WRA Expands Mitigation and Southern California Team Leadership

WRA is pleased to announce the promotion of Marlene Tyner-Valencourt as Mitigation Market Director. In her new role, Marlene will continue to serve our existing clients and projects to assure the same high level of service and quality our clients have come to expect from WRA. She will provide strategic and technical support for our existing portfolio that spans the state of California and beyond, including conducting initial site assessments and market and financial analyses, entitling mitigation banks, managing mitigation credit sales programs, and tackling projects in emerging environmental markets. Marlene’s combined experience in market-based conservation strategies, strong relationships in California’s mitigation and regulatory industry, and knowledge of emerging market trends make her a valuable addition to WRA’s senior management team.

“We are excited to see Marlene step into this senior role to help guide our company’s mitigation/conservation lands strategy into its next chapter,” said Geoff Smick, WRA Chief Executive Officer. “WRA has developed a strong reputation for this service and her leadership will only help us grow our project repertoire and client base.”

To help support the growing portfolio of work in Southern California, WRA is also pleased to announce the recent addition of Andrew Keller and Kathleen Pollett. As WRA’s new Southern California Natural Resources Director, Andrew brings over 26 years of experience in mitigation planning, conservation biology, and ecological restoration. His expertise will help identify new clients and projects that align with the company’s vision of having a positive net benefit for people and the environment. Andrew is focused on expanding the conservation and mitigation lands portfolio in Southern California, where mitigation opportunities are limited or unavailable. His background in ecological restoration will support WRA’s ecological restoration team in the Southern California region as well as expand the company’s offerings in the region including land management services and endangered species habitat management.

Kathleen brings more than 30 years of experience in the fields of endangered species management, regulatory permitting, ecological restoration, mitigation planning, and conservation lands management. Kathleen’s background as a regulator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service strengthens WRA’s abilities to guide our clients through the complex process of environmental permitting and mitigation development.

“WRA has been a leader in natural habitat restoration for several decades,” said Geoff Smick. “The addition of Andrew and Kathleen will help us grow this service in Southern California where we already have a strong presence. Their combined experience with environmental regulations, habitat restoration, mitigation banking, and land management fits squarely into the core of WRA’s focus and project portfolio.”

Please learn more about our leaders on the WRA website or reach out to them at the contact information listed below.

WRA is an environmental consultancy that’s making a net positive impact. As a tenacious team of planners, engineers, and scientists, we believe in leaving the lands we love better than we found them. We partner with public agencies, non-profits, and private entities on multidiscipline projects in a variety of markets. Our clients lean on us to navigate them through tricky projects and achieve benefits for both the natural environment and local communities. 

WRA is proud to be an employee-owned, certified small business with nearly 100 team members working from four offices in California, and a growing distributed workforce throughout the West.

For more information, visit www.wra-ca.com.