
Ghina Yamout
Biography
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Turning local and global community sustainability and equity challenges into opportunities
EDUCATION
PHD – Sustainable Environmental Resources Management – University of Florida (UF) – 2005 Decision Theory Application to Sustainable Resources Management – Triple-Bottom-Line analysis for Multiple Party Decision Making under Risk, Uncertainty, and conflict in Water Resources Allocation Problems. MSC – Environmental Technology – American University of Beirut (AUB) – 2002 An Optimization Approach for Sustainable Multi-Sectoral Water Supply Management in the Greater Beirut Area. BSC – Chemistry – American University of Beirut (AUB) – 1999
STRENGTHS & ABILITIES
Woo’er Activator Strategist Positive IndividualizerRelationship builder with contagious enthusiasm that engages the unique qualities of each to work together productively. Speaks firmly, but from the heart, and strive to provide a safe environment for all stakeholders to be included in the conversation, with authentic belief in the enriching value of diversity and inclusion.
Influencer and positive activator; ability to inspire internal and external partners into taking part of positive change. Strategic thinker; sees big picture patterns where others see complexity. Leads, explores and implements ideas for growth, blending strategic and creative thinking with hands-on practicality, linking facts and people. Works collaboratively and effectively with people at all levels in an organization, in a team environment, and communicate complex ideas effectively, verbally and in writing.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
MARRS SERVICES (2020 – PRESENT) Southern California, CA Client Service Manager, Outreach and Business Development
Responsible for leading and managing development and implementation of the strategic vision and tactics for expanding the firm’s market share with various clients in Southern California. Efforts include branding and marketing campaigns, outreach and communication, capture planning, proposal development, and team interview preparation.
Employee development; integral part in developing the internal and external communication, outreach, and education efforts, including the personal and professional development of the employees. Certified with Best Year Yet® coach and responsible for administering the program to employees and partners.
ALTA ENVIRONMENTAL | NV5 (2015 – 2020) Southern California, CA Director of Business Development, Strategy, and Partnership
Lead and managed the development and implementation of the comprehensive strategic vision and tactics of all environmental and sustainability services, for all media, including water resources, air quality, climate, sustainability planning, environmental investigations, hazardous waste, hazardous materials, and environmental health and safety.
With a high sense of urgency, in a remarkably short period, and with minimal supplementary resources, successfully and independently orchestrated branding and marketing campaigns intended to broaden recognition of the company
OBJECTIVE – Turning local and global community sustainability and equity challenges into opportunities
as a whole, as well as individual peers, beyond existing clients and offerings. Effectively reinforced the company’s brand and created an extensive network of peers, necessary to build successful partnerships. Monitored and evaluated the efficiency and effectiveness of activities outcomes, allocated resources, assessed and monitored deficiencies and workloads, and provided and coordinated staff training and mentorship. Proactively identified opportunities for internal division and external teams’ collaboration and partnerships to ensure the administrative and technical support system is constantly evolving with personnel, tools and databases, and communication improvements to optimize productivity, client satisfaction, and company performance. Monitored the comprehensive Federal, State, and local regulatory framework influencing Southern California, and their impact on various stakeholders’ activities. Identified market trends and performs market segmentation to evaluate and guide development and implementation of strategy, including creating and maintaining active positive liaisons and partnerships with strategic stakeholders.
Project Manager – Countywide Sustainability Annual Report and Performance Metrics for LA Metro Brought together a winning team to assist LA Metro in the selection, evaluation, and reporting of sustainability metrics for countywide planning, introducing social equity as key factor in assessing mobility, socioeconomic, environmental, and safety metrics. The effort included identification of partnerships opportunities, tools, databases, and data gaps, to ensure reliable continuous tracking of performance trends for assessing efficiency and effectiveness of LA Metro’s sustainability and resiliency initiatives.
Coordinated an extensive stakeholder involvement process, with dynamic presentations and working groups. WESTON SOLUTIONS (2013 – 2015) Southern California, CA Business Development Manager – Business Strategy Development and Firm Branding Successfully and independently orchestrated business development, branding, and marketing campaigns in LA County
intended to broaden recognition of the firm beyond existing clients and offerings, in a remarkably short period of time and with minimal supplementary resources.
