Deborah Dennison

Deborah Dennison died Dec. 21, 2025. She was 60.

She was born Aug. 4, 1965, in Chicago, Illinois to Eric Hohnwald and Karen (Jensen) Hohnwald. She grew up in Sarasota, Florida, and graduated from high school there. After acquiring a degree in business administration and accounting, she supported herself as a bookkeeper and accountant.

She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of South Florida with a major in urban and regional planning and geospatial information Systems (GIS). She became an expert in GIS, remote sensing and imagery analysis and applying her knowledge to a career path working for both U.S. government and private-sector firms designing, building and operating advanced information processing systems that aided these sponsors and their clients and the general public.

She worked for Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory from 2009-2017. She collaborated with leading scientists in support of vital systems for military defense, homeland security, emergency management and response. She served as subject matter expert on a vast array of projects that needed GIS and Remote Sensing Technology and routinely performed project management activities.

While also completing her master’s degree in GIS from Penn State University, in 2017 she decided to take a leap of faith and pursued her passion for geography, history, and world culture, leveraging her skill at cartography and expertise in remote sensing and imagery, as founder of GeoJango LLC in Pleasanton. In 2023, if running her own business was not enough, she took on another full-time job with an environmental management company, S2SERM in San Ramon, California, where she was the director of GIS & Remote Sensing.

A private memorial service, a Celebration of Life, is being held locally on May 2 and a separate special hike to her favorite spot on May 3, however, please contact timjvoss [at] comcast.net (timjvoss[at]comcast[dot]net) for detailed service information. To honor her, the family recommends that you donate to a cancer research organization of your choice, and consider visiting her company's website at https://geojango.com to pick out a map or a game you like and buy it, knowing you are getting something rare and unique that was created by her and her passion for life.