Brittany Russo is a PhD candidate at the University of California, Berkeley studying GeoSystems Engineering in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department with a research focus on levee health monitoring and was the second place USSD Scholarship Winner in 2022. She is the chair for the GeoEngineering Graduate Students Association at Berkeley which provides Berkeley GeoSystems graduate students with social events for networking and furthering education. She received a Bachelor of Applied Science in Geological Engineering from the University of Waterloo in 2019 and a Masters in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley in 2020.

Pete serves as a senior project manager for Ayres with a primary focus on improving performance of hydraulic structures and completing federal dam inspections. In the dam removal field, Pete managed the 2015 design and removal of the 257kW Gordon Hydro Dam (33 feet high with less than 40,000 cubic yards of sediment) and the 2012 design and removal of the 306kW Grimh Hydro Dam (30 feet high with 115,000 cubic yards of sediment).  He has consulted on more than ten dam removal projects.

Thomas Hepler has nearly 36 years of experience with the Bureau of Reclamation, Department of Interior, in hydraulic and structural engineering design for concrete dams, spillways, and outlet works. He has performed dam safety inspections on numerous large concrete dams including T. Roosevelt Dam Raise and Clear Lake Replacement Dam. Experienced in potential failure mode analysis (PFMA) and risk analysis for dams and Engineer of Record for the removal of Elwha and Glines Canyon Dams, and of several smaller dams on the West Coast. Co-author of guidance documents on overtopping protection for dams, dam decommissioning, and roller-compacted concrete. Current member of Technical Representative team for removal of four hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River. As a Senior Consultant for Schnabel, currently perform PFMA and risk analyses for municipal governments and utilities, and Part 12 inspections for FERC licensees. Have served on Value Engineering teams and Independent Review panels. Member ASCE, USSD, and ASDSO.

Jared Vegrzyn is a hydraulic engineer with WEST Consultants, Inc..  He has a strong educational background in analysis and application of physical and mathematical relationships related to hydrology and hydraulics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His experience includes hydraulic and hydrologic modeling and river geomorphology. a

Eric is a registered professional engineer working as a dam and levee consultant specializing in risk and safety programs. He retired from the Corps of Engineers after almost 40 years of service where he led the agency Dam and Levee Safety Programs as well as the National Levee Safety Program. He has engineering degrees from Clemson University (1983) and Oklahoma State University (1989).  Currently, he is the principal of Halpin Consulting LLC where he works internationally with clients in the dam, levee, and mining industry.  

Miles Yaw is a Civil Engineer in the Tennessee Valley Authority’s River Management unit. He manages TVA’s probabilistic hydrology, downstream consequences, and paleoflood hydrology programs, and also serves as a subject matter expert for hydraulics and hydrology for Dam Safety Inspections, Risk Assessments, and Modification Studies. He currently serves as the Young Professional Vice Chairman of the USSD Hydraulics and Hydrology committee. Prior to TVA, Mr. Yaw worked in consulting, focusing on river mechanics, sediment transport, and fluvial geomorphology. During that time, Mr. Yaw performed sediment transport studies on rivers across the United States to help dam owners understand downstream morphological impacts of existing and proposed operations. Mr. Yaw also provided direct development and testing support for the sediment transport routines in HEC-RAS 5.x. He holds a Master’s degree in Civil Engineering from Colorado State University and a BS in Civil Engineering from Washington State University. He currently lives in Knoxville, TN with his wife and three children.

Ryan Clark is a hydraulic engineer with the USACE Dam Safety Modification Center (DSMC).  While the center is located in LRH, Mr. Clark sits virtually in the Nashville District.  Prior to working for the DSMC he worked in the Water Resources Section of the Hydrology and Hydraulics Branch of the Nashville District for over 8 years.   With over 10 years of flood risk experience, he currently works on hydrologic hazards and risk studies for the USACE Dam and Levee Safety Program.  He received his B.S. and M.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Tennessee Technological University as well as a M.S. in Risk Management from Notre Dame of Maryland University. He is a registered professional engineer in the State of Tennessee.  Besides work, he enjoys watching the Cubs and Titans, getting outdoors as much as possible with his family, and enjoying a nice glass of bourbon with his friends.