Played a central role in a statewide stakeholder effort to organize a successful groundwater conference by the Groundwater Resources Association (GRA) focused on pressing water sustainability issues associated with the oil and gas industry practices. Played an active role in the One Water LA extensive stakeholder process.
Project Manager – Watershed Management for the County of LA Department of Public Works Provided technical and managerial support for the stormwater management and green infrastructure countywide sustainability effort under the Enhanced Watershed Management Program for the Marina Del Rey Watershed, County of LA. The program effort included to comprehensively identify water quality issues and evaluate opportunities for multi-benefit regional projects to optimize the recharge, capture, and reuse of storm water runoff, to meet federal, state, and local regulatory requirements at optimal cost. As part of a team, identified of the first Public-Private Partnership in LA County, between the City of Culver City and a private entity, Costco, for a multi-benefit project. Took part of an extensive stakeholder process coordinating with key public agencies and non-profit organizations in LA County. Managed development of the monitoring and assessment program.
Project Manager – Historical Characterization of the California Bay-Delta Hydrology Identified and analyzed disaggregated un-digitized historical (1850-1920) qualitative/quantitative information for an important gap in the current understanding of the Bay-Delta evolution. Constructed consistent data series and selected of metrics to represent system change. Assessed the impact of California’s economic and urban development, transportation infrastructure, mining, agriculture, migration, and climate on shaping the Bay-Delta conditions.
CITY OF MESA, AZ (2007 – 2009) City Of Mesa, AZ Water Resources Sustainability Technical/Regulatory Specialist
Represented the City in the extensive statewide ADD Water effort (Acquire, Develop, and Deliver) and took part of the white paper committee to research alternative acquisition approaches nationwide. Represented the City in the East Valley Water Forum, a partnership of tribal, public agencies, and private water companies, to develop a regional
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OBJECTIVE – Turning local and global community sustainability and equity challenges into opportunities
groundwater management plan focused on climate change drought scenarios and increasing resiliency though regional recharge.
Represented the City in public relations and maintained active liaisons with state, federal, and local regulatory agencies, municipalities, and private industry. Monitored legislative and regulatory activities; prepared policy recommendations to ensure activities have a positive impact.
Project Manager – Water Demand Projections
Provided independent complex technical and advisory support to carry out long-range water resources management objectives by assessing different methods to estimate projected water demand to align the city’s water portfolio, policies, and projected growth, and ensure regulatory compliance.
Demonstrated leadership and cross-functional skills by effectively and efficiently motivating, managing, and coordinating various departments to define project scope, budget, schedule, resource needs, and constraints, acquire resources, define data needs, and implement geospatial analysis.
Demonstrated innovation in handling projects challenges and prepared reports and presentations for a diverse group of managers and employees.
GY CONSULTING (2009 – 20011) City Of Mesa, AZ Project Manager and Principal Researcher – Price and Weather Elasticity of Demand Analysis Retained by the City of Mesa to perform the Price and Weather Elasticity of Demand Analysis. Developed and executed
univariate / multivariate models to assess consumer response to changes in price and weather factors in the unique water rights, regulatory, physical, and growth setting.
Coordinated with diverse departments to define key needs and requirements and analyze extensive customer databases to geo-reference water usage, prices, and weather data. Coordinated with client to develop project plans, scopes, budget, schedule, resource requirements; tracked key milestones, prepared and delivered reports, recommendations, and client presentations.
PARSONS CORPORATION (2005 – 2007) West Palm Beach, FL Assistant Project Manager / Water Resources Specialist – Everglades Restoration
Coordinated programmatic tasks and environmental and engineering teams, in an integrated multidisciplinary setting for the federally and State funded US largest environmental restoration project at the time in the Florida Everglades, the Picayune Strand Restoration Project for the South Florida Water Management District. Assisted very actively, technically and magisterially in scope preparation, subconsultants’ coordination, document control, project management, budget and schedule.
