The Aviation Noise & Emissions Symposium has been around for over 3 decades now and would not be possible without the strong support of a great Program Planning Committee. This year we are working to expand our Program Planning Committee and Program Topics to be more geographically well-rounded. Please help me welcome our 2023 Committee!
Justin Cook
Aviation Practice Leader | Noise, Environmental Science Associates
Mr. Cook is a senior principal aviation consultant at ESA. During his 20-plus year career, he has overseen projects related to aviation, flight trajectory, noise control, and sound insulation across the United States and abroad. His recent project experience includes being the technical consultant for the San Francisco International Airport / Community, project manager for the Los Angeles International Airport Community Noise Roundtable, and acoustician for the San Diego International Airport Noise Advisory Committee; providing Noise and Operations Monitoring System (NOMS) acquisition assistance; and consulting on noise related concerns under a number of airports on-call contracts.
Mr. Cook is an active member of several professional organizations focused on noise including the Institute of Noise Control Engineering (INCE) and the Acoustical Society of America (ASA). He has been the secretary of the SAE International A-21 Aircraft Noise Measure Noise Aviation Emissions Modeling Committee since 2019. He received his Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from the University of California Irvine and is both INCE and LEED GA certified.
Elena Austin
Assistant Professor, University of Washington
Dr. Austin received her Doctor of Science in Environmental Health from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, with concentrations in Exposure Assessment and Biostatistics. Her expertise areas and past work include multi-pollutant exposure metrics, geographic information systems, remote sensing, risk communication in farm-worker communities and the development and evaluation of data visualization tools. A number of her projects leverage novel applications of emerging technologies to improve worker health and safety, particularly in WA State agricultural workers and their families. In her ongoing work, she aims to develop methods to jointly investigate exposures to mixtures of pollutants on human health, deploy low-cost methods to assess environmental exposures and implement novel intervention studies with the goal of improving community and worker health, with a particular focus on under-studied populations.
Rachel Burbidge
Senior Policy Officer, Environment and Climate Change, Eurocontrol
Rachel Burbidge joined EUROCONTROL in 2005. She has been leading EUROCONTROL’s work on climate change adaptation and resilience since 2009, authoring the organisation’s ground-breaking Challenges of Growth work on Climate Adaptation, and several peer-reviewed journal articles. She leads EUROCONTROL’s contribution to the ICAO CAEP Working Group on CORSIA, where she manages tasks on MRV, and is also a member of ICAO CAEP Working Group on Airport and Operations, where she co-leads the work on climate adaptation. She has degrees in Environmental Studies and Sustainable Development.
Jerry Gerspach
Noise Analyst, Port of Portland
I have been happily employed as a Noise Analyst by the Port of Portland's Noise Management Office for over 30 years. Among other things I am the education and outreach lead for our team. I enjoy all types of outdoor activities, particularly kayaking, and I enjoy spending time with family and friends.
Alex Gertsen
Director, Airports & Ground Infrastructure, National Business Aviation Association
Alex Gertsen has served as the association’s director of airports and ground infrastructure since 2015. He comes to NBAA from the American Association of Airport Executives, and his love of aviation goes back to standing on the flight line with his grandfather, a U.S. Air Force veteran. A pilot himself, Gertsen works with the NBAA Access Committee to ensure access at airports across the country.
Cindy Gibbs
Manager - Airports, Tetra Tech
Cindy Gibbs, PMP is the Manager, Airports for BridgeNet International, A Tetra Tech Company. In this role, she works with airports and air navigation service providers worldwide on acoustic and environmental issues as well as community outreach. Ms. Gibbs collaborates with airports and ANSPs to manage in-person and virtual community outreach programs related to airport, airspace, and flight procedure projects. Aviation has been her passion for over 20 years, starting as an intern at the Reno/Tahoe International Airport and working as a consultant for the past 19 years. She is an active private pilot, flying high performance single engine aircraft. She received her Bachelor of Science in Aviation Management from California State University, Los Angeles, is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP), and a Competent Communicator Bronze in Toastmasters International.
Kallie Glover
Aircraft Performance Engineer, Delta Airlines
Kallie has been a part of the Aircraft Performance Engineering group at Delta Air Lines for 5 years. In this job, responsibilities include coordinating with Airports to run fleet data for temporary runway conditions such as cutbacks during construction, obstacle analysis, and noise analysis. In addition with other parameters, these tasks all support providing the allowable operating aircraft weights to our dispatchers, load planners, and pilot crew. Our noise analysis includes working with Airports and other Airlines to ensure that our departure and landing procedures are the best options to be a good neighbor to the communities surrounding airports. Kallie earned her degree in Aerospace Engineering from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, AZ. She had internships at NASA Johnson Space Center, supporting the WB-57, Daher Socata, working with the TBM 900, and worked in the Cabin Maintenance Engineering group at Delta, prior to Performance Engineering.
