Meet Grit May

Grit May | GIS Project Manager

Ingenious, Courageous, Kindhearted

Grit joined the International Water Institute in 2006 and currently works as the GIS Project Manager. During the last decade she has performed numerous spatial terrain analyses, primarily in hydrology and water quality applications. She was the GIS lead in the Red River Basin Mapping Initiative generating Digital Elevation Models and 2-foot contour lines. Other projects include identifying potential water-related storage areas for flood damage reduction projects and delineating formerly drained wetland basins for wetland and habitat restoration. Lately she models water quality in a GIS environment by calculating the amount of surface water runoff, determining areas of erosion and estimating pollutant loads. This information is being used to identify places suitable for the implementation of Best Management Practices to improve surface water quality.

Grit has organized GIS-related workshops and training sessions, built the former web site for the Fargo-Moorhead Feasibility Study and developed outreach material in STEM education.

She holds Master’s of Science degrees in Environmental Sciences and in Analytical Chemistry from Friedrich-Schiller University in Jena, Germany. During and after her graduate studies she traveled the world before joining an environmental consulting firm in Germany, where she worked on brownfield site decontamination and environmental impact assessments. Since 2005, Grit has resided in Fargo, ND.  In her free time, she enjoys outdoor activities, such as hiking and cross-country skiing. She still loves traveling to remote places of natural beauty and meeting people from other cultures.

Contact Grit:  (701) 261-0330 | grit@iwinst.org