Meet the Kearns & West Team

Adam Saslow

Vice President

Angela Hessenius — Angela Hessenius Associate

Angela Hessenius is an Associate at Kearns & West with experience in environmental policy analysis and community outreach. While earning her Master of Environmental Management from Duke University, Angela completed projects related to climate adaptation, flood resilience, food systems, waste reduction, and environmental justice. She also has prior experience leading environmental education, communication, and outreach initiatives on marine ecosystems for the Sitka Tribe of Alaska and supporting program implementation for the School for Field Studies in Cambodia. At Kearns & West, she supports facilitation and collaborative stakeholder engagement processes to address complex natural resource management issues.

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Angela Jo Woolcott — Angela Jo Woolcott Senior Director

Angela is a strategic communications and collaboration expert with broad experience in public affairs, strategic planning, and leading highly collaborative stakeholder engagement efforts. She has facilitated complex, multilateral planning processes for both the private and public sectors and is skilled in designing and implementing innovative communication processes that foster meaningful and long-lasting results. Angela works alongside clients and community leaders in the areas of water, transportation and infrastructure, public health, and natural resources, among others. She has a master’s degree in Conflict Resolution from the University of Denver and a bachelor’s degree in Sociology from the University of Colorado at Boulder and heads up the Denver/Rocky Mountain Region practice for Kearns & West.

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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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Anna Rossi — Anna Rossi Project Coordinator

Anna Rossi is a Project Coordinator at Kearns & West, working on conflict resolution and strategic planning projects. Anna has served as a consultant at the local and international levels, providing research, analysis, and recommendations on various sustainable development issues, including environmental peacebuilding, technology innovation, and climate change perception. Anna holds a master’s degree in Environmental Studies from SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry and a Certificate of Peacebuilding from Los Andes University.

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Ariella Dahlin — Ariella Dahlin Project Coordinator

Ariella Dahlin is a Project Coordinator at Kearns & West and supports transportation and natural resources projects. Coming from the nonprofit sector, Ariella brings her community outreach, stakeholder engagement, and project support experience to the Kearns & West team. Ariella has a demonstrated history of utilizing best practices and an intersectional lens to cultivate collaborative relationships and manage projects. Her interests include environmental justice, active transportation, and urban greening. She earned a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies and Political Science from the University of Oregon, focusing on environmental policy and sustainable design and practice.

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Arpana Nautiyal

Associate

Ben Duncan — Ben Duncan Senior Director

Ben Duncan brings nearly two decades of working at the intersections of social, environmental, and economic systems and racial and ethnic disparities. He facilitates public and non-profit management focused on policy and program design, organizational culture change, and best practices in Environmental Justice and DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion). Ben brings expertise in executive leadership to Kearns & West. Ben develops effective and inclusive processes in complex political and organizational environments and in partnering with organizations of all levels — from executive leadership to front line employees and communities to develop collaborative solutions.

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Ben Gettleman — Ben Gettleman Principal

Ben Gettleman is a Principal 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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Bethany Taylor — Bethany Taylor Project Coordinator

Bethany Taylor is a Project Coordinator at Kearns & West supporting public involvement projects in the land use, technology, and marine resource sectors, among others. She specializes in virtual meeting management, report writing, and materials development. Bethany is an experienced professional with over 10 years of success in the fields of public engagement, marketing events and tradeshows, logistical planning, and market research. She applies her adept organizational and methodical planning skills and detail-oriented nature to complex scheduling tasks, technical writing, stakeholder communication, and developing effective meeting materials while broadening her aptitude for learning new technologies. Bethany holds a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the University of Richmond.

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Bianca Valdez — Bianca Valdez Associate

Bianca Valdez is an Associate at Kearns & West and holds a bachelor’s degree in Hydrogeology from the University of Texas at Austin and a master’s degree in Environmental Policy from the Masters of the Environment (MENV) program at the University of Colorado Boulder. Prior to joining Kearns & West, Bianca supported the Udall Foundation’s National Center for Environmental Conflict Resolution (NCECR) in carrying out a climate and conflict resolution assessment, which inspired her to direct her career towards public engagement and collaboration around environmental issues. Her focus at Kearns & West includes meaningful community engagement in the energy, sustainability, and water resources sectors.

