What does it mean to you to be part of an employee-owned company?
We get to share our success.
What keeps you coming to work here at ESA every day?
Our work is so important. We are protecting communities. We are protecting and restoring special ecosystems. I am honored that I get to hear from community members and leaders and then take action to protect what they care about. I get to share my knowledge and learn (oh learn so much!) from our coworkers and colleagues. I am grateful my children can learn from my commitment to care for our environment and people. I can really make a difference. Make the world a little better. That’s what we are here for, right?
What is your hidden or special talent(s)?
I am a pretty good sea captain, especially in shallow tropical seas. I grew up in South Florida and was entrusted with boats to motor around. Now I can navigate around shallow reefs and sandbars with precision.
What’s your favorite thing to do when you are out of the office?
Everything outdoors. I love exploring and enjoying coastlines and streams. I love surfing, hiking, fishing, freediving, foraging, kayaking, and traveling. The cherry on top? Experiencing these pursuits with my family.
What are three skills that you bring to the ESA team? In other words, what should colleagues know to reach out to you about?
- Advice and insight based on hands-on experience and technical knowledge of coastal ecosystems and processes.
- Guidance for technical analyses, drafting drawings, and monitoring climate adaptation and ecological restoration projects.
- Communicating engineering and hydrology in a simpler approachable way to clients and communities.
In a nutshell, what kind of work does your team do?
Our Southern California EHD (engineering and hydrology) team works on nature-based restoration and climate adaptation projects. We do coastal, tidal, and stream flooding analyses, shoreline change analyses and modeling of streams, beaches, and lagoons. We prepare climate vulnerability assessments and adaptation plans. We design resilient coastal, tidal, and stream restoration and sea-level rise adaptation projects, from inception planning, to design, to monitoring.
Describe your role at ESA and the type of work you do.
This is a tough question. Our projects are diverse and there are many favorites. I have been monitoring the Surfers’ Point Managed Retreat Project post-construction for the past 5 years. Even though I didn’t work on the design, I have been able to watch the success of this project through several winters (and storms!) and summers. The beach and dunes are thriving, and the site is a community hotspot. Seeing the ingenuity of the nature-based adaptation design flourish gives me hope for our vulnerable coastlines worldwide.
