Jennie Anderson
Ms. Anderson has been a CEMML principal investigator since 2018. She is an expert in military lands management and environmental compliance, specifically with the Sikes Act and the Endangered Species Act. Ms. Anderson oversees an Air Force-wide effort to support Integrated Natural Resources Management Plans at each installation; her team has revised and updated more than 80 INRMPs since 2016.
She is the creator of CEMML’s Early-career Development Program, providing students and early-career professionals with experiential learning in military lands management. Ms. Anderson is the Co-PI for CEMML’s Climate Adaption and Management Planning Program, aiding the Department of Defense in preparing for the uncertainties of ecological change.
Ms. Anderson holds a Master of Science in natural resource stewardship with a concentration in ecological restoration; a graduate certificate in sustainable military lands management; a Bachelor of Science in agricultural economics with a concentration in natural resources, and a Bachelor of Science in natural resources management, all from Colorado State University.
Chuck Burns
Mr. Burns has been a CEMML principal investigator since 2016. His primary focus is the design, execution, and management of Integrated Training Area Management projects at 20 military installations across the U.S. His ITAM projects include large-scale Land Rehabilitation and Maintenance ventures requiring complex environmental and National Environmental Policy Act considerations and careful management of natural and cultural resources, with annual awards totaling more than $50 million.
From 2011 to 2016, Mr. Burns worked with the Army Training Support Center at Fort Eustis, Virginia as the lead agent for LRAM and Range and Training Land Assessment management. From 2006 to 2011, he was an ITAM Coordinator at Fort McClellan, Alabama and Fort Wainwright, Alaska. Prior to his ITAM endeavors, Mr. Burns was the Fort McClellan training site archaeologist (2005 to 2006) and an archaeologist at Jacksonville State University, Alabama (2001 to 2005).
Mr. Burns holds a Master of Arts in history from Jacksonville State University and a Bachelor of Arts in anthropology from the University of Alabama.
Andy Beavers
Mr. Beavers has been a CEMML principal investigator since 2005. He has over 20 years of professional experience in fire management planning, fire behavior and risk analysis, fire ecology and related disciplines. He is a leading expert in fire behavior, is a Certified Senior Wildland Fire Manager, and has served in firefighting positions with the National Park Service in positions through Type IV Incident Commander. Mr. Beavers routinely works with military commands and the Office of the Secretary of Defense on fire management issues. He also built and maintains the Army’s Wildland Fire Management Application, which houses its wildland fire and fuels management data.
He began his career with CEMML in 1999 at U.S. Army Garrison Hawaii, developing a wildland fire science program. He co-authored their Integrated Wildland Fire Management Plan, one of the first in the DoD. During his career at CEMML, he has written dozens of fire management plans; built a detailed, wildland-fire-specific climate change analysis process; executed dozens of installation wildfire risk analyses, and established CEMML’s wildland fire planning program.
Mr. Beavers holds a Master of Science in fire science from Colorado State University and a Bachelor of Science in forestry from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Julie Esdale, PhD
Dr. Esdale has been a CEMML principal investigator since 2023. She has more than 20 years of experience as an Alaskan archaeologist and cultural resources specialist and oversees several DoD natural and cultural resources and training area maintenance projects in Alaska. She also supports cultural resource subject matter experts at the Air Force Civil Engineer Center. Dr. Esdale oversees annual awards totaling more than $2,000,000.
Dr. Esdale began working for CEMML as an archaeologist at Fort Wainwright, Alaska in 2011. There she directed archaeological surveys, site evaluations, and scientific excavations, managing over 700 archaeological sites located across 1.5 million acres of training land. In addition, she was involved in Army project planning, permitting, and public outreach. She was part of a team at Fort Wainwright that received the FY13 Secretary of the Army Environmental Award for Cultural Resources Management. She is also co-PI on an NSF-funded archaeology project in central Alaska, studying the post-glacial subsistence practices, technologies, and activities of early hunter-gatherer people in interior Alaska.
Dr. Esdale holds a Ph.D. in anthropology from Brown University and a Master of Science in geology and a Bachelor of Arts in anthropology from the University of Alberta.
Christi Gabriel
Ms. Gabriel has been a principal investigator since 2024. She has over 12 years of experience as a natural resources specialist and oversees the NEPA Group that is part of CEMML’s Climate Adaption and Management Planning Program (CAMPP). She has expertise in environmental compliance, agency coordination, GIS, and threatened and endangered species conservation. Since joining CEMML in 2017, she has managed several multidisciplinary projects in areas such as geospatial data administration, habitat modeling, erosion mitigation, Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act compliance, USFWS Biological Assessments, NEPA Environmental Assessments and Categorical Exclusions, Finding of No Practicable Alternatives, and USACE Jurisdictional Determinations. She manages annual awards totaling over $7 million.