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Briana Moseley — Briana Moseley Senior Director

Briana is a Senior 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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Brisa Aviles — Brisa Aviles Associate

Brisa Aviles is an Associate at Kearns and West, supporting the firm’s community planning, equitable and inclusive engagement, and renewable energy sectors. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in International Development Studies with a double minor in Urban Studies and Environmental Systems and Society from the University of California Los Angeles. Her background includes neighborhood storytelling, community outreach and engagement, environmental and mobility justice, and affordable housing for community land trusts. Brisa’s previous experience ranges from grassroots organizing to serving as a community liaison to larger government agencies in both the San Diego and Los Angeles region.

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Bushra Bangee

Associate

Caisey Hoffman

Collaborative Technology/Team Coordinator

Caitlin Sheridan — Caitlin Sheridan Project Coordinator

Caitlin Sheridan is a Project Coordinator at Kearns & West and supports a wide array of projects in the transportation and community and regional planning sectors. She earned a bachelor’s degree in History and African Studies from St. Lawrence University and a master’s degree in Conflict Resolution from the University of Denver where her coursework included training in negotiation, collaborative decision-making, and sustained dialoguing. Caitlin also holds a professional mediation certificate and served as a volunteer court mediator. Her areas of focus include facilitated dialogues, research, pedagogy program management, collaborative technology support, social media content creation, and more.   

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Catherine Scott

Senior Business Development Director

Celina (Cece) Horbat — Celina (Cece) Horbat Associate

Celina (CeCe) Horbat is an Associate at Kearns & West focusing on environmental equity issues, environmental justice work, and collaborative processes. CeCe’s background includes experience with diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives as well as alternative dispute resolution, having served as program coordinator at New York State Dispute Resolution Association balancing state contracts and budgets to support the 20 different Community Dispute Resolution Centers across the state. Cece earned a Master of Science in Environment and Sustainability from the University of Michigan specializing in Environmental Justice with additional coursework in negotiation and mediation.

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Charles Harvey — Charles Harvey Senior Director

Charles Harvey is a Senior Director with Kearns & West. A lawyer by education and training, Charles is passionate about working in government relations and has expertise in California policy issues, particularly in public safety/emergency preparedness. He brings with him his experience as a Legislative Representative at the League of California Cities as well as working at various levels in the California State Assembly. This background along with his strong communication skills and ability to work amicably with all stakeholders make him a valuable member of the Kearns & West team.

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Chelsea Cullen — Chelsea Cullen Senior Associate

Chelsea Cullen is a Senior Associate at Kearns & West. She has extensive experience managing large federal contracts focused in the conflict management and alternative dispute resolution field. In addition to managing the Kearns & West Sacramento Regional offices, she provides project support in the areas of conflict resolution, collaborative processes, and strategic planning. She holds a degree in International Relations from the University of California, Davis, where she focused on the intersection of environmental, natural resources, and human rights issues.

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Christian Mendez — Christian Mendez Senior Associate

Christian Mendez is a Senior 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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Colin Johnson

Associate

Collin Buchanan — Collin Buchanan Project Coordinator

Collin Buchanan is a Project Coordinator at Kearns & West supporting the energy, marine resources, environmental justice, and government solutions sectors. His background includes community engagement and volunteer training, database management, survey research, and copy editing. His experience extends to writing policy briefs and articles on topics such as climate change and renewable energy. As a research fellow at the Wason Center for Public Policy — a nonpartisan research and polling organization — Collin conducted surveys, synthesized data results, and provided analysis and reports on findings. He also supervised the Wason survey lab, managing 80+ employees’ scheduling, training, and work performance on each survey project. Collin is a graduate of Christopher Newport University’s Honors Program, earning a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Constitutional Studies.

