Is the indoor air quality (IAQ) in your workplace acceptable? Let’s first define the term acceptable, which can mean anything from pleasing to barely satisfactory. But in the specific terms of IAQ, the American Society of Heating Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) Ventilation for Acceptable Indoor Air Quality defines it as: Air in which […]
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Ginny Davis Receives 2021 Outstanding Alumna Award from Alma Mater
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Principal Ginny Davis is honored at Annual APSU Outstanding Alumni Awards Luncheon
Left to right: APSU President Dr. Michael Licari, Ginny Gray Davis, and APSU National Alumni Association President Joe Shakeenab
Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tennessee, recently honored Ginny with the Outstanding Alumna Award for accomplishments in her profession, community, and support to her alma mater.
Ginny graduated cum laude from APSU with a Bachelor of Arts in geology and a minor in French in 1987. Her professional passion and acumen were evident throughout her university career, including her selection for the Oak Ridge Associated Universities student intern program, where she performed environmental and structural geology research at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. In 1992, she received the university’s original Outstanding Young Alumna Award.
Ginny dedicated her award to the amazing educators in her life who made all the difference, starting with her mother, a retired teacher and administrator.
Ginny delivering her acceptance speech in the Morgan University Center Ballroom during 2021 homecoming celebrations
“When I took my first geology course at APSU, I knew I was hooked,” Ginny said in her acceptance speech during the university’s 2021 homecoming celebration. “University has an amazing way of getting to the core of what you’re passionate about. And APSU’s engaging professors introduced me to career possibilities I never even knew existed in environmental science. Their investment in me changed the entire trajectory of my life and career and is a primary reason why I’m a consulting geologist today, 34 years later.”
In August 1987, Ginny joined EnSafe and took on progressively complex project management for a wide array of environmental and hydrogeological problems. As project manager for two National Priorities List sites in Kentucky, Ginny has tackled all aspects of remedial investigation and feasibility study scoping and implementation, as well as subsequent remedial design and remedial action negotiations and delisting support.
Ginny with Dr. Karen Meisch, APSU Dean CoSTEM & Professor of Biology
Ginny also has extensive experience with complex hydrogeologic investigations and aquifer characterization in karst terrain, fractured and faulted sedimentary sequences, and deltaic and fluvial geologic settings. She is a licensed professional geologist in Tennessee, Illinois, Indiana and Wyoming.
Our warmest congratulations, Ginny, on this second Outstanding Alumna honor. Your continued investment in young professionals and the success of EnSafe is so important and we, at EnSafe, are fortunate to have such an “enthusiastic rock lover” as you in leadership.
EnSafe Receives Award from ASTM
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Megan Watson, with ASTM Pro Bono Award
ASTM International E50 committee honors EnSafe, highlighting our pro bono services to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
Since 1996, EnSafe has provided thousands of unbilled labor hours as part of our charitable contributions to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. St. Jude is dedicated to game-changing pediatric cancer research and care, and we’re happy to help this Memphis-based hospital by performing Phase I Environmental Site Assessments and Transaction Screen Assessments.
Earlier this month, EnSafe and Environmental Scientist Megan Watson were honored with an award presented by the ASTM International E50 committee. The newly crafted award was inspired specifically by EnSafe’s lending our time and expertise to St. Jude on such a large scale – 50+ environmental site assessments annually, using ASTM E1527 and E1528 standard practices. The committee plans to continue honoring other companies that have done something similar or may be inspired to do so.
“When Bill Weissman, the chair for the ASTM E1528 committee, first heard about our pro bono work for St. Jude, he was amazed,” Megan Watson states. “I was amazed to first learn of it too, and am now so honored to be able to be part of it.”
Over the first 20 years or so of our engagement with St. Jude, we averaged approximately $30,000.00 in labor hours donated annually to St. Jude, but we’re closer to $60,000.00 in recent years, bringing our total lifetime contributions to over $800,000.00!
EnSafe supports St. Jude’s Dream Home program, a fundraising program where raffle tickets are sold to the public for the chance to win Dream Homes and other prizes. Property developers donate land and building materials to help St. Jude construct the Dream Homes. EnSafe supports St. Jude, by performing environmental site assessments on the Dream Home properties before St. Jude takes ownership, thereby saving St. Jude, in their words, “hundreds of thousands of dollars.” EnSafe has also performed a variety of other projects for St. Jude, including Phase II site assessments, removal of underground storage tanks, asbestos surveys, demolition activities, and multiple Brownfields projects.
EnSafer Spotlight: Aaron Conti Pursues a Connection to Nature in Both Photography and Career
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Aaron Conti, Certified Ecologist, Professional Wetland Scientist, Tennessee-Qualified Hydrologic Professional and avid wildlife photographer
Meet Aaron Conti, a Certified Ecologist, Professional Wetland Scientist, and Tennessee-Qualified Hydrologic Professional at EnSafe. Aaron is truly passionate about the impact his career has on the environment (and the wildlife and people who live in it). Here he is, in his own words, talking about how his hobby of wildlife photography has informed his professional passions:
Since taking up wildlife photography as a hobby, I’ve grown to appreciate viewing wildlife in a way that has helped fuel and sustain my professional passion for wetland ecology. For example, it’s helped me focus on wetland birds’ behavior in a way that I hadn’t before. With a camera in hand, trying to predict the moment when they will burst into flight to the other side of the pond or a high tree branch takes on a new importance.
To position yourself for any chance of success capturing avian elegance and vitality in an image, you often have to wake up early, drive to find and explore a quiet spot, and hope to be at least as lucky as you are good that day. In my own experience, so many blurred, flying-out-of-frame, and under/overexposed photos go into getting a quality image. And usually even then some branch is getting in the way of that “perfect” photo.
EnSafe’s Newest Satellite Office in Chicago
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Megan Watson, Project Supervisor
EnSafe is pleased to announce that Megan Watson, Project Supervisor, has relocated to Chicago, Illinois. For the past 7 years Megan worked in our Memphis, Tennessee headquarters office where she conducted a variety of environmental projects with concentration in transactional property due diligence. She has experience with Phase I and Phase II Environmental Site Assessments, groundwater and soil investigations, and remedial activities. Megan is a member of EnSafe’s Phase I ESA lead review team and sits on ASTM International Committee E50 on Environmental Assessment, Risk Management and Corrective Action.
Megan is excited to be the new face of EnSafe in the Chicago area, and looks forward to supporting existing and new clients alike in meeting their environmental needs. Please reach out to her if you have any questions or would like to know more about EnSafe and how we can support your projects in the Chicago area and the midwestern U.S.