Aug 31, 2001

Premiere Resources

Roberta "Dania" Nasser joined the Bellevue-based human resources consulting firm of Premiere Resources as a senior consultant. She was formerly president of TechTalent Associates and has worked in executive recruiting and human resources. The International Association of Webmasters and Designers announced that Premiere Resources' Web site http://www.pr-hr.com won the organization's Golden Web Award.

Aug 30, 2001

Urban League, Fannie Mae

Those who haven't been able to afford homes in Seattle are among people in six cities targeted by a new National Urban League program to provide them with counseling and loans with reduced down payments.

The Urban League and Fannie Mae pulled the Homeownership Development Project together along with Chase Manhattan Mortgage Corp., JP Morgan Chase and various area political leaders such as U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash.

The Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle will hold six home-buyer workshops in the coming 12 months that will include credit, budgeting and debt-reduction counseling, and other details about overcoming barriers to home ownership.

Chase has committed to offer low-down-payment mortgages and other affordable loan programs designed to help minority buyers, first-time buyers and those with alternative income sources and credit histories, according to the league.

Chase also committed to lowering closing costs and offering "more-flexible qualifying terms."

Fannie Mae, which buys qualified mortgages from banks as a means of encouraging home ownership, committed to buy up to $50 million in mortgages produced by the program in the course of five years. "Fannie Mae will also provide the National Urban League and its participating affiliates with financial and technical support as they reach out to these under-served communities," Fannie Mae said.

The other targeted metropolitan areas are: Houston; Rochester, N.Y.; San Diego; Stamford, Conn.; and Tucson, Ariz.

"As housing prices escalate in the Seattle area, it will take ambitious efforts like (this program) to ensure that minority and other under-served families are not priced out of the housing market," McDermott said in a statement from Fannie Mae.

"Homeownership helps families become stakeholders in their communities and builds wealth for future generations, said James Kelly, president and CEO of the Seattle league.

The organizations didn't provide the schedule for the workshops. For information, call A. Linda Taylor at (205) 461-3792, ext. 3029.

John L. Scott

Deb Jacobson became a sales agent in the Bellevue South office of John L. Scott Real Estate. The job is Jacobson's first in selling houses as she moves from what John L. Scott called "a diverse background in landscape design, sculpting and gardening." The firm's Kent office also added a beginning agent, Carol Haley.

Aug 29, 2001

Associated Earth Sciences

Associated Earth Sciences of Kirkland recently promoted the following staff. Bruce Blyton was promoted to principal geotechnical engineer. He will oversee daily management of the Kirkland office geotechnical engineering department of 25 people as well as his current projects including Lakeland Hills, Redmond Ridge and MountainStar, three large residential developments.

Kurt Merriman was promoted to senior associate geotechnical engineer. His experience covers private and public sector projects including 150 school projects for 35 school districts throughout Puget Sound. Curtis Koger was promoted to principal geologist/hydrogeologist. He will continue to oversee daily management of the Kirkland office hydrogeology department as well as his current projects including Snoqualmie Ridge, Redmond Ridge and Trilogy. His ground water experience includes water resource evaluation and development, wellhead protection, storm water infiltration and construction dewatering.

Gary Stevens was promoted to senior project hydrogeologist. Stevens' experience includes evaluation and development of municipal groundwater supplies, seawater intrusion investigations, wellhead protection services, dewatering projects, environmental site studies and surface geophysical investigations. Recent project experience includes a water supply evaluation for MountainStar, construction dewatering for Northgate North Shopping Mall and hydrogeologic support for the Trilogy Development at Redmond Ridge.

Ron Parker will head AESI's corporate training. Plans include developing a broad educational program for employees and clients. Parker will continue to manage his projects including the Fifth and Battery Building Stewart Place and various municipal projects. Fred Huston was promoted to senior biologist. Huston's background includes forest and wildlife management and vegetation, and wetland studies. Annette Bedenis was promoted to support staff and human resource manager. New hires include: Gary Beckham, senior engineering geologist. Stan Thompson, project geologist in the environmental group. Roger Hall, Jonathan Mowery and Sydney Schuck were hired as staff geologists. Kevin Guest was hired as staff technician, Chris Brewer was hired as network administrator and Brenda Pounce was hired as accounting manager.

Reid Middleton

Christine Lambert has joined Reid Middleton as a project administrator for the civil, planning and airport projects groups. Lambert is providing support to the controller and project managers for contract and invoice preparation and other administrative duties. She comes to Reid Middleton from Deloitte Consulting Group in Bellevue, where she served as an executive assistant and office manager.

David Evans

Robert Jefferson of David Evans and Associates in Portland recently passed his engineering-in-training exam for Washington state. Jefferson joined the DEA team in February as a civil designer. He has provided design services on a variety of projects for clients such as Bethel School District, Pierce County Airport, Tacoma Rail and Rainier Pacific Bank

Aug 22, 2001

H.W. Lochner

H.W. Lochner of Bellevue announced the appointment of Ali Mansour to associate. Mansour has 20 years experience in civil engineering design and management of multidisciplinary projects. Mansour has designed and managed highways/roadways and public works projects for local agencies in the Puget Sound area including King County, city of Seattle and WSDOT. Robert J. Munchinski has been promoted to associate. Munchinski’s experience includes managing and developing conceptual and preliminary engineering designs for highway facilities, HOV facilities, rail and bus transit elements, high speed rail facilities and freight rail improvements. His planning experience includes corridor studies, scoping studies, short- and long-range transportation/transit plans, and transportation impact sections for environmental impact documents. The firm also appointed Dennis B. Ingham as vice president. Ingham, who worked 30 years with the Washington Department of Transportation, manages Lochner’s Bellevue staff of 17 employees. He directs overall project and business development for Lochner throughout the Northwest.

