Speed Networking with Sustainability Professionals

The ASCE Los Angeles Section Sustainability Committee (LASSC) in partnership with MLAB, LA YMF, OC YMF, and OC Sustainability Committee will be co-hosting a speed networking event that aims to bring together sustainability professionals with students and early-career professionals who are pursuing a career in sustainability.

Attendees will have the opportunity to speak one on one with sustainability professionals ranging from early career to experts in their field! Please see below for list of attending sustainability professionals

Zetian (Tim) Zhang, LEED AP, CFA ESG - Cumming Group

Zetian (Tim) is a Senior Climate Manager at Cumming Group, with over six years of professional experience in sustainability and climate space and key expertise in GHG accounting, supply chain engagement, renewable energy procurement, ESG strategy, reporting, and corporate climate risk assessment. He has extensive consulting experience working with Fortune 100 clients in tech, apparel, consumer packaging goods, medical and manufacturing industries for their strategic sustainability planning, energy efficiency, renewable energy, sustainable value chain, and climate resiliency initiatives. He is LEED AP O+M certified and holds SASB FSA Credential from IFRS Foundation and ESG Investing certificate from CFA Institute. He publishes thought leadership articles regularly on leading ESG and climate media platforms, including GreenBiz and others. Tim is also an alum of the Climate Corps program from the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and an active member of multiple non-profits in the energy and climate space. He graduated from Duke University with a Master’s degree in Environmental Engineering.

Sam Ali, PE - Orange County Public Works

Sam Ali has a combined experience of 40 years in the civil engineering industry; 30 years with private consulting firms and 10 years with the public sector. During his career with the private sector Sam oversaw the planning, design and construction of civil infrastructure including roads, channels, parks, schools’ campuses, hospitals, commercial, residential and industrial developments. He advanced in his private sector career from junior civil engineer to vice president. He attended numerous training workshops to sharpen his design, communication and management skills. At OCPW, Sam was managing the programming group at the Infrastructure Programs division. He oversaw a team of engineers in preparing Capital Improvements Programs (CIP), preliminary project reports for roads, bridges, channels and bikeways and the preparation of grant applications for funding these projects. He has been chairing the sustainability committee for ASCE-OC during the last 12 years. He has also been mentoring students and junior engineers through the ASCE-OC and WTS mentorship programs during the last five years. Sam received achievement awards from ASCE and other professional organizations.

Ashley Haire, PE - Alta Planning + Design

Ashley Haire is a Principal Engineer with Alta Planning + Design in Los Angeles. In addition to managing engineering projects, she also leads Alta's Southern California Planning Team. She has extensive experience managing multimodal transportation projects from both the private and public sector perspectives. Ashley oversees design and planning for balanced transportation networks with a focus on active transportation projects that enhance mobility and prioritize safety for all users. She holds BS and MS degrees in civil engineering from the University of Arizona and a doctorate in civil engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. During her career, Ashley has worked in such diverse realms as highway design; managing the on-street bike program for the City of Dallas, Texas; and serving on the engineering faculty at Portland State University. She is a licensed civil engineer in California and 5 other states, and is an ENV SP Sustainability Professional.

Kelsie Anderson, PE - Transportation Corridor Agencies (TCA)

Kelsie Anderson is a registered Professional Engineer in California. She has 20 years of  experience as both a private consultant and a public sector employee. Her project experience includes large highway design, long-range regional planning, and land development regulation. Ms. Anderson currently works for Transportation Corridor Agencies (TCA) in Irvine, CA and currently serves as the ASCE LA Section Treasurer. She has also served on the Board of Directors for the Greenroads Foundation (now known as the Sustainable Transport Council) and a past chair of the ASCE Orange County Branch Transportation and Development Institute. Kelsie has a BS in Civil Engineering from the University of California, Irvine.

Ruwanka Purasinghe, PE - Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP)

Ruwanka Purasinghe is a Civil Engineer for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, where he currently works in the Project Management Office of the Water Engineering & Technical Services Division. Through this role, Ruwanka has worked on the planning, design, and construction of large capital improvement projects for LA’s water system. With ASCE, Ruwanka is the current President-Elect for the ASCE LA Section, and previously served as the LA Younger Member Forum President, the Metropolitan LA Branch President, and has been a member of a few national committees including the Committee on America’s Infrastructure who produced the 2021 Infrastructure Report Card. Through his work with ASCE, Ruwanka has received numerous awards including the ASCE National New Faces of Civil Engineering, ASCE Outstanding YMF Officer for State of California, and ASCE Outstanding Civil Engineer in Legislative Activities for the State of California.

Outside of work and ASCE, Ruwanka founded a 501c3 non-profit organization, served as a Big Brother mentor for the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Los Angeles, and is a proud Dad to his 1.5 year old daughter. For his efforts in the engineering and LA Community, Ruwanka has been featured on NBC Learn and Time Magazine. Ruwanka is a licensed Professional Engineer in the State of California, and holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Civil Engineering from UC Davis, and a Master’s Degree in Civil Engineering from CSULA.

