When Sarah is not making three-point shots on EnviroIssues' basketball team, she is using her strong science and policy background to help clients navigate complicated regulatory arenas. Sarah helps our clients effectively integrate technical and policy work, and engages public and agency stakeholders in decision-making processes to achieve successful outcomes. From environmental permitting and land use decisions to natural resources planning and facilitation, Sarah is a key player on any team.
As a Seattle native, Kristine knew she had to return to her hometown after a pilgrimage to Portland, where she completed her master's degree in Urban and Regional Planning. Kristine lends a planner's perspective to EnviroIssues' complex land use and transportation projects. Her most recent experience focuses on planning future safety and reliability improvements for regional transportation corridors in Washington. With her environmental policy background as well, Kristine is a valuable team member.
With more than 25 years of experience in public outreach and public policy, Cheryl understands what it takes to get the job done- and it often involves elected officials, community councils, regulatory agencies, labor unions, business leaders, or a group of residents. Cheryl is skilled at bringing diverse players and interests to the table and crafting compromises that work for everyone. She has a solid reputation for trustworthy stakeholder outreach and facilitation, having worked as a policy analyst for the House Democratic Caucus of the Washington State Legislature and with Seattle's Department of Neighborhoods. She has experience working in several policy arenas but she is most passionate about education, children, and healthcare.
Elizabeth has a knack for absorbing technical information. She relies on her ability to process information about complex decisions and projects to effectively communicate the basics while always paying attention to detail. Her passion for planning events helps provide both organization and innovation to public meetings, and various communications and outreach activities. Elizabeth lends her skills to EnviroIssues' transportation, noise mitigation, regional transit, and construction projects. In her spare time, her monster dinner parties have earned her the nickname of Mama Liz.
Susan is a results-oriented professional merging in-depth understanding of science and natural resource management with facilitation, mediation, and strategic planning. She has extensive experience with collaborative decision making and teamwork. Susan is accustomed to highly controversial projects with significant impacts and stringent deadlines. With 25 years of experience, Susan has well-developed written and verbal communication abilities and is capable of execution as well as vision, with proven success in leadership, management, conflict resolution, analysis, and public policy.
KaDeena joined EnviroIssues with years of experience implementing and managing commercial sector education and outreach for Seattle’s recycling ordinance. Her solid outreach skills and passion for the community make her the ideal team member to engage stakeholders in the Alaskan Way Viaduct and Seawall Replacement Program. Through community briefings, surveys, and open houses, KaDeena helps clients understand and incorporate the desires and concerns of the surrounding community. When she’s not out talking to the community about the viaduct, she serves on the board of the Environmental Coalition of South Seattle.
Penny is passionate about truly engaging people in projects that will affect their lives, their homes, and their businesses. She understands the level of information needed to convey the issues and vigorously seeks out opportunities to involve and inform concerned and interested people - whether it is at a public meeting, at a construction site, or at a potluck social. Penny uses her ever-present sense of humor and smooth but firm touch in her group facilitation. She brings calm to agitated citizens, ensuring group members are heard and are hearing each other, and ensuring a process is honest, clear, and mutually beneficial for all parties, Penny is adept at moving group members through difficult conversations and to a place of mutual acceptance and dialogue. And she's crazy about her dog, too!
Chris has more than 13 years of experience managing software development, Internet, and digital media projects, and has expertise in providing hands-on guidance and direction for multiple high-tech companies. Chris has created a broad range of software applications on different platforms using multiple technologies. He is able to help clients develop innovative web sites and complex databases plus anything in-between.
Linda has more than 20 years of strategic communications and public sector marketing experience. Her broad background includes work in transportation, public works, water conservation and water quality issues, neighborhood outreach, and parks and recreation at the state and local levels. Before joining EnviroIssues, Linda served as the Communications Director for the Washington State Department of Transportation. She brings valuable experience from her role at WSDOT, directing agency approaches to media relations, community outreach, web communications, print materials, message development, and branding initiatives. Linda has facility for creating high level communications strategies and for implementing grassroots outreach to build political and community support for projects. She can turn around a tough technical issue and make it understandable for the public, and she is an expert at developing and implementing roll-out strategies for communicating sensitive issues and policies.
Ryan joined our Portland office in 2006 and manages a range of projects focused on land use and natural resources, water/wastewater, energy, and transportation. A Northwest native with a background in planning and policy, Ryan contributes eight years of experience in research and writing, public involvement and stakeholder process design, and facilitation. Ryan is also part of the development team for EnviroIssues’ communications management systems. In his free time, Ryan enjoys playing futsal (a version of indoor soccer) and is an enthusiastic home brewer.