Carolyn J. Pearson is a Hydrologic Engineer at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Risk Management Center.  Carolyn is a registered professional engineer in the state of Missouri with over 11 years of experience in hydraulic and hydrology analysis, design, and risk assessment in the dam and levee safety programs. She is currently an RMC Regional Hydrology Lead providing technical guidance and oversight on national Dam and Levee Safety studies. She has a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Missouri University of Science & Technology, a B.S. in Chemistry and Secondary Education from Graceland University, an M.S in Civil Engineering (Water Resources & Environmental) from the University of Missouri-Kansas City, and an M.S. in Risk Management from the Notre Dame University of Maryland.  She currently lives near the front range of the Rocky Mountains in Littleton, CO.

Jonathan Harris currently acts as the National Practice Leader for Dam Safety and Risk at Schnabel. He has over 27 years of experience specializing in geotechnical engineering, embankment dam design, seismic engineering, dam safety, and risk analysis. He spent 11 years with the Bureau of Reclamation, working at the Technical Service Center as a Technical Project Lead. Jonathan has conducted numerous dam safety assessments for Reclamation, FERC licensees, and other hydropower owners in the United States and other countries. He spent three years working in New Zealand performing dam safety and risk assessments within New Zealand and other countries.

Jonathan has performed as a facilitator and subject matter expert for qualitative and quantitative risk analyses for numerous dam facilities. He has actively been involved in providing training for dam safety and risk analysis for over 15 years and is currently part of the United States Society on Dams risk-informed decision making (RIDM) training development leadership team and helped organize the semi-quantitative risk analysis RIDM training.

Jonathan has overseen numerous embankment dam projects for new and existing structures including site investigation, design, construction, and remediation. He has also been involved with many dam safety assessments for a variety of dam structure types and appurtenant structures, including embankments, spillways, and concrete dams.

Dom Galic is a geotechnical engineer with the Bureau of Reclamation's TechnicalService Center in Denver. He has been with Reclamation for over ten years, sincecompleting his doctoral research (in rock mechanics) at the University of California,Berkeley. Dom has been a risk analysis facilitator since 2011 and is an active memberof the Reclamation risk cadre, a working group established to provide training andguidance on risk analysis methodology and promote consistency in risk informeddecision making. He is a registered professional engineer in the State of Colorado.

Jacob Davis is the Special Assistant for Dam Safety for HQ USACE. He has served at Headquarters’ for more than 5 years and is responsible for policy, guidance, and oversight of the dam safety program., which includes making risk informed recommendations for dam safetystudies, modifications, and aspects of daily Operations and Maintenance activities.The USACE portfolio has more than 740 multiple purpose dams that provide approximately $ 170Bin flood damage prevention annually, protects more than 15 million people living in flood plains downstream of dams , facilitates 12,000 miles of inlandwater navigation , stores one third of all fresh water to serve over 100 million people, allows for 25% of hydropower generation, creates over 190,000 jobsthat support 250 million recreation visitors who enjoy camping, fishing, boating, hiking, and other activities

Mr. Davis began his career at the USACE Jacksonville District where he was introduced to dams during the foundation exploration and design for the Portugués Dam in Puerto Rico; design and construction at Herbert Hoover Dike in south Florida; and participated in inspections, repairs, and instrumentation planning and evaluations at dams and levees. He later joined the USACE Risk Management Center where he evaluated interim risk reduction measure plans, facilitated risk assessments, participated as ageotechnical risk assessor and technical advisor, and served as a program manager.

