Meet the LSRPA Board of Trustees:

Candace Baker, President

Candace Baker, LSRP, is a Senior Professional with GEI Consultants and works out of the Bloomfield office. She has 30 years of experience in the environmental field including  over 20 years in New Jersey.  Ms. Baker holds a BA in Environmental Studies with a Natural Sciences Concentration from Simon’s Rock College and an MS in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University. She has been an LSRP for 10 years. As an environmental consultant, she manages environmental remediation projects for energy, developer, municipal, industrial, and residential clients.  Ms. Baker has experience in all phases of site remediation.

Ms. Baker has been an active member of the LSRPA since 2016, when she joined the Communications Committee. She is a former Vice Chair of the Communications Committee and is also a member of the Risk Management and Loss Prevention and Emerging Contaminants committees. Ms. Baker has served as an LSRPA Board of Trustees member since 2020 and has been a member of the Executive Committee since 2021. She has taught continuing education classes on numerous topics including the May 2021 Remediation Standards Rule, Order of Magnitude, Tentatively Identified Compounds, and RAO Guidance.

In addition to her work at LSRPA, Ms. Baker is a member of the Conservancy Council for the New Jersey chapter of The Nature Conservancy. Also, she is a member of NJDEP’s RAO Guidance, PFAS, and Remediation Process Improvement Initiative stakeholder groups.

Ms. Baker enjoys reading, movies, crafting, and eating baklava. She resides in Hasbrouck Heights with her husband of 23 years, Rich, their two children Ember (17) and Josie (13), her mother-in-law, Jeri.

Rebecca Hollender, Vice President - Internal Affairs

Rebecca Hollender, LSRP, is a Sr. Principal Consultant and Office Practice Leader for TRC’s New Providence office and the Director of LSRP Services.  She is a Certified Professional Geologist and Licensed Site Remediation Professional since 2009 and has over 32 years of experience.  She oversees the work completed by TRC’s LSRPs and has extensive experience in the investigation and remediation of soil, ground water and vapor intrusion impacts at bulk petroleum terminals, refineries, pharmaceutical, residential, commercial and industrial facilities, public entities and utilities. Ms. Hollender has a Bachelors degree in Geology, a Masters degree in Land Resources and Environmental Science and a Masters in Business Administration.

Ms. Hollender has been an active member of the LSRPA since 2010, when she joined the Nominating Committee and subsequently served as Co-Chair and then Chair until 2020. Ms. Hollender is the Chair of the DE&I Committee, which she formed in 2021; Ms. Hollender is also a member of the Emerging Contaminants and Marketing committees. Ms. Hollender has served on the Board of Trustees since 2018, and has been a member of the Executive Committee since 2022, formerly serving as the Treasurer and currently serving as the Vice President of Internal Affairs.

Marlene Lindhardt, Vice President - External Affairs

Marlene Lindhardt, LSRP, has been an LSRP since 2012 and has over 40 years of experience in the environmental industry working for the federal government, emergency response remediation contractors and engineering consultants. Ms. Lindhardt has been responsible for multiple projects ranging from preliminary assessments through site remediation for government and commercial clients. She has addressed wetlands, threatened and endangered species, and historic sites within the scope of site remediation.

Ms. Lindhardt has a B.S. in Environmental Engineering from the Pennsylvania State University. In addition to being on the LSRPA Board of Trustees, she participates in various committees including Risk Management, Governance, Contaminants of Emerging Concern, and Regulatory Outreach. She has been an instructor for several LSRPA and NJDEP training classes for topics including Ethics, Response Action Outcomes, and Remedial Action Permits.

Michael Poland, Treasurer

Michael Poland, PE, LSRP has over 25 years’ experience in consulting and founded Poland Environmental Consulting, LLC in 2018. He has a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Engineering and a master’s degree in Geo-Environmental Engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology.  He has served as Secretary of the LSRPA Board of Trustees and was previously Chair of the LSRPA Continuing Education Committee.

Mr. Poland has managed a wide variety of environmental site remediation and engineering projects, principally as the Licensed Site Remediation Professional, for numerous New Jersey construction and redevelopment projects. Mr. Poland’s project experience includes all phases of environmental site remediation work, such as environmental due diligence for property transactions, environmental investigation, and remediation design and oversight at contaminated sites.

Sonya Ward, Secretary

Sonya Ward, LSRP, PG, LRS, CHMM, CGWP is the Operations Manager and Principal Hydrogeologist at Tetra Tech, Inc. in Whitehouse Station. She received a Bachelor of Science in Geology with a chemistry minor from University of Louisiana (Monroe) and a Master of Science in Environmental Science (hydrogeology) from Baylor University in Waco, Texas. Ms. Ward has over 30 years’ experience assisting clients in site investigation and remediation, environmental compliance, due diligence, and risk-based closure. Her project experience includes work for utilities, the manufacturing, chemical, and petroleum sectors, and local and state agencies throughout the US, Canada, South America, Asia, and Europe.

In addition to her work with the LSRPA, Ms. Ward is also Chair of the National Chapter of Society of Women Environmental Professionals (SWEP), member and Treasurer of SWEP of Greater Philadelphia, NJSWEP Gala Committee Co-Chair, and an active member of CIANJ, AEG NY-Philadelphia, and AHMP-NJ.

Ms. Ward spends time away from work traveling, indulging her love of photography, volunteering for Bucks County Habitat for Humanity and coaching future homeowners, and enjoying time with family and friends.

