Association of Environmental Professionals | San Diego Chapter
FALL 2018
MESSAGE FROM THE BOARD by CORINNE LYTLE-BONINE, CHAMBERS GROUP The San Diego Chapter Awards and Scholarship Program was held on September 20th at Tom Ham’s Lighthouse. Close to 150 attendees enjoyed a perfect San Diego September evening, cocktail mixer overlooking the ocean and downtown skyline, and appetizers and a buffet including sustainable and responsibly-harvested seafood. Guest Speaker Amanda Lee inspired the audience with a detailed account and practical solutions regarding her experiences developing climate change resiliency for the City of Del Mar. All this led up to the evening’s main event, which celebrated and recognized the outstanding achievements of local students, agencies, firms, and professionals. Since its establishment in 2004, the San Diego Chapter Scholarship Fund has awarded more than $65,000 to deserving students in the environmental field. This year, we received 17 applications from talented and very well qualified undergraduate and graduate students attending local universities. Zoe Sebright and Charlotte Roberts were selected as the 2018 Student Scholarship recipients, each receiving $2,000 and memberships to AEP. As only he can, Mike Nieto serenaded us with his take on climate change resiliency, “Under the Sea”, and presented awards to the winners selected from nominations of impressive quality by the volunteer jurors. The Contribution to the Environmental Profession award was presented to Lisa Wood, complete with personal commendations from current and former colleagues. In closing, some of our more competitive colleagues walked away with deeply fabulous silent auction prizes including Dierks Bentley concert tickets, gift cards for Belly Up, World Famous, and Tom Ham’s, a wine-tasting at Bernardo Winery, tickets to the Birch Aquarium, and much more!
ENVIRONMENTOR
THE
2018 WINNERS Outstanding Environmental Analysis Document EIR/EIS Award (Dual Winners) City of San Diego and AECOM Vernal Pool Habitat Conservation Plan EIR/EIS City of Solana Beach and Harris & Associates Solana 101 EIR Outstanding Technical Report Award Sweetwater Vistas LLC, County of San Diego Planning & Development Services, and HELIX Environmental Sweetwater Vistas Project Biological Technical Report Outstanding Public Involvement Santa Ana Watershed Project Authority and Woodard & Curran SWAPA Outreach Brochure Series Outstanding Environmental Analysis Document MND/EA Award SANDAG, Federal Railroad Administration and BRG Consulting Pacific Surfliner to Miramar Phase 2 Double-Track Project EA Outstanding Innovation in Green Planning and Design Award SANDAG Regional Climate Action Planning Framework Outstanding Planning Document - Plan, Policy, or Ordinance City of Encinitas, SANDAG, Ascent Environmental, and Energy Policy Initiatives Center Encinitas Climate Action Plan Outstanding Contribution to the Environmental Profession Award Lisa Wood
Thank you to our guest speaker, Amanda Lee, Principal Planner (City of Del Mar)! Thank you to the Awards Committee. Thank you all for the tremendous amount of work you put into this event! Avneet Sidhu (Lounsbery, Ferguson, Altona & Peak), Chris Mendiara (LLG Engineers), Emily Michaelson (Katz & Associates), Janelle Firoozi (ESA), Haley Johnson (Woodard & Curran), Kelsey Hawkins (Harris & Associates), Laurel Glass Lees (Great Ecology), Lauren Esposito (SANDAG), Lorrie Bradley (County of San Diego), Marlie Long (ESA), Michael Page (RECON Environmental), and Morgan Weintraub (Harris & Associates) We would also like to thank our awards jury. Thank you for dedicating your time to review and evaluate the outstanding submissions! Nicole Marotz (Michael Baker International), Anastacia Santos (POWER Engineers, Inc.), Dennis Campbell (County of San Diego), Gulsum Rustemoglu (GEPermit), Dawna Marshall (RECON Environmental, Inc.), Angela Clark (AECOM), Brad Haley (ECORP), Nicole Poletto (Woodard & Curran), Diane Sandman (Harris & Associates), Iulia Roman (Dudek), Terry Powers (formerly ECORP), Brenna Weatherby (Rincon), and Elidia Dostal (Law Offices of Elidia C. Dostal)
THE ENVIRONMENTOR, FALL 2018| {{page}}
thank YOU to everyone that helped make the AWARDS & SCHOLARSHIP BANQUET happen!
