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Science Section employees

Science Section employees

“To provide scientific knowledge, information, and analysis in support of regional environmental resource management”

Staff by Group

Josh Latterell, Manager, Science and Technical Support Section
Josh Latterell manages the Science and Technical Support Section. Our section helps King County uphold a commitment to deliver clean water and healthy habitat for people, salmon, and orca in a generation. But we face a new, uncertain, and rapidly changing environment. To succeed, we need science to test ideas, guide actions, and prioritize investments. Josh’s job is to ensure the section provides useful, timely, and credible information to decision makers facing down these challenges. He drives vision, prioritizes resources, builds collaborative relationships, and fosters a culture where everyone can do their best work. He manages three supervisors and the administrative staff. Josh has a PhD from the UW School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences. Since 2007, he has served the County as a senior ecologist, managed monitoring programs and capital projects, and co-authored the Clean Water Healthy Habitat plan. Josh believes science offers the best way to make sense of the world and to understand our role within it. He values authenticity, creativity, independence, compassion, and fun. He and his family love backpacking. On his own, Josh runs trails and swims in Puget Sound.

Jenée Colton, Toxicology and Contaminant Assessment Unit Supervisor
Jenée supervises scientists in the Toxicology and Contaminant Assessment Unit. Unit scientists help County natural resource managers evaluate, prevent and remedy chemical contamination in the environment and track changes in stream benthic macroinvertebrates over time. The unit manages the stream benthos, emerging contaminants, toxics in freshwater tissue and toxics in marine tissue monitoring programs. Staff support work across the Department of Natural Resources and Parks and collaborate with local, state and tribal governments, academic researchers and non-governmental organizations to advance regional science and inform management and policy actions centered on water quality. Jenée has a Master of Environmental Management degree from Duke University and has been addressing environmental contamination problems for over 25 years. Outside of work, she supports local wildlife rehabilitation, and enjoys yoga, the Northwest outdoors, and any sports with balls.

Perry Falcone, Watershed and Ecological Assessment Unit Supervisor
Perry supervises scientists in the Watershed and Ecological Assessment Team (WEAT) Unit. This unit provides fish and habitat research and analysis to support salmon recovery efforts; stream, rain and groundwater hyrdologic gaging services and analysis for projects and long-term water quality monitoring; and beaver and wildlife monitoring and research to support county projects and broader environmental goals. This unit collaborates with tribes, local cities, watershed organizations, as well as state and federal agencies. Perry has a Master of Marine Affairs degree from the University of Washington and over 20 years of experience in salmon recovery, conservation planning, habitat project coordination and integrating science into policy. Perry enjoys spending time with his family and exploring the Northwest outdoors through hiking, trail running, skiing and backpacking.

Beth leDoux, Lakes, Streams, Sound, and Ground Unit Supervisor
Beth supervises scientists in the Lakes, Streams, Sound, and Ground Unit. This group of scientists work to support the County in understanding water quality long-term trends, marine benthic invertebrates and food webs, as well as freshwater algae including harmful algae blooms. The Unit frequently collaborates across the Department of Natural Resources and Parks along with local, state and tribal governments, academic researchers and non-governmental organizations. Beth has a Master of Environmental Management from Yale University. She has been working at the County for 20 years on topics spanning water quality, to salmon recovery, to working with a diverse stakeholder group developing priorities and policy balancing salmon recovery, agriculture viability and flood safety. Outside of work she loves spending time outside with her family, avidly reading, and trying her hand at different art mediums.

Jim Bower, Environmental Scientist III / Fish Ecologist
Jim is the technical representative for the Lake Sammamish kokanee and WRIA 8 Chinook restoration planning areas. His work with native kokanee involves collaboration with numerous public agencies, private landowners, and conservation organizations; work includes various long-term monitoring and coordination of annual supplementation actions. Jim also provides technical support to WRIA 8 project planning, study design, monitoring implementation, and grant review.