Christopher Dailey, P.E., LSRP

Christopher Dailey is a Professional Engineer and business leader in the environmental and engineering consulting industry practicing in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Mr. Dailey used organizational skills developed in the Executive MBA Program at Drexel University and the U.S. Army to establish GEI’s Mt. Laurel, NJ office and expand GEI’s environmental and engineering practice in the Region.

As an LSRP, Mr. Dailey has used problem solving skills to develop innovative solutions for his clients to remediate contaminated properties and revitalize local economies. He managed projects ranging from Phase I environmental site assessments to multi-million dollar remediation projects, including final regulatory closure of former Manufactured Gas Plants and high profile Brownfield Sites.

Chris received his BS in Civil Engineering from West Point and MS in Civil Engineering at the University of Missouri.  He served for 8 years in the U.S. Army and is a Veteran of the First Gulf War and Bosnia.  Chris is a former member of GEI Consultant’s Board of Directors.  Currently, Chris serves as a Trustee for the Southern New Jersey Development Council and is a Co-Chair of their Energy and Environment Committee; Chris is a member of Rowan University’s Civil Engineering Advisory Board; and is an Adjunct Professor at Drexel University’s College of Engineering where he has instructed student for over 25 years.

Rakesh Ganta, LSRP

With over three decades of dedicated experience in environmental consulting, Rakesh Ganta excels in technical and leadership roles, specializing in the petroleum, construction, and manufacturing sectors. As President of RLG Environmental, Inc., located in Elmwood Park and Bound Brook, NJ, he spearheads innovative initiatives in environmental consulting and contracting.

Mr. Ganta’s extensive portfolio includes underground storage tank closures, soil and groundwater remediation, ISRA/RCRA cleanups, Brownfield redevelopment, and comprehensive Environmental Site Assessments (Phase I & II). In previous roles as an Environmental Specialist and Project Manager at Reach Associates Inc. and Project Engineer at Reach Associates Inc., and Project Engineer at A.W. K. Associates, Inc., he led projects from inception to fruition, ensuring compliance with OSHA, RCRA, ISRA, NJPDES, and AHERA/asbestos/lead-based paint regulations.

Mr. Ganta holds a Master of Science in Environmental Engineering from NJ Institute of Technology and a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from Osmania University. Certified as an NJDEP Licensed Site Remediation Professional and completing OSHA 40 Hours Hazardous Waste Operators Training, he also holds NJDEP Tank Closure and Subsurface Evaluation Certification.

In addition to his professional roles, Mr. Ganta serves as a member, Finance Committee Co-Chair and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee Vice-Chair of LSRPA, a member of the Warren Township Chamber of Commerce and Environmental Commission, and a former Board of Trustee Member/Past President of Wellspring Center for Prevention.

Brandi Gray, LSRP

Ms. Gray is a Senior Project Manager at Langan Engineering and Environmental Services, LLC. She has over 20 years of experience as an environmental consultant, and has been a New Jersey Licensed Site Remediation Professional since 2013. Ms. Gray has also maintained her New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Subsurface Evaluator and Underground Storage Tank Certifications since 2007.

Ms. Gray has extensive experience managing residential, commercial and industrial environmental projects in New Jersey.  She has played an integral role in the closure of numerous complex Industrial Site Recovery Act cases under the NJDEP Contaminated Site Remediation and Redevelopment Program, and has successfully closed hundreds of residential underground storage tank sites under the NJDEP Unregulated Heating Oil Storage Tank Program.  Ms. Gray also has experience working on NJDEP-lead RCRA sites, and coordinating investigation and remediation of PCBs under TSCA.

Ms. Gray serves as the Chair of the LSRPA Membership Committee and is a member of the Aspiring Professionals (former Chair) and Marketing Committees.  Ms. Gray has participated in the Case Inventory Document and Response Action Outcome stakeholder groups, which work directly with the regulators to support the LSRP program by updating guidance documents and providing training.  She has also been an instructor for several LSRPA and/or NJDEP training courses, with topics including Order of Magnitude Evaluations, and 2021 Remediation Standard Changes.

Kassidy Klink, LSRP

Kassidy Klink is an Associate with Peak Environmental, a Nova Group GBC company. He has almost twenty years of environmental consulting experience in New Jersey, providing technical oversight and management for a variety of industrial and commercial clients. Kassidy, a graduate of both Kean University (BS Earth Science: Geology Option) and the University of Florida (MS Environmental Science), currently holds both Licensed Site Remediation Professional (LSRP) and Professional Geologist (PG) licenses. He has managed and conducted numerous subsurface investigation and remediation projects at various types of commercial, government, and industrial facilities.

Kassidy has been a part of the LSRPA organization for almost 10 years. He was an active member of the Communications Committee, served as the Webmaster Liaison, and is the current Chair of the Continuing Education Committee.

Kassidy has been happily married to his wife, Lisa, for fifteen years. He has two incredible children, Olivia (14) and Amelia (11), who attend high school and middle school, respectively. The Klink household is enthusiastic for sports, particularly soccer (New York Red Bulls) and ice hockey (New Jersey Devils). As each child plays for club teams, there are a lot of sports going on at home in real life or being watched on television. Kassidy, a long-time resident of Old Bridge, enjoys listening to science fiction and fantasy audiobooks in his free time, especially when
taking his kids to practice or games.

Anita Locke, LSRP

Anita Locke is a Senior Scientist at Geosyntec Consultants, Inc. She has 24 years of experience in consulting including assisting clients with a wide range of environmental investigations, assessments and remediation in New Jersey. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Geology from the University of Delaware. She has performed, managed and directed varied investigation and remediation projects for private and commercial entities including the industrial manufacturing, development, warehousing and petroleum sectors.

