Team

Principals/Founders

Anna L. West — Anna L. West Founder & Managing Principal

Anna L. West is a Co-Founder and Managing Principal of Kearns & West. She has over 30 years of experience in collaborative solutions, facilitation/mediation, and public engagement, particularly related to water, energy, environmental, natural resource, land use, and infrastructure issues. Anna is a member of the U.S. Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution’s mediator roster.

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Joan Isaacson — Joan Isaacson Principal & Senior Facilitator

Joan Isaacson is a Principal and Senior Facilitator at Kearns & West with over 25 years of experience in community engagement, stakeholder facilitation, and urban and environmental planning. Many of her projects integrate multiple sectors – water, transportation, energy, resiliency, land use, natural resources, parks, open space, and equity. On complex regional and local projects, both government agency clients and their communities and stakeholders appreciate Joan’s steady guidance in formulating and implementing effective, inclusive participatory processes.

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Dr. Ken Kearns — Dr. Ken Kearns Founder & Senior Counselor

Kenneth D. Kearns is a Senior Counselor and Kearns & West co-founder. Since 2012, when he stepped away from the firm’s leadership, Ken has divided his time between a few selected projects and an active retirement. Ken specializes in facilitation and public engagement for high-stakes collaborative projects in water, energy, and environment.

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Sharif Ebrahim — Sharif Ebrahim Managing Principal

Sharif Ebrahim is a Principal with Kearns & West. He brings nearly 20 years of experience designing and implementing multi-disciplinary public involvement and outreach programs, including working on numerous complex water, energy and land use issues, initiative campaigns, and state and federal legislation and regulatory proceedings. Sharif has worked with local, state and federal agencies, trade associations, Fortune 500 companies, and various collaborative processes to help them communicate their vision and form productive relationships with their stakeholders.

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Debra L. Nudelman — Debra L. Nudelman Principal & Senior Mediator

Debra L. Nudelman is a Principal and Senior Mediator for Kearns & West with nearly 30 years of experience as a consensus building and dispute resolution professional. She has experience in convening, facilitating, mediating, and managing projects including stakeholder assessments, workshops, strategic planning and agreement-focused processes involving complex public policy, natural resource, land management, and environmental issues, among others. Debra oversees the Kearns & West office in Portland, Oregon.

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Jason Gershowitz — Jason Gershowitz Principal & Senior Facilitator

Jason Gershowitz is a Principal and Senior Facilitator at Kearns & West managing the firm’s Digital Collaboration Practice which involves connecting people and solutions in innovative ways. His interests include bridging communications, technology, and collaboration skills to create and sustain solutions in changing and complex environments, across a wide range of issues.

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Dr. Eric Poncelet — Dr. Eric Poncelet Principal & Senior Mediator

Dr. Eric Poncelet is a Principal and Senior Mediator at Kearns & West with over twenty years of experience in designing, mediating, and analyzing complex, multistakeholder collaborative planning and dispute resolution processes. His practice has focused on marine resource planning and conservation, fisheries management, water conservation, flood management, offshore energy, species protection, and land use management. Eric works to facilitate effective communications and agreement building among a broad range of stakeholder interests, including government (federal, state, and local levels), fishermen, farmers, business and industry, environmental organizations, recreational interests, and community groups. Eric leads Kearns & West’s marine practice while also co-leading the training program, providing interactive training courses on such topics as mutual gains negotiation, facilitation and mediation, collaboration, and effective management and communication of scientific information.

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J. Michael Harty — J. Michael Harty Principal & Senior Mediator

J. Michael Harty is a Principal and Senior Mediator for Kearns & West, and brings over 20 years of direct experience in the field of conflict management, mediation, facilitated decision making, and public outreach and engagement to those roles. Mike has substantive experience with water rights, water quality, conjunctive water management, groundwater, flood risk management, oceans, mining, ecosystem restoration, endangered species, and technical information issues, and has worked with numerous local, state, and federal agencies both internally and in multi-agency contexts. Mike oversees the Kearns & West Sacramento regional office located in Davis, California. He was a practicing attorney for eight years prior to shifting his focus full time to conflict resolution and collaborative decision making.

