Two of STV’s environmental and sustainability experts recently spoke at the National Association of Environmental Professionals (NAEP) Annual Conference & Training Symposium in Fort Lauderdale, FL.

Ron Deverman, CEP, vice president and national environmental planning leader, presented, “The Power and Importance of Awe in Transport and Health” while Breanna Gribble, CHMM, ENV SP, WEGD, WELL AP, STV’s senior resilience manager, presented “Adapt to Transform: What COVID-19 Teaches Us About Resilience.”

Deverman, a past president of NAEP and the Illinois Association of Environmental Professionals, and current chair of NAEP’s Leadership Development Committee, spoke about the correlation between heightened, “awestruck” moments of travel, and positive health effects, by creating a sensory experience for the audience designed to represent such moments as a walk in the Hoh Rain Forest, a summit climb to the top of Mt. Rainier, and traveling on the Eurostar Rail through the Chunnel to Paris. 

Gribble, one of the firm’s leading voices on resilience and climate change, discussed COVID-19’s impacts on the disaster management cycle and how the prolonged vacillations of the pandemic has skewed the way we look at the conventional “plan, respond, recover and mitigate” cycle. Gribble questioned whether the disaster management cycle is the most suitable framework to enhance resilience to disaster and she also discussed what an alternative disaster management cycle that reflects what changed during the COVID-19 pandemic might look like.

After being conducted virtually for the past two years due to the pandemic, NAEP’s annual conference returned to an in-person event this year. The conference brings together environmental professionals from around the country to learn about new projects, share technical knowledge, network with other industry professionals, and engage with leaders in environmental technologies.