Mr. Keith Whitener is a fisheries biologist with 16 years of experience in conducting aquatic studies in California, Oregon, Washington, Montana, and Alaska. Mr. Whitener is a skilled project manager with 10 years of experience managing biological assessments, land stewardship operations and complex construction projects. Keith is an experienced field crew leader with a proven record of attaining complete and accurate data sets on time and at budget. He has 3 years of proprietary fisheries consulting. Keith is co-author of three peer-reviewed journal articles on California native fishes and floodplains. He has two years of experience as a senior level project director and personnel manager. Keith is an accomplished collaborator with a demonstrated ability to lead multi-agency teams and solve difficult problems.

Mr. David A. Thomas has over 12 years of experience researching relationships between fish assemblages, macroinvertebrate communities, and instream habitat. Mr. Thomas has considerable experience in designing and implementing baseline evaluations of instream habitat, fish assemblages, and benthic macroinvertebrate communities, conducting Endangered Species Act consultations, assessing potential impacts to aquatic resources, conducting fish passage assessments, and designing restoration plans. He is experienced in design and implementation of water quality sampling programs for municipal dischargers, geospatial analyses using GIS, and he has expertise in CEQA/NEPA, aquatic toxicity, and rapid bio-assessment.

Ms. Sara C. Gillespie has more than 6 years of terrestrial biological experience and more than 10 years of writing and editing experience. Ms. Gillespie worked in the publishing industry in New York City prior to pursuing a career in wildlife biology. She has wide-ranging experience as a Biological Field Technician, including studies of riparian ecosystems in California through the University of California, Davis, and riparian and Arctic ecosystems in Alaska through the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. Sara conducted field studies and drafted resource management reports for three major relicensing projects, and is currently assisting in the development of a comprehensive environmental training and compliance program for employees of Southern California Edison’s Northern Hydroelectric facilities.