Prior to joining Headquarters’, Mr. Davis worked for the Tennessee Valley Authority helping to improve the risk informed decision making program and governance structure for dam safety. Mr. Davi s holds a Master’s Degree in Civil Engineering and is both a registeredProfessional Engineer and Project Management Professional.

Nate Snorteland has been with the Corps of Engineers as the Director of the Risk Management Center since 2009.  In this role, Mr. Snorteland is responsible for managing risks for the Corps of Engineers portfolio of more than 740 dams and 15,000+ miles of levees.  Mr. Snorteland’s background includes experience designing and constructing a wide variety of dams across the United States.  Following his work as a designer and construction engineer, he worked in the dam safety program for the Bureau of Reclamation in a variety of roles.  He was Reclamation’s project manager and lead engineer for the Joint Federal Project, a $1.6 Billion flood risk management and dam safety project at Folsom Dam in California. 

He specializes in risk assessment and risk management and developed risk management strategies for both Reclamation and the Corps of Engineers.  Since coming to the Corps of Engineers, he has led efforts related to risk, risk analysis, risk management, portfolio management, design standards, and risk-informed design. 

He holds a B.S. in Civil engineering from the University of Colorado, Denver and a M.S. in Geotechnical Engineering from Virginia Tech.  He is a registered professional engineer in the State of Colorado.  He has a love for the outdoors and enjoys exploring the vast open spaces in the Western U.S.

Glenn J. Rix is a senior principal geotechnical engineer based in Georgia with more than 30 years of experience focused on the areas of geotechnical earthquake engineering and engineering seismology. His practice includes seismic hazard and risk assessment and mitigation for civil infrastructure. Glenn joined the firm following a 23-year career as a professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Since joining Geosyntec, Glenn has performed seismic hazard and risk analyses, liquefaction triggering evaluations, site response analyses, and seismic stability and deformation analyses for embankment and concrete dams, coal combustion residual (CCR) storage facilities, municipal and hazardous waste landfills, liquefied natural gas facilities, and highway bridges. He has also served as an external peer reviewer for seismic hazard analyses for nuclear power plants and provided litigation support for numerous cases related to the effects of blasting- and construction-induced ground vibrations on structures. Glenn is a leading authority on in-situ seismic methods and is a co-author of Surface Wave Methods for Near-Surface Site Characterization and the forthcoming American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Manual on Subsurface Investigations.

Christie Hale is a seismic hazard analyst involved in seismic safety assessment projects. Her technical experience includes deterministic and probabilistic seismic hazard analysis, deaggregation analysis, target spectrum development, and time history selection and modification. Dr. Hale also has experience in PSHA code development, testing, and verification, and is a key contributor to the PSHA computer program HAZ45. Prior to joining Geosyntec, she led the PSHA Code Verification project at the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center, where her ability to understand how different modeling approaches impact the resulting seismic hazard curves was instrumental in helping participants troubleshoot their codes and ultimately reach consensus answers.

Frank Immel, has been with Global Diving & Salvage, Inc. since 2005. In his current position of Business Development Account Executive, his roles include developing and nurturing client relationships and uncovering opportunities that will benefit from Global Diving’s extensive experience and capabilities in underwater inspection, repair, maintenance and construction. Prior positions at Global include Lead Estimator and Marketing Manager. 

David Gillson launched Infrastructure & Marine Consultants, LLC in 2011. His background encompasses over 35 years in the marine/underwater construction industry.  His experience as a commercial diver and diving supervisor along with his experience as a Business Unit Leader and as a member of the Board of Directors for several engineering/environmental firms has led to representing owners during large marine/underwater projects. His professional pursuits have entailed the effective exercise of both executive decision-making and hands-on project and construction management. Infrastructure& Marine Consultants provides expertise in Project Management, Construction Management and QA/QC inspection services for complex industrial projects within the marine and underwater construction industry.  Project Management includes; Feasibility Studies, Constructability Review during design; Construction Management includes; On-site Owners Representatives during construction. Risk Management; Change Order Review; Progress Payment Review. Final Inspection & Punch List; Construction Approval, Acceptance and Close-out. 