Ms. Gabriel began her career in sustainable agriculture with a focus in soil nutrient management and erosion control. Before joining CEMML, she was an Environmental Scientist for a major infrastructure consulting firm. Her responsibilities included preparing applicable state and federal water encroachment permits, contributing to NEPA documents, geospatial analysis, coordinating and performing wetland and watercourse delineations, wetland mitigation and stream restoration planning, and sensitive species surveys and conservation.
Ms. Gabriel holds a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Resource Management, with minors in Soil Science and Watersheds & Water Resources from Pennsylvania State University.
Chris Herron
Mr. Herron has been a CEMML principal investigator since 2015. He is a natural resources specialist with nearly 20 years of experience in projects ranging from habitat restoration, ecological restoration, vegetation management and mapping, and invasive species management to erosion management, water quality sampling, and wildlife surveys. Major achievements during his time with CEMML include building and managing successful natural resource management programs at Nellis Air Force Base and the Nevada Test and Training Range (NV), Fort Johnson (LA), Vandenberg Space Force Base (CA), and on Guam in support of Naval Base Guam, Anderson Air Force Base, and Marine Corps Base Camp Blaz.
Prior to becoming principal investigator, Mr. Herron served as a CEMML natural resources specialist from 2011 to 2015, after initially joining the organization in 2009 as an assistant wildland fire planner. Over the course of his career at CEMML, he has supported most branches of the DoD and the National Park Service through a wide variety of agreements focused on natural resource management. Mr. Herron oversees an annual award portfolio ranging from $8 to $12 million.
Mr. Herron holds a Master of Science in rangeland ecology with a focus in ecological restoration, and a Bachelor of Science in rangeland ecology with a double concentration in rangeland and forest management, both from Colorado State University.
Florencia Pezzutti
Ms. Pezzutti has served as a CEMML principal investigator since 2024 and meets the Secretary of the Interior’s professional qualification standards in archaeology (36 CFR Part 61). With over 18 years of archaeological experience in Mexico and the U.S., she has managed projects funded by the Department of Defense (DoD) in Hawaii, Oregon, Colorado, Guam, and California, as well as projects funded by the USDA in Colorado. Her skill set encompasses every phase of archaeological investigation, including GIS analysis and remote sensing applications to cultural resource management. She has contributed to numerous peer-reviewed articles in archaeology and cultural anthropology/public health. Ms. Pezzutti oversees an annual award portfolio ranging from $3.2 to $4.2 million.
Before becoming a principal investigator, Ms. Pezzutti served as a CEMML archaeologist and GIS analyst. She later advanced to project manager and cultural resources technical lead with CEMML’s CAMPP (Climate Adaptation and Management Planning Program), where she managed the integration of climate change considerations into Integrated Cultural Resource Management Plans (ICRMPs) for the Department of the Air Force (DAF). Prior to joining CEMML, Ms. Pezzutti conducted extensive academic research and archaeological fieldwork in Michoacan, Mexico.
Ms. Pezzutti holds an M.A. in Anthropology with a specialization in archaeology from Colorado State University, and a B.A. in Anthropology with a focus on Cultural Anthropology from Kent State University. She is currently a Doctoral Candidate in Ecology (A.B.D) with a focus on Archaeology and Geography at Colorado State University.
Dave Jones
Mr. Jones has been a CEMML principal investigator since 2010. He has over 30 years of applied and research experience in natural resources management and planning on military lands. He has specialized experience in resource monitoring and vegetation ecology in the continental U.S., Hawaii and Germany. He currently manages natural resources support programs in the western U.S. and the Pacific, with an emphasis on federally listed and at-risk species, overseeing annual awards of more than $6 million.
Mr. Jones has conducted and managed projects involving forestry, hydrology, wildlife, range science, botany and wildfire management. He has also developed Integrated Natural Resources Management Plans, National Environmental Policy Act documentation and biological assessments. He has completed numerous Natural Resource Condition Assessments and vegetation inventories on National Park Service lands.
Mr. Jones joined CEMML’s Fort Collins, Colorado staff in 1995, providing Army-wide Range and Training Land Assessment technical support, developing sampling designs and vegetation monitoring protocols, analyzing data and writing technical reports. He originally joined CEMML in 1990 as a range condition trend analysis specialist and Integrated Training Area Management coordinator at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, and later served as a natural resources specialist for CEMML at Yakima Training Center, Washington.
Mr. Jones holds a Master of Science in forest science from the University of Michigan and a Bachelor of Arts in environmental studies from Binghamton State University (SUNY).
