While our business model and client service values set us apart from other environmental consulting firms, it is our key staff who make us special. Our consulting group is composed of a balanced mix of senior technical experts (2 – 4 decades of practical experience) and junior staff with sharp technical skills and a passion for professional growth and technical excellence. We are pleased to introduce our core team:
Kyla Leon
Chief Executive Officer
Kyla is an executive manager and senior technical project manager with over 25 years of experience in multiple industries and with different types of organizations. Kyla excels at client management, cross-agency coordination, dispute resolution, technical team management, and leveraging complex data to meet client needs. She is adept at translating business needs into technical requirements, and designing data-focused strategies.
Peter Leon
Principal Scientist
Peter leads science and regulatory services for Leon Environmental, LLC. Peter offers 30 years of experience as an environmental scientist with an engineering background and a passion for shorelines and industrial aquatic sites. He provides technical and management expertise in permitting, sediments, habitat restoration, dredging, CERCLA, regulatory compliance and negotiation, interagency coordination, training development and public outreach. Through his work for Ports, industrial shoreline facilities, agencies and private landowners, he has earned a reputation for integrity and effective project delivery. Peter's success stems from his ability to listen and understand client concerns; his attention to quality, scope, schedule and budget; and his ability to communicate effectively with project proponents, staff, team partners, regulators and stakeholders.
Rebort Brenner
Senior Scientist / Business Operations Manager
Robert is an aquatic biologist with a lifelong passion for freshwater and marine aquatic sites, who offers over 30 years of practical experience as a scientific researcher, regulatory representative, and Port and megaproject environmental manager. His broad-ranging experiences give him the ability to blend his scientific and regulatory expertise into effective strategies to nagivate complex regulatory requirements. Robert’s expertise includes: permitting and compliance oversight for construction; habitat creation/restoration; sediments and dredging; construction stormwater and waste management; regulatory compliance and negotiation.
MICHAEL Cecil
Biologist
Michael’s biological expertise is focused on marine and terrestrial ecology, with an emphasis on the Puget Sound lowlands and the Salish Sea bioregion. His quantitative and programming expertise includes data science and statistics, with an emphasis on utlizing regression modeling and spatial/temporal analysis to quantify the rate, magnitude, and extent of environmental impacts. Michael primarily supports public, private, and institutional clients requiring marine mammal monitoring, wetland and stream delineation, and habitat assessment work; however, he has also performed glacier research on Mount Baker, where he studied snow algae relative to changing snow and ice conditions.
Janae dinkins
Biologist
Janae is a biologist and field scientist whose technical expertise is focused on marine and freshwater ecology, data collection, and invasive species. Janae prepares environmental permit applications, supports Endangered Species Act compliance evaluations, and performs natural resource surveys and biological monitoring in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. Janae’s experience includes eelgrass delineations, marine mammal and marbled murrelet monitoring, and shoreline and critical area assessments. She holds certifications in the Department of Ecology’s Wetland Rating System, Ordinary High-Water Mark (OHWM) determination, and Forage Fish surveys.
John Malek
Senior Consultant
John is a technical, policy and strategy expert focused on development and aquatic natural resource issues, particularly related to dredging and contaminated sediments. He has been involved with environmental project management, permitting and resource issues throughout the Pacific Northwest for more than 40 years, including development and implementation of the Puget Sound Dredged Disposal Analysis program, design and conduct of sediment investigations, habitat restoration and planning, and other environmental studies in Puget Sound. John’s experience includes technical, policy and management support to Region 10’s Superfund program, particularly ARAR compliance (e.g., habitat mitigation/restoration per CWA 404), and interpretation of policies and practices of U.S. EPA and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, particularly CERCLA, CWA, MPRSA, and NEPA. He advises governments and industries in meeting multimedia environmental requirements related to marine and freshwater environments, sediment management, and contaminated site remediation and restoration.
Joanne Markert
Senior Consultant
Joanne is a program and project manager with a multidisciplinary background in science and technology. Joanne has two decades of experience delivering successful GIS and IT technology solutions for both technical and non-technical users. Joanne excels at using technology to communicate and interpret complex natural resource data. With her primary focus on understanding and meeting client needs, Joanne provides services ranging from basic GIS figure preparation to developing full-featured applications that interpret natural resource data. Joanne’s projects depend upon her aptitude for strategic planning, conceptual architecture development, data design, workflow documentation and application development. Joanne has a proven track record as an effective communicator and leader who can deliver complex projects requiring significant coordination, complex analysis, and implementation of enterprise-wide systems.
Bill Rehe
Senior Biologist
Bill is a Fisheries Biologist and Restoration Ecologist with 30 years of experience working with Ports, tribes, natural resource agencies (federal, state, local), NGOs, commercial and residential parties. He serves as a technical expert and project manager for a diverse range of projects including critical area investigations, permitting, all phases of mitigation, monitoring and compliance. Bill uses his experience and reputation to find solution to a wide range of natural resources problems.
Kristi Rettmann
Senior Biologist
Kristi is a biologist with 20 years’ experience delivering a variety of environmental projects ranging from risk assessments to natural resource evaluations to environmental permitting. Her experience includes writing biological evaluations and assessments, critical area assessments, and cumulative impact analyses. Kristi has conducted vegetation inventories, wetland delineations, habitat evaluations and stream surveys for sites with and without federally and state listed species. Kristi evaluates critical and sensitive areas to understand possible mitigation solutions for unavoidable impacts in support of residential and commercial projects in both aquatic and terrestrial habitats. She understands that handling the required environmental permitting efficiently is a crucial element of any project. Using her perspective as an environmental biologist and wetland professional, she has successfully permitted projects involving both NEPA and SEPA processes, and has worked closely with local permitting agencies to negotiate several shoreline reviews for infrastructure, transportation and utility projects within sensitive areas. Kristi has a passion for the natural resources of the Pacific Northwest and enjoys helping her clients find the balance between development and conservation.
Liz Springborn
Senior GIS Analyst
Liz is a senior GIS analyst with 25 years of applied GIS experience related to terrestrial, coastal and marine environments in the Pacific Northwest and Europe. Liz is a cartographer who specializes in spatial database creation, analysis, maintenance, and management. She is also experienced in web map usability design with a focus on visual design, user interaction, and application testing. Her work in Federal, State, and research organizations has involved providing customer service and working with large, multidisciplinary teams.
Don Weitkamp, PhD
Senior Biologist
Don has conducted a variety of projects ranging from permitting to contaminated site remediation projects at Puget Sound shoreline locations for over 40 years. Don’s expertise includes site contamination, estuarine and freshwater biological assessment, remediation alternatives analysis, habitat restoration, site monitoring and litigation support. He has conducted numerous investigations to analyze the habitat important to endangered species, particularly shoreline habitats, and provided ESA analyses to achieve project approvals. Don has resolved a variety of complex sediment and Natural Resource Damage Assessment issues, and conducted agency, NGO, and general public coordination. Don is effective at working with representatives of agencies and public interest groups to incorporate their interests in development and mitigation alternatives that generate broad support, allowing the projects to occur.