Core Team

Catherine Quinn, PG, CHG

Ms. Quinn is Managing Principal Hydrogeologist of Quinn Environmental Strategies, Inc. (QES), with over 25 years 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 performed numerical and analytical modeling to support fate and transport analyses for negotiation of regulatory cleanup criteria for soils, and for enhancement of groundwater pump and treat system performance.

Ms. Quinn has guided projects through technical design, implementation, and analysis of all phases of remedial investigations, feasibility studies, and remedial alternative design/implementation, and site closure including 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 at several Superfund or Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) National Priorities List (NPL) Sites.

Ms. Quinn has performed numerical and analytical modeling 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 (GIS) and three-dimensional finite element and finite difference numerical models for design and simulation of alternative groundwater basin operational schemes (including primarily Modflow and the Coupled Fluid Energy and Transport [CFEST] code).

William Sedlak, PE – Principal Consultant, Remediation and Permitting

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. Mr. Sedlak 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. Additionally, Mr. Sedlak has hands-on experience in the installation, operation and troubleshooting of different remediation systems.

Mr. Sedlak has represented his clients in presentations to regulatory agencies, such as the U.S. EPA, California Energy Commission, the California Department of Toxic Substances Control and Regional Water Quality Control Boards, air districts, and local city and county departments, explaining project objectives and details and facilitating the exchange of requirements and issues. Mr. Sedlak has successfully coordinated with regulatory 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 has an established track record for meeting project schedules and maintaining budget control.

Mr. Sedlak has a Master’s degree in Environmental Studies, and Bachelor’s degrees in Chemical Engineering and Chemistry. He also has a Certificate in Hazardous Materials Management, from the University of California, Irvine and has 40-Hour OSHA Hazardous Waste Operations (Hazwoper) Health and Safety Training; Hazwoper Management and Supervisor Training and annual refresher training.

Samantha Hout is a Senior Staff Planner with more than 7 years’ 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 vapor probe monitoring for vapor extraction system performance evaluations. Her remediation experience includes system installation oversight and inspections and vapor monitoring of active soil vapor extraction systems, as well as oversight of underground fuel storage tank removal and soil excavation. Ms. Hout is also responsible for coordinating, contracting and field oversight of subcontractors during multi-media field investigations, including vapor probe and groundwater monitoring well installations and monitoring, soil matrix sample collection from soil borings, and indoor air quality monitoring.

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

Robert Taylor, MS, is a Staff Hydrogeologist with approximately 1 year of experience coordinating and implementing field investigations, including oversight during drilling and logging of soil borings and construction installation of multi-depth soil vapor probes and groundwater monitoring wells. He is responsible for implementing multi-media monitoring programs, such as quarterly groundwater monitoring and permit compliance monitoring of emissions control systems for soil remediation systems. He also performs soil vapor sample collection from multi-depth probes to assess the vacuum area of influence of operating soil vapor extraction systems and to assess reductions in soil contaminant mass.

Mr. Taylor integrates laboratory analytical and other data into report-ready tabular format and supports data analysis and interpretation through contouring and preparation of graphical representation of data trends, as well as 3-dimensional visual data representations using RockWare®. His analyses are presented in Site Conceptual Models and other documents reported to the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Board and in support of litigation. Mr. Taylor academic specialization in a variety of numerical modeling techniques was applied in scholarly research and in the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation program. Mr. Taylor earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Science with an emphasis in geoscience from University of Washington, and a Master of Science degree in Hydrogeology and Environmental Geoscience from University of Göttingen, Germany. He maintains OSHA 40-Hour Hazardous Waste Operations (HAZWOPER) Health and Safety certification.

Kellen Nelepovitz is a Project Assistant and has a background in Communications and Marketing with 10 years experience assisting in the management of internal operations of various, diverse companies. She assists in the daily operations of Quinn ESI such as vendor contracting, document management, accounting, system processes and office relations. Ms. Nelepovitz has a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from California State University, Chico and studied at Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic in 2009, earning a minor in International Relations.

Holly Dunn is serving as the Controller for Quinn Environmental Strategies. Throughout her 30 years of accounting experience, Ms. Dunn has held the head accounting positions at numerous mid-sized organizations. Ms. Dunn graduated Magna Cum Laude from Franklin Pierce University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting.

Najib Niazi – Najib Niazi is a Senior IT consultant with over 24 years of experience in Information Technology. Mr. Niazi has served in various roles during his career, such as 12 years as the Director of Information Technology at Alacer Corp. and 6 years as a Business Technology Site lead for multiple sites for Pfizer pharmaceuticals. Currently, Mr. Niazi is providing IT consulting services for various large to midsize company throughout Southern California. His clients include: Edgewell, E&S Ring Management, Quinn Environmental Strategies and Valley Hand and Associates. Mr. Niazi has earned and AS from ITT Tech and BS in computer Technology from WGU.