Penny Allen
Penny is a Certified Environmental Technologist and Project Manager with Dillon Consulting based in Halifax. She holds a Bachelor of Technology in Environmental Studies from Cape Breton University. Penny has over 17 years of environmental consulting experience managing phased environmental site assessments (ESAs), environmental compliance monitoring, natural resource management, waste management and contaminated site remediation projects and is well versed with provincial and federal regulatory environmental frameworks. Her vast field and project management experience has included everything from supervising drilling, test pit and remedial soil excavation programs and collecting representative samples to coordinating and leading project teams. Penny works with a variety of public and private sector clients and acts as a liaison with local regulators and the public. She stays on top of regulatory changes (federal, provincial, Atlantic PIRI), new environmental service offerings and often leads the implementation of changes in field techniques (as occurred with the implementation of low flow sampling and the highly prescriptive techniques for sampling PFAS over the last decade). Penny is a highly organized, versatile and strong project manager as well as a mentor to junior staff. She plans to put these skills to use on the ESAM Board.
Michael Doucet
Michael Doucet is the Regional Manager for ALS Canada and based in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. Michael spent 15 years working in the contaminated sites industry managing environmental site assessment, investigation, and remediation programs throughout Canada before making the move to ALS in 2022. He brings his practical experience in consulting to the laboratory business where he is responsible for operations and business development for ALS’s expansions into Atlantic Canada. Michael’s focus over the years has varied but included managing the assessment of 16 former mine sites in the Northwest Territories, managing the assessment and planning the remediation of multiple former military sites in Nunavut, and responding to spills from coast to coast including Carmacks in the Yukon to the Halifax Harbour in Nova Scotia. Michael has been part of ESAM since 2018.
Melissa Glover
Melissa Glover is the Atlantic Client Relations Manager at AGAT Laboratories, where Melissa leads the client services team to ensure client expectations are met by matching clients with appropriate Client Services Representatives where the most value between client and lab relationship will be achieved. Melissa has assisted with project set up and coordination including pricing, logistics, analytical requirements and project closure. By understanding and clarifying the clients analytical requirements inclusive of methods, RDL’s and specific parameters is key to successfully kicking off a program and delivering analytical reports that meet the clients expectations. Melissa is extremely thorough when asking clarification questions and works directly with the client and laboratory supervisor(s) to ensure proper delivery of the required data.
Over the past ten years working in the environmental industry, Melissa has successfully managed large scale environmental projects at the field and office level, developed exceptional customer service skills, built strong long term relationships with clientele which in turn grew the business, wrote and presented professional environmental site assessment reports, worked with various environmental regulations and guidelines and ensured deadlines were met. With the technical knowledge and experience of working within the laboratory industry, Melissa has successfully developed the expertise in handling client queries and concerns, thus strengthening AGAT’s success within the environmental industry.
Josh Perry
Josh has nearly two decades of experience working in the environmental services industry as part of a client relation and business development team for the Research and Productivity Council (RPC) of New Brunswick. His primary focus includes managing customer accounts related to RPC’s analytical services, including organic/inorganic chemistry, microbiological and air quality services. He maintains strong relationships and networks of contacts within the engineering, industrial, commercial, and governmental sectors. Josh has helped develop content for newsletters and organized many events management by the former New Brunswick Environmental Industry Association (NBEIA).
Amanda White
As Operations Director for Marine Renewables Canada, Amanda is responsible for membership development and services, operational and logistical support, trade development and supply chain growth and advancing seminars, missions and conferences.
Amanda began her career in the energy industry in 2002 when she first joined OTANS (now The Maritimes Energy Association) as an Event Coordinator, then moved into the Manager of Events & Member Services in 2004 and Trade Mission and Membership Manager in 2010. In these previous roles, Amanda managed all local events and conferences as well as national and international trade missions including OTC in Houston, All-Energy in Scotland, Rio Oil & Gas in Brazil, CanWEA Wind Energy Conference in Canada and the Caribbean Renewable Energy Forum. She was also responsible for all member relations and communications. Prior to her time at The Maritimes Energy Association, Amanda worked for the Halifax Chamber of Commerce, allowing her the initial experience in working for a member based, not-for-profit association.
Amanda is a native Nova Scotian and began her career after graduating from Dalhousie University with a Bachelor of Science Degree with an Advanced Major in Psychology.
Christine Plourde
Ms. Plourde, FEC, P.Eng., is a Senior Technical Specialist in human health risk assessment and contaminated sites management with WSP E&I Canada Limited in Fredericton, NB. She specializes in helping clients assess potential impacts and manage contaminated properties by focusing on what matters – protection of human and ecological health. Her work history spans over 30 years in project management and assessment across geotechnical, municipal, and environmental engineering projects. Christine is a registered professional engineer in five provinces (NB, NS, NL, BC and AB). She provides senior technical review and human health risk assessment services to internal and external clients, with a focus on Federal and Provincial impact assessment and contaminated site management guidelines and regulations. Christine is a passionate ambassador for the professions of engineering and geoscience and an advocate for increased Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. She is Past President of the Association of Consulting Engineering Companies of New Brunswick (ACEC-NB), a Past President of Engineers and Geoscientists New Brunswick (APEGNB), an Engineers Canada 30 by 30 Champion and recently participated as a Program Committee member for the 2022 Bi-annual conference of the Canadian Coalition of Women in Engineering, Science, Trades and Technology (CCWESTT).