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Kent Schwartz — Kent Schwartz Principal & Chief Operating Officer/ Chief Financial Officer

Kent Schwartz is a Principal & Chief Operating Officer/ Chief Financial Officer with Kearns & West. He brings more than 30 years of experience is building meaningful analysis and processes to serve management, employees and clients. Most recently bringing that expertise to help grow a Professional Services organization by over 500% in 8 years. His main goal is to facilitate and support a company to grow to their full potential.

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Senior Staff

Lisa Marie Alley — Lisa Marie Alley Vice President

Lisa Marie Alley is a Vice President at Kearns & West with more than two decades of experience in communications, stakeholder engagement, strategic planning and public policy. She has worked on community and regional planning, environmental review, transportation, transit, climate change and workforce development projects at the regional and national level. Lisa Marie is interested in helping clients and their stakeholders find positive, collaboratively developed solutions to the challenges they face.

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Nora De Cuir — Nora De Cuir Senior Director

Nora De Cuir is a Senior Director at Kearns & West with over fifteen years of experience facilitating collaborative decision making around land use, transportation, energy, water and natural resource management issues. Nora’s experience at the local, state and federal levels coupled with her passion for stakeholder collaboration helps our clients to conduct meaningful engagement that builds agreement. Nora’s core skillset includes strategic planning, public involvement, and facilitating conflict resolution within multi-party groups.

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John Bowie — John Bowie Director

John Bowie is a Director with Kearns & West who has been working in public policy and law since 2008. His work focuses on disaster resilience and climate adaptation, as well as regulatory issues in the energy and telecommunications utility sectors. John is interested in the intersection of innovative policy and collaboration as a tools to address the next generation of challenges.

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Julie Leimbach — Julie Leimbach Director

Julie Leimbach facilitates and engages stakeholders so that people can create collaborative solutions that decrease the cost of conflict and inertia. For more than a decade, Julie has enjoyed bringing together groups of water agencies, resources agencies, local government, and NGOs to find common ground and advance jointly held objectives in water resources, land and forest management, climate change adaptation, hydropower, clean energy, disadvantaged communities, and health. She also brings international experience in peace-building in nations in democratic transitions and transboundary natural resource management.

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Jenna Tourjé — Jenna Tourjé Director

Jenna Tourjé is a Director at Kearns & West with over a decade of leading community engagement, facilitation, and community planning projects. She is passionate about partnering with communities on the path to creating healthy, whole and equitable places, where people love where they live and have a voice and a stake in the future. She is fluent in Spanish and has facilitated collaborative projects with NGOs, municipalities, regional and federal agencies relating to resiliency, flood-risk, community planning, active transportation, transportation planning, health, and parks and open space.

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Sylvia Ciborowski — Sylvia Ciborowski Vice President

Sylvia Ciborowski is a Vice President at Kearns & West with a strong background in stakeholder engagement, facilitation and mediation. She is a lawyer by education and training, specializing in Environmental and Natural Resources Law, and is also a member of the Alternative Dispute Resolution Sector of the Oregon State Bar. Working alongside clients, she is skilled in designing outcomes-focused stakeholder engagement processes that consider a wide range of interested parties and anticipate stakeholder conflicts. She specializes in facilitating conversations that result in strategic paths forward and solutions on complex public policy issues. Sylvia facilitates many types of workgroups and committees, including long-term advisory committees, strategic planning meetings, discussion and focus group meetings, large public open houses, and meetings in other languages. She has worked on projects in a wide range of fields including land use and transportation planning, environment and natural resources, forestry, climate change, housing, changes in local codes and regulations, and equity and inclusion. Sylvia is a certified Court-Connected Mediator, a volunteer mediator with Multnomah County Courts, and a member of the Oregon Mediation Association.