Thank you to our sponsors! AECOM Ascent Environmental Chambers Group Dudek ESA GHD Great Ecology Harris & Associates HELIX Environmental ICF Katz & Associates LLG Engineers Michael Baker International Ninyo & Moore Port of San Diego RECON Environmental Sophia Mitchell & Associates
thank YOU FOR ATTENDING THIS YEARS AWARDS & SCHOLARSHIP BANQUET!
Charlotte Roberts
Since its establishment in 2004, the San Diego Chapter Scholarship Fund has awarded more than $65,000 to deserving students in the environmental field. This year’s scholarship winners, Charlotte Roberts (SDSU) and Zoe Sebright (UCSD), each received a $2,000 scholarship award and a one-year student membership to AEP.
THE ENVIRONMENTOR, FALL 2018 | {{page}}
2018 Scholarship winners
Charlotte is currently enjoying her third year studying Sustainability at San Diego State University. She is currently working on a voter registration campaign to increase the civic engagement among her peers, and highlighting democracy’s connection to sustainability by planning campus-wide educational speaking events. This fall she is proudly serving as Student Representative on the Owner-Architect-Contractor design-build team for the Double LEED Platinum renovation of SDSU’s Aztec Recreation Center. Charlotte has recently added a business minor to her degree and aspires to find a job in waste diversion or ethical supply chain management. Her favorite hobby is cooking delicious vegetarian food while listening to podcasts and dancing in the kitchen with her mom.
Zoe Sebright is a San Diego native and UC San Diego alumnus with a degree in Environmental Systems: Ecology, Evolution, Behavior. She is starting her Master’s of Science in Marine Biology at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography this fall, where she will study the effects of climate change stressors on chemoreception in cleaner shrimp. She aims to help bridge the gap between science and environmental action through a career grounded in research as well as activism. In her free time, she likes hiking, biking, and swimming around San Diego, as well as spending time with her family.
Zoe Sebright
2018 Photography Contest Winner: BURROWING OWL BY CAROLINE NALEZNY, ECORP
LISA WOOD: Outstanding Contribution to the Environmental Profession
This year's award for Outstanding Contribution to the Environmental Profession was awarded to Lisa Wood. Thank you for your professional contributions and your many years of dedication to AEP! Lisa Wood is a long-time member of AEP. Her first exposure to CEQA was in a Conservation and Resource Studies class she took in 1981 during her coursework at the University of California at Berkeley in biology. After graduating from Berkeley, she studied coastal habitats at San Diego State University for her Master’s Degree. She then secured an internship with the City of San Diego under Tom Huffman, in the Environmental Quality Division (EQD), and then a job writing EIRs for RECON. When an associate position became available in EQD, she returned to the City. One day, one of the senior planners was complaining about a RECON EIR that Lisa had contributed to. Fortunately, the senior planner concluded, “but these findings of overriding consideration are excellent!” and Lisa breathed a sigh of relief because that had been the portion of the document she had written. Lisa accepted a promotion to the Environmental Services Department (ESD) in 1990, where she (still) provides CEQA, legislative, regulatory, policy, and other planning services. ESD is responsible for recycling and solid waste management for the City, including operation of the Miramar Landfill. As anyone who has worked with Lisa, or attended any of her luncheons or mobile workshops she has led on behalf of AEP, can attest that Lisa has a wonderfully dry sense of humor that can only come from the deepest of technical capabilities. Further, and just as important to this evening, Lisa has made a practice of training, supporting, and advancing the next generation of environmental professionals. In her spare time, Lisa is an equestrian, and she has gone on extended horse rides. Her first “long ride” was 1,500 miles along the West Coast of the United States in 1993. Her second was 3,000 miles to Virginia in 2001. She has written books on both trips and won awards for her writing in both books. In 2007, AEP selected the EIR she managed for a height increase in the Miramar Landfill as the “best EIR” of the year. The judges’ comments called the EIR “surprisingly readable,” which apparently is high praise for writing in a CEQA document.
UPCOMING EVENTS
2018 CEQA Essentials Workshop Thursday, November 15, 2018 8:30AM-4:30PM @ Marina Village - Captain's Room
This workshop provides a basic understanding of the fundamentals of the California Environmental Quality Act and the State Guidelines, and includes intermediate-level practice pointers and case studies. Topics will include: Understanding the Statute and Guidelines, Determining the Appropriate Document, Responsibilities, Adequacy of Analysis and Mitigation, Findings, and Notices. To register, click here.
