Natural Resources Symposium

KEGAN BROWN, Partner, Lowenstein Sandler LLP

Kegan A. Brown is a partner at Lowenstein Sandler LLP in New York City.  He develops and implements proactive, strategic solutions to the most complex environmental, health, and safety challenges companies face.  Kegan has extensive experience relating to contaminated sites across the country, including addressing and defending against government subpoenas and information requests, unilateral administrative orders, cost recovery/contribution claims, investigation and remediation obligations, and natural resource damages.  He also counsels clients regarding environmental risks in transactional matters. 

LAUREN DANIEL, Partner, Arnold & Porter

Lauren Daniel is an environmental litigator handling a wide range of disputes across the Country. She represents clients in some of the largest high-profile environmental matters in recent history and has experience litigating under all the major federal environmental statutes, with particular focus on federal and state cleanup laws, including the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), the Oil Pollution Act (OPA), and the Clean Water Act (CWA). She is adept at navigating multi-pronged risk related to environmental issues, including in multi-jurisdictional disputes, mass torts, and cases with inter-related regulatory, litigation, and public relations components. She takes particular pride in mastering, digesting, and simplifying for decision-makers the knotty scientific issues that underpin many environmental disputes. 

JONATHAN DEASON, Ph.D., P.E., Lead Professor, Environmental and Energy Management Program, School of Engineering and Applied Science; Executive Director, Environmental and Energy Management Institute, The George Washington University

Jonathan Deason, Ph.D., P.E., is the Lead Professor of the Environmental and Energy Management Program and the Executive Director of the Environmental and Energy Management Institute at The George Washington University in Washington, DC. Prior to joining GW, Deason was Vice President of for Environmental Affairs at the American Road and Transportation Builders Association, a federation of 7,000 organizations engaged in transportation construction. Before that he was Director, Office of Environmental Policy and Compliance at the U.S. Department of the Interior, where he managed nine regional offices across the nation and seven staff divisions in Washington, D.C. He has served on the National Boards of Directors of the American Water Resources Association and the Renewable Natural Resources Foundation, and as President of the National Capital Section, American Society of Civil Engineers. Deason is a licensed Professional Engineer, has authored more than 150 academic and professional papers dealing with environmental and energy issues, and has received 21 sponsored research grants for environmental and energy management investigations. He has received more than a dozen major awards including the Founder's Medal of the National Society of Professional Engineers as the Federal Engineer of the Year, the Arthur S. Flemming Award for work related to improving the Nation's water resources, the Engineering Achievement Award of the Virginia Engineering Foundation, and an Executive Rank Award from the President of the United States. He has been featured in many news programs and media including Newsweek, the Associated Press, ABC News, World News Group, The Hill, Bloomberg Law, CNN and Good Morning America. He holds a Ph.D. in environmental systems from the University of Virginia, an M.S. in environmental engineering from the Johns Hopkins University, an M.B.A. in management from the Golden Gate University in San Francisco, and a B.S. in engineering from the U.S. Military Academy.

RUTH DEMETER HAYES, Senior Director of Policy, Global Energy Institute, US Chamber of Commerce

Ruth Demeter is senior director of policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Global Energy Institute (GEI). Ms. Demeter leads the Institute’s work on mining and issues related to the Endangered Species Act. She has spent over a decade working in regulatory and energy policy. She worked as an aide to Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) and former Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) before becoming director of federal government relations at Peabody Energy. There she developed and implemented advocacy strategies surrounding regulation, infrastructure, taxes, technology, climate, and land use. In 2020, the U.S. Department of Energy appointed Ms. Demeter to serve on the National Coal Council, a Federal Advisory Committee whose principal activity is to provide recommendations to the Energy secretary on matters related to fossil energy programs and policies based on studies conducted by the council. Previously, she served on the leadership board of the Carbon Utilization Research Council. Ms. Demeter holds a B.A. in political science and religious studies from the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, and a J.D. from the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida.