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Kelsey Rugani — Kelsey Rugani Senior Director

Kelsey Rugani is a Senior Director with Kearns & West and specializes in working on stakeholder outreach, strategic process planning, facilitation, project management, and complex regulatory process coordination. Kelsey brings exemplary organizational communication and planning skills to each project she works on. Her key sectors include hydropower, energy policy, transportation, water resource management, climate adaptation and resiliency,v and air quality.

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Jaime Damon — Jaime Damon Director

Jamie Damon is a Senior Mediator and Director at Kearns & West with over 30 years of experience as a mediator, facilitator, and public engagement practitioner. She has successfully designed, facilitated, and managed controversial and complex public policy consensus seeking processes in Oregon, Washington, and Alaska addressing issues involving public works, transportation, land use, natural resources, emergency services, crisis response, endangered species, public facilities, internal work teams, cultural resources, historic preservation and legislative issues. Jamie has a Master of Arts in conflict resolution from the School for International Training/World Learning.

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Briana Moseley — Briana Moseley Director

Briana is a Director at Kearns & West. Since joining the firm in San Francisco in 2008, her work has focused on designing and implementing collaborative solutions, particularly for energy, marine, water, environmental, natural resource, land use, and infrastructure issues. Briana’s core skillset includes strategic planning, public engagement, and facilitation. In 2012, Briana took an extended leave to sail her boat across the South Pacific and rejoined the firm’s Washington, DC office in 2017.

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Kyle Vint — Kyle Vint Director

Kyle Vint is a Director at Kearns & West. Kyle’s interests include technical and scientific communication, virtual engagement, and process design. He’s worked with a wide range of clients to translate complex sciences into accessible public-facing graphics, assisting partners in identifying and utilizing appropriate virtual engagement tools, and managing multi-event nationwide public engagement campaigns. He is a Ph.D. candidate in Communication Studies at the University of Iowa where he was also a coach of the national championship-winning Iowa debate team.

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Ben Gettleman — Ben Gettleman Vice President

Ben Gettleman is a Vice President at Kearns & West with over ten years of experience managing environmental projects and a current focus on land use, water, air quality, and marine resource projects. His central skillset includes strategic planning and process design, meeting and public workshop facilitation, stakeholder outreach, and materials development. Ben is a member of the National Coalition of Dialogue and Deliberation and is a graduate of the Coro Center for Civic Leadership Public Affairs Fellowship Program.

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Adam Saslow

Senior Director & Senior Facilitator

Additional Info

Kirsten Hauge — Kirsten Hauge Director

Kirsten Hauge is a Director at Kearns & West and has over 16 years of experience in leading community outreach and strategic communication programs across many sectors. She helps clients implement inclusive community engagement approaches and plans public involvement to support environmental review requirements for state and local government agencies. Kirsten has advised on projects relating to high-capacity transit and transportation, natural resources and wastewater, public safety and emergency preparedness, public health, and planning and development. Kirsten has a Bachelor of Arts from Pacific Lutheran University.

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Nick Saffold — Nick Saffold Director

Nick Saffold is a Director for Kearns & West with nearly a decade of experience in public affairs. He has worked on issues at the federal, regional, and state levels and currently provides strategic counsel and communications expertise on technology and infrastructure issues. Nick specializes in leading communications campaigns, message development, and policy analysis in the regulatory and legislative arena.

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Cici Vu — Cici Vu Director

Cici joined Kearns & West as an Associate in March, 2017. Cici Vu brings years of experience collaborating and supporting senior mediators to design, convene, mediate and facilitate cooperative problem-solving processes for politically complex environmental disputes involving stakeholders across all sectors in California, the Greater New York Area and New Jersey. Cici also has expertise in legal matters; having worked for the New York Peace Institute mediating community and civil court cases and working for different firms in various supporting capacities. Cici’s key sectors of focus include: energy and marine policy; water quality and resource management; flood planning and flood risk management; air quality; and transportation.