Harmsen & Associates

Harmsen & Associates has increased its planning capability with the addition of Britt Hiatt. Hiatt had her own practice before joining Harmsen. Her education emphasized urban land use patterns, demography, cartography and environmental issues. With the addition of Kevin Teague, landscape architect, Harmsen has added landscape architecture to the scope of services. Teague was employed by the Parks Departments in Everett and Kirkland. His experience includes municipal, residential developments and a variety of work for private clients.

Golder Associates

Golder Associates announced the following additions and promotions within its Redmond office. Bryan Rawson was named chief information officer for the company. Prior to joining Golder, he spent 11 years at the University of Washington, where he was most recently assistant to the dean for Computing Services for the College of Engineering.

Other additions include Donna DeFrancesco who joined Golder as project ecological scientist, bringing 11 years of experience in riparian and wetland ecology. Cliff Knitter has rejoined the company as senior program manager for pipeline and energy services. Knitter has 23 years of experience in engineering geology, environmental investigations and remediation. An associate-level senior geotechnical engineer, Andrew Walker, has relocated from Mississauga, Ontario, to the Redmond office. Patty Kamysz recently joined the company as marketing programs manager to promote Golder’s consulting services in the West.

Golder also appointed Redmond employees Rick Kossik, Joe Hachey and Kent Angelos as principals and Dawn Shuttle as associate.

Rice Fergus Architects

Rice Fergus Architects has added three people to its staff in Bremerton. Robin Murray, the firm’s new client services manager, holds a bachelor of arts in architecture from UC Berkley and has 10 years’ experience with architecture firms. Monica Blackwood, a graduate of the University of Washington with a Bachelor of Arts in communications, joins the firm as business development manager. Ian Andersen, in his second year at California PolyTechnic State University San Luis Obispo School of Architecture, is assisting the firm as a summer intern. Rice Fergus Architects specializes in residential and commercial projects.

Transpo

The Transpo Group, a specialized transportation engineering and traffic planning firm with offices in Kirkland and Spokane, recently promoted three senior associates to principals: Bruce Haldors, Holly Parsons and Hicham Chatila.

They are working on a range of projects in the West, in the private and public sectors. Haldors has 13 years experience in the areas of traffic operations and micro-simulation modeling; Parsons has 14 years of professional traffic engineering design experience; and Chatila has 17 years of local, national and international transportation project experience.

Glosten

Corey M. Woodford, a recent graduate of the Marine Institute of Memorial University in St. John’s, Newfoundland, has joined the Glosten Associates, a Seattle-based consulting engineering firm serving the marine industry. As a marine designer, Woodford participates in structural, mechanical, piping and electrical design and drafting on a range of projects. He is currently designing modifications for passenger ferry refurbishments of Washington state and Alaska state ferries. He is also responsible for reviewing the designs to assure the quality and safety features meet USCG and International Maritime Organization regulations.

Elliott Bay

Elliott Bay Design Group recently hired Christina Lombard as marketing manager. Lombard will help direct the company's marketing and sales initiatives and promote EBDG as one of the leading marine architecture and engineering firms. She brings five years of marketing experience in the AEC industry, as well as a background and education in working with the marine environment

PAE

PAE Consulting Engineers, Inc., a Portland mechanical, electrical, telecommunications, and sustainable design consulting engineering firm, announced the addition of several staff members.

Michael Scupien, joins PAE with 22 years of mechanical and application engineering experience in the fields of heating, ventilation and air conditioning, and automated temperature control systems. He is currently working on Tuality Community Hospital, Central Oregon Community College, Oregon State University and Whitman College.

Charles Mueller has 16 years of experience in all areas of plumbing design. He is experienced in designing systems for commercial, education, medical and industrial projects with skills including domestic piping design, process piping, natural gas, and compressed air and lubrication systems. Currently, he is working on Oregon Health and Sciences University, Roseburg Surgery Center and Multnomah County Library Hillsdale Branch.

Kian Kiaii has four years of combined experience in low voltage design and commercial power distribution systems. He specializes in electrical power distribution systems, lighting and controls, fire alarm systems, integrated communications, and security and access control system design. He is experienced in designing systems for commercial, education, medical industrial, detention, and government projects. Kiaii holds an electrical and electronics engineering degree from Oregon State University.

April Gerstner joins PAE’s marketing department as marketing coordinator. Her experience includes graphic design, sales support and customer service. Her responsibilities at PAE include proposal production and overall assistance to the marketing department.

Aaron Crandall is a recent graduate from the Multnomah School of Engineering at the University of Portland where he received his bachelor of science degree in Electrical Engineering. He specializes in microcontrollers, Perl programming, Linux/UNIX systems, telecommunications and computer networks. He is currently working on projects for the Beaverton School District.

Brian Schultz is a recent graduate from the Multnomah School of Engineering at the University of Portland. He specializes in energy efficiency modeling, life cycle cost analysis, and is experienced in projects for higher education. He also has experience in construction administration and is currently working on Lincoln County Transition Center.