Trust.  Worthy.  Trustworthy.   That is Susan Remar.   She could not fib or exaggerate or inflate even if she wanted to.  She keeps us all straight.  We all have super nice things to say about her, except for one glaring issue:  she never lets Laurel claim Macy’s receipts as “Safety Gear”  (even if the shirt is neon pink). Susan handles all of our internal bookkeeping and external invoicing, and  generally works to keep us financially shipshape.  

Did you know project compliance can be an art form? Take a peek at Sara’s work and you’ll see just how beautiful and elegant project compliance can be.  She can quote PA Guide and CFR Chapter and Verse.   Show her any CEF or RS Means, and she’ll find all the problems.  If you don’t agree with her assessment, there’s no sense trying to prove her wrong.  She’s right.  If you think otherwise, you just don’t understand all the factors yet.  She’s super. She’s good. She’s super good.

Justin comes to us after a career in the Navy in cryptography.  He likes puzzles, and there’s no stopping him til the problem is solved (that’s a nice way of saying he’s stubborn).   Which means, he’s our go to for any problem spreadsheets or software.  We just wave the scent of a problem in front of him like a bloodhound, then we stand back while he sniffs it out.  It. will. be. solved.   He spends his non-puzzle time doing project validations and closeouts.  

Susan pulls from her career of nonprofit leadership to help organizations understand and optimize disaster grants.  Susan’s goal is to help all understand the process, issues, and path forward.  Disaster response and recovery have all kinds of emotions involved, so we’re lucky to have such a calming spirit around.  She always says call anytime, and you know what?  She means it.  

Amanda is a troublemaker. She causes fights. Ruffled feathers surround her. How could this sweet face be the cause of such turmoil? Well, if you must know, we fight amongst ourselves to have Amanda on our projects. She’s a whip smart farm girl that doesn’t know the meaning of quit, lounge, or failure. She’s a quiet multitasking solver. She’s the kind of magic worth fighting for.  

Robert brings his background as writer to expertly validate and review FEMA PA projects.  He seeks to understand and thirsts for information–which is so vital in our need to piece together the who, what, why, when, and how much of project flow, cost reasonableness, and overall eligibility of a project (based on a few scraps of paper, invoices, and timesheets).    He’s helping out on our electric cooperative projects, where he routinely pulls from his technical editing and writing background.  

Rebecca is a rock star in our world.  Clients ask for her by name.   Competitors try to steal her (you know who you are).  She’s one of our “travelers,” meaning if you need someone on site at your location, she’ll be there, asking the right questions, fixing and solving, and likely feeding info back to the rest of us so we can work some behind the scenes magic on your projects.  She knows a whole bunch about road slips and repair options, as well as a whole bunch about Grants Portal/Grants Manager software.   Did you know there could be such a creature?  We did.  That creature’s name is Rebecca.  And she is great.

We met Rebecca when we were working on a tornado in Mississippi.  We were there as grant consultants, she was there as a FEMA Corps (Americorps) team member.   We bonded over roadside drive-in fried rabbit (nope, not joking) and FEMA data woes (her team “broke” google sheets, as the amount of volunteer data exceeded the capacity of the google program they were using to capture data).  Later, when we had a need for capturing data and documents on an Iowa project, we knew just who to call (hey–what about that girl that broke google?).   Rebecca is pretty much mistake-proof and reliably consistent, and if you know or rely on data you know that’s high high praise.  Oh, and she uses our software now–no more relying on or breaking google for her! 

Around here, we used to call Brooks the H&H guy, because that’s what he was when we first met him.  Before his retirement from AHTD, he was responsible for all of the Hydraulics and Hydrology studies for local governments that that had hazard mitigation components in their FEMA PA grants (like culvert upsizing).   But, since his retirement, we now know him as the hazard mitigation realist, and generally the voice of reason.  If a hazmit project feels a bit off, we ask for Brooks’ help.   Brooks spent years with the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department as FEMA/FHWA coordinator, liaison to Arkansas Department of Emergency Management, and Hydrology and Hydraulics guru.  We’re lucky to have his counsel (that is when he’s not driving his jeep through the national forest!).  

If it has to do with roads and bridges, Frank has seen it.  And better–Frank is willing to train it!  Frank shares his 35 years experience with State DOT, including several years as FEMA/FHWA coordinator, with each of us. Our rule–when Frank talks, we listen!  Whatever Frank says, we should probably do.    We are so lucky to have such a generous mentor and teacher.   He helps out on some of rural clients that need an extra helping hand on site visits, damage descriptions, and scopes of work; and he occasionally helps out on some out of town Joint PDAs.

Bryton’s calm demeanor works to keep the rest of us high burners in check.  His projects are always going just fine, he never has any questions, and life is always pretty darn good (as long as there are sports news, sports radio, sports blogs, and well, you know, sports!).    He works mostly on state validations and variance packages, but he’s been spotted out in the field doing site visits and damage assessments measuring road and bridge dimensions more than a couple times.  

Sarah has a bionic brain.  In a company full of smarties, she’s a super smarty.  It’s kind of humbling.   But the rest of us try to accept and work through it–one way we have found to cope is to give Ms Sarah all the really hard stuff that needs to be done RIGHT NOW.  She works in all areas, but she’s always requested on qa/qc/final reviews, equipment cost codes, and task that require complex thought and high levels of customer service.  

Amanda Howe has an eye for detail.  And we’re lucky to have that eye (and the other one too) on our team.  She works on our state agency projects.  

Mary joined us after a career in bookkeeping.  She likes everything to have a place, and for everything to be in its place.  So she’s the perfect soul to take the chaos of disaster funding and make all the numbers prim and proper and nice and neat.  She works mostly on the electric cooperative projects, but she pitches in wherever she is needed.  

Kylie  started with us as a small part time job while she was in school.  After a couple of weeks of general office support, we moved her into data entry tasks, then invoices to scan, then costs to validate.  Turns out, she can do about just  anything you put in front of her.  When we realized that our office gopher was really a project verification and validation package machine, we jumped with joy, increased her hours, then told her she could never leave.  Never.