Blazing a Trail for Women in Surveying

By Cyn Whitfield, Senior Marketing Specialist

I started out working from a home office running my husband’s survey business while he had a full-time engineering job. Working from home allowed me to be a stay-at-home mom to my two boys and still make an income. I was responsible for the billing, marketing, business development, contracts, research and drawings. And, as many surveyors’ wives can attest, I even served as a field crew member. I would work survey and manage the kids by day and do theatre by night.  

I can accurately pinpoint the influencers in all of my interests. As the eldest of three daughters growing up, I was the one interested in cars, dirt bikes and tree houses. We traveled a great deal when we were kids. Traveling with my parents was not without its drama. We witnessed an attempted governmental take down on the beach of Mexico. I had a near miss with Elvis when he attempted to stop me from photographing him and Pricilla in the Bahamas. And, oh yes, let’s not forget the crowded conditions as we traveled in a car full of the artwork my mother collected at each stop.  

During our travels, my mom said I was always coming back with a story about someone I had met. Everyone has a story, and I was fascinated by it. I guess that is why I went into journalism. I have interviewed many celebrities, but it is the stories from the lesser known that I find most interesting. The crane operator who put the last piece in place on the St. Louis Arch. The land surveyor turned shrimp farmer from Texas. The engineer who repels Mount Rushmore to repair and clean the faces and took me to the top to stand on George Washington’s head. And there are countless stories from surveyors who have unearthed hidden markers and stones telling the story of the American landscape.   

I remember the day that opportunity literally rang. A phone call asking me to be part of a new company using a new surveying technology started the journey. They only needed marketing help for a few months. We were all just starting out in LiDAR at that time. The technology was new, and surveyors didn’t latch onto it right away. 

Since that day, I have marketed LiDAR for five companies. I have exposed thousands of surveyors to LiDAR applications, published numerous articles on the technology, and attended dozens of surveyor state conferences across the country. There is a story waiting to be told in every project. I have been part of the team that scanned the Kansas City Music Hall, helped advance telecommunications to American Samoa and scanned NASCAR tracks across the nation.    

I learned from the original developers of LiDAR, Ben Kacyra and Jerry Dimsdale at CyArk before Leica purchased the technology. I spent an evening captivated with stories from Ben’s wife, Barbara, about her “survey crew wife” days when they were testing the technology. Barbara helped me understand that there is a place for women in this technology, and I’m proud to be one of the first.

So, what does all this have to do with becoming one of the first women in LiDAR? The fact is, I never planned to be in the surveying world. It found me. Somewhere, deep inside, my love of historic preservation, art, travel, and my performance skills from the theatre combined with a little luck, a whole lot of trial and error and a fair amount of gumption to get me to where I am today.

There’s a joke that if you put a spotlight over my desk now, I will have come full circle. I love telling the stories. I love seeing the beauty in the landscapes we scan. I love mentoring the next generation. And I love paving the way for other women to blaze trails, whether in survey, LiDAR or whatever path may come their way.