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Joey Goldman — Joey Goldman Vice President

Joey Goldman is a Vice President at Kearns & West. He has more than 25 years of experience leading community development and transportation projects with an emphasis on planning, public engagement, consensus building, communications, marketing, and branding. An experienced project manager and facilitator for transit system design projects, he also has expertise in regional/rural investment studies, mobility management, and Title VI and ADA compliance. Joey has worked extensively on multijurisdictional projects with partners ranging from universities to national parks, and his leadership in focus groups and survey design has been instrumental in engaging older adults, people with disabilities, and disadvantaged communities in major investment projects. Joey co-chairs the Transportation Research Board committee on Accessible Transportation and Mobility.

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Rebecca Beauregard

Director

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Crystal Jackson — Crystal Jackson Director, Finance

With over 20 years of financial and management experience, Crystal Jackson, Director – Finance, oversees accounting operations including general accounting, cost accounting, budgets, accounts payable and accounts receivable. She is a member of the Kearns & West team since October 2003. She derives great satisfaction from finding out how ‘things work’, analyzing, dissecting, observing from all angles and formulating long-term solutions that advance company goals.

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Rafael Silberblatt — Rafael Silberblatt Director

Rafael Silberblatt is a Director at Kearns & West with extensive experience in facilitation, strategic planning and stakeholder engagement. He has put these skills to use in the clean energy sector and across a wide array of projects with government agencies, community groups, non-profits and businesses. He enjoys helping groups navigate conflict, create order and solve problems creatively through empathy, communication, systems, processes, and plans

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Taylor York — Taylor York Director

Taylor York is a Senior Associate at Kearns & West, and has been with the firm since September, 2015. Much of his work is focused in the community and regional planning field, including energy, air quality, transportation, conservation, and education programs, and he has worked in both local government and private industry settings. Taylor holds a Bachelor of Science in Urban and Regional Planning, from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, and currently serves as a Board Member for the Inland Empire branch of the U.S. Green Building Council, Los Angeles.

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Meet More of the Kearns & West Team

Caisey Hoffman

Collaborative Technology/Team Coordinator

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Sharon Hu — Sharon Hu Associate

Sharon Hu, an Associate at Kearns & West, specializes in the water, transportation, and energy practices. She has diverse experience in stakeholder engagement and natural resource policy and holds both a Master of Public Policy and a Master of Science in Environmental Policy and Planning from the University of Michigan, focusing on conflict resolution, public management and economics, and environmental justice. She also holds a Bachelor of Science in Ecology and Geography from UCLA.

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Corrine Inabinet — Corrine Inabinet Accountant

Corrine Inabinet is an Accountant at Kearns & West. Her accounting experience includes both for-profit and non-profit environments, and she specializes in project accounting and billing for professional services firms. Her past accounting experience extends to working with agencies and consultants in the social services and social research sector and with government agencies, universities and foundations.

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Jack Hughes — Jack Hughes Senior Associate

Jack Hughes is a Senior Associate with Kearns & West and joined the firm in February 2018. He has a Master of Public Policy from Oregon State University where his studies focused on collaborative land and natural resource management. Prior to joining Kearns & West, Jack served as a conservation manager for an regional watershed conservancy, involving public and government agency coordination during implementation of projects. He is interested in collaborative processes, environmental policy, natural resource and open space management, and land-use planning. His current projects at Kearns & West span environmental and resiliency policy in Southern California.

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Matt Marvin — Matt Marvin Senior Associate

Matt Marvin is a Senior Associate at Kearns & West and joined the firm in April 2016. Matt is a graduate of the University of Oregon and has a background in environmental justice, project management, and renewable energy in the private industry and with nonprofits. His interests are in stakeholder engagement, environmental justice, energy and natural resource policy, and infrastructure projects.