Aaron David, Environmental Scientist II
Aaron currently assists with monitoring of river restoration and flood risk reduction projects to evaluate their effectiveness at improving juvenile salmon habitat. Aaron also assists with a variety of other fish and habitat monitoring efforts to support King County’s salmon recovery efforts. Additionally, he is in the process of developing databases and QA/QC protocols to improve our ability to manage and use the extensive data collected during our fish and habitat monitoring efforts.

Chris Gregersen, Environmental Scientist III / Fish Ecologist
Chris’s work at King County centers on stream ecology and fisheries, focusing mainly on salmon recovery science and effectiveness monitoring for river restoration projects. The purpose of this work is to inform and guide salmon recovery and assess the benefits of completed projects for juvenile salmonids. He also co-chairs the Water Resource Inventory Area 9 (WRIA 9) Implementation Technical Committee, which advises on the implementation of the Green/Duwamish Salmon Habitat Plan. Aside from this, Chris’s work encompasses a variety of fisheries, habitat, and water quality projects. These include fish passage projects, fish toxicology, restoration project design, permitting, stream and riparian habitat assessments, and GIS analysis.

Alexis Henry, Environmental Scientist II / Ecologist
Alexis works in wetland, river, and nearshore systems, providing technical support in vegetation, wildlife, and fish ecology. Alexis has expertise in wetland evaluations, habitat monitoring, wildlife assessments, mapping, and effectiveness monitoring of salmon recovery projects. She serves on the Technical Committee for the Fish Resource Monitoring Program. Alexis was a former Program Manager in the River and Floodplain Management Section, and Noxious Weed Specialist for King County.

Kollin Higgins, Environmental Scientist IV / Ecologist
Kollin’s current major work focus is to provide technical assistance to the ongoing Chinook salmon recovery efforts in the Green and Snoqualmie River systems. Kollin was a primary author of the 2021 update to WRIA 9 Salmon Plan. Kollin has been undertaking WRIA 9 marine shoreline condition and permit compliance surveys for the last 10 years. The Snoqualmie Farm Fish Flood (FFF) project and the Lower Green River System Wide Improvement Framework (SWIF) are examples of two large scale multi-objective planning programs where he has recently focused significant time and effort. Kollin was heavily involved in crafting the streamlined Agricultural Drainage Assistance Program and the update of King County’s Shoreline Master Plan.

Josh Kubo, Environmental Scientist III / Stream Ecologist
Josh works on a variety of riverine and fisheries projects, including juvenile and adult salmon assessments, project effectiveness monitoring, and habitat conditions assessments. Currently, he provides technical assistance to Chinook salmon recovery efforts and capital improvement projects in Water Resource Inventory Area 7 and 8. Josh provides support for project design development and effectiveness monitoring which informs the potential benefits and impacts of projects on salmon and habitat conditions. Additionally, Josh supports multi-objective planning efforts including the Snoqualmie Farm-Fish-Flood program and the related Riparian Buffer Task Force.

Dan Lantz, Environmental Scientist II / Fish Ecologist
Dan plans and carries out fisheries and aquatic habitat surveys in lakes, streams, and rivers throughout King County. Much of his time is spent in the field conducting night snorkeling, boat and backpack electrofishing, and wading streams where he collects data for a multitude of projects that evaluate fish use, distribution, and general aquatic/riparian habitat conditions. Prior to working at King County, Dan spent 11 years with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Northern California and Washington working on various projects from bull trout distribution throughout Washington State to conducting culvert surveys on Federal lands.

Rebekah Stiling, Environmental Scientist II
Beka is a freshwater ecologist supporting the beaver program alongside assisting with fish and habitat monitoring and assessments. Working closely with Jen Vanderhoof, her current projects examine how beaver activity in King County effects stream flow and restoration planting outcomes. Beka also has a keen interest in data science, including embracing and promoting the principles of open and reproducible science. She has a BS and MS, both focused on freshwater ecology from the University of Washington School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences. Her interest in freshwater ecology follows from her desire to steward and conserve freshwater ecosystems.