BARBARA J. GOLDSMITH, Executive Director, Ad-Hoc Industry Natural Resource Management Group; President, Barbara J. Goldsmith & Company LLC

Barbara J. Goldsmith is Executive Director of the Ad-Hoc Industry Natural Resource Management Group and facilitated its founding in 1988 with a group of major multinational corporations. She is also President of Barbara J. Goldsmith & Company LLC, which has provided consulting services to major companies, law firms and others for over 25 years on high-level national and international energy and environmental policy matters and corporate environmental management strategy. In 2005, Ms. Goldsmith was appointed by the Interior Secretary to serve on the Department’s Natural Resource Damage Assessment and Restoration (NRDAR) Advisory Committee.  Ms. Goldsmith has had substantial experience with business and industry associations, major companies in all industrial sectors, the US Government, international agencies, EU Member States and other countries worldwide. She is a frequent speaker on environmental, energy, and natural resource topics and collaborates with a wide set of both public and private sector entities. She has worked for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris, France, and she is the author of numerous publications on environmental regulatory issues affecting industry. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from The George Washington University and a Master of City Planning in Environmental Analysis from Harvard University, a joint degree program between the Harvard Schools of Public Health and Design and she is also an alumna of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.

TIMOTHY HOELZLE, Deputy Director, Office of Restoration and Damage Assessment, US Department of the Interior

Tim Hoelzle is the Deputy Director of the Office of Restoration and Damage Assessment (ORDA) at the US Department of the Interior (DOI). Tim has been with the ORDA since 2016, where he focuses on coordinating the work of the DOI Natural Resource Damage Assessment and Restoration Program (NRDAR Program) in partnership with other federal agencies, states, tribes, and industry. Before joining ORDA, Tim was Vice President at Great Ecology where he served as a client and sales manager for large-scale restoration and remediation projects in the energy and mining sectors across the country. He received his B.S. and M.S. in restoration ecology from Colorado State University.

WILLIAM JACKSON, Partner, Kelley Drye & Warren LLP

William (Bill) Jackson co-chairs Kelley Drye & Warren’s national Environmental Practice Group and is on the firm’s Executive Committee.  For over thirty years, Mr. Jackson has represented both public and private sector clients in significant natural resource damages matters.  He has been litigating PFAS matters for states, sovereign governments, and water providers across the country for almost a decade. Bill has served on the Plaintiffs Executive Committee and Chaired the State/Sovereign Committee in the AFFF MDL in Charleston, South Carolina since its formation in 2018.  Mr. Jackson is lead counsel for the State of New Jersey in its actions involving 3M (now settled), DuPont, Chemours, and related companies for damages arising from PFAS and other contamination from DuPont’s Chambers Works site on the banks of the Delaware River.  Previously, Mr. Jackson has represented a number of trustee agencies and public entities in significant natural resource damages and environmental matters, including representing the State of Louisiana in the BP/Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, the State of New Jersey in the Passaic River litigation, the State of New Mexico in the Gold King Mine blowout, the State of Montana regarding W.R. Grace’s Libby Mine, and the Government of Guam against the United States for World War II-era contamination.

EMILY JOSEPH, Director, Office of Restoration and Damage Assessment, US Department of the Interior

Emily Joseph has been with the US Department of the Interior for the past 18 years and became Director of the Office of Restoration and Damage Assessment (ORDA) in April 2022.    ORDA is responsible for overseeing the Department’s Natural Resource Damage Assessment and Restoration (NRDAR) program.  Before becoming Director, Ms. Joseph’s main responsibilities were supervising the annual allocation process for cases working on damage assessments, as well as managing the office’s Information Management System which houses information about all of the Department’s NRDAR cases.  Prior to joining the office in 2014, Ms. Joseph was in the Office of Environmental Policy and Compliance working on environmental and disposal liability issues.  Before joining the Department, She worked at the University of Miami in the area of special education, where she also completed a Master's Degree in Public Administration.  Originally from the Washington, DC area, Ms. Joseph received her undergraduate degree from American University, majoring in psychology with a minor in sociology.

