governor’s Office on the application of GIS while leading statewide GIS coordination across cabinet agencies.

A recognized thought leader around the world, Ryan holds several influential board and advisory appointments, including:

• XPRIZE Wildfire Advisory Board, Member
• International Advisory Board for Integrated Research on Disaster Risk (IRDR) in Japan, Appointed Member
• United Nations Working Group for Disasters, Representative Member
• Group on Earth Observations (GEO) Disaster Risk Reduction Working Group, Member
• FEMA National Advisory Council (NAC), Appointed Member (former)

Ryan holds an Master of Science (M.S.) in Cartography & GIS from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in Geology with a minor in Biology from Centenary College of Louisiana. He is a published editor of two books on applying GIS for emergency management and public safety.