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Christian Mendez — Christian Mendez Associate

Christian Mendez is an Associate at Kearns & West and brings over a decade of experience in community engagement, community grassroots organizing, and community planning. Christian holds a Master of Urban and Regional Planning with a concentration in design and development from UCLA. His professional interests include environmental justice, participatory design processes, accessible digital engagement, land-use planning, and active transportation. His focus is on supporting clients in developing innovative equity-driven engagement and participation tools.

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Sara Omar — Sara Omar Associate

Sara Omar is an Associate at Kearns & West. She holds a M.S. in Conflict Analysis and Resolution with a focus on environmental conflict resolution and development. Prior to joining Kearns & West, Sara supported the Department of the Interior’s Office of Collaborative Action and Dispute Resolution. Her professional interests include environmental justice, conflict resolution analysis, stakeholder assessment and engagement, media analysis, and facilitation.

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Samantha Ramsey — Samantha Ramsey Associate

Sam joined Kearns & West in 2019 as a Project Coordinator and Office Manager in the Washington, DC office. She graduated from Christopher Newport University with a degree in Political Science and Leadership Studies. Sam has experience in financial and strategic communications, public affairs, and project management. Her professional interests include female economic empowerment, global sustainability policy, and media relations.

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Ivana Rosas — Ivana Rosas Senior Associate

Ivana Rosas is a Senior Associate, with equity and environmental focus, with Kearns & West. She has a Master of City Planning from the University of California, Berkeley where she focused on the intersection of equity issues and urban design. Ivana previously worked in global feminist philanthropy, supporting grassroots women- and girl-led organizations around the world. She is fluent in Spanish and conversational in French and Portuguese. She is interested in creating impartial and collaborative decision-making processes that lead to more equitable outcomes as we shape the urban form through planning, land use, transportation, environmental issues, and policies.

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Alyson Scurlock — Alyson Scurlock Project Coordinator

Aly Scurlock is a Project Coordinator at Kearns & West and holds a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science and Master of Science in Geography with watershed science emphasis from San Diego State University. Her public involvement interests span water resources, renewable energy, environmental conservation and policy, and urban and environmental planning. She enjoys working to create inclusive community outreach and collaborative decision-making processes.

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Jennifer Vazconcelo — Jennifer Vazconcelo Office Manager/Project Coordinator

Jennifer Vazconcelo is an Office Manager/Project Coordinator at Kearns & West. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Environmental and Occupational Management from Methodist University, North Carolina with a minor in Regulatory Compliance and Natural Resources Management. Her interests include environmental protection, sustainability, environmental policy, and occupational health and safety. Jennifer has experience in project management and administrative and technical assistance.

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Aaron Westling — Aaron Westling Senior Associate

Aaron Westling is originally from Milwaukee, Wisconsin and holds a B.A. in economics and political science from the University of Wisconsin as well as a master’s degree in public policy from the Humphrey School at the University of Minnesota. He brings his experience in building and supporting urban mobility projects around the country and is specifically interested in active transportation, affordable housing, and sustainability.

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Morgan Adams — Morgan Adams Communications Specialist

Morgan successfully planned and facilitated a kick-off meeting to learn more about requirements for the FM&E Communications role. Her meaningful questions, well thought out suggestions, and trusted relationships at OFAM/FM&E have earned key influencers’ trust. Our client is excited about next steps in developing a communications strategy and plan that will support the FM&E Executive Director’s short and long-term needs.

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Terra Alpaugh — Terra Alpaugh Senior Associate

Terra Alpaugh joined Kearns & West as an Associate in 2017, bringing with her five years of communications and project management experience in the conservation and education fields. Leveraged alongside her academic background in water management and climate change science, these skills enable her to support dialogues that facilitate creative thinking and help parties find shared interests around addressing environmental problems.

