Each SWCA instructor has more than 10 years experience training regulators and clients in a variety of settings. Our dynamic team of instructors develop training courses with client satisfaction as their number one goal.
Dr. Thomas King
Since the late 1960s, Dr. King has worked in cultural resource management (CRM) as an academic, a private consultant, and a government official. He is widely regarded as one of the nation’s leading experts on CRM laws and policies, and on making those laws and polices work in the real world. Dr. King also has extensive archaeological field experience in California and the Pacific islands. His areas of expertise include project review under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act; relating Section 106 review to the concerns of Indian tribes, other indigenous groups, and local communities; and identifying and managing traditional cultural properties (TCPs). Dr. King holds a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of California, Riverside. He is the author of several textbooks on cultural resource management topics.ing
Matt Petersen
Matt Petersen has more than 14 years of experience in NEPA compliance and associated permitting. He has overseen, managed or worked as a resource specialist on 23 major EISs and specializes in managing the development of large, legally-defensible NEPA planning documents. He has managed NEPA projects as a third-party contractor for major federal land management agencies, including the Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Army Corps of Engineers, Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the Natural Resource Conservation Service. Mr. Petersen has developed the three-day NEPA course and two-day NEPA project management course specifically for environmental professionals. These courses emphasize the practical application of the NEPA process in a controversial and potentially litigious setting.
Al Herson
Al Herson, JD, FAICP, is an environmental planner and attorney with 30 years experience in leading environmental impact assessments for infrastructure and development projects. As Environmental Planning Practice Leader for SWCA, he leads and coordinates the firm’s NEPA practice across all offices.
Mr. Herson is an expert in the application of NEPA and CEQA regulations and case law. He is co-author of The NEPA Book, California Environmental Law and Policy: A Practical Guide, and the CEQA Deskbook (2nd edition). He is also a lead trainer for SWCA’s NEPA courses and has conducted NEPA trainings for numerous federal agencies, including BLM, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and FHWA. Mr. Herson is co-chair of CLE International’s Annual CEQA Update conferences, serves as a contributing editor for the California Environmental Law Reporter, is a Fellow of the American Institute of Certified Planners and a Past President of the American Planning Association California Chapter, which awarded him the Distinguished Leadership Award for a Professional Planner.
James W. Steely
Mr. Steely is a historian and architectural historian with more than 30 years of experience in cultural resource management (CRM). Before joining SWCA in 2003 as Senior Historical Consultant, Mr. Steely served in various positions for the Texas State Historic Preservation Officer, including 13 years as Deputy State Historic Preservation Officer. Mr. Steely also taught graduate courses in building documentation, National Register nominations, and evaluation of cultural landscapes at the University of Texas at Austin. His experience in the private sector focuses on historic-property surveys and nominations, coordinating Section 106 with NEPA studies, HABS/HAER/HALS evaluations, and applying the Secretary of the Interior's Standards to preservation projects. He specializes in transportation history, community development, and cultural landscapes research for compliance fulfillment. Mr. Steely’s many publications and professional presentations encompass architecture and city planning; studies of park systems, public works projects, and their politics; and transportation development in the United States.
Cindy Arrington
Ms. Arrington has more than 13 years of experience in cultural resource management (CRM). Her professional experience encompasses a wide range of activities in the field, laboratory, and office dealing with precontact, protohistoric, and historic resources. She has extensive experience in multi-disciplinary team management, preparation of National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) reports, direction of cultural resources surveys and excavations, and coordination with Native American groups. Her field experience includes an extensive background in the management of cultural resources compliance for large-scale construction projects, underwater archaeology, human osteology, and paleopathological analysis. She is experienced with the regulatory framework in 21 states.
Dr. Thomas Gates
Dr. Gates is an anthropologist and leading ethnographic expert with more than 18 years of diverse experience in linear archaeology, cultural landscapes, ethnography, compliance and site damage investigation and court testimony. He has extensive experience working with Native American tribal governments having served in the capacity of Yurok Tribal Heritage Preservation Officer, Tribe Self-Governance Officer, and Director of the Yurok Culture Department in northern California. He has negotiated, established, and operated the first Tribal Historic Preservation Office in California, providing project compliance, inventory, nomination, historic building restoration, commission facilitation, CRM monitor training, and other comprehensive cultural resources functions on behalf of the Tribe. Dr. Gates holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of North Caroline at Chapel Hill. He is the author of the Yurok Tribe Comprehensive Cultural Resource Management Plan, a 15-year plan for the implementation of the Yurok Tribe-National Park Service agreement to perform functions required by NHPA Section 101d(2) and other cultural resource-related tribal, federal, and state laws.
Brian Nicholson
Brian Nicholson is a wetland resources and community participation specialist with over 13 years of domestic and international experience in collaborating with government agencies and community organizations on aquatic habitat assessment, wetlands monitoring, institutional development, natural resource-based tourism, and environmental education. Mr. Nicholson has worked in wetland and riparian systems through the Intermountain West and is certified in conducting jurisdictional wetland delineations. He has expertise in bringing together stakeholders and coordinating strategies to address freshwater ecosystem management in rural and urban areas. Mr. Nicholson’s teaching experience includes Utah State University courses on Wetland Mitigation and Restoration, and Watershed Science. He has published articles on topics including watershed management, ecosystem services, and social science methodology. Mr. Nicholson earned his M.S. in Watershed Science at Utah State University.