Scott Gallic - Port of Long Beach (POLB)

Mr. Gallic has a Biological Sciences degree with a Concentration in International Relations from Cornell University and a Master’s degree in International Environmental Policy from UCSD.  He has 19 years of increasingly complex program management experience in the areas of sustainability planning, international and government relations, transportation and master planning, sustainability policy, program administration, construction management, environmental compliance, asset management and consulting.

His qualifications include Environmental Management Systems (EMS) International Standardization Organization (ISO) 14001 / 20121 Lead Auditor, ARB GHG Lead Verifier and LCFS Lead Verifier, Airport Carbon Accreditation Verifier, Envision Sustainability Professional, LEED AP, program management and administration, construction management, environmental and safety compliance, air quality and Greenhouse Gas (GHG) modeling, sustainability policy, NEPA / CEQA compliance, budgeting, planning, and technical report preparation.

Mr. Gallic’s background includes extensive work with both public and private clients including: Port of Long Beach, Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro), California Air Resources Board, Western Area Power Administration, California Energy Commission, Greenleaf Power, San Diego Gas and Electric, City of Solana Beach, City of Oceanside, City of La Mesa, City of San Diego, and multiple private clients including in the City of São Paulo, Brazil.

Maxime Le Mével - LISUS

Maxime is a dynamic entrepreneur and sustainability leader. With a background deeply rooted in driving positive environmental impact, he is a seasoned professional sitting at the intersection of environmental engineering, project management, and cleantech entrepreneurship. He is aiming to support the deployment of new technology and investments for environmental stewardship to accelerate global decarbonization.

He was recently COO at LISUS, a Techstars venture-backed startup he co-founded in 2021 to improve the sustainability of the critical mineral supply chain. He has implemented sustainability initiatives, crafted carbon accounting tools, and evaluated biodiversity impacts as an ESG & Sustainability consultant over the past couple of years. Before that, he managed for The Energy Coalition more than 50 energy projects achieving significant energy and GHG reduction goals (1500 MT CO2eq from 4M kWh,1.75M gallons water, $2.75 M saved). As a leader, he oversaw a team of energy consulting engineers, delivered presentations, while serving as a key representative and program lead for the company. He also served as the Director of Strategy & Operations at Seed Consulting Group, a non-profit providing Pro-bono consulting services to organizations pioneering a healthier and environmentally sustainable planet, where he led strategic initiatives to support the organization's expansion from 4 to 30 chapters by 2030.

Maxime has Master degrees from ESTP in Civil Engineering and UCLA in Civil and Environmental Engineering, with a specialization in Environmental and Water resources. He is also the recipient of the Leadership in Sustainability certificate from UCLA.

Calum Thompson, PE - AECOM

Calum Thompson leads AECOM’s High Performance Buildings & Communities team. A licensed mechanical engineer, Calum specializes in strategic energy planning where he applies his technical background to the assessment of building energy demand, renewable energy, district energy, and microgrid systems at a campus and community scale. Over the past decade Calum has led the development of energy and decarbonization plans for campuses, cities, agencies, and governments throughout the world. The plans focus on developing innovative, cost effective, low energy design solutions to meet and exceed clients’ sustainability and resilience goals.

Calum is also an active thought leader in the sustainability and energy industry, recently presenting at the IDEA Campus Energy 2022 Conference on re-thinking facility energy infrastructure and environmental performance, efficiency, and resilience standards, and was honored as an ENR California Top Young Professional in 2019.

Calum leads the development of tools and software that supports the decarbonization planning process including AECOM’s proprietary web-based energy analytics platform, Rosetta. Calum led the development of the building energy module of the Climate Action for Urban Sustainability Tool (CURB) tool for the World Bank and C40 that is used by cities across the globe to identify and prioritize greenhouse gas emission abatement interventions.

Amy Hayes - AECOM

Amy Hayes is a Sustainability Consultant with training in High Performance Buildings and ASHRAE Level II Energy Audits. She has over two years of experience in industrial energy audits, and 10 months experience in projects. Her primary skill set is in the creation of excel based tools for a variety of needs such as decarbonization dashboards and building level modeling.

Heather Repenning - Los Angeles Metro

Heather Repenning is the Executive Officer for Sustainability Policy at LA Metro, the public transportation authority that provides the almost 10 million people who reside in Los Angeles County with bus, rail, and other services. At Metro, Heather oversees policies and programs that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, improve air quality, and increase climate resilience. Previously, Heather has served as Vice Chair for Climate Action of the Board of Directors of Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, and as Vice President of the City of Los Angeles Board of Public Works. Heather graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Swarthmore College and earned a Master’s Degree from the University of California, Irvine in Comparative Literature. In her spare time, Heather enjoys working as an Adjunct Professor at USC’s Sol Price School for Public Policy and helping

women run for public office.