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Michelle Bardini — Michelle Bardini Associate

Michelle Bardini is an Associate at Kearns & West and joined the Portland office in January 2019. She has a Bachelor’s in English from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. Michelle previously handled the marketing and communications for an anti-human trafficking non-profit. She has experience in research investigating discriminatory and exclusionary behaviors and has worked on projects advancing economic and social equality. Her interests include collaborative processes and strategic communications to tackle present day challenges.

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Zach Barr — Zach Barr Senior Associate

Zach Barr is an Associate at Kearns & West and joined the firm in June 2016. Zach studied energy management and environment and natural resources at University of Wyoming and has experience in GIS and the oil and gas industry. His interests are in energy, natural resource management and policy, land-use planning, infrastructure projects, and environmental policy.

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Erin Bothwell — Erin Bothwell Office Manager/Project Coordinator

Erin Bothwell is an Office Manager/Project Coordinator at Kearns & West. In this role she maintains operations at the Portland office and supports a diverse array of environmental and natural resources projects. She studied Communication and Social Justice at the University of Portland and brings her experience as a former copywriter, student journalist, and marketing and public relations intern. Erin’s interests include environmental justice and water resources.

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Kacy Cooper — Kacy Cooper Associate

Kacy Cooper is an Associate at Kearns & West and joined the Portland office in November 2018. She has a Bachelor of Science in environmental science with a specialization in conservation, sustainability, and natural resources from Oregon State University, and a graduate certificate in sustainability from Portland State University. With a background in conservation and natural resource management research, her interests include marine, natural resources, and environmental projects. Kacy provides project management support and collaborates with tribal, federal, state representatives, and stakeholders to assist in facilitating neutral third-party dialogue.

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Chelsea Cullen — Chelsea Cullen Project Coordinator/Office Manager

Chelsea has been a Project Coordinator at Kearns & West since March 2018. Much of her work is managing large federal contracts focused in the conflict management and alternative dispute resolution field. She also manages Kearns & West’s Sacramento Regional offices in Sacramento and Davis. Chelsea holds a Bachelor’s in International Relations from the University of California, Davis. Her interest in conflict resolution, collaborative processes, and strategic planning culminated in her degree focus on Global Environment, Health, and Natural Resources, where she concentrated her studies on environmental, human rights, and border relations issues.

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Mary Beth Day — Mary Beth Day Senior Associate

Mary Beth is a Senior Associate in Kearns & West’s San Francisco office. She has been active in the energy, water, and climate change practices since joining the team in 2017. She holds a bachelor’s degree in geoarchaeology from Hamilton College and a PhD in Earth sciences from the University of Cambridge, where she studied human-climate-environment interactions. She’s excited to translate her scientific background into tackling present day challenges.

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Abby Fullem — Abby Fullem Associate

Abby Fullem is an Associate at Kearns & West with an interest in stakeholder collaboratives, meaningful community engagement, and equitable decision-making. She helps to design and facilitate collaborative processes focused on working landscapes, land use planning, watershed-based collaboration, transportation, outdoor recreation, and climate adaptation. Abby holds a bachelor’s degree in geology from Haverford College and enjoys working in the intersection of science, policy, and implementation.

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Patricia Garcia — Patricia Garcia Project Coordinator, Finance

Patricia Garcia is a Project Coordinator who joined Kearns & West in March 2015. She has experience in meeting logistics planning and support, stakeholder outreach, project management, supporting complex invoicing processes, and supporting the account and business system migration. Her interests include stakeholder engagement, environmental justice, system integrations, system processes and efficiencies.

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Ross Green — Ross Green Senior Associate

Ross Green is a Senior Associate at Kearns & West, working in the public safety, telecommunications, and technology sectors. He has worked on campaign and corporate communications to help clients improve their reputation among stakeholders. Ross brings experience in polling and analysis, message development, and project management. Ross is a graduate of the Coro Fellows Program in Public Affairs – Los Angeles. His interests include stakeholder engagement in projects involving sustainability, infrastructure, and emerging technology.

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