Tammy Ching Retires, New Leadership Announced for Planning Division

Tammy Ching

Celebrating a Remarkable Career!

This month we celebrate Tammy Ching, HELIX Planning Division Manager, as she begins her long-awaited and well-deserved retirement after 28 remarkable years with us! Serving as an instrumental leader in growth of the firm from five employees to today’s staff of 200, Tammy leaves an enduring legacy having mentored so many along the way and grooming our future leaders. Her passion, professionalism, expertise, integrity, and dedication to women in leadership will forever be a part of us and is engrained in HELIX’s culture. We are excited for this next chapter in her life, and for Tammy to continue to be a resource to our staff and projects as an independent consultant.

Andrea Bitterling

Andrea Bitterling, who has worked with Tammy for the last 24 years and served as a HELIX Principal Planner and Group Manager, has been promoted to Planning Division Manager. In this role, Andrea oversees CEQA/NEPA compliance, cultural resource management, and noise, air quality, and greenhouse gas (GHG) services. She also manages HELIX’s on-call services contracts for numerous local government agencies and special districts and many large, complex environmental compliance processes for public- and private-sector projects. Andrea has worked on a broad range of land development and infrastructure projects. She has extensive experience preparing environmental documentation at all levels, managing technical studies and multi-disciplinary teams, and assisting with permitting processes addressing a variety of issues, including air quality, water quality, wetlands, and endangered species. Andrea’s reputation for excellence in management of complex, multi-disciplinary contracts and projects has aided HELIX in being a preferred choice for clients requiring environmental services.

Joanne Dramko, AICP

Joanne Dramko, AICP serves as an Environmental Planning Group Manager and HELIX’s new California Statewide Discipline Lead, covering CEQA/NEPA compliance, air quality/GHG, climate change, and noise analysis. She has over 20 years of experience, including eight years with HELIX, involving the preparation of environmental reports under CEQA, CEQA-Plus, and NEPA requirements for a broad range of agencies and project types, including industrial, airport, residential, commercial, educational/institutional, recreational, transportation, water/wastewater, and utilities. Joanne has led numerous technical analyses for noise, air quality, GHG emissions, and climate change and is an expert in the preparation of Climate Action Plans, GHG analyses, sustainable energy assessments, and noise technical studies. Joanne is an accredited member of the AICP and a California Air Resources Board GHG verifier.

An Experienced Team You Can Trust

HELIX’s Southern California environmental planning team includes 23 consultants providing comprehensive CEQA/NEPA compliance services, supported by our in-house technical disciplines. They are here to help guide you and your project through the complexities of environmental compliance.  Our Southern California leadership includes:

Yara Fisher, AICP

Tim Belzman

Julie McCall

David Crook, AICP, LEED AP

Yara Fisher, AICP joined HELIX in November as a Principal Planner and Senior Project Manager with 22 years of experience providing planning and CEQA-related services to public and private clients throughout California. She has led teams in developing comprehensive plans, obtaining entitlements, and preparing environmental documents for a variety of agencies and private clients. Her experience ranges from preparing and analyzing long-range planning documents for public agencies to managing the environmental entitlement phase for numerous development projects for private clients. Her community planning experience includes general plans, zoning ordinances, housing elements, specific plans, and climate action plans/strategies. Yara’s environmental compliance experience includes the preparation and management of program- and project-level EIRs, CEQA Section 15162 and 15183 Findings, Addenda, and other streamlined environmental documents pursuant to CEQA.

Tim Belzman, Principal Planner, has been with HELIX for 20 years. He has extensive experience managing and preparing environmental compliance documents in accordance with CEQA and NEPA for transportation, private development, and planning documents such as community and specific plans. His experience within the transportation industry includes rail, transit, bridges, roads, highways, grade separation, and multi-corridor projects. He has a successful history working with local, state, and federal agencies, including the City of San Diego, SANDAG, Caltrans District 11, NCTD, FTA, FHWA, U.S. Navy, and General Services Administration. Tim’s professional experience includes the management and preparation of EIRs, ISs, MNDs, NDs, Addenda, and Notice of Exemptions under CEQA, as well as EISs, EAs, and CEs under NEPA.

Julie McCall, is a Principal Planner with 28 years of experience, including 16 years with HELIX. She manages the preparation and review of environmental documents including EIRs, EISs, IS/MNDs, constraint reports, and feasibility studies. Her project experience includes industrial, commercial, and residential development, mining projects, transportation facilities (e.g., highway, airport, and transit projects), military projects, and recreational development. Julie is an expert with CEQA, NEPA, and the Surface Mining and Reclamation Act (SMARA).

Dave Crook, AICP, LEED AP is an Environmental Planning Group Manager and Principal Planner with 20 years of professional experience in environmental science, impact assessment, planning, and GIS applications. He has prepared all levels of CEQA and NEPA studies, as well as other planning documents, including General Plans and Specific Plans. He has worked on a variety of projects for public and private entities that require a diversity of skills and disciplines. This includes experience managing environmental documents for private developments, hospitals, water facilities, and community, general and specific plans, among other project types. Dave is an accredited member of the AICP and a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®) Accredited Professional (AP) for Building Design + Construction (BD+C) through the U.S. Green Building Council.

Learn more about HELIX’s statewide CEQA/NEPA compliance services, or contact us today. We are available to discuss your project.