Jen Vanderhoof, Environmental Scientist IV / Wildlife Ecologist
Jen’s work often focuses on issues related to wildlife and biodiversity. She leads the County's Beaver Working Group. She frequently participates in projects that involve groups from King County Parks Division (ecological assessments of natural areas for development of Site Management Guidelines; participation in review of Stewardship Plans); Wastewater Treatment Division (Chinook Bend vegetation monitoring); the Director’s Office (Comprehensive Planning and Climate Change committees); and the Floodplain Management Section (review of Channel Migration Zone reports and landslide report; consultation on wildlife-related issues). Jen is currently the Project Manager for a shoreline and estuary restoration project at Saltwater State Park, and she is conducting the wetland and riparian analyses for the Bear Creek Basin Plan. Many of her projects involve GIS work, including land-change analysis. Jen appreciates the intersection of policy and science, and she participates in updating the King County Comprehensive Plan every four years.

Kyle Bliss, Water Quality Planner / Project Manager II
Kyle helps manage the Field Hydrology Group’s gaging network and the data it produces. This includes long- and short-term monitoring that produce data for general public consumption and in support of County-wide initiatives, as well as datasets that support monitoring needs for other County groups and inter-agency agreements. He also supports several unique projects such as the Redmond Paired Watershed Study, water quality monitoring for the King County Agricultural Drainage Assistance Program (ADAP), and long-term water temperature monitoring in the Snoqualmie River watershed. He specializes in equipment installation, maintenance, and troubleshooting, datalogger programming, telemetered data acquisition, analysis, and QA/QC. Kyle earned his bachelor’s from The Evergreen State College and joined the County in 2022 after starting his career working on similar projects for local environmental consulting firms.

Brendan Grant, Engineer III / Hydrologist
Brendan works within the Science Section’s Hydrologic Monitoring Program.  While earning his BS degree in Geology, he was introduced to stream monitoring measuring technics and equipment.  A few years later he started his 20 plus year career in stream gaging.  He currently deploys data loggers in streams and measures stream parameters (discharge, level, temperature, dissolved oxygen, and conductivity).  He is responsible for downloading data on site and remotely using cell phone telemetry. Brendan assesses and evaluates the data and custom builds Microsoft Access databases to process and store data on a web-accessible SQL Server.

Ian Higgins, Water Quality Planner I / Hydrologist
Ian holds a B.S. in Environmental Chemistry and an M.S. in Geoscience. Ian was first introduced to hydrology while an undergraduate via an internship in Oregon. Since this original foye into the discipline, he has worked on a variety of ichthyology, botany, hydrology, algae, and aquatic bacteria related projects. As a Water Quality Planner, Ian supports ongoing monitoring programs by deploying and maintaining in-situ hydrological and chemistry probes. Ian performs data acquisition and management for long-term monitoring projects and special studies. Ian also conducts statistical and geospatial analysis of hydrological data.

Bailey Keeler, Water Quality Planner I
As a Water Quality Planner, Bailey supports ongoing hydrologic and water quality monitoring programs. This work focuses on deploying and maintaining stream, lake, and weather gages throughout the county as well as data management and analysis. Bailey was first introduced to hydrology and water quality monitoring while earning her MS in Conservation Ecology at University of Michigan and while working with the National Park Service. Since then, she has been involved in a variety of fisheries and aquatic biology/ecology projects.

Dan Smith, Engineer II / Hydrologist
Dan produces stream flow values from data recorded at King County’s many stream flow monitoring sites. This task is a process that includes the installation of field data recorders, field measurements over a range of flow conditions, and processing the data in the office.

Rachael Gravon, Water Quality Planner II / Limnologist
Rachael works as a project manager of the harmful algae bloom response program. She also manages phytoplankton and zooplankton monitoring in Lakes Sammamish, Union, and Washington. Her work involves program coordination, field work, data analysis, report generation, community outreach, and phytoplankton identification and enumeration. Rachael’s other skills and interests include photography and graphic design.