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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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Crystal Jackson — Crystal Jackson Vice President, People & Operations

With over 20 years of business experience, Crystal Jackson, Vice President of People & Operations, oversees Kearns & West’s operations functions in the Human Resources, Finance, Compliance, and IT departments. She derives great satisfaction from driving innovation and formulating long-term solutions that advance company goals. She is a member of the Kearns & West team since October 2003.

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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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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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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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Ellen Palmquist — Ellen Palmquist Senior Associate

Ellen Palmquist is a Senior Associate at Kearns & West with experience in long-range planning, public involvement, and graphic design. Her interests include natural resources management, land use, and community resiliency. Ellen has worked on a variety of long-range planning projects, including downtown plans, housing action plans, comprehensive plans, and community visions. She uses her graphic design skills to translate complex information into easy-to-understand content that supports community decision-making. Ellen earned her Master of Urban and Regional Planning from Portland State University.

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Eric Holmes

Associate

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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Eunice Lee — Eunice Lee Project Coordinator

Eunice Lee is a Project Coordinator with Kearns & West and earned a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies from the University of Washington where her coursework included public policy, environmental communication, and GIS. Her skillset includes data assessment, analysis, and management; report and presentation preparation; and communicating complex information in concise and understandable terms. Through multiple internships at the federal and international level — including the U.S. EPA and the United Nations — she gained experience working on projects integrating climate, energy, economics, and policy. Her professional interests include environmental resilience, and equitable engagement.

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Eva Spiegel — Eva Spiegel Senior Communications Specialist

Eva Spiegel is a senior Communications Specialist with Kearns & West with decades of experience in journalism, communications and public affairs with an emphasis in California local government issues. Her background includes a tenure at the League of California Cities where she served as Communications Director, providing strategic guidance and a suite of skills including writing, editing, and media relations. Eva specializes in helping clients communicate to better connect with constituents, stakeholders, policy makers and the public.

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Gillian Garber-Yonts — Gillian Garber-Yonts Associate

Gillian Garber-Yonts is an Associate at Kearns & West. In this role, he provides process support, stakeholder engagement, and meeting coordination for transportation and regional planning projects. He has a degree in Planning, Public Policy, and Management from the University of Oregon and brings his public sector experience working in transportation planning. His interests include diverse community engagement, active transportation, and environmental justice.

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Grace Person

Director

Grant Simmons — Grant Simmons Project Coordinator

Grant Simmons is a Project Coordinator at Kearns & West supporting stakeholder engagement, data analysis, and digital communications on transportation and natural resources projects. His experience includes crafting climate policy while an intern with the City of Santa Cruz, CA, and he previously engaged in equity-focused non-profit work as a community engagement coordinator for the Friends of the Santa Cruz Public Libraries. Grant’s interests include decarbonization, environmental justice, transportation, and equitable collaboration. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Whitman College where he studied English and Computer Science.

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Hanna Khalil

Associate

Hannah Silverfine — Hannah Silverfine Associate

Hannah Silverfine is an Associate at Kearns & West supporting the energy, marine, and land use sectors. She brings with her experience in meeting design and facilitation, project coordination, community engagement, and strategic research. Prior to joining Kearns & West, Hannah served as outreach coordinator for a national non-profit, leading an initiative that trained hundreds of scientists across the country to build local teams to assist in introducing scientific analysis to the policy-making process to achieve practical and equitable environmental solutions. Hannah has a Bachelor of Arts in Geography and Spanish and a Master of Science in Environmental Science & Policy from Clark University where she focused on the intersections of health, the environment, food systems, policy, and power.

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Heather Williams

Director

Henry DeRuff — Henry DeRuff Associate

Henry DeRuff is an Associate at Kearns & West who specializes in planning and implementing inclusive communications and engagement strategies on a local, regional, and statewide scale. His practice areas include transportation, climate change adaptation, environmental justice, and planning. Henry is an adept communicator, writer, relationship-builder, process designer, and collaborative thinker. He earned a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy, Politics & Economics from Claremont McKenna College and completed a Coro Fellowship in Public Affairs where he gained experience in wildfire and labor policy, nonprofit communications, and marketing strategy. As a former classroom teacher, Henry excels at managing crises and facilitating difficult conversations.