Ian Jopson
Head of Environmental and Community Affairs, NATS
Ian has more than twenty five years’ experience in the sphere of environmental aviation issues in Europe and beyond, working for the UK Civil Aviation Authority and an independent consultancy. He is currently Head of Sustainable Operations at NATS, which provides air traffic services to 2.2 million flights a year and to the 15 biggest airports in the UK. Ian was part of the environmental research team in the Single European Sky ATM Research programme, SESAR. He is a member of the Council of the UK Sustainable Aviation coalition focused on cleaner quieter smarter flying and a member of the Royal Aeronautical Society's Greener by Design Steering Group. Ian advises the UK state member of ICAO's Committee on Aviation Environmental Protection and works with ICAO's Operations environmental working group.
Ernie Kosower
Treasurer, O’Hare Noise Compatibility Commission (ONCC), Chair, Park Ridge IL O’Hare Airport Commission
Ernst R. Kosower is a community advocate on aviation noise issues serving as the representative from Park Ridge, IL on the O’Hare Noise Compatibility Commission (ONCC) and chairing that city’s O’Hare Airport Commission (OAC). He has been involved in aviation in some fashion for most of his life, either as a journalist covering aviation issues, the military and airport committees, as a student pilot, or, as a passenger flying weekly for his work in financial services accumulating over 3 million miles on a commercial carrier. In his current role, Ernie sits on multiple ONCC committees, including Fly Quiet 21, charged with the responsibility of helping determine overnight operations at Chicago O’Hare International Airport. In his financial services career, Ernie was with Merrill Lynch for nearly two decades before pursuing and achieving other opportunities. He received his B.A. from Ashland University and lives with his wife Debbie on a two-mile final to runway 22R at ORD.
Eric Lu
Principal, Ramboll
Eric Lu is a Principal at Ramboll and located in the Irvine, California office. He has more than 20 years of experience in air quality management and climate change issues, with expertise in air quality and GHG emissions inventory and reporting, risk assessment, climate action plan development, CEQA, and agency/public stakeholder outreach and communication. He has assisted a variety of clients including, airports, oil and gas, manufacturing, landfills, commercial and residential land use development, and renewable energy facilities. He is the North America Airports Service Line co-Leader for Ramboll and on the Environmental Committee for the American Association of Airport Executives. Mr. Lu is a Registered Professional Engineer (PE), a Certified Permitting Professional (CPP), an Accredited Greenhouse Gas Lead Verifier in California and a former verifier under the Airport Carbon Accreditation (ACA) Program. He has a Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Brown University and a Master’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley.
Timothy Middleton
Principal Consultant, HMMH
Timothy Middleton has more than fifteen years of airport management, noise abatement, and environmental compliance experience. With a background in Political Science and Public Policy, Tim leverages his technical knowledge and public outreach expertise to effectively communicate to a wide range of clients, including members of the public, airport managers, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and state and local officials.
Tim is a thought leader at HMMH in supporting work with clients in understanding and fostering community acceptance of the new Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) entrants that include electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft and is the co-author of the HMMH White Paper: Facilitating Community Acceptance of Urban Air Mobility.
Gregory Maxwell
Principal Aviation Noise Consultant, Crawford, Murphy & Tilly
Greg has dedicated the last 16 years of his career to working on aviation noise mitigation challenges around the country. His experience includes nine years of direct airport noise management experience at PDX and PHL. In addition, he worked for various noise and operations monitoring systems providers helping airports address complex noise abatement situations. Mr. Maxwell also consulted for Boeing’s Airport Community Noise Engineering Group and instructed Seattle and Long Beach staff on conducting aviation flight performance analysis using ArcGIS. He recently joined Crawford, Murphy & Tilly as their Principal Aviation Noise Consultant and Aviation Noise Group Leader. Gregory is recognized by airports across the country for his aviation expertise. He has built a reputation for collaborating with the FAA, airlines, military, community, and elected officials to find innovative solutions to aviation noise issues.