Chris Knutson, Water Quality Planner / Project Manager III
Chris is currently the co-manager of The King County Lake Stewardship Program. In addition, he manages the statewide Ecology database on harmful algal blooms; is the technical advisor on two Lake Management Districts; and responds to freshwater invasive species issues. Chris has also worked projects involving riparian restoration, critical areas effectiveness monitoring, and numerous microbial source tracking programs.

Daniel Nidzgorski, Water Quality Planner III / Ecologist
Daniel’s work focuses on King County’s long-term monitoring programs in large and small lakes, rivers, and streams – conducting fieldwork, managing and analyzing data, and writing up findings for public and technical audiences. He also works to track harmful algal blooms and bacterial concentrations at swimming beaches and other recreational sites. Daniel has a PhD in ecology from the University of Minnesota, and joined King County in 2017. His other skills and interests include advancing equity and social justice in the sciences, mentoring students, and developing engaging and effective scientific communications.

Wafa Tafesh, Water Quality Planner I
Wafa’s work includes water quality sampling, managing water quality data systems, conducting quality assurance reviews, and assisting with report writing. Wafa is currently co-manager of the Lake Stewardship Program, working with volunteers, conducting data analysis, and providing data support. She also works to track harmful algal blooms and bacteria concentrations at lake swimming beaches and other recreational sites around the county. Her other interests include advancing equity and social justice in the sciences, science communication and community outreach.

Jeremy Walls, Water Quality Planner II / Limnologist
Jeremy is the program manager for the Stream and River Monitoring Program, which tracks long term changes in water quality in streams throughout the county. He is also the field lead for the Pollution Identification and Correction (PIC) program, conducting microbial source tracking studies to find and fix fecal pollution sources in King County waterways. Additionally, he provides technical and field support for TMDL projects and stormwater outfall monitoring through the Conveyance Screening Program. Jeremy has a Master of Science in aquatic ecology from Ball State University. His other interests include science communication, phytoplankton and harmful algal bloom ecology, and nutrient cycling.

Sevin Bilir, Environmental Scientist IV, Hydrogeologist
Sevin provides project management and hydrogeologic and geologic technical services. She has provided groundwater reporting, database development, hydrogeologic characterizations, and 3 D geologic modeling for SWD at county landfills. Work for WTD included review and reporting on countywide groundwater levels in support of the Reclaimed Water Comprehensive Plan. Within WLRD, Sevin has provided technical and project management services on habitat restoration assessments, landslide mapping, channel migration zone studies, wetland banking mitigation reviews, historical water resources evaluation of Vashon–Maury Islands, and various field and reporting needs. Other work has involved climate change indicators and county operations performance measures and environmental indicators for annual reporting.
Before working at the County, her work focused on engineering and environmental geologic projects involving site characterization, remediation alternatives, groundwater flow modeling, 3-D geologic modeling, database development and field management of contaminated soils, rock, and groundwater sites.

Jeff Burkey, Engineer IV, Hydrologist
Presently, Jeff is the project manager for the NPDES Phase I Municipal Stormwater Permit requirement to develop a Bear Creek stormwater management plan. He is also working with University of Washington Climate Impacts Group to characterizing climate change impacts on large rainfall events within King County. During the last several years, Jeff has developed watershed models; projected stormwater retrofit needs based on population growth projections; and evaluated climate change impacts on stormwater flow control facilities for an EPA-funded project in King County’s Green River Watershed.

Curtis DeGasperi, Engineer IV / Hydrologist / Limnologist
Curtis provides technical support to various King County monitoring and modeling projects and manages the Major Lakes water quality monitoring efforts, including routine sampling, automated profiling buoys, and thermistor chains. Technical support activities include development and application of river and lake water quality models; stream flow, temperature and stream water quality data analysis; and analysis of stream benthos and riparian habitat data. Curtis has a BS degree in Biology-Geology, and his MS degree research focused on lake restoration. His post-graduate professional career led in other directions, including fresh and marine water, aquatic biota, and sediment contaminant investigations, and water and sediment quality modeling.

