Melody Porter

GIS Technician
City of Union
President 2024-2025 President-Elect 2023-2024
Director-at-Large 2022-2023

Melody Porter is the GIS Technician for the City of Union. She attended USC-Union, studying business administration. After working in the banking system and manufacturing, she was injured and out of work. A friend of the family was the administrator for Vocational Rehab of SC and suggested her attend the program. She was accepted into the technology program to learn AutoCAD and ESRI products. Once introduced to GIS, she knew she was in love. Upon completion, she worked with the Catawba COG before coming to Union to be closer to home. She’s been with Union for 23 years and during that period, she converted their mapping system to GIS. It’s been a long road, but she enjoys working with GIS and learning the power it brings to an organization. Melody writes novels and volunteers with the tourism board in her spare time. She’s also a proud grandmother of one and mother to a daughter currently serving as a Staff Sgt in the US Army, along with her husband.

Kevin Whaley

GIS Analyst
City of North Augusta
President 2014-2015
President-Elect 2013-2014, 2024-2025 Past-President 2015-2016
Treasurer 2012-2013 Director-at-Large 2009-2012, 2023-2024

Kevin has 17 years experience in the GIS field.  He received his BS degree in Computer Science from the University of South Carolina-Aiken.  Kevin began his career with an earth science organization at Savannah River Site in 1998 as a database administrator.  He quickly became very interested in GIS and the capabilities of the technology.  Working with the GIS group he was able to generate a GIS interface to access the well inventory data spatially. Kevin worked for South Carolina Electric & Gas (SCE&G) as GIS systems analyst for electric operations.  He was one of five on a team of GIS application developers with a primary responsibility for SDE administration.  In addition, he helped to develop a gas infrastructure data model for gas operations to migrate gas GIS from ArcINFO to ArcSDE environment. Kevin is currently employed with the City of North Augusta, his hometown, as a GIS analyst.  He is actively working towards an enterprise solution to support all departments within the city.  Eventually, he plans to develop individual GIS applications to address specific department needs. Kevin is a certified GIS Professional (GISP) and enjoys introducing GIS technology to local schools.  Outside of GIS, Kevin enjoys spending time with his wife and two boys, helping at church with A/V, teaching Royal Ambassadors for boys in grades 1-6, and fishing!

Frank Bishop, Jr

IT Director
Aiken County President 2008-2009, 2023-2024 President-Elect 2007-2008, 2022-2023 Past-President 2009-2010, 2024-2025 Secretary 2021-2022 Director-at-Large 2006-2007, 2017-2021

Frank Bishop Jr. started with Aiken County Government in February 1991 as a basic mapper and worked his way up the ladder to GIS Manager in 2002. Frank learned GIS on the job and played a major role with the County throughout GIS system creation, working with all departments as lead for GIS needs, layer creation and processes. In November 2013 Frank transitioned over to more of an IT role, managing IT projects including CAMA database, moving to new building and A\V in new building. In July 2018, Frank became IT Director for Aiken County, managing the standard IT systems (servers, firewalls, networks, PC’s, etc), GeoServices, Records, Print & Postal divisions. Yes, the math shows he will be with Aiken County for 30 years in Feb 2021.

LaKeisha Bryant

GIS Manager
Edgefield County
Treasurer 2022-2025
Director-at-Large 2020-2022

LaKeisha Bryant is the GIS Manager for Edgefield County. Lakeisha’s career started 25 years ago and continues in Edgefield County. For the last 8 years she has been managing the GIS Department along with performing Grant Management and Special Projects. She was previously an Assessor for seven years prior to that, back in the days of mapping on mylars with pens and erasers. GIS was introduced to her in 2007. She became very interested in GIS and the capabilities and has been actively working towards an enterprise solution for the county. In 2018 she helped the County migrate over to ArcSDE. Finally, after lots of hard work on February 2019, Edgefield County went live with ESINet and have lived to tell about it. In her spare time she enjoys spending time with her family, especially her grandchild, and traveling.

Mary Wasson

GIS Analyst
City of Clinton
Secretary 2022-2025
Director-at-Large 2021-2022

Mary Wasson, GISP graduated from University of South Carolina with a B.A. in Business Administration in 1987. After many years in food service, Mary made a career change and earned an Associate’s Degree in Geomatics Technology from Greenville Technical College. She worked for about ten years for civil engineering firms mapping out water and wastewater systems. In 2016, Mary started working for the City of Clinton to help manage the CMOM program.  She transitioned Clinton’s GIS program from a file geodatabase (one user system) to ArcGIS Enterprise. In May 2019, Mary was awarded her Master’s in Geospatial Information Science and Technology (GIST) from NC State. In her free time she enjoys working in her yard, cooking, spending time with friends and family, and going on adventures with her dog.

Bo Castillo

Deputy Director of GIS         
City of North Charleston Director-at-Large 2019-2025
Webmaster 2019-2023

Bo Castillo holds a Bachelor’s degree in Geography from Concord University and is a certified GIS Professional (GISP). Bo has always been a geographer at heart. From a young age, he would collect maps from any source he could find. His grandmother would save any maps from her National Geographic magazines and he insisted that his parents stop at any welcome center during their travels, so he could get the most recent state maps. Bo first discovered GIS from an upperclassman while taking a college course in Cultural Geography. Being a computer science major coupled with a natural love for geography, his curiosity got the best of him and he was immediately hooked. He has over 25 years of experience in the GIS field working mostly in local government. His career in GISbegan as a cadastral mapper and has worked in a variety of positions from Technician, GIS Systems Administrator, IT Programmer/Analyst, GIS Database Administrator, GIS Manager and GIS Analyst. He is currently employed with the City of North Charleston as the Deputy Director of GIS where he works daily with the GIS staff and projects. While away from work, he enjoys family time, tending to his garden and watching college football.

Cameron Brigman

GIS Coordinator
Darlington County
Director-at-Large 2022-2025 Webmaster 2023-2025

Cameron Brigman has seven years experience with Darlington County - often serving various roles between GIS Technician, Coordinator, and Administrator, as with many GIS professionals in smaller organizations. Cameron served with the South Carolina Army National Guard in Hartsville, SC at the age of 17, as a logistics specialist - transitioning later to MLRS rocket launcher crewmember. He later entered the US Coast Guard, stationed in N. Charleston for patrol of the Caribbean. After completion of both services, Cameron obtained an Associates in Science under the Civil Engineering Graphics program of study with a focus on AutoCAD/SolidWorks design, and surveying/cadastral mapping. He is an avid numismatics enthusiast; other hobbies include traveling and graphic design. Cameron is also the Geomatics Instructor for the Southeastern Institute of Manufacturing and Technology (SiMT) at Florence-Darlington Technical college in Florence, South Carolina and serves on the FDTC Engineering Advisory Board.

Ben Mosner

Geospatial Systems Analyst
Lexington County
Director-at-Large 2024-2025

Ben Mosner graduated from the University of South Carolina with a B.S. in Geography and Classics in 2017. He worked in GIS in the Atlanta area, where he was introduced to local government GIS at the City of Canton, Georgia via employment with a managed service provider. In November 2021, Ben started at the County of Lexington, SC, in the Planning & GIS department, where his primary duties include ArcGIS Enterprise/Online administration, data maintenance, app development, and attending to a wide variety of GIS requests from internal and external sources. His particular professional interests are in scripting and server administration. Outside of work, Ben likes to spend time with his dog and work on home improvement projects.