ECORP is pleased to announce the election of two additional members to the Board of Directors: Anne Surdzial, AICP and Lisa Westwood, RPA and the appointment of Dave Krolick to Chief Operations Officer (COO) and Don Mitchell to Chief Contracting Officer (CCO).
Anne Surdzial joined ECORP in 2004 and founded ECORP’s CEQA/NEPA practice. As Vice President and Director of CEQA/NEPA Services for ECORP, she is responsible for ensuring consistency and quality of all CEQA and NEPA products companywide, managing environmental planners and air quality, greenhouse gas, noise, and energy specialists in all five California offices. As Operations Manager for ECORP’s full-service Inland Empire office in Redlands, she is responsible for a staff of environmental analysts, biologists, regulatory permitting specialists, archaeologists, GIS analysts, and support staff.
With more than 30 years of experience in environmental planning, her expertise includes management of large, on-call environmental programs for public agencies, requiring the completion of multiple, simultaneous task orders and management of multiple internal project teams and subcontractors. In this role, she often acts as an extension of staff by developing and implementing a compliance path for California and federal environmental regulations, including CEQA, NEPA, and regulations regarding air quality, biological resources, water resources, and cultural resources, in a cost- and time-effective manner. She is an active member of the Association of Women in Water, Energy, and Environment (AWWEE). Anne was elected to the Board of Directors in May 2023.
Lisa Westwood is Vice President, Director of Cultural Resources, and Orange County Operations Manager for ECORP. A Registered Professional Archaeologist with a career spanning nearly three decades, Lisa has been actively involved in the field of cultural resources management since 1994 and joined ECORP in 2007. Lisa is a recognized expert in Assembly Bill 52 Native American consultation and has provided training on the subject more than 100 times to agencies and professional organizations.
She specializes in advanced Section 106 compliance and consultation, cultural resources laws and regulations, preparation and negotiation of agency agreement documents (Programmatic Agreements and Memoranda of Agreement), and conflict resolution and mediation, and is the President Elect of the Register of Professional Archaeologists. She exceeds the Secretary of the Interior’s Professional Qualifications Standards for both prehistoric and historical archaeology and oversees a large staff of archaeologists and architectural historians in five offices throughout California. She also manages the multidisciplinary Santa Ana office, which provides archaeology, extension of staff tribal consultation support, terrestrial biology, aquatic biology, CEQA and NEPA, and regulatory permitting services. Lisa was elected to the Board of Directors in May 2023.
Dave Krolick is a Vice President and the Northern California Operations Manager. In his operational role he is responsible for the financial performance of the Rocklin and Chico offices and, in concert with the Northern California Management team, for setting the goals for the region. He joined the firm in 2004 as a Spatial Analyst working in the GIS Department. He was promoted to GIS Manager in 2005 and oversaw the reorganization and merger of the GIS, CAD, and Graphics Departments between 2007and 2009.
He was promoted to Rocklin Office Operations Manager in 2011 where he joined the Operations Committee and began supporting outgoing COO Hal Freeman with the compilation and development of our annual corporate budgets. He was elected to the Board of Directors in 2017. In addition to his operational duties, he is a Project Manager and Project Principal for multidisciplinary/regulatory focused projects as well as projects with interesting geospatial challenges. He also supports ECORP’s companywide UAS/Drone Team with business development and project delivery. Most recently he has led the development of the 2028 ECORP Strategic Plan and looks forward to working with staff and leadership to implement our vision for the future of the firm. Dave was appointed COO in June 2023.
Don Mitchell is Vice President and Southern California Operations Manager. He has more than 35 years of applied and research experience in the field of environmental science, with particular emphasis on wildlife assessments, impact analysis, and project management. He has extensive experience in managing and conducting biological studies, focused threatened and endangered species surveys, sensitive habitat surveys, and the use of Geographic Information Systems as an analysis tool for environmental studies.
He has also conducted and managed surveys for the Mohave ground squirrel, desert tortoise, San Joaquin kit fox, Stephens’ kangaroo rat, San Bernardino Merriam’s kangaroo rat, California gnatcatcher, California red-legged frog, arroyo southwestern toad, unarmored threespine stickleback, and a wide variety of Mojave Desert and southern California terrestrial plant and wildlife species. He is also a founding Director for the new 501(c)(3) Mohave Ground Squirrel Conservation Council. Don has been a leader on ECORP’s Federal Marketing Team with a focus on Department of Defense Work, and he has managed nearly a dozen on-call contracts and over 200 task orders for Caltrans. Don has served as Corporate Secretary since 2015 and was appointed Chief Contracting Officer in August 2023.
ECORP’s Board of Directors is composed of President, Chief Executive Officer, and Treasurer Bjorn Gregersen; Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Hal Freeman; Vice President Peter Balfour; Vice President and Chief Operations Officer Dave Krolick; Vice President Brant Brechbiel; Vice President, Corporate Secretary, and Chief Contracting Officer Don Mitchell; Vice President Anne Surdzial; and Vice President Lisa Westwood.