Matt Ley
Mr. Ley has been a CEMML principal investigator since 2024 and was previously a CEMML project manager and landscape ecologist, supporting a wide variety of projects and efforts for the Center since 2016. He has over 15 years of experience in vegetation ecology, habitat restoration and mapping, invasive species management, water resource management, and remote sensing/geographic information systems (GIS).
Over his career, he has provided support to most branches of the Department of Defense (DoD) and the National Park Service as well as other federal, state, and local governments. His current project work includes threatened and endangered species management, GIS support, invasive species management, and Integrated Training Area Management (ITAM) support at DoD installations across the continental U.S. and Alaska. He currently oversees an award portfolio of more than $6 million annually.
Mr. Ley holds a Master of Science in biology with a focus on landscape ecology from the University of South Dakota, and a Bachelor of Science in rangeland ecology and watershed management from the University of Wyoming.
Peter Jacobson
Mr. Jacobson has been a CEMML principal investigator since 2017 and an environmental compliance manager since 2019. He is a compliance expert with an emphasis in stormwater infrastructure inspections, stormwater modeling and mapping techniques, stormwater and environmental compliance surveys and inventories, and stormwater permit compliance. Mr. Jacobson has a background of over 20 years in geographic information systems (GIS), geomatics and spatial survey techniques. He oversees environmental compliance projects at CEMML with an annual expenditure of over $7 million.
Prior to his role as principal investigator, Mr. Jacobson held several positions at CEMML. From 2014 to 2017, he was an environmental compliance specialist with an emphasis on project management. From 2009 to 2014, he served as a GIS analyst with an emphasis in geomatics, completing multiple stormwater field surveys and environmental compliance inventories. Mr. Jacobson began his CEMML career in 2005 as a GIS technician.
Mr. Jacobson holds a Bachelor of Science degree in geography from the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire.
Valerie Milmore
Ms. Milmore has been a CEMML principal investigator since 2023. She is an expert in environmental GIS with over 25 years of experience in database design and management of both tabular and spatial datasets. She has extensive experience in project management and administration, cartography, and spatial analysis. Ms. Milmore oversees an annual award portfolio totaling $8.5 million.
Prior to becoming a principal investigator, Ms. Milmore provided GIS expertise through CEMML to Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Hampton, Virginia. She supported Langley-Eustis’ Air Force Environmental GIS Program as a GIS analyst from 2015 to 2017, and then as team lead from 2017 to 2023.
Before joining CEMML, Ms. Milmore spent 10 years as a GIS analyst and project manager at an environmental consulting firm in Florida, specializing in land planning, listed species surveys, environmental permitting, and wetland mitigation banking. She began her career by supporting field operations and asset tracking in the telecommunications field.
Ms. Milmore holds a Bachelor of Science degree in forest resources and conservation from the University of Florida.
Amanda Wallander
Ms. Wallander has been a principal investigator since joining CEMML in 2015. She meets the Secretary of the Interior Professional Qualification Standards (36 CFR §61, Appendix A) with nearly 20 years of experience in cultural resources management and historic preservation planning for federal land management agencies. As a subject matter expert in National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) Section 106 and 110 compliance, Ms. Wallander oversees the production and completion of cultural resource inventories and evaluations, mitigation and treatment plans, Programmatic Agreements, HABS/HAER/HALS recordation and Integrated Cultural Resource Management Plans. Ms. Wallander oversees annual awards totaling more than $10 million.
Prior to joining CEMML, she spent 12 years with the National Park Service as a cultural resources technical expert responsible for NHPA compliance, and Contracting Officer’s Representative managing a variety of cultural resource and historic preservation projects.
Ms. Wallander holds a Master of Arts in historic preservation planning from Cornell University with a specialization in regulatory compliance, and a Bachelor of Arts in history and a graduate certificate in historic preservation from Goucher College.
Tom Ruzycki
Mr. Ruzycki has been a principal investigator at CEMML since 2013, and has been employed with the Center since 1997. He has over 30 years’ experience with GIS, remote sensing and cartography as applied to natural and cultural resources mapping and analysis. His current projects include mapping tropical forests and forest history for the U.S. Forest Service-International Institute of Tropical Forestry, overseeing the mapping of plant communities for the Air Force and Army National Guard, supervising on the Air Force Environmental GIS team, managing a team that trains personnel within the Air Force to properly manage hazardous materials and waste, and assisting with the GISMO (Geographic Information Supporting Military Operations) interactive online mapping system. Other recent projects include creating urban forest inventories for several cultural landscape reports for the US Army Hawaii, and soil erosion modeling for various installations. Prior to joining CEMML, he worked for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources as an environmental GIS and remote sensing analyst. He currently oversees an annual award portfolio ranging from $1 to 1.5 million.
Mr. Ruzycki holds an M.S. degree in Cartography and Geographic Information Systems and a B.S. in Cartography, both from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.