Eric Ferguson, Water Quality Planner III / Hydrogeologist
Eric provides technical support to the Groundwater Protection Program. Half of his work involves monitoring this resource on Vashon, Sammamish River Valley, and Lake Forest Park with the help of staff from the King County Environmental Laboratory. Current work includes updating the “A Report Card to the Community”—a set of indicators to measure the sustainability of Vashon-Maury Island water resources. The other half his work involves work for Science and Technical Support Section projects such as stream gaging, stream water quality review, and the Bear Creek Watershed-scale Stormwater Plan.

Wendy Eash-Loucks, Water Quality Planner II / Marine Scientist
Wendy provides technical support for King County’s marine water quality and sediment monitoring program. Her focus is on benthic invertebrate ecology, sediment quality, and bacteria. Specifically, she is the project lead for the marine sediment and beach water quality monitoring programs. Wendy’s background and interests include marine ecology and invertebrate taxonomy, sediment quality, and marine water quality. In addition to routine monitoring, she has worked on a variety of projects supporting the Wastewater Treatment Division with sediment monitoring near outfalls as well as special studies with the Sediment Management Program. Wendy also supports the Science and Technical Support Section’s Undergraduate Internship Program as lead mentor.

Greg Ikeda, Water Quality Planner II / Oceanographer
Greg is an oceanographer providing technical support for King County’s Marine Monitoring program. He focuses on verifying and analyzing data from the offshore monitoring and mooring programs, which collect oceanographic data in Puget Sound through a combination of water samples and sensors. Before joining King County, he conducted field sampling in coastal and open ocean environments and supported the development and use of sensors used in oceanography. His skills and interests include data quality assurance, technical troubleshooting, and communicating science to diverse audiences.

Taylor Martin, Water Quality Planner II / Oceanographer
Taylor is an oceanographer and project manager for King County’s Marine Monitoring Program. Her work includes management and analysis of marine data, nutrient assessments, writing reports for technical and general audiences, and developing a program to monitor ocean acidification impacts in Puget Sound. Taylor earned a Ph.D. from Stanford in Environmental Earth System Science, where her research focused on nitrogen cycling in the global ocean. Her skills and interests include numerical modeling, data science, and teaching students of all ages.

Kimberle Stark, Water Quality Planner III / Marine Biologist
Kim is a marine biologist and a project manager for King County’s Marine Water Quality Monitoring Program, including the Phytoplankton and Zooplankton monitoring components. Her work supports a variety of topics (such as the Puget Sound marine food web, eelgrass restoration and nitrogen management) and focuses on data analysis, connecting water quality/physical processes to lower food web dynamics, and report writing. . Further, her work involves collaborating with other organizations conducting marine monitoring in Puget Sound (such as UW, Washington Dept. of Ecology, Washington Dept. Of Fish & Wildlife, and tribes). Kim’s skills and background include, but are not limited to, chemical and biological analyses , data visualization, and marine biota (including charismatic megafauna and marine birds).

Thomas Cafcas, Water Quality Planner / Project Manager II
Thomas specializes in telling stories with complex datasets, boiling them down for technical and lay audiences, and sharing insights from those investigations using a variety of modern visual storytelling tools. Currently, his work focuses on building clear and meaningful data visualizations for external audiences, improving data systems at scale, and aligning wider county objectives and initiatives to Science programs. Thomas holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Illinois. Prior to joining King County, he worked at the nexus of open government, economic development, and tax policy for a variety of nonprofits where he authored or coauthored over two-dozen public policy reports covered in regional and national newspapers of record. Outside of work, he finds joy in long-distance bikepacking.

Dawn Duddleson, Research Librarian
Dawn is the librarian for the King County Water and Land Resources Division and the King County Wastewater Treatment Division. She conducts research and gathers information for division staff. Dawn also maintains a collection of reports created by or for the King County Department of Natural Resources and Parks, and before that by the Municipality of Metropolitan Seattle.