SAVE THE DATE: 2018 APA/AEP Holiday Party Thursday, December 13, 2018 @ The Bali Hai
November Luncheon: Legislative Update Thursday, November 1, 2018 11:30 AM-1:00 PM @ Hilton Mission Valley
Matt Klopfenstein will give a general overview of the 2018 Legislative Session, with a focus on the environmental and CEQA related legislation. The discussion will highlight AEP's activity in the Capitol this year. To register, click here.
Thomas Strand is a native San Diegan and graduate of San Diego State University. Thomas began his career as an environmental planner at Atkins, and then transitioned to working at Chambers Group where he just celebrated his 1-year anniversary with the company. In his free time, Thomas enjoys camping and hiking, supporting the local sports teams, visiting national parks, and traveling overseas. You’ve recently taken a new position on the board. What made you want to get more involved and take a leadership position with AEP? I was the AEP Student Chapter President as a graduate student at SDSU. I undoubtedly benefited from the workshops, networking events, and volunteer opportunities, but the greatest benefit was associated with the people I was able to meet in the industry that I was looking to start my career. Following my academic career, I came to understand that not all environmental professionals are aware of the benefits of AEP. This realization got me interested in the membership board position with AEP San Diego, and the rest is history. I have been able to further expand my network and share the benefits of AEP with environmental professional across San Diego. What advice would you give a recent graduate or young professional in the environmental industry? Join AEP and attend all the wonderful events offered throughout the year. Introduce yourself to everyone and anyone at these events and be prepared to talk about yourself. You never know who you will meet or what role they may play in your career… What have you enjoyed most about working in the environmental field? I have thoroughly enjoyed the diversity of projects I have worked on in my career. From large- to small-scale projects, complicated to straightforward, controversial to not so controversial, every project I have worked on has brought a new challenge. The work is interesting, and I am able to learn and grow as a person and a professional. On a daily basis, I collaborate with experts in their respective fields and am able to go home with bits of information that were previously unknown to me. The projects and the people, and ever changing CEQA, certainly make the environmental field a great space to spend the majority of my time.
meet a board member: THOMAS STRAND, CHAMBERS GROUP
Do you want to be more involved in Chapter events, but aren't ready for a Board position? No problem! We welcome you to take an active role with SDAEP! Whether it is a one-time commitment to a committee or a more permanent position, there many other ways you can actively participate: Present a luncheon topic Join the Awards Committee or Awards Jury Volunteer at the Holiday Party Contribute an article to the newsletter If you have any questions or would like additional information, please don’t hesitate to contact Corinne Lytle-Bonine at clytle-bonine@chambersgroupinc.com or 619-241-1225. UC SAN DIEGO EXTENSION: Upcoming courses Writing Effective CEQA Documents - Online 11/5/2018 - 12/15/2018 Advanced CEQA - Online 1/22/2019 - 3/22/2019 Introduction to NEPA - Online 1/22/2019 - 3/22/2019 CEQA Project Management - Online 1/22/2019 - 3/22/2019 CEQA in Practice - Online 1/28/2019 - 3/8/2019
Announcements
The Monterey Bay – Silicon Valley Chapter will host the 2019 AEP Conference in beautiful Monterey at the Monterey Plaza Hotel. The theme of this conference is Waves of Change & Fields of Opportunity. As in the past, the 2019 conference will provide an opportunity for CEQA practitioners and technical experts to meet and discuss the hot topics of the day, with emphasis on responding effectively to change and seizing opportunities presented by that change. Click here to submit a presentation or award nomination and for sponsorship information.
SDAEPBoard@califaep.org President Corinne Lytle Bonine Chambers Group clytle-bonine@chambersgroupinc.com Co-Vice Presidents of Programs Janelle Firoozi ESA jfiroozi@esassoc.com Lisa Maier ESA LMaier@esassoc.com Vice President of Membership Thomas Strand Chambers Group tstrand@chambersgroupinc.com Treasurer Vacant Secretary Matt Stewart ICF matt.stewart@icf.com Student Membership and Outreach Director Katie Laybourn Harris & Associates katie.laybourn@weareharris.com Chapter Director Julia Norris Aarcher jnorris@aarcherinc.com Newsletter Editor Erin Murphey AECOM erin.murphey@aecom.com
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Contact the Newsletter Editor at: sdaepnews@gmail.com
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