Glenn Morse
Retired Director of Industry Affairs, United Airlines
Glenn served as Senior Director – Industry Affairs, SOCC, Continental Airlines (1998-2010); and Director – Industry Affairs, Network Operations Control (NOC) for United Airlines (2010-2020), responsible for industry coordination and outreach in matters relating to NextGen, ATC policies and procedures, airport operations, and aircraft noise and emissions. During this time, he served on numerous RTCA, ICAO and industry working groups addressing aircraft and airport safety, airline and ATC procedures and aircraft noise. Prior to joining United, Glenn was Managing Director – Regional Operations, for the Air Transport Association (1984-1998), coordinating ATC, airport operations and noise issues for member airlines in the Northeast, U.S. The geographical area of responsibility included BOS, JFK, LGA, EWR, PHL, DCA, IAD, BWI, PIT and the other air carrier airports in the region.
Glenn started his airline career with TWA at JFK in 1971 and held several positions in Flight Operations (1972-1984), including Senior Engineer – Weight and Balance and Manager – Flight Crew Operating Procedures. Mr. Morse has an engineering degree from Brown University, an MBA from UMKC, and is a multi-engine, instrument rated pilot.
John Pehrson
Principal, CDM Smith
John conducts air quality impact analyses, human health risk assessments, and greenhouse gas inventories for NEPA and state environmental disclosure documents on airport, marine port, transit system, and federal water infrastructure projects. He also prepares air quality general conformity determinations for federal actions associated with airport, marine port, and federal water infrastructure projects.
Jonathan Rathsam
Senior Research Engineer, NASA Langley Research Center
Jonathan Rathsam is a Senior Research Engineer at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. He conducts laboratory and field research on human perceptions of low noise supersonic overflights. He currently serves as Technical Lead of Survey Design and Analysis for NASA’s Quesst Mission. He has served as co-chair for the annual Defense and Aerospace Test and Analysis Workshop (DATAWorks) and as chair for a NASA Source Evaluation Board. He holds a Ph.D. in Engineering from the University of Nebraska, a B.A. in Physics from Grinnell College in Iowa, and completed postdoctoral research in acoustics at Ben-Gurion University in Israel.
Debi Wagner
Community Advocate, University of Washington MOV-UP Advisory, Quiet Skies Puget Sound, Quiet Skies Coalition
Debi Wagner became involved as a community advocate in the early 90’s as a newly impacted resident under a busy sky highway near Sea-Tac Airport. As a vocal opponent to a third Sea-Tac runway, she was elected President of a large grassroots organization. She was subsequently hired as Administrative Director of a non-profit umbrella organization Regional Commission on Airport Affairs reaching 34,000 residents with news and information. She authored the book Over My Head documenting events of the nearly 15 year opposition to the third runway. In 1998 Debi co-founded a national environmental organization of US groups with ties to 26 European countries.
Debi’s primary interest for nearly 30 years has been to gain understanding of the impact of aviation emissions on health, welfare and the environment. In 2014, as an elected City Council Member she had a greater opportunity to make connections with decisionmakers and community. This experience has helped her be part of a successful model collaborating with researchers, legislators and community groups for funding and academic pursuits resulting in changes in legislation, broadening scientific knowledge, and pursuing environmental justice. For the past five years she has been an advisory board member for the University of Washington MOV-UP (UW DEOHS) studies and currently a member of the King County Climate Task Force.
Darlene Yaplee
Co-Founder, Aviation-Impacted Communities Alliance (AICA) and Concerned Residents of Palo Alto
Darlene Yaplee is a founding member of the Aviation-Impacted Communities Alliance (AICA) whose mission is to protect communities from harmful levels of aviation noise and emissions through campaigns for legislation and industry change nationwide. She is also a co-founder of Concerned Residents of Palo Alto, working to mitigate the negative noise and emissions impacts of aviation in the San Francisco Bay Area/NorCal Metroplex. Darlene brings 25+ years of experience such as Chief Marketing Officer and Vice President positions at Fortune 500, high-technology companies where she worked on strategic alliances, international marketing, and new market development. She was the Chief Marketing Officer at PLOS, a nonprofit Open Access Science publisher and advocacy organization where she promoted the understanding and adoption of Open Access with organizations such as Google, the Wellcome Trust, and Research Universities. Darlene was the University of California, Davis Alumni Commencement speaker and recipient of Sun Microsystems “Business Woman of the Year'' Award and YWCA “Tribute to Women” Award. She has guest lectured at Stanford Graduate School of Business and Santa Clara University.