Carly Greyell, Water Quality Planner III / Ecotoxicologist
Carly has worked with King County since 2013 helping wastewater and stormwater managers with issues related to toxic chemicals in the environment. During this time, she has worked on projects addressing pathways of priority pollutants to the Lower Duwamish Waterway, literature reviews about bioretention performance, studies on stormwater treatment effectiveness, and strategic planning efforts related to stormwater management and water quality improvements.

Richard Jack, Water Quality Planner III
Richard has over 25 years of contaminant and habitat assessment experience to help other King County sections investigate and remedy contaminated land and sediments, especially those at habitat restoration sites and flood control facilities. He is the Science lead for the freshwater tissue monitoring program, and an advisor to the wastewater division about wet weather treatment facilities and irrigation using recycled water. Richard serves as a technical expert for the department on chemicals of emerging concern, such as PFAS, hormones and pharmaceuticals. He also provides technical support and collaborates with Seattle King County Public Health and other divisions on department-wide policy issues such as state and federal water quality and cleanup standards and updates to related guidance documents.

Jennifer Lanksbury, Water Quality Planner II
Jennifer has over 22 years of experience in the field of marine ecology and ecotoxicology. Her research at King County is focused on assessing spatial and temporal trends of toxic contaminants in fish and shellfish tissues, sediments, and wastewater media - especially as it relates to stormwater quality and wastewater operations. She also helps evaluate ecological risks to aquatic organisms associated with exposure to contaminants. Before coming to King County, Jennifer worked for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife where she helped launch the biennial Puget Sound Mussel Monitoring program to track toxic contaminants in the nearshore.

Kate Macneale, Environmental Scientist III / Stream Ecologist
Kate is an aquatic ecologist with a keen interest in streams and the communities they support. Her work has focused on aquatic insects and salmonids, and the stressors that can affect them. Her most recent projects have focused on quantifying changes in stream communities over time, evaluating stormwater BMP effectiveness, , and examining how macroinvertebrate communities can help inform the restoration and protection of stream basins. Before joining King County, Kate was a post doc and research scientist at NOAA's Northwest Fisheries Science Center where she studied the effects of non-native species and contaminants on juvenile salmon and their prey.

Chelsea Mitchell, Water Quality Planner III/Ecotoxicologist
Chelsea is a biologist and environmental scientist by training who specializes in aquatic toxicology and management of stormwater contaminants. In her role as an ecotoxicologist at King County, she leads the marine tissue monitoring program which monitors contaminant concentrations in fish and crab in King County marine waters. Chelsea also works on all things 6PPD-quinone, a tire-derived contaminant of emerging concern which is acutely toxic to coho salmon and other important species in King County. Before working at the county Chelsea was a research assistant and graduate student at the WSU Puyallup Research and Extension Center where she led and participated in many applied research projects related to contaminant removal by Green Stormwater Infrastructure, and toxicity associated with stormwater contaminants.

Samreen Siddiqui, Water Quality Planner/ Project Manager III
Samreen Siddiqui recently joined the Toxicology and Contaminant Assessment Unit in 2023. She has more than 5 years of training and experience in the effects of toxic contaminants on aquatic ecosystems, particularly in contaminants of emerging concern (CECs). At King County, she assists utility and natural resource managers by describing the nature and impact of toxic contaminants on aquatic life. For example, she is currently working on a project to measure CEC concentrations in King County stream and river waters to understand how salmon are exposed to these chemicals. She is also assisting on analysis and interpretation of toxic chemical data collected in our freshwater tissue monitoring program. Samreen is an affiliated researcher at Oregon State University, OR and is also an editorial Board member for IEAM (SETAC Publication). Samreen is particularly interested in micro/nano plastics including tire particles, microfibers and other emerging concern in aquatic environment. Samreen likes travelling and exploring natural areas.

Beth Sosik, Water Quality Planner/ Project Manager I
Beth is an ecologist experience working in the marine and freshwater environments of the Pacific Northwest, with a particular focus on habitat quality. She is focused on King County’s macroinvertebrate monitoring program, and she provides support for a variety of other ecological projects within the Science section. She performs statistical and geospatial analysis, data management and field sampling, as well as technical report writing.

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