HON. ROGER MARTELLA, Executive Vice President; Chief Corporate Officer and Chief Sustainability Officer, GE Vernova

Roger Martella is GE Vernova's Chief Corporate Officer, Chief Sustainability Officer, and head of Global Government Affairs and Policy. In these roles, he engages the world’s top public and private sector leaders to align GE Vernova’s innovation to solve the planet’s most pressing challenges of access to sustainable, reliable, and affordable energy, addressing climate change, and improving impacts to GE Vernova’s people, communities, and planet. In recent years, Mr. Martella has been at the leading edge in successfully partnering the power of the private sector with the pursuits of the public sector to solve tough problems together. Mr. Martella previously served as General Electric’s Chief Sustainability Officer responsible for leading a comprehensive and cohesive approach to sustainability for the company. Prior to GE, he served as General Counsel of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, where he was unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate, and the Principal Counsel for Complex Litigation for the Department of Justice’s Natural Resources Section. Mr. Martella also co-led Sidley Austin LLP's global environmental and climate change practices and was recognized among the top lawyers in the field globally. Roger teaches a first of its kind course on International Environmental Law and Justice at Howard University Law School and serves on the Advisory Board to Harvard University’s Environmental and Energy Law Program. In 2022, the Racial Justice Institute recognized Mr. Martella with a Racial Justice Champion Award. He is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves on the board of the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES), the ClearPath Foundation, the Environmental Law Institute, and several environmental and energy NGOs. Mr. Martella has co-authored and edited four books on the intersection of ESG, climate change law, international environmental law, and human rights, including Corporate Social Responsibility—Sustainable Business: Environmental, Social and Governance Frameworks for the 21st Century (Wolters Kluwer 2020). Mr. Martella is a graduate of Cornell University and holds a J.D. from Vanderbilt Law School. He grew up in Norristown, PA, where he worked in his family’s corner Italian bakery.

JEAN MARTIN, Senior Counsel, BP

Jean Martin is Senior Counsel, Litigation and Dispute Resolution with BP.  Ms. Martin advises the company’s in-house remediation management team, collaborating with in-house specialists, external experts, and legal counsel to evaluate, litigate, and resolve environmental remediation and natural resource damage claims against bp and its subsidiaries.  She has defended the company against some of the largest and most complex natural resource damage claims brought in the US, including claims arising from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.  She also defends the company against remediation and restoration claims at complex mega-sites, including mining, smelting, refining and multi-party river contamination sites.  Ms. Martin has negotiated several settlements that coordinated remedy and restoration, in circumstances where coordination provided a cost-effective solution to disputed claims that also enabled restoration to begin at an earlier date.  Ms. Martin has been providing legal advice on remediation and natural resource damage issues to bp and its subsidiaries for over 20 years, working in their Los Angeles, Chicago, London and Houston offices.  Before that, she was an associate attorney at Sidley Austin and at Pillsbury Madison & Sutro (now Pillsbury Winthrop). Ms. Martin received her undergraduate degree in history from Cornell University and her J.D. from Harvard Law School.

ROGER NOBER, Director of the GW Regulatory Studies Center; Professor of Practice of Public Policy and Public Administration, The George Washington University

Roger Nober assumed his new role as Director of the GW Regulatory Studies Center and Professor of Practice at the Trachtenberg School in January 2024. His career includes service as Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Officer at BNSF Railway, Chairman of the U.S. Surface Transportation Board and Chief Counsel of the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure of the U.S. House of Representatives. Mr. Nober retired from BNSF Railway Co. in December 2022, after 16 years as an Executive Vice President responsible for overseeing legal and regulatory matters, environmental claims, compliance, communications as well as state government and community affairs. He also served on the Board of BNSF Railway LLC. Prior to joining BNSF, he was a partner in the Washington office of Steptoe & Johnson LLP. From 2002 to 2006, Nober was Chairman of the U.S. Surface Transportation Board. From 2001 to 2002, he served as Counselor to the Deputy Secretary at the U.S. Department of Transportation. From 1993 to 2001, Mr. Nober served in a variety of roles for the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure of the U.S. House of Representatives, including serving as chief counsel from 1996 to 2001. He has a bachelor’s degree from Haverford College and a Juris Doctor from Harvard University School of Law. He currently is an advisory board member at the Texas Transportation Institute at Texas A&M University, a member of the Business Advisory Council at Northwestern University Transportation Center, a member of the Texas Holocaust, Genocide, and Antisemitism Advisory Commission, and a past and current board member of a number of nonprofit organizations.

JOHN PENDERGRASS, Senior Attorney and Director of the Center for State, Local and Regional Environmental Programs, and Co-Director of the International Programs, Environmental Law Institute

John (Jay) Pendergrass is a Senior Advisor and former Senior Vice President with the Environmental Institute (ELI).  Prior to his role as Senior Vice President, Mr. Pendergrass served as ELI’s Vice President for Programs and Publications, where he lead the Institute's Educational Programs, numbering more than 100 each year, and the Institute's Publications Division, which produces the Environmental Law Reporter, the Environmental Forum, and books. Mr. Pendergrass has researched and written on a broad range of legal and policy issues focusing on what works in practice and how to improve the implementation of law. He was among the first to address improving legal and administrative mechanisms for protecting public health and the environment from the risks at contaminated sites where some hazardous substances are left in place. His research and writing on such institutional controls and long-term stewardship have led to changes in national policy and in the laws of many states. He has also written extensively about innovative state environmental and natural resource programs as well as federal preemption of state laws. Since 1997, Mr. Pendergrass has been a member of the accreditation council overseeing environmental and other management systems certification bodies in the United States. He has been with ELI since 1988. He earned his B.S. in environmental science from Michigan State University and his J.D. from Case Western Reserve University.

TONY PENN, Chief, Assessment and Restoration Division, US Department of Commerce, National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

Tony Penn is the Chief of NOAA’s Assessment and Restoration Division (ARD) and the co-lead of NOAA’s Damage Assessment, Remediation, and Restoration Program.  As the Chief of ARD, Mr. Penn leads NOAA's nation-wide group of professionals, including scientists and economists, who are responsible for evaluating coastal habitats and resources injured by hazardous waste releases, oil spills, and vessel groundings. He has been with NOAA working on damage assessment issues since 1997.  Until assuming the Chief role in December, 2015, Mr. Penn was the Deputy Division Chief of the Assessment and Restoration Division for the previous eight years.  Formerly, Tony managed ARD's SE Region where he worked directly with scientists and economists to address coastal pollution and physical impacts from waste sites, oil spills, and vessel groundings.  Previous to this position, Mr. Penn was a natural resource economist conducting damage assessment work primarily in the Gulf Coast and Caribbean regions with a focus on restoration scaling, including Habitat Equivalency Analysis, and recreational impact assessment.  He received his B.S. in Economics from the University of Wisconsin and M.S. in Agricultural and Resource Economics from the University of Maryland.

JESSIE RITTER, Associate Vice President, Water and Coasts, National Wildlife Federation

Jessie Ritter leads the development and execution of the National Wildlife Federation’s national water resources and coastal policy priorities. She oversees campaigns to protect clean water and wetlands, increase the resilience of communities and wildlife in the face of climate change and natural disaster events, and conserve marine ecosystems. Ms. Ritter also works to coordinate and steer the Federation’s federal advocacy work to restore key ecosystems—from the Everglades in South Florida to the Mississippi River and its delta in Louisiana. For over ten years she has worked with state and federal agencies and community partners on Gulf restoration in the context of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill settlement, including Natural Resource Damage Assessment dollars. Ms. Ritter came to the National Wildlife Federation from the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee, where she covered the oceans and atmosphere portfolio under the leadership of Senators Rockefeller and Nelson. She has also worked for a number of national non-profits on federal and state policy issues ranging from fisheries management to water resources to coastal community resilience. She holds a Master of Environmental Management degree from Duke University’s Nicholas School, and a B.S. in Zoology from North Carolina State University. Ritter now lives in Apex, North Carolina, with her husband and daughter, but frequently travels to Washington, DC which was her beloved home for over a decade.

KATHERINE SCARLETT, Chief of Staff, Council on Environmental Quality, Executive Office of the President

REBECCA STEVENS, Restoration Coordinator/Program Manager, Hazardous Waste Management Program, Coeur d'Alene Tribe

Rebecca Stevens is the Program Manager for the Tribe’s Natural Resources Department-Hazardous Waste Management Program. She also serves the role as the Restoration Coordinator with the Restoration Partnership. Ms. Stevens has been working on water quality related issues for over 20 years and in 2009, she was co-author of the Coeur d'Alene Lake Management Plan. She represents the Tribe in the Bunker Hill Mining and Metallurgical Complex Superfund Site remedial work and she participates in a variety of public outreach efforts throughout the Basin. Ms. Stevens is very honored to work for the Coeur d’Alene Tribe and being a part of implementing natural resource restoration in the Coeur d'Alene Basin.