With an interdisciplinary degree in environmental science, experience working at NOAA, and an eye for the technical intricacies of public outreach communications systems and web sites, Ray brings fresh perspectives and decisive leadership to any project. He is familiar with issues that require balancing different opinions and concerns and is skilled at communicating complex information to a variety of audiences. Ray’s work history includes transportation planning and design, wildlife and ecosystem conservation and management, and energy facility siting. He currently spends most of his time leading energy facility siting projects, engaging thousands of citizens that span hundreds of miles. A regular in the Tacoma, Seattle, and Portland offices, Ray is a devoted Sounders fan – if you don’t find him in an office, you’ll see him at the game!
Suanne manages communications and outreach for the SR 520 Project, which has been an EnviroIssues project for almost a decade. Suanne’s team is busy throughout the east-west corridor and the region, delivering user-friendly communication materials, effective community outreach, local government coordination, catastrophic failure planning, design and pre-construction outreach, and environmental review. She is a strong project manager who integrates well into interdisciplinary teams, listens carefully to all of the issues, and provides clear strategic advice on how to engage and respond to the community.
Anne is a professional communicator who translates technical documents and analysis into lay language that a wide variety of audiences can easily comprehend. She is especially interested in using clear communications to ensure that parties interested in a project can make informed choices and provide input that is valuable to project managers. She played key roles in efforts to craft a wolf management plan for Oregon, improve communications with fish and wildlife conservationists, write a groundwater quality evaluation report in Idaho, and analyze environmental quality indicators in Indiana.
Mandy’s focus is providing public involvement, facilitation, and outreach for tough projects, with an emphasis on engaging traditionally underrepresented communities. Mandy is skilled in event planning, including public meetings and training and leading team-building exercises. While in Seattle, Mandy put her formidable communications and outreach skills to work helping manage the SR 520 Project, while also serving as the vice president of the Women's Transportation Seminar Puget Sound chapter. Since moving to Portland at the end of 2007, Mandy has put her bi-state knowledge to work on the Columbia River Crossing project. She’s also encouraging dialogues about site remediation, port renovation, and tolling at various location in Oregon and currently sits on the City of Portland’s Public Involvement Advisory Council.
Libby Smith’s work on natural resource issues spans from writing municipal stormwater monitoring reports to developing stakeholder outreach for stormwater basin planning. She has a master’s degree in regional planning and eight years of experience, moving from a scientific to a public outreach focus, which provides the background for communicating complex, technical issues to the public. Her work areas include contaminated site cleanup, stormwater management and permit compliance, and watershed management.
With seven years of experience in communications, outreach, public affairs, and energy efficiency program evaluation and implementation, Ara is skilled in communicating complex information with the public. She is experienced in community outreach, translating technical information, and developing and implementing public involvement activities in compliance with state and national environmental regulations. She is currently planning, implementing, and managing public involvement efforts for a high voltage transmission line project in Wyoming and Idaho.
From planning small neighborhood parks to developing design guidelines for interstate corridors, Erin is experienced in public involvement and communications for all types of projects. An excellent communicator with a keen understanding of public perspective and the issues facing communities today, Erin finds creative ways to engage people in the issues that affect them - whether brainstorming the future of transit with local students or working with local television and film makers to bring public meetings right to your living room.
A Seattle native, Erin has seen the region evolve, and works every day to prepare the public for the future. Whether explaining the merits of expanding our high capacity transit system for Sound Transit to fair-goers, or talking to community members in the City of Carnation about construction in their neighborhood, Erin is readying Puget Sound residents for growth from the bottom up. She does all this with an eye for detail on any task. When she’s not planning upcoming public meetings or writing a newsletter, you might find Erin teaching or performing her other talent – Irish Dancing.
Angie is a communicator at heart. Angie's clients value her ability to build real connections with community members and stakeholders, communicating complex issues in a clearly understandable way. Her project management and problem solving skills are critical as she works with a project team to understand and meet the needs of a community. Her projects range from the hills of the Cascades to the waters of the South Sound, and challenge her with the thorniest of issues.
With more than seven years experience implementing public outreach programs for public agencies and non-profit organizations, Amy Turner is an effective communications professional who can translate complex information into straightforward messages. In addition to providing strategic communications planning support, she is excellent at planning stakeholder meetings, developing brochures and print communications, and creating web sites. Amy has worked extensively with wastewater and surface water utilities and on transportation projects, including managing public outreach and communications during construction. When she’s not bringing her talents to EnviroIssues’ projects, Amy is busy as an active board member of the Puget Sound Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America.
Translation of technical information, communication with neighbors, and ensuring information gets out to all interested parties - these are a few of Kristy's public involvement skills. Kristy has worked on projects from Portland to Anacortes, from major interchanges to wastewater conveyance systems and small town developments. Kristy knows how to manage projects, large and small, so that the community is engaged, aware, and ready to move forward. She not only loves talking about projects, she's also a big promoter of EnviroIssues as a natural marketing guru.