ORGANIZATIONS & LEADERSHIP
Takes leadership, activator, and transformational roles in proactively shaping the dialogues in professional organizations, working groups, policy councils, and conference committees. Apt at maneuvering through the complexity of stakeholders’ personalities and interests, to understand their motivations, identify commonalities and differences between their goals, and generate inspiring ideas, creative strategies, and out-of-the-box tactics to create bridges and connect viewpoints.
Co-Chair and Council Member – LA Metro Sustainability Council (2017 – Present)
Appointed to the LA Metro Sustainability Council from its inception and served as elected co-chair of its first and serves as elected co-chair of the current Executive Committee. Continuously strives for inclusion of the diverse and inclusive stakeholders’ views, including public agencies, non-profits, public health, professional associations, engineering, construction, labor unions, academic institution, and foreign organizations, among other stakeholders.
Conceptualized and led the Partnerships Sub-Committee, the only sub-committee of the Council to bring together Council Members of different backgrounds and interests and develop a workplan to tackle key LA Metro sustainability and infrastructure initiatives including sustainability and mobility performance metrics, construction green
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OBJECTIVE – Turning local and global community sustainability and equity challenges into opportunities
procurement policy, green infrastructure, and tools and databases, through improving communication and promoting coordination among internal divisions and identifying and facilitating relevant partnerships.
Board President – Arab American Association of Engineers and Architects (AAAEA-CA) (2017 – Present)
AAAEA is a leading national professional association promoting the careers of Arab American professionals, youth, and students and facilitating their integration into the industry and larger community. P
Plans, manages, and implements major events featuring industry leaders, technical seminars, scholarships, achievement, and internship opportunities. Major infrastructure leaders have included Phil Washington, CEO, LA Metro; Hasan Ikhrata, Exec. Dir. SANDAG; Robert Johnson, EO, LA World Airports; Adel HageKhalil, GM, City of LA Bureau of Street Services; Mark Pestrella, Director, LA County Department of Public Works; Dennis Probst, VP, Development, San Diego Airport Authority; Cid Tesoro, VP, Infrastructure, San Diego Unified Port District.
Initiatives Lead / Committee Member, “Girls into Green Careers” and “Let’s Connect” International Conference on Sustainable Infrastructure (ICSI), American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) (2018 – 2019)
ICSI is the lead forum for sustainable infrastructure practitioners from around the world to engage in a comprehensive conversation on the cities of the future, including latest innovative approaches to planning, financing, and resiliency. Conceptualized and was part of the implementation team for the “Girls into Green Careers”, an innovative program to ensure the conference “pays forward” and has a positive impact on the LA community. It was a full-day event to connect high school girls from disadvantaged communities to women industry leaders.
Lead the implementation of another innovative program “Let’s Connect in LA”, which consists of multiple sessions for small and large businesses to have a one-to-one conversation with agency leaders as well as B2B interactions.
Board Member, LA Metro Transportation Business Advisory Board (TBAC) (2015 – Present)
Active member, advocating on behalf of small and disadvantaged business owners, along with professional representatives from an array of industries and trades including, Asian, Black, Arab, Hispanic, Women, and Veterans. Role includes assessing Metro’s diversity and inclusion efforts including minority representation and institutional policies, through identifying gaps and monitoring and evaluating activities efficiency and effectiveness.
Conference Committee Member, Panel Moderator, and Session Lead, California Stormwater Quality Association (CASQA) Annual Conference (2016 – 2019)
Proposed and implemented transformative ideas into the yearly event, including emphasizing the importance of partnership between public infrastructure agencies for the planning and implementation of sustainable green infrastructure programs and projects and the role of operation and maintenance of green infrastructure in challenging the successful formation of these partnerships. The conference draws 1200 regulatory and municipal decision makers, program coordinators, planners, engineers, lawyers, and scientists, for 3 days of training and discussions.
Conference Organizing Committee / Moderator, City of LA Mayor’s First Small Business Summit (2017)
Played a decisive and very active role in the successful conceptualization, planning, and implementation of the City of LA Office of Economic Development first summit. The summit was initiated by a group of five small businesses to provide workshops, exhibitions, and hands-on contracting and certification assistance. Attracting over 500 professionals, the summit has become an annual initiative of the Mayor’s office.