Our People
Panda has great people working for us. With four full-time employees and several part-time employees, Panda maintains a small working force that is focused on developing and sharing with others the most efficient way to utilize GIS technology.
Frank Conkling, Owner
Frank Conkling is the owner of Panda consulting, a Professional Surveyor and Mapper in the State of Florida, license number 4186 and a licensed GIS Surveyor in the State of South Carolina, license number 24389. Mr. Conkling is a Past President of the Florida Association of Cadastral Mappers and is currently a member of the Board of Professional Surveyors and Mappers in the State of Florida.
From 1974 until 1998, Frank was employed at the Florida office of the John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. During those 24 years at MacArthur, Frank was involved in all survey and land information aspects of the 100,000 acres owned by MacArthur. He was mentored and trained by experts in their fields in all land related disciplines including Surveying, Engineering, Land Development, Legal, Title, Marketing and Land Planning, and eventually gained responsibility for all land related information for the organization.
From 1984-1991, Frank served as Adjunct Professor at Palm Beach Community College where he taught Surveying and Mapping to future licensure candidates. He chaired a committee transitioning the local surveying education program into an Associate of Arts degree allowing students to transfer all accumulated credits to the University of Florida towards a full four-year degree.
Frank has been involved in local, state, and regional efforts to coordinate and enhance the quality of GIS data and implementations and has had articles in national journals and magazines published on such diverse topics as: “The uses and limitations of COGO in base mapping efforts,” “Surveying Issues in Title Insurance and Minimum Technical Standards for Surveys in Florida,” “A Methodology for the Design and Evaluation of Conservation Corridors,” “Utilizing GIS for Identification of Conservation Areas,” and “Building GIS Spatial Models for Environmental Identification.”
Frank is a recognized expert in ESRI software and has developed and taught standard and custom GIS courses on utilizing ESRI software, including basic and advanced editing, implementation, map creation, design and implementation of personal and enterprise geodatabases and has developed with the Florida Department of Revenue and taught custom courses on parcel mapping and maintenance using ArcGIS.
Brian D. Kelly, Senior Project Manager
Brian Kelly joined Panda as Senior Analyst in 2002 after serving as GIS Coordinator/Adjunct Instructor at the Florida Atlantic University Center for Geo Information Sciences from 2000 to 2002. Brian has a Masters degree in Geography from Florida Atlantic University and a BA in Geography from the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown. Brian has taught Introductory and Advanced GIS courses and is well versed in ESRI software, especially the ESRI ArcGIS Parcel Editing Solution (the Parcel Fabric).
In October of 2007, Brian received his Geographic Information System Professional (GISP) designation from the GIS Certification Institute (GISCI) and has continued to demonstrate his integrity and professionalism in every project on which he has worked. Brian has been the project manager for most Parcel Mapping contracts over the past five years and is a member of the Florida Association of Cadastral Mappers.
Brian has served as project manager on multiple projects, including the mapping of Citrus County, Florida in a topologically corrected feature dataset, the complete remapping of Franklin County, Florida in the Parcel Fabric, the Lake Worth Drainage District Right of Way Mapping Project, including the adjustments in the Parcel Fabric, together with many of the Parcel Fabric conversion projects completed within the past few years including Pinellas County, Florida, Forsyth County, Georgia, Cape Girardeau, Missouri, Buffalo County, Wisconsin, Waukesha County, Wisconsin and the City of Austin, Texas.
Joseph Conkling, Senior Parcel Mapper
After more than a dozen years in various surveying firms, Joseph Conkling joined Panda Consulting in 2003 as Senior Mapper. Joseph brings extensive field experience to the team and his experience in GPS surveying has proven valuable especially during initial reconnaissance of controlling corners on the ground. Joseph possesses many years of mapping in both AutoCAD and ESRI ArcGIS. He has developed COGO routines and procedures in both packages that enable faster, more efficient and accurate mapping.
Combining Frank's surveying experience and Joe's extensive knowledge of legal description interpretation is especially useful when working on systems that involve the location of ownership interests in real estate, including the mapping of deeds involving easements rights.