Alex has 20 years of experience in robotic inspection, starting with the development, testing and manufacture of underwater robots, and then moving into the service side of the industry as an ROV operator, field supervisor, and project manager. Alex has worked with clients in oil & gas, hydroelectric, nuclear, water supply, wastewater, and governments.

Alex currently specializes in project planning, working with the customer and operations management to develop project scope and operational details; and project management, coordinating between the customer, suppliers, and field personnel. 

Craig Bartheld, has been with J. F. Brennan Company, Inc. (Brennan) for over 45 years. Craig’s current position is Director of Director of Business Development Structural Services. His responsibilities include building relationships with new prospective clients and maintain relationships with existing clients.  His responsibilities over the years have included, Diver, Safety Director, Diving Group Manager to his current BD position.

Mr. Milburn has over forty years of commercial diving experience from tender and saturation diver, to diving supervisor, diving superintendent, offshore manager, and senior project manager. His vast experience extends to all aspects of subsea construction, flowline installations, Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) operations in Vertical Concentric Monobore – Sub Sea Tree (VCM) installations, Inspection Repair Maintenance (IRM) in both foreign and domestic arenas. He is skilled in procedural processes, project planning, task schedules, design criteria, fabrication, material service procurement, and estimating.

David Capka is the Director of the Division of Dam Safety and Inspections (D2SI) with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s Office of Energy Projects.

David has been with the Commission since 2006, when he began as a Senior Civil Engineer in the Headquarters Branch. He was appointed to the Senior Executive Service in March 2017. He has also held positions as the Headquarters Branch Chief, and Deputy Director prior to his current position. Prior to joining the Commission, David worked as a Geotechnical Engineer for the US Army Corps of Engineers Baltimore District, and as a Dam Safety Program Manager for the Bureau of Indian Affairs at the Headquarters Office of the Department of Interior in Washington, DC.

David has a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Virginia Tech, and an M.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of Maryland. He is a registered professional engineer in the state of Maryland.

Mr. Boyer has 34 years of experience as a civil engineer and engineering geologist in consulting, state government, and three federal agencies. His expertise includes all aspects of investigation, evaluation, design, and construction of dams and water resource structures. He has extensive experience in the evaluation of geologic hazards (landslides, faults, ground subsidence, and erosion); investigation, design, and construction of hard-rock tunnels; natural and man-made slopes; pipelines; levees; canals; roads and highways; open-pit mines; and other civil works structures in over 40 states and South America. While with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Risk Management Center, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, he has been a team leader and senior engineer for numerous project reviews, including New Melones Dam, a 632-foot-high embankment dam in California. He is co-principal designer of Ridges Basin Dam, a 275-foot-high earthfill embankment in southwestern Colorado. Doug served a detail with the State of Colorado, Division of Water Resources, as Chief, Dam Safety Branch where he was responsible for program administration and supervision of the state’s dam safety program. He has published over 25 technical papers on the investigation, design, and construction of embankment and concrete dams. He is an invited lecturer at the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation SEED Seminar, International RCC Conference, FEMA-sponsored Dam Design Workshop, and local universities. He provided technical review for the San Diego County Water Authority of the geotechnical investigations and foundation design for the 318-foot-high Olivenhain Dam constructed in southern California. He is a former vice president of the US Society on Dam and former board of director for the Association of Environmental and Engineering Geologists. He is a licensed Professional Engineer and a Certified Engineering Geologist.

John Hynes has 11 years of experience in geotechnical engineering, largely on dam and hydropower projects.  John's experience includes geotechnical analysis and design, instrumentation data collection and analysis, and construction monitoring of heavy civil projects involving hydroelectric powerplants, earth and rockfill embankments, foundation improvements, rock blasting, and excavations. John grew up in Chicago, IL and attended the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana where he earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in Civil Engineering.  After receiving his master's degree in 2008, John began working at Stantec (then MWH) in their Chicago office.

