The Western Chapter (WESTT)

Board of Directors

Name: Kate Wallin

Company: Bennett Trenchless Engineers

Email: Kate.Wallin@BennettTrenchless.com

Bio: Ms. Wallin has been involved with trenchless design since 2005 and has provided design and construction management services on projects using horizontal directional drilling, microtunneling, pipe ramming, guided boring, and earth pressure balance pipe jacking. She is a contributing author on the 2011 revision of the Horizontal Directional Drilling Good Practices Guidelines. Kate serves as the Vice Chair of WESTT Chapter Board of Directors and received the Trent Ralston Young Trenchless Achievement Award in 2011.

Name: Tim Taylor

Company: Carollo Engineers

Email: TTaylor@Carollo.com

Bio: Mr. Taylor is the National Director of the Supply and Conveyance Infrastructure Practice and a Senior Vice President with Carollo Engineers, Inc.. Tim has been working on water and wastewater infrastructure projects for over 34 years and has been heavily involved in the planning, design, construction and project management of projects for water distribution systems, gravity sewer collection systems, pump stations, storage reservoirs. He has worked on projects all across the nation incorporating trenchless construction techniques such as HDD and microtunneling as well as worked on pipeline condition assessment and rehabilitation projects for many clients.

In his spare time, Tim enjoys backcountry skiing and mountain biking in the Sierra Nevada mountains with his wife of over 30 years and their two college age daughters.

Name: Greg Watanabe

Company: GHD

Email: Greg.Watanabe@GHD.com

Bio: Mr. Watanabe is a Civil Engineer registered in California, Hawaii, and Guam and has more than 20 years of engineering experience of which the last 8 years have been largely focused on trenchless technologies for both rehabilitation and new construction. During this time he has planned, assessed, and designed over 100-miles of pipelines up to 96” for public utility systems. His project experience includes alternative construction and rehabilitation methods including horizontal auger boring, burst and insert, HDD, point repairs, CIPP, PCIPP, and microtunneling.

He currently manages the Linear Infrastructure business (which includes the Tunneling and Trenchless services sector) for GHD’s US West region consisting of California, Arizona, Oregon, Washington, Hawaii, Guam, and Saipan. He is also GHD’s managing Principal for the firm’s NASTT No-Dig participation across North America. Mr. Watanabe manages a dedicated team of trenchless engineers throughout the US West who have been involved in over 100 trenchless construction projects installing over 250,000 feet of pipelines throughout North America.

Name: Lisa Arroyo

Company: Arroyo Trenchless

Email: LisaN@west.net

Bio: Lisa is the President and founder of Arroyo Trenchless, a general engineering contractor in Goleta, California.  She has her B.S. in Civil Engineering and in Mathematics.  She currently serves on the NASTT Board of Directors and is the Chair of the Western Chapter (WESTT) of NASTT.  Prior to starting her own company, Lisa worked in municipal government for over 17 years.

Name: Michelle Beason

Company: National Plant Services

Email: mbeason@nationalplant.com

Bio: Michelle received a BS in Civil Engineering from Purdue University, and is a registered California PE with 27-years experience in planning, design, construction, and asset management of water, stormwater, and wastewater assets.  She has worked as a Project Engineer for Black & Veatch, as an Asset Management Engineer with the East Bay Municipal Utility District, she owned her own Engineering & Construction firm, and for the last 10 years has specialized in multi-sensor inspections and trenchless rehabilitation of sewer, storm, and water assets.  She is currently the Regional Manager for National Plant Services, Inc., covering the 12 Western States, including Hawaii and Alaska.

Michelle is also active in many industry organizations. In addition to serving as a Board Member of WESTT, she is a Board Member of NASSCO, and is Chair of the NASSCO Infrastructure Assessment Committee which manages revisions and updates to NASSCO’s PACP/MACP/LACP coding.

Name: Jen Glynn

Company: Woodard & Curran

Email: JGlynn@WoodardCurran.com

Bio: Jennifer Glynn is a Senior Technical Practice Lead and Principal for Woodard & Curran out of their Sacramento, California office.  Jen has over 24 years of experience in Project Management and Infrastructure Design, with an expertise in Condition Assessment and Trenchless Rehabilitation.   

Jen has been authoring papers and presenting at conferences both domestically and internationally for the past 20 years.  She is a past Executive Board Member for NASTT and is currently an NASTT training course instructor for two classes:  Introduction to Trenchless Rehabilitation and Pipe Bursting Good Practices.  She is also a member of the AWWA Water Main Rehabilitation and Water Main CIPP Standards Committees.

Name: Jacquie Jaques

Company: Sekisui SPR Americas, LLC

Email: jacquie.jaques@sekisui-spr.com

Bio: Jacquie is the Regional Manager for Sekisui SPR Americas for the Western US. She has over 25 years of industry experience working with manufacturers and contractors specializing in trenchless pipeline rehabilitation and condition assessment solutions. She is a current board member of WESTT and is active in numerous industry committees. She has authored several industry papers and magazine articles as well as has presented at national and regional conferences. Jacquie is originally from Chicago, IL where she received her BA degree in International Business from Northern Illinois University. She continued her studies in International Business at the Institute for American Universities in Avignon, France then pursed her MBA at the University of Illinois in Chicago.

Name: Rachel Martin

Company: McMillen Jacobs Associates

Email: Martin@McMJac.com

Bio: Rachel Martin has 20 years of experience in design and construction management on civil projects focused in the fields of water, wastewater, and hydropower. Her experience includes trenchless and tunnel design, development of contract drawings and specifications, construction management, design and constructability reviews, project controls, quality management, and cost estimating. Rachel has developed designs for microtunneling, pipe jacking, HDD, and sliplining projects throughout the US, Canada, and New Zealand.

Name: Sasha Mestetsky

Company: Central Contra Costa Sanitary District

Email: smestets@centralsan.org

Bio: Sasha Mestetsky is a Senior Engineer in the Capital Projects Division at Central Contra Costa Sanitary District (Central San) located in Martinez, California. He manages Central San’s Collection System Program with an annual fiscal budget of approximately $40 million. Sasha is responsible for the design and construction management of all sewer system replacement and renovation capital improvement projects. Most of these projects utilize various trenchless technologies.

Sasha has over 25 years of experience in design and construction of collection systems projects. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering from California State University, Sacramento and is a California-licensed Civil and Mechanical Engineer.

Sasha serves as the At-Large Representative of WESTT Chapter Board of Directors. He is a long time member of Water Environment Federation (WEF), North American Society for Trenchless Technology (NASTT), and Northern California Pipe Users Group (PUG). Sasha is passionate about everything trenchless, enjoys sharing his experiences, and actively promotes trenchless technology education.

Name: Devin Nakayama

Company: Yogi Kwong Engineers, LLC

Email: Devin@YogiKwong.com

Bio: Mr. Nakayama has nearly 20 years of experience in geotechnical and trenchless engineering, working on projects requiring soil stabilization, shallow and deep foundations, deep shaft excavations, microtunneling, guided bore, and horizontal directional drilling. He has published and presented two papers on trenchless pipe installation at the North American Society of Trenchless Technology No-Dig conferences.