Karen Gilbert
Karen Gilbert is the Regional Business Development Manager for Bureau Veritas in Atlantic Canada. In this role, Karen focuses on customer retention and regional growth through collaboration, relationship building and promoting the laboratory’s services.
Karen has a biology degree from St. Francis Xavier University and has held several client-facing positions during her 25 year tenure with the company. She has helped to support customers working on programs such as emergency spills, offshore environmental monitoring, municipal drinking water testing, contaminated site clean-ups and environmental assessments.
In her role as a board member, Karen helps plan upcoming initiatives and engagement with the ESAM membership. Karen has appreciated the longstanding efforts of the organization to bring together members of the environmental industry and is looking forward to the next year of events!
Rob McCullough
Rob is a Senior Technical Lead – Office Lead for the Environmental Remediation practice with AECOM in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Rob has experience in management, co-ordination and facilitation of significant response teams on large emergency response and remediation projects in Canada in the south and across the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. He has spent much of his career in the Canadian Arctic carrying out projects located in remote areas directing multi-disciplinary teams. Rob has overseen many large complex projects across Canada and has 38 years of experience in the Arctic in the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and in the Yukon and Greenland. Rob’s experience includes all aspects of remediation on a variety of projects including the Air Navigation System across the Canadian Arctic, the Distant Early Warning System (DEW line) and major releases from both upstream/downstream petrochemical companies across Canada and overseas in South east Asia and south America.
Rob was the senior technical lead for several projects including the MK Airlines 747 crash at Halifax International Airport and the remediation of JET A-1 and Arctic diesel releases at DND DEW Line BAF-3 . Rob has extensive experience in northern mine site remediation involving 15 years of work at the former Colomac Gold Mine, Bullmoose Ruth and Gordon Lake Group of Mines, Stark Lake Mine, Great Bear Lakes Mine sites (Silver Bear Mines) and Rayrock Former Uranium Mine in the NWT.
Stephen Sauveur
Stephen Sauveur is an environmental professional with nearly 30 years of combined industry, government and academic experience. He has been in his current position as the Regional Service Line Leader (RSLL), Environmental Services at Defence Construction Canada (DCC) since 2021. In this role, he is responsible for directing and leading a team of highly skilled professionals for the delivery of environmental services to the Department of National Defence (DND) in the Atlantic Region. Prior to joining DCC, he spent 11 years with DND where he acted as the Environment Officer at a military base in Nova Scotia and later as the National Environmental Compliance officer. He began his professional career as an environmental consultant where he spent 15 years. The bulk of his consulting experience was in the assessment, management and remediation of contaminated sites, specializing in federal sites under the Federal Contaminated Site Action Plan (FCSAP). He was also involved in water supply projects and Environmental Management System (EMS) internal audits/verifications in accordance with ISO14001. While working with DND, his program area experience included compliance with regulations under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA), including Storage Tank Systems, Halocarbons, Asbestos, PCBs and Emergency Response, as well as regulations associated with wastewater effluents, hazardous materials and solid waste management.
Stephen graduated from Acadia University with a B.Sc. in Geology and, later, from the Technical University of Nova Scotia with a Master of Applied Science in Civil Engineering, specializing in hydrogeology. He is a registered Professional Geoscientist in Nova Scotia.
Stephen’s experience has allowed him to foster a strong working relationship between industry suppliers and government clients and regulators. Over his many years of professional service, he has developed a network of peers in both sectors and has built strong relationships.
Terry Thibodeau
Terry Thibodeau, B.Comm, MBA; has worked over the years predominantly in the field of renewable energy development, economic development and business counselling. In his previous role as Economic Development Officer Terry was responsible for developing the regions’ renewable energy projects and for the delivery of the Business Retention Expansion program. Now as the Coordinator for Renewable Energy and Climate Change for the Municipality of Digby, Terry works on myriad of renewable energy projects from promoting smart grid opportunities and the introduction of electrical vehicles to implementing energy efficiency programs. The development of a tidal industry holds great promise as the Bay of Fundy is host to the world’s highest tides. Terry’s other responsibilities include the implementation of a climate action plan for Digby County as part of a strategy for decarbonizing the region and in reducing harmful GHGs. This includes the introduction of hydrogen offtakes in the region as part of a build out to a hydrogen economy. He is regularly asked to speak at various conferences on the integration these technologies and their application in society. Terry was the 2016 recipient of the Digby and Area Board of Trade, Environmental Services Award in recognition of his contributions to advancing, promoting and advocating for renewable energy and energy efficiency projects. Terry is Past President of the Alumni Association of Saint-Anne’s University, Nova Scotia’s only French language post secondary institution. In the past Terry also occupied the position of Treasurer with the Environmental Services Association of the Maritimes, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the promotion of environmental products, services and organizations within the environmental industry.