Vincent Hellens, ENV SP, QSD/P - Alta Planning + Design

Vincent Hellens is currently the Regional Manager & a Principal Engineer with Alta Planning + Design, based in their Los Angeles, CA office. He has over 18 years of experience managing and designing large and small public works infrastructure projects from planning and design through construction. He has delivered active transportation projects including pedestrian ADA improvements, Complete Streets, Class IV bikeways, trails, and roadway rehabilitations throughout California. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering from Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical University, in Huntsville, AL.  Vincent is certified as an Envision Sustainable Professional and a Qualified SWPPP Developer and Practitioner. Vincent is the President of the SoCal APWA Public Works Institute. He also serves on the National APWA Public Works Institute. Aside from his management and design capabilities, Vincent enjoys running marathons and cycling.  He loves to travel with his wife, Danelle and taking pictures of manholes from around the world.

Joel Farrier, PE, ENV SP - Burns & McDonnell

Joel Farrier is the Environmental Regional Manager at Burns & McDonnell, leading a team of 40 high-caliber professionals to deliver resilient and sustainable environmental solutions for our clients. Whether restoring a wetland for a city or providing environmental compliance and sustainability support for a local transit authority, Joel is focused on generating forward-thinking solutions for our communities, especially Los Angeles. Joel has more than 35 years of experience providing design, environmental, engineering and construction solutions for the transportation, power, oil and gas, water, and facilities markets. He is known for his strategic thinking, client focus, implementation of financial controls, risk management and safety. Joel is dedicated to sustainable infrastructure principles and resiliency for post-natural disasters and industrial accidents. He is also a member of the Committee on Sustainability. He is Chair of the cross-cutting Sustainability Technical Committee for the American Society of Civil Engineers, tasked with accumulating all of the technical knowledge on Sustainability, climate resiliency, decarbonization, green infrastructure and social sustainability for the national civil engineering community. Joel has an MBA from the International Institute for Management Development (Lausanne, Switzerland), a master’s degree in coastal engineering and a bachelor’s degree in zoology-genetics from the University of California, Berkeley.

Alison Linder

Alison’s career has focused on environmental improvement and sustainability, inspired by a great love of nature and a desire to ensure its viability for future generations. Alison leads the Office of Sustainability at Occidental College and is currently developing a comprehensive Climate Action Plan.  In addition to planning, Alison manages carbon footprint data collection, and sustainability programing and engagement across campus.  Previously, Alison worked at the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) where she worked on transportation, sustainability, resilience, and environmental justice.  As Clean Cities Coalition Director and the SCAG Clean Transportation Technology Program Lead, she focused on strategies and partnerships to advance zero and near zero emission technologies across modes such as passenger, transit and freight.

To share her passion for nature-based solutions, Alison teaches a course she created called Nature in the Urban Environment as an Adjunct Faculty at the University of Southern California. This course provides students tools to incorporate natural processes into planning decisions and covers subjects such as the water cycle, urban habitat, parkland, equity and climate change adaptation.  Alison received her PhD in Urban Planning from the University of Southern California where she focused her dissertation work on corporate environmental responsibility and successful program design to reduce environmental impact.

Paul Martin, PE, TE, LCI

Paul Martin is a licensed Civil and Traffic Engineer who leads transportation planning and active transportation projects at Mark Thomas. Paul has built a team of eight staff focused on active transportation, engagement, and planning projects in collaboration with public health, education, law enforcement, and community-based organization representatives to improve public travel and safety.

Nodebechukwu (Nicky) Paully-Umeh

Nodebechukwu (Nicky) has been a part of the Los Angeles Sanitation & Environment (LASAN) for nearly a year, serving as an Environmental Engineering Associate. Holding a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from UC Merced, Nodebechukwu brings a solid educational foundation to his role. He is passionate about sustainability and is eager to explore opportunities to transform waste into valuable resources.

Awoe Mauna-Woanya

Awoe is an urban sustainability professional passionate about the intersection between the built environment, social justice, and climate change. He works with cities to build climate resilience and design healthy and sustainable urban systems (across energy, waste, mobility, and open spaces). Based in Los Angeles, you can find Awoe organizing with Sunrise Movement, advocating for affordable housing with the Urban Environmentalists LA, or podcasting with Fostering Our Earth. 

David Phung

David Phung is an Environmental Engineering Associate at the Hyperion Water Reclamation Plant under Los Angeles Sanitation (LASAN). David graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Engineering from the University of California, Riverside. During his undergraduate studies, he gained various experiences primarily focused on air quality, ranging from being a Community Scientist to a Research Assistant with the Center for Environmental Research and Technology (CE-CERT). In addition to his involvement in air quality research, he interned at the university’s local community garden, R’Garden, where he gained hands-on experience in small-scale farming.

After graduating from UCR, David began his professional career as an Air Quality Engineering Consultant at a local environmental consulting firm before joining the City of Los Angeles, Los Angeles Sanitation (LASAN).