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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 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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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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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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Jacquie Wilson — Jacquie Wilson Contracts & Compliance Specialist

Jacqueline Wilson is the Contracts and Compliance Specialist at Kearns & West and a proud Air Force Veteran. She brings over 15 years’ experience in contracts administration supporting various federal agencies and consulting firms. At Kearns & West, Jacqueline leads contract review, RFP review, Registrations and Certifications, Certificates of Insurance, and ensuring contract compliance, among other duties.

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Jamie Damon — Jamie Damon Vice President

Jamie Damon is a Vice President 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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Jasmine King — Jasmine King Associate

Jasmine King is an Associate at Kearns & West, providing environmental justice research, public outreach, project and meeting management, public policy data analysis, and material development. As a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow, they participated on an interdisciplinary research team engaged in multicultural collaboration creating and conducting a vulnerability and policy analysis of Oregon coastal communities. Their graduate work also includes social and policy research and analysis on water resource availability. Jasmine’s experience extends to the non-profit sector, where they provided supportive and capacity-building services to adults with developmental and physical disabilities. Jasmine holds a double major in Sociology and Environmental Science from the University of California, Irvine and a Master of Public Policy from Oregon State University.

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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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Jenna Tourjé-Maldonado — Jenna Tourjé-Maldonado Vice President

Jenna Tourjé-Maldonado is a Vice President 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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Jennifer Vazconcelo — Jennifer Vazconcelo Associate

Jennifer Vazconcelo is an Associate at Kearns & West focusing on environmental equity issues, environmental justice work, and community outreach and engagement. Her interests include environmental policy, sustainability, land use, and climate resiliency. Jennifer is bilingual and has technical experience in energy consulting services to utility providers, public agencies, and private industries. 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.

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Jessica Miller — Jessica Miller Director

Jessica Miller is a Director at Kearns & West and brings nearly two decades of experience providing community and digital engagement within the non-profit, academic, and government settings on diverse community, environmental, and regional planning projects. Jessica has expertise in the water, land use, and transportation planning sectors and is skilled in geospatial data analysis. She has extensive facilitation experience with large and small groups, including work with environmental justice communities. Her community-centered research projects focus on inclusive collaboration and process design through focus groups, stakeholder interviews, community meetings, and surveys. She holds a doctoral degree in Earth and Environmental Sciences from The Graduate Center, City University of New York.

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Jim Downing

Director

Joan Isaacson

Principal & Senior Facilitator

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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John Bowie — John Bowie Senior Director

John Bowie is a Senior 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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Josh Mahar — Josh Mahar Senior Associate

Josh Mahar is a Senior Associate with Kearns & West and brings nearly a decade of experience working at the intersection of transportation and public involvement. He has worked on large, multijurisdictional transportation projects and is skilled at helping implement effective public involvement strategies through the federal environmental review process. Josh’s experience in public engagement includes working at local, regional, and state-level organizations, where he has worked on issues including transit, infrastructure, active transportation, and safety projects. Josh earned his Bachelor of Arts in Comparative Religion and History and his Master of Public Administration from the University of Washington.

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Julie Leimbach — Julie Leimbach Vice President

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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Karis Johnston

Director

Katie DeLeuw — Katie DeLeuw Senior Director

Katie DeLeuw is a Senior Director at Kearns & West with nearly 20 years of experience providing community outreach and engagement services in the transportation planning, climate, water, and natural resources sectors. As a collaborative leader and community engagement strategist, Katie’s background encompasses a wide range of projects and clients, from city transportation plans and community-scale bicycle/pedestrian improvements to multi-jurisdictional transit planning efforts and complex, state-led infrastructure megaprojects. Katie is passionate about connecting people to issues that affect them and supporting agencies in making decisions that center the needs of communities, guiding successful communication and outreach processes through all project phases. She has a Master of Environmental Science and Management degree from UC Santa Barbara.

