Robin McNeely, manager of the ISU GIS Support and Research Facility administered through the Institute for Design Research and Outreach in the College of Design, will retire Jan. 4, 2024. A drop-in reception will be from 2:30–4:30 p.m. Monday, Dec. 18, in 206 Durham. Help us celebrate her 26 years at Iowa State and wish her well!

McNeely holds a BS in forestry from Virginia Tech (1988) and a BLA (1992) and MLA (1994) from Iowa State. After earning her graduate degree, she accepted a position with the DNR’s GIS section. McNeely joined Iowa State’s animal ecology program as their GIS manager in 1997 and the GIS Facility as a GIS analyst in 2001. She became the GIS Facility manager in 2013.

During her Iowa State tenure, McNeely has been a member of several large grants and contracts. She has hired, managed and mentored over 40 graduate and 75 undergraduate students. Beginning in 2013, she guided the GIS Facility’s transition from a unit of Iowa State’s information technology services department to its current home in the Institute for Design Research and Outreach, administered by the College of Design.

McNeely served on the ISU P&S Council from 2005-2011 and again from 2012-2015, and on the College of Design P&S Council in 2014-2015. She received a P&S CYtation Award in 2017 and was part of the AmericaView team that received the 2021 Group Award at the Pecora 22 symposium and the ENDURE (Electric Network Disaster Mitigation for Utilities in Rural Environment) Team that received Iowa State’s 2023 Interdisciplinary Team Research Award.