OUR PRINCIPAL INSTRUCTORS
W. Lamar Evers, PSM, is a Professional Land Surveyor registered in Florida, Alabama, Mississippi (Retired), and North Carolina (Retired). Formerly employed by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Division of State Lands, Bureau of Survey and Mapping as the Mean High Water Program Manager and the LABINS Program Manager. His responsibilities included the dissemination of tidal data, establishing procedures for the determination of the mean high-water line, issuance of Notices of Filing for mean high water surveys, maintaining the Mean High-Water Repository, maintaining the database for Certified Corner Records, and oversight of retracement surveys under Chapter 177, Part III, Florida Statutes.
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He has conducted mean high-water line surveys and studies in Florida and Mississippi and has served as the Task Manager for the retracement of the Guide Meridian and portions of the Basis of Parallel, both being established in 1825 & 1826. In addition, he has reviewed over 4,000 mean high-water surveys and approximately 60 mean high-water studies by various surveyors around the state.
GUEST INSTRUCTORS
Claire
Duchemin, P.A.
Dr. Joe Knetsch,
Former Bureau of Survey & Mapping Historian
Claire Duchemin was born in Maine but grew up in Florida in the Orlando area. In 1977, she graduated from The Florida State University with a Bachelor of Science degree, magna cum laude. In 1980, she graduated with honors with her Juris Doctorate degree from The Florida State University College of Law.
For more than forty years Claire has been in private law practice in Tallahassee and the surrounding counties and cities. She is admitted to and has litgated cases at all levels of the state and federal court
systems.
Dr. Joe Knetsch is the author of over two hundred articles and twelve books concerning the state of Florida’s history. Three of these books involve the Seminole Wars and their impact on Florida’s development.
He is also a frequent reviewer of books on military history for the Journal of America’s Military Past and authored regular articles for Professional Surveyor Magazine for over a decade. For twenty-eight years he served as the historian for the Division of State Lands in the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. Dr. Knetsch lives in Tallahassee with his wife Linda and their four cats and is now retired.
Matthew Niles, S.I.T., FIG/IHO Cat A, C.H.
Les Odum, PSM
Matt Niles earned a BS in Geomatics from The University of Florida (Gainesville, FL) and an MS in Hydrographic Science from The University of Southern Mississippi, Stennis Space Center. He holds a FIG/IHO Category A Hydrographer Certificate and is an ACSM-THSOA Certified Hydrographer.
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Matt currently works at Degrove Surveyors, Inc. as a Project Manager and Lead Hydrographer. He began his career working offshore in the oil and gas industry as a survey technician and party chief. He gained a wide variety of knowledge working on projects that included deepwater asset positioning and tracking, dimensional control, single-beam sonar, side-scan sonar, muti-beam sonar, sub-bottom profile, and magnetometer surveys. Matt has performed hydrographic surveys on all 3 coasts of the United States, as well as in Alaska, Mexico, Africa, and South America.
Les Odom has 24 years of land surveying experience with 12+ years dedicated to surveying the railroad. His railroad surveying career began with the CSX Real Property, Incorporated, a division of CSX Transportation, Incorporated.
As the lead in-house surveyor for CSX, his responsibility was the managing of surveys in 23 states and 2 provinces in Canada. He has surveyed, designed, and located tracks and property acquisitions for multiple projects during his tenure.
He is a Registered Land Surveyor in Texas and Florida. He is a graduate of the University of West Florida with a B.A. in Mathematics. He has taught surveying mathematics at Northlake Community College in Lewisville, Texas, and authored mathematic courses specific for survey technicians.
Christian Stallings,
Co-founder & CEO of BirdOne, LLC
Arthur Mastronicola, PSM
Art Mastronicola Jr., PSM has over forty years of experience in land surveying. In addition to his responsibilities associated with field crew and office production supervision and operation, Mr. Mastronicola is experienced in project management and review for development clients, civil engineers, roadway projects, municipalities, and private clients.
He is currently employed by the Florida Department of Transportation D2 as the Right of Way Mapping Manager reviewing Right of Way maps and documents for road projects in District II. He is registered in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, New York, and Connecticut.
Mr. Mastronicola is a Past State President of FSMS as well as a former board member and chair of the FDACS BPSM. These positions have allowed him to be exposed to many different interpretations of the laws and rules affecting surveyors giving him insight into areas that create issues and concerns for surveyors.
Richard Powell, PLS
Richard Powell, PLS is a Florida Professional Land Surveyor with more than forty-five years of experience in the private and public sectors. He has a B.A. in Business Administration from Saint Leo University and is the City Surveyor for the City of Lakeland. He is responsible for the review of consultant surveys, right of way maps and subdivision plats and expanding the City’s vertical control network. He has extensive experience in boundary and topographic surveys and the review of FDOT right of way maps. Mr. Powell has served as FSMS District Four Director and President.
Christian Stallings is the co-founder and CEO of BirdOne LLC, which creates tools using drones, GIS, and AR to connect field and office teams. Previously, he led R&D for McKim & Creed, growing their UAS program to 40+ pilots and 2,000+ flights. Stallings has been featured in major media and published in ArcNews, LiDAR Magazine, and the Journal of Unmanned Systems. His beach survey research earned top engineering honors in North Carolina and an ESRI GIS award. He is a certified photogrammetrist and FAA Part 107 remote pilot. Learn more at www.b1rd.io.