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Katy Kennedy — Katy Kennedy Project Coordinator

Katy Kennedy is a Project Coordinator at Kearns & West and supports a wide array of projects at Kearns & West, including marine, water, flood protection, climate action planning, and hydropower. She also adds capacity to the firm by understanding and conducting 508 ADA compliance. Katy brings exceptional organizational skills given her recent experience working for the non-profit organization Clear Blue Sea in San Diego where she managed interns and volunteers, created job descriptions, maintained personnel documents, and coordinated orientation programs. She is a graduate of UC San Diego where she received a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Systems with a specialty in Environmental Policy.

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Kayla Kelly-Slatten — Kayla Kelly-Slatten Senior Associate

Kayla Kelly-Slatten is a Senior Associate with over ten years of environmental conservation experience largely focused on community resiliency through collaboration and application of best management practices. She specializes in community engagement and stakeholder facilitation, particularly as related to floodplain management and infrastructure, community planning, and natural resource conservation projects.

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Kelsey Rugani — Kelsey Rugani Vice President

Kelsey Rugani is a Vice President 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, and air quality.

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Kent Schwartz — Kent Schwartz Principal & COO/CFO

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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Kirsten Hauge — Kirsten Hauge Senior Director

Kirsten Hauge is a Senior 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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Kyle Vint — Kyle Vint Senior Director

Kyle Vint is a Senior 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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Larry Schooler — Larry Schooler Senior Director

Larry Schooler is a Senior Director at Kearns & West. He holds an MA/PhD in Conflict Analysis and Resolution, and his experience ranges from assisting local, state, and federal agencies to nonprofit and faith-based organizations worldwide in resolving disputes, building consensus, and engaging the public in the decision-making process. He specializes in land use mediation, strategic planning, and visioning and has extensive experience in energy, water, community and regional planning, transportation, housing, health and human services, and technology. Larry is on the faculty at the University of Texas at Austin where he teaches Facilitative Leadership and Conflict Resolution and serves as a senior fellow at the Annette Strauss Institute for Civic Life.

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Leigh Osterhus — Leigh Osterhus Associate

Leigh is an Associate at Kearns & West providing project support across sectors and service areas at the firm. Her experience includes facilitating connections among stakeholders across the globe and managing capacity-building programs for urban leaders to better deliver for their cities and communities. Her interests include equitable community engagement, sustainable development, and city planning. Leigh earned her master’s degree in International Development from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, and her bachelor’s in City and Regional Planning from California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo.

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Lindsay Canaday — Lindsay Canaday Project Coordinator

Lindsay Canaday is a Project Coordinator at Kearns & West and supports federal work in the collaborative solutions service area. She has integrated her skills in spatial analysis with stakeholder engagement on projects making geographic information systems accessible to non-profit and community organizations to address climate and recreation challenges. Lindsay earned a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies and Government from Hamilton College focused on climate science, legislative research and public policy analysis, and spatial analysis.

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Lindsay Tryba — Lindsay Tryba Associate

Lindsay Tryba is an Associate at Kearns & West where her practice skills focus on supporting collaborative decision-making and equitable community engagement processes around water, hydropower, and natural resource management projects. Her interests include watershed management, climate resiliency, and environmental policy. At the University of Denver, Lindsay earned a master’s degree in International Security and an undergraduate double major in Public Policy and International Studies with a double minor in Spanish and Leadership Studies. She also holds a Certificate in Global Environmental Change and Adaptation.

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Liz Mack — Liz Mack Senior Director

Liz Mack is a Senior Director for Kearns & West with over 15 years of experience in facilitation and public engagement. She specializes in designing collaborative processes to bring together stakeholders to make decisions about natural resource management, conservation, and environmental issues. Liz has provided strategic advice and neutral facilitation to numerous clients across the Pacific Northwest and Intermountain West that helped move complex issues forward. Her experience includes convening and facilitating advisory and technical working groups, developing evaluation processes and assessments, conducting stakeholder interviews and surveys, and achieving durable and measurable outcomes. She’s also skilled in developing community outreach and strategic communication programs across a wide range of sectors.

