Eleanor Tutt Departs Rise
Eleanor Tutt, our highly valued Data Management Coordinator, will be departing from Rise as of December 31, 2015. Eleanor started with Rise in February of 2007.
Eleanor has been responsible for analyzing Rise’s geospatial databases, collecting and publishing neighborhood indicator data (including housing, demographic, social, and economic data), and creating Geographic Information System (GIS) maps for Rise planning and development projects. She provided capacity-building technical assistance services to neighborhood organizations, helping them access information, introducing them to data interpretation best practices, and assisting them in the development of their own maps and databases.
On any given day Eleanor could be working on anything from the Off the Charts! 2: Data and the Arts for Social Change with the Regional Arts Commission (RAC), to setting up an interactive online dashboard related to problem properties for Dutchtown South Community Corporation, to updating and working on the Neighborhood Data Gateway (a source for data on St. Louis assets and opportunities managed and maintained by Rise), to representing St. Louis on the Executive Committee of the National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership (NNIP). Whew! That’s a lot for anyone on any day to be working on and that is just to name a few of Eleanor’s projects.
Recently, Eleanor has been working on an initiative of Living Cities, Code for America and the National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership, supported by the MacArthur Foundation, to harness civic data and technology to improve the lives of low-income residents.
Under this initiative, Rise, Open Data STL, and St. Louis County are collaborating to implement technology solutions that will bring transparency and an improved experience to the local courts system. In the process, the partners will also work to strengthen collaboration at the local level between residents, civic technologists, neighborhood data practitioners, and government officials. One example of this “ecosystem building” work was the hands-on Civic Tech and Community Development workshop Eleanor facilitated this fall for Rise’s Community Development Corporation partners.
Knowing Eleanor, she will continue to focus her passion for data democratization, map making, and community development to serve the public and make a positive impact on our neighborhoods. We will miss her and all the value and passion she has brought to Rise, and we look forward to seeing what she does next. Good Luck, Eleanor!
Rise held a going away party for Eleanor (which also served as a welcome party for our new Data Management Coordinator, John Cruz) on December 16, 2015. Please take a look:
