Core Team

Ms. Quinn is Managing Principal Hydrogeologist of Quinn Environmental Strategies, Inc., with over 25 years of consulting and industry experience in contaminant hydrogeology, performing technical design, implementation and analysis of all phases of remedial investigations, feasibility studies and remediation, including successful agency negotiations.

She provides due diligence and litigation support, having managed more than 25 litigation cases through discovery and deposition phases, and in mediation to achieve settlement.

Ms. Quinn has guided projects through technical design, implementation and analysis of all phases of remedial investigation, feasibility study, remedial alternative design and implementation, and site closure, at numerous industrial and petroleum facilities, landfills, municipalities and Ports, including the Ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach and Stockton, and government bases throughout California, Arizona and Nevada, including several Superfund and CERCLA National Priorities List sites.

She has performed numerical and analytical modelling to support fate and transport analyses for negotiation of regulatory cleanup criteria for soils and for enhancement of groundwater pump and treat system performance, and has assisted in the development of Geographic Information Systems and three-dimensional finite element and finite difference numerical models for design and simulation of alternative groundwater basin operational schemes, primarily MODFLOW and the Coupled Fluid Energy and Transport code.

Mr. Sedlak has extensive experience in engineering and project management, with areas of specialty in chemical and environmental engineering. He has managed environmental design and remediation projects ranging from a few thousand dollars to multi-million dollar efforts. He is a registered Professional Chemical Engineer in California and a Registered Environmental Property Assessor.

He has extensive expertise in the evaluation, permitting, selection, design and specification of soil and groundwater treatment and remediation systems and the management of complex environmental projects, along with hands-on experience in the installation, operation and troubleshooting of different remediation systems.

Mr. Sedlak has represented clients in presentations to regulatory agencies such as the US EPA, the California Energy Commission, the Department of Toxic Substances Control, Regional Water Quality Control Boards, air districts, and local city and county departments. He has coordinated with agencies and client staff to expedite project schedules and obtain permits or site closures, and has provided briefings and status reports in public hearings.

He holds a Master’s degree in Environmental Studies and Bachelor’s degrees in Chemical Engineering and Chemistry, plus a Certificate in Hazardous Materials Management from the University of California, Irvine. He maintains 40-Hour OSHA HAZWOPER health and safety training, HAZWOPER management and supervisor training, and annual refresher training.

Ms. Hout has more than seven years of experience leading field investigations of soil and groundwater quality, indoor air quality assessments, and soil remediation system operations and monitoring to meet permit requirements, as well as soil vapour probe monitoring for vapour extraction system performance evaluations.

Her remediation experience includes system installation oversight and inspection, vapour monitoring of active soil vapour extraction systems, and oversight of underground fuel storage tank removal and soil excavation. She is responsible for coordinating, contracting and field oversight of subcontractors during multi-media field investigations, including vapour probe and groundwater monitoring well installation and monitoring, soil matrix sample collection, and indoor air quality monitoring.

Ms. Hout prepares laboratory analytical data summary tables and figures for reporting programmes at multiple sites reported to the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board and the Los Angeles County Fire Department, and to support litigation. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Studies from Sonoma State University, maintains OSHA 40-Hour HAZWOPER certification, has completed HAZWOPER Field Supervisor Training, and is CPR and First Aid certified by the Red Cross.

Mr. Taylor coordinates and implements field investigations, including oversight during drilling and logging of soil borings and construction of multi-depth soil vapour probes and groundwater monitoring wells. He implements multi-media monitoring programmes such as quarterly groundwater monitoring and permit compliance monitoring of emissions control systems for soil remediation systems, and performs soil vapour sample collection from multi-depth probes to assess the vacuum area of influence of operating soil vapour extraction systems and reductions in soil contaminant mass.

He integrates laboratory analytical and other data into report-ready tabular format and supports data analysis and interpretation through contouring, graphical representation of data trends, and three-dimensional visual data representation using RockWare. His analyses are presented in site conceptual models and other documents reported to the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board and in support of litigation.

Mr. Taylor’s academic specialization in numerical modelling techniques was applied in scholarly research and in the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation programme. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science with an emphasis in geoscience from the University of Washington and a Master of Science in Hydrogeology and Environmental Geoscience from the University of Göttingen, Germany. He maintains OSHA 40-Hour HAZWOPER certification.

Ms. Nelepovitz has a background in communications and marketing with ten years of experience assisting in the management of internal operations at diverse companies. She assists in the daily operations of QES, including vendor contracting, document management, accounting, system processes and office relations.

She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from California State University, Chico, and studied at Charles University in Prague in 2009, earning a minor in International Relations.

Ms. Dunn serves as Controller for Quinn Environmental Strategies. Across 30 years of accounting experience she has held the head accounting position at numerous mid-sized organizations. She graduated Magna Cum Laude from Franklin Pierce University with a Bachelor of Science in Accounting.

Mr. Niazi is a Senior IT consultant with over 24 years of experience in information technology. He has served as Director of Information Technology at Alacer Corp for 12 years and as a Business Technology site lead for multiple Pfizer Pharmaceuticals sites for six years.

He now provides IT consulting services to large and mid-size companies throughout Southern California. Mr. Niazi holds an AS from ITT Tech and a BS in Computer Technology from Western Governors University.