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Madeline Kane — Madeline Kane Senior Associate

Madeline Kane is a Senior Associate with Kearns & West supporting major inter-governmental transportation projects. She holds a master’s degree in Conflict Resolution from Portland State University with Certificates in Mediation and Collaborative Governance. In addition, she served as a Program Manager for the University’s Conflict Resolution Department providing program development and training. Madeline’s professional experience includes working with local and state agencies on policy analysis, project management, and legislative and administrative processes. She speaks conversational French and is fluent in Swahili.

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Mark Sebarrotin — Mark Sebarrotin Associate

Mark Anthony Sebarrotin is an Associate with Kearns & West and has a background in public engagement with community-based organizations and the hardest-to-reach populations. His experience includes policy research and analysis around regional planning efforts, climate resiliency, housing, and education. He provides collaborative solutions and communications support at Kearns & West where his project experience includes strategy development, meeting design and management, stakeholder interviews and landscape assessments, digital engagement, and meeting co-facilitation.

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Marlys Jeane

Associate

Mary Beth Day — Mary Beth Day Director

Mary Beth is a Director 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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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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Mia Schiappi — Mia Schiappi Senior Associate

Mia Schiappi is a Senior Associate at Kearns & West and supports collaborative services, interest-based negotiations, and multi-stakeholder discussions for water and watershed resources. Mia holds both a J.D. and a Master of Environmental Law and Policy from Vermont Law School where her studies focused on water resources and public land use law and regulation. Her bachelor’s degree is in Environmental Biology from Cal Poly Humboldt. Prior to joining Kearns & West, Mia worked for the California State Water Resources Control Board as a Scientific Aid. Her accomplishments there include research and drafting site-specific opinions relying on California’s Low-Threat Underground Storage Tank Case Closure Policy in the pursuit of groundwater regulation and remediation.

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Michael Ding — Michael Ding Associate

Michael Ding is an Associate at Kearns & West and supports strategic communications and collaborative solutions within the technology, energy, and equity and inclusion sectors. Michael’s background is in the communications and public affairs field, where he provided project management on numerous ballot initiatives as well as research on crisis management throughout the pandemic. He is passionate about the positive impacts of public-private partnerships and building trust among stakeholders. Michael received his bachelor’s degree in International Affairs and Comparative Economics from the George Washington University where his studies focused on comparative economic systems and energy management. He was born and raised in Jakarta, Indonesia and is fluent in Bahasa.

 

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Michelle Davis — Michelle Davis Human Resources Specialist

Michelle Davis is a Human Resources Specialist with Kearns & West with experience in full-cycle recruitment strategy and execution. She serves as the benefits administration point of contact while also working with unemployment claims, insurance, 401k, FMLA, PTO, and maintaining employee records. She has her Bachelor of Science degree in Criminal Justice from Long Island University.

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Morgan Lommele — Morgan Lommele Director

Morgan is a public engagement expert and policy analyst whose practice helps individuals and groups communicate effectively and reach agreements. She has 16 years of experience in the public lands, renewable energy, transportation and infrastructure, natural resource management, and water resources sectors. Morgan has worked on policy and regulatory issues locally, in all 50 states, and at the federal level. Her background includes working for two national non-profits, where she led flagship coalition building and community organizing efforts. Morgan has a master’s degree in environmental policy from the University of Denver. She is fluent in French and conversational in Spanish and German.

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Morgan Nachman — Morgan Nachman Project Coordinator

Morgan Nachman is a Project Coordinator at Kearns & West bringing with her a background in community engagement, communications support, and issue and policy research across the nonprofit and public sectors. At Kearns & West, Morgan provides virtual engagement and project support for a variety of marine, energy, and community and regional planning clients. She holds bachelor’s degrees in Communication Studies and Political Science from Penn State University, where she focused her research on public policy and civic engagement.