JEFFREY TALBERT, J.D., Partner, Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP

Jeffrey Talbert is a Partner with Arnold & Porter in their Boston, MA office. He is accomplished trial attorney and environmental lawyer who focuses on environmental litigation, permitting, and risk management. Mr. Talbert also serves as a mediator and allocator of costs at Superfund Sites and has significant experience in all major environmental statutes. Prior to joining the firm, he led the environmental group at a Chambers-ranked law firm and was a Trial Attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice’s Environmental Enforcement Section. At the U.S. DOJ, he led one of the largest Clean Water Act cases in U.S. history, the first Clean Air Act case under EPA’s pulp and paper initiative related to New Source Review, the largest Natural Resource Damages case under the Park Service Resource Protection Act, and numerous CERCLA and RCRA cases. Mr. Talbert received numerous awards for his work, including EPA's Gold Medal for exceptional service.

SHALENE THOMAS, Senior Emerging Contaminant Program Manager, Battelle

Shalene Thomas is the Senior Global Emerging Contaminant Program Manager for Battelle. She has more than 26 years of experience in environmental consulting that includes nearly 18 years of experience supporting per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS) evaluations. She has supported State, Federal and industrial clients with PFAS source evaluations, risk management and mitigation strategies and well as risk communication. She has supported PFAS projects in 32 different states in nine of the 10 USEPA regions as well as in Europe, Australia and Canada. She has served as the AFFF leader and trainer for the ITRC PFAS Team, the Risk Communication leader for the ITRC CEC Team as well as a trainer for the ITRC Risk Communication Toolkit. She serves as a Planning Board member for the NFPA AFFF Fire Road Map project and has provided PFAS and AFFF training across the globe. She currently serves on the ASTM Consumer Products - F15 (23-12) committee evaluating PFAS in products. She also serves on the Scientific Advisory Board for major national PFAS and emerging contaminants conferences. She has presented on the topic of PFAS across the US, Canada, Europe, and Australia.

THEODORE TOMASI, Ph.D., Senior Principal - Natural Resources and Environmental Economics, Integral Consulting

Dr. Ted Tomasi is Senior Principal at Integral Consulting where he leads the natural resource and environmental economics practice. He has more than 40 years of experience valuing natural resources and the ecological services they provide and evaluating environmental and natural resource management decisions. He has particular expertise in natural resource damage assessment (NRDA), having worked on more than 80 NRDAs for oil spills and contaminated sites, serving as an expert on behalf of both natural resource trustees and responsible parties. Dr. Tomasi has authored numerous publications on economic methods on valuation and decision-making applied to resource management issues and is particularly interested in formally including a concern for fairness in resource policy analysis. He holds a BA in Environment and Public Policy and an MA in Economics from the University of Colorado and a Ph.D. in Natural Resource Economics from the University of Michigan. Prior to his consulting career he held tenured faculty positions at the University of Minnesota and Michigan State University.      

RICHARD J. WENNING, Principal, Wenning Environmental

Richard Wenning is an ecotoxicologist and environmental risk assessment specialist with 40 years of experience leading environmental impact studies and ecological and human health risk assessments. His work focuses on characterizing exposure pathways and quantifying injuries, damages, and risks associated with chemical contamination, industrial accidents, resource development, and natural disasters. Mr. Wenning has leadership experience managing large, complex environmental investigations. He frequently collaborates with multi-disciplinary teams of civil and environmental engineers, ecologists, health professionals, resource economists, and specialists in regulatory compliance, scientific communication, and public engagement. He has directed site-specific and regional scale ecological investigations and monitoring studies in the U.S. and several other countries. Common to this work is a focus, retrospectively, on the environmental consequences of accidents and contaminated sites or, prospectively, on the likely impacts of emerging technologies and resource development projects. He has participated in scientific review panels organized by businesses, trade groups, non-profit organizations, and government agencies. He has led seminars and given numerous technical presentations. He has published 100+ papers in the peer-reviewed scientific literature addressing various chemical and environmental risk issues. He served nearly 20 years, until 2022, as Editor-in-Chief of the SETAC peer-reviewed international science journal Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management (IEAM). In 2024-25, he is collaborating with a global team of experts to publish the 2nd edition of a state-of-practice book on sediment quality assessment and management.