Session Chairs
Austin Cooley, PE, PG
Chief Engineer, Brown and Caldwell
Austin Cooley is Chief Engineer and Senior Associate for Brown and Caldwell’s Houston office. He has 30 years of diverse experience in engineering, consulting and management. For the past 21 years, Mr. Cooley has worked primarily on site assessment and corrective action for contaminated soil, groundwater and sediment, with an emphasis on risk-based corrective action and litigation support. He has been active in the development of the Texas Risk Reduction Program (TRRP), the rules that govern corrective action regulated by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ). In addition, Mr. Cooley has been active in assisting TCEQ developing guidance documents for the implementation of TRRP. He has a BSc. in Mining Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines, is a Professional Engineer in Texas and Oklahoma and a Professional Geologist in Texas.
Mark Diamond
Environmental Engineer, FMC Corporation
Mr. Diamond is the Environmental Engineer at FMC’s Bayport, Texas plant, a world class hydrogen peroxide production facility. Mr. Diamond has 35 years of industrial experience many of which have been in the environmental field. He has over 15 years of compliance experience in air as well as other media with a number of Houston area industrial facilities.
Jayson Hudson
Biologist, United States Army Corp of Engineers
Rebecca Luman, PE, LEED AP
Engineer, Zephyr Environmental Corporation
Ms. Luman has 20 years experience in environmental consulting and project management. Within the public sector, she was involved in the remedial investigation of groundwater contamination of a 60-square mile area. As a consultant, she has conducted Phase 1 Environmental Site Assessments (ESAs) and site subsurface assessments of various businesses, petroleum and manufacturing facilities, and managed investigations and removal actions at State Superfund sites. Ms. Luman has also performed many multi-media compliance audits and environmental management system assessments within the aerospace, food, manufacturing, semiconductor, shipbuilding, and utility industries. She has prepared numerous environmental plans and permits (SPCC, SWPPP, NPDES, FRP, Emergency Contingency, Hazardous Waste Management), and completed a variety of regulatory reports (Air Emissions Inventory, EPCRA, Discharge Monitoring, Annual Waste Summaries). She has managed efforts to identify and document environmental, health and safety legal regulatory compliance requirements for major energy and oil company operations across the U.S. and keeps them up-to-date with the regulations. Ms. Luman is lead author on a manual published by Specialty Technical Publishers, called Site Auditing: The Environmental Assessment of Property and was previously lead author for various other regulatory publications including federal EPA, federal OSHA construction, and California OSHA. Ms. Luman is a Professional Engineer in three states (Texas, California, and New York), and her current interest in sustainable development recently led her to became a LEED® Accredited Professional.
Nina R. McAfee, REM
Senior Environmental Manager, Exterran
Nina R. McAfee is the Senior Environmental Manager for Exterran. Ms. McAfee has worked in Houston for Exterran since 2009.
In her current role, Ms. McAfee manages the Environmental Department for the North American Operations and Manufacturing Groups. Before joining Exterran, she worked for Baker Hughes, Inc. managing a diverse range of functions including Environmental, Radiation, Hazardous Materials and Explosives Management. Ms. McAfee is no stranger to the Oil and Gas industry having spent 20 plus years in Safety and Environmental roles for the upstream and oil field services sectors of the industry. Throughout her career she has successfully developed and implemented regulatory compliance programs dealing with such varied topics as NORM, H2S Safety, HS&E Risks and Impacts Assessment, Root Cause Analysis, compliance auditing systems, and fully implemented Environmental Management Systems.
Ms. McAfee is a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers Safety and Environment Study Group and the Women’s Energy Network. Ms. McAfee is a Registered Environmental Manager (REM) and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Management from the University of Maryland.
Rachel McNew Schultz
Environmental Scientist/Toxicologist, Corrigan Consultants
Mrs. Rachel Schultz is currently employed at Corrigan Consulting, Inc. as an Environmental Scientist/Toxicologist. She earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Biology and her Master of Science degree in Environmental Toxicology from Texas Tech University.
During her time at Corrigan Consulting, Rachel has led numerous wetland assessments and delineations, and has participated in wetland permitting, jurisdictional determinations, and conceptual mitigation plans. Additionally, she has led hazardous waste recovery teams into wetlands and wildlife refuges and documented impacts to wetlands and associated natural resources.
Rachel is also experienced in NEPA assessments. Mrs. Schultz has prepared several Environmental Assessments for federal facilities and transportation projects. In addition to this, she has participated in the preparation of numerous Categorical Exclusions in support of the use of stimulus funding monies. She has also performed many threatened and endangered species assessments and has experience with mapping vegetation and critical habitat in the Gulf Coast area. Mrs. Schultz is also very familiar with GIS technology and is experienced in conducting field mapping and topographic surveys.
In addition to being a member of the Texas Association of Environmental Professionals, Rachel is a member of The Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry and a Board Member of the South-Central Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry.
Chunlong “Carl” Zhang, PhD, PE, Professor
Program Chair of Environmental Science, School of Science and Computer Engineering
University of Houston-Clear Lake
Dr. Chunlong (Carl) Zhang is a Professor of Environmental Science and Environmental Chemistry at the University of Houston-Clear Lake where he is also the Program Chair of the Environmental Science Program that offers B.S. and M.S. degrees under the sub-plans of Environmental Biology, Environmental Chemistry, Environmental Geology, Industrial Hygiene, and Safety. He received his B.S. in Environmental Science and M.S. in Environmental Chemistry from Zhejiang University, his Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from Louisiana State University, and postdoctoral training at Rice University. He is a registered P.E. in Environmental Engineering. Dr. Zhang’s research and teaching interests are in the areas of fate and transport of emerging contaminants, bioremediation, and innovative remediation technologies in which he has published over 30 peer-reviewed papers. He is the sole author of the textbook entitled “Fundamentals of Environmental Sampling and Analysis” published by John Wiley & Sons, which has been adopted by many universities as the textbook. He is the member of American Chemical Society (ACS), Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC), Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors (AEESP), and National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE). He is also actively involved in professional services, including the Editorial Board for the journal of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, proposal reviewer panels for National Science Foundation (NSF), the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), SERDP (a consortium of EPA-DoD-DoE), and session chair for numerous conference sessions.