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Nick Saffold — Nick Saffold Senior Director

Nick has more than a decade of experience working in public affairs, strategic planning, and public policy. He specializes in leading communications campaigns, message development, and policy analysis in the regulatory and legislative arena and provides strategic counsel and communications expertise on internet, technology, and infrastructure issues. On each project, Nick distills complex issues into clear, concise messages for the appropriate audience. Nick works collaboratively to provide clients with innovative approaches to communicate with policymakers, media, and the public. Nick has a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of Arizona. 

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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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Patricia Balmas — Patricia Balmas Senior Financial/Systems Analyst

Patricia Balmas is a Senior Financial/Systems Analyst 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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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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Rebecca Beauregard

Director

Robin Gilliam — Robin Gilliam Director

Robin Gilliam is a Director at Kearns & West with over 10 years of experience in public outreach and engagement and strategic planning. Her areas of focus are land use and natural resources, energy, water, and government solutions. With a background in the non-profit, government, and academic sectors, Robin is skilled in the development and facilitation of impactful community involvement, public policy, and public affairs processes. She deeply values collaboration, process-based strategies, equity, access, and environmental justice. Robin holds her Master of City Planning degree with an emphasis in Environmental Planning & Policy from the University of California, Berkeley.

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Sam Levy

Senior Associate

Samantha Meysohn — Samantha Meysohn Senior Associate

Samantha Meysohn brings eight years of professional experience in the environmental field, studying, implementing, and supporting projects on topics ranging from climate change adaptation, human-elephant conflict, and biodiversity informatics. Prior to becoming a Senior Associate at Kearns & West, she completed a year-long Apprenticeship in Conservation Conflict Transformation with the Center for Conservation Peacebuilding, transforming deeply-rooted, identity-based social conflicts surrounding wildlife conservation and natural resource management. At Kearns & West, she supports process design and facilitation for collaboration among tribal, federal, and state representatives and stakeholders to address complex natural resource management topics. Samantha earned her bachelor’s degree at Barnard College and her master’s degree from the Yale School of the Environment.

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Samantha Ramsey — Samantha Ramsey Senior Associate

Sam Ramsey is a Senior Associate at Kearns & West who brings an expertise in strategic communications, public affairs, and project management to a wide variety of marine, renewable, transportation, and telecommunications-oriented projects. Sam is a leader in the Kearns & West collaborative technology practice, supporting the deployment of technologies across the full spectrum of Kearns & West services from communications and outreach, to media monitoring, to facilitation of large, complex virtual events.

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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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Sharon Hu — Sharon Hu Senior Associate

Sharon Hu is a Senior Associate at Kearns & West, supporting facilitation, public engagement, and policy analysis services in the areas of flood control planning, multi-benefit landscape regional floodplain management, and groundwater protection. Her background includes water conservation and outreach for a water utility and special district in Southern California. Sharon received a BS in ecology from UCLA and her MS and MPP from the University of Michigan, where she focused on environmental justice and public management. As a graduate consultant, she partnered with community-based organizations and research institutions on a range of policy issues including inclusive community development, open space and agricultural preservation, and water infrastructure.

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Shelby Slutzker — Shelby Slutzker Associate

Shelby  Slutzker  is an Associate with Kearns & West and has extensive experience in  public involvement  and community and  regional planning.  She specializes in  projects around large-scale infrastructure, transportation, and community connectivity.  Shelby’s work with counties, local municipalities, and other government agencies has given her expansive awareness of environmental  processes,  such as NEPA,  and the importance of stakeholder participation and consensus.  She holds a bachelor’s degree in Geography  with  a minor in Spanish  from the University of Texas at Austin, where she  focused on the intersection of environmental  issues  and urban planning.  