With more than 15 years of geotechnical engineering experience, Mike is passionate about the use of technology and enhanced dam monitoring practices that make dam operations and mining projects safer and more sustainable. In his current role, Mike’s primary focus on enhancement of dam safety management systems allows project and client teams to achieve greater efficiency and confidence in making important operational and management decisions. He is best known for geotechnical performance monitoring using discretized sensor networks, automated systems, GIS based inspection and monitoring systems, and Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) analysis.

Pierre has been involved in the field of Geotechnical Instrumentation and Monitoring for most of his career. He joined RST Instruments in 2007. Pierre graduated in Geological Engineering (Engineering Geology) from Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal and subsequently obtained a doctorate degree in Rock Mechanics from Ecole des Mines de Paris in France. From 1982 to 1993 he was a faculty member at the department of Mining and Metallurgy of Laval University in Quebec City where his specialty was rock mechanics, ground control, and applied geology. Pierre is a member of the ICOLD Technical Committee on Dam Surveillance and is also the Editor of the Instrumentation and Monitoring column of the Canadian Geotechnique magazine.

Jeff has over 15 years’ of industry experience including 5 years with an instrumentation manufacturer and 10 years with a global engineering firm.

Jeff holds degrees in Civil Engineering and Geotechnical Engineering as well as a diploma in Technology Management and Entrepreneurship from the University of New Brunswick in Canada.

Jeff has worked on instrumentation projects for several high profile sites including Boone Dam, Oroville Dam, Samarco Mine, Zelazny Most Tailings Dam, and multiple Canadian oil sands projects. He has also worked on geotechnical analysis and design projects in the dams, mining, and Coal Combustion Residuals (CCR) sectors for clients such as Tennessee Valley Authority, US Army Corps of Engineers, Atlantic Gold, Trevali, and Vale.  

Josh has five years of Civil Engineering experience (Twin Falls, ID) and nine years of instrumentation experience (Campbell Scientific, Logan, UT).  Notable assignments included project and plan review for the City of Twin Falls, ID and third-party project management and oversight for the Idaho Transportation Department during major roadway projects.  He has assisted customers on a global basis with data acquisition systems for agricultural applications, bridges, buildings, and dams.  Josh earned a B.S. degree in Civil Engineering from Utah State University.

With more than 15 years of geotechnical engineering experience, Mike is passionate about the use of technology and enhanced dam monitoring practices that make dam operations and mining projects safer and more sustainable. In his current role, Mike’s primary focus on enhancement of dam safety management systems allows project and client teams to achieve greater efficiency and confidence in making important operational and management decisions. He is best known for geotechnical performance monitoring using discretized sensor networks, automated systems, GIS based inspection and monitoring systems, and Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) analysis.

Shaun was trained as a Geotechnical and Water Resources Engineer. He was the VP of development for Sideplate Systems. In 2009 he received his PhD from Utah State University. He ran Campbell Scientific's Geotechnical and Structural Monitoring group for several years, then went to work for Allen Marr at Geocomp as a Senior Engineer for monitoring systems.

In May 2018, Shaun left GeoComp and won the contract for instrumentation of the Qiddiya Project, a multi billion dollar entertainment complex in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Bill Bradford joined the firm in October 2018, and now Dustin Engineers is managing several projects in Saudi Arabia and the USA.

Dr. Georgette Hlepas is the National Geotechnical Policy Advisor for the US Army Corps of Engineers and is located in the Headquarters office in DC.  She is also the lead for the USACE Instrumentation and Performance Monitoring Community of Practice and the Chairperson for the USSD Monitoring of Dams and Their Foundations Committee.  She has ~13 years of experience in geotechnical engineering and instrumentation with USACE and has been an instructor of several instrumentation courses.  She has a PhD in Civil and Materials Engineering from the University of Illinois at Chicago and is a licensed Professional Engineer in Illinois.