EP5: Breaking barriers in the surveying profession

Advance: An NCEES podcast series

As a 30-year professional licensed surveyor, it’s important for Karie Colburn, P.L.S., to help other females in the profession keep pushing ahead. In this episode, Colburn shares her surveying story, including what it’s like to be a female business owner, why it was important to her to become professionally licensed, and her advice to other females working in the surveying profession. Colburn is a professionally licensed land surveyor in Georgia and holds a Bachelor of Science in Land Surveying from Purdue University. Colburn owns her own surveying business, GeoTerra USA, LLC and is certified as a female business enterprise with the city of Roswell, Georgia, and with Fulton County. She has over 30 years of experience in surveying, including boundary, ALTA, topographic, route, GIS data collection, construction layout, and as-built surveys. Her background ranges from field data collection to survey computations to project and business management. Colburn is also active in the Surveying and Mapping Society of Georgia (SAMSOG) and is currently serving as the Etowah chapter representative to the state SAMSOG board and the public relations committee chairperson.