Posted on February 16, 2022
BATON ROUGE — The Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana, a statewide nonprofit dedicated to addressing coastal land loss in Louisiana, has named its board membership and leadership for 2022. The organization, which was founded in 1988, has helped craft science-based solutions to restore Louisiana’s coastal wetlands, which have been vanishing since the 1930s. The nonprofit is also known for its volunteer Native Plants Program, its student leader development programs, its Oyster Shell Recycling Program and the biennial State of the Coast conference, the premier gathering on coastal restoration in Louisiana.
“CRCL continues to evolve and grow, and our board of directors plays a key role in helping us do the same as we work to unite Louisiana residents to achieve a thriving, sustainable coast for all,” said Kim Reyher, executive director of CRCL. “Adding fresh voices, unique expertise and different perspectives will help us get there.”
The leaders of CRCL’s board of directors for 2022 are:
- Garvin Pittman, chairman. Garvin is an environmental specialist and director at Fenstermaker with expertise in coastal project management and financial management and forecasting.
- Ashley Liuzza, vice chairwoman. Ashley is the chief operating officer and attorney at Stag Liuzza LLC in New Orleans. Her practice centers on litigating complex environmental pollution claims, toxic exposure claims and mineral royalty disputes.
- Erin Rooney, secretary. Erin is a coastal project manager at HDR Engineering Inc. in Metairie, where she manages design of coastal restoration and protection projects across the state.
- James Wiltenmuth, treasurer. James, a CPA, is an associate director in P&N’s Accounting and Assurance Services Group.
The remaining board members for 2022 are as follows:
- Mindy Nunez Airhart, the president and CEO of Southern Services & Equipment Inc. (SSE), an AISC-certified structural steel fabrication contractor in St. Bernard Parish. Airhart is also the chairwoman of the New Orleans Chamber of Commerce.
- Donald Brinkman, who leads the ports practice and southwest Louisiana region for CSRS Inc., an architecture and engineering firm headquartered in Baton Rouge. He is a licensed professional engineer in Louisiana and has a special port designation known as the PPM – Professional Port Manager from the American Association of Port Authorities (AAPA).
- Robert Gardiner, the retired president of Maine Public Broadcasting, former chairman of the National Wildlife Federation and former vice chairman of the PBS board of directors.
- Sarah Giles, a wetlands biologist at ELOS Environmental.
- Terrence Lockett, the DFER/ERN Louisiana state director, overseeing all communication, development, policy and political work for the Louisiana chapter.
- Brock Piglia, the director of marketing at DonahueFavret Contractors, a regional general contractor with commercial projects throughout the Gulf South.
- Randy Smith, a principal and director of First Impressions for Wingate Engineers, a New Orleans-based civil engineering and design firm.
- John Ross, who has spent more than 20 years driving growth strategies and digital innovation for global brands.
- Parker Kilgore, a partner in the Baton Rouge office of Jones Walker LLP, a regional law firm with over 350 attorneys in offices in Baton Rouge, New Orleans and Lafayette. Parker is a commercial litigator who represents energy, construction and business clients in a wide variety of litigation matters and business transactions.
- Kristian Sonnier, a native of southwest Louisiana who is the vice president of communications and business development at Ryan Gootee General Contractors, a commercial construction company in New Orleans.
- Steve Chutz, a geologist who spent 20 years at the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality in surface water, groundwater and remediation programs before moving to the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources, where he served as director of the Atchafalaya Basin Program, assistant secretary of the Office of Coastal Management and secretary of the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources until his retirement in 2016. He now works as a consultant with CSRS Inc. in Baton Rouge.
- Heather Smith Layrisson, PE, a project manager at Jacobs, where she manages large-scale coastal restoration projects and water/wastewater infrastructure projects around the state. She is also the manager of projects for Jacobs’ Louisiana infrastructure portfolio.
- Brendan Hughes, an attorney at Galloway, Johnson, Tompkins, Burr & Smith. He helped to found a nonprofit corporation dedicated to educating people about orphaned oil and gas wells and achieving proper plugging and abandonment of such wells.
To learn more about the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana, visit the organization’s website.