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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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Tai Bui — Tai Bui Accounting Supervisor

Tai Bui is an Accounting Supervisor at Kearns & West where his focus is project management, accounts payable and general ledger oversight, and process engineering. His experience includes having worked in the architecture and engineering industry providing guidance on project management, financial reporting and analysis, and public accounting specializing in low-income housing tax credits. Tai has a degree in Accountancy from California State University, Chico and is currently testing to acquire CPA licensure.

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Taylor Funderburk

Associate

Terra Alpaugh — Terra Alpaugh Director

As a Director at Kearns & West, Terra designs and facilitates collaborative decision-making, conflict resolution, and public outreach and engagement processes related to water operations and supply, water quality, habitat restoration and endangered species issues, flood risk, and wastewater. Terra has worked with numerous local, state, and federal agencies, both internally and in multi-agency contexts, and has executed outreach to a wide range of public stakeholders. Terra holds a Master of Environmental Science and Management from the Bren School at UC Santa Barbara and a bachelor’s degree in history from Cornell University. She enjoys helping stakeholders utilize evolving science and modeling in their decision-making, including exploring how to address scientific uncertainties and associated risk in their short- and long-term planning and policymaking.

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Tess Burroughs — Tess Burroughs Associate

Tess Burroughs is an Associate at Kearns & West providing project support for collaborative stakeholder meetings and community assessment reporting. Tess holds a Bachelor of Arts with a major in English and minor in Environmental Sustainability from the University of Mary Washington as well as a Master of Science in Sustainable Development from Uppsala University. Tess’ graduate thesis focused on environmental communications and analyzing the ways in which we use language to discuss environmental issues.

Centered around themes of sustainability, conservation, and climate resiliency, much of her academic and professional work has supported environmental education efforts, communal stewardship projects, and public outreach initiatives.

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Trevor Reddick — Trevor Reddick Director

Trevor Reddick is a Director with Kearns & West and brings data-driven problem-solving, research acumen, and valued presentation skills to the team. He comes from the real estate industry where he managed sustainability projects and interfaced with government on regional programs across water management, land use planning, and energy sectors. Trevor has a master’s in Communication from Baylor University where he focused his thesis on the intersection of public engagement and environmental justice in urban resilience policy.

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Ty Show

Associate

Vidya Bhamidi — Vidya Bhamidi Senior Associate

Vidya Bhamidi is a Senior Associate with Kearns & West with a background in the nonprofit, public, and private sectors as well as with research institutions. Her public involvement and project facilitation work focuses on land use and resiliency planning, transportation, climate adaptation, energy and water, and infrastructure projects. She also brings her design background to the tools and materials she develops to communicate complex ideas for diverse audiences. Vidya has a bachelor’s degree in Architecture from Jawaharlal Nehru Architecture and Fine Arts University in India and a Master of City Planning from UC Berkeley.

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Violeta Alvarez — Violeta Alvarez Project Coordinator

Violeta Alvarez is a Project Coordinator at Kearns & West and supports natural resources and transportation projects. She brings experience working directly with front-line communities, community organizations, and local governments in community engagement, youth development, housing justice, and supporting urban planning efforts to bring equity to the front and center. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Urban Studies and a minor in Latina/o/x Studies from Mount Holyoke College. Violeta is a fluent Spanish-speaker and is passionate about working towards social transformation, particularly in reimagining solutions that increase access and center those who are most impacted and have historically been left out of decision-making processes in community planning and environmental justice issues.

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Yolanda Sanchez — Yolanda Sanchez Senior Director

Yolanda Anita Sanchez is a Senior Director at Kearns & West and brings over 15 years of experience in community outreach, public participation, and risk communication. Her background includes working at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, where she led public outreach and involvement programs in both urban and rural communities and responded to national environmental emergencies. An environmental health scientist by training, she is passionate about environmental emergency response with a focus on hard-to-reach and vulnerable communities. Yolanda holds a Master of Public Administration and a Master of Science in Environmental Health from the University of Washington and is a member of the Environment Section of the American Public Health Association, the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science, and the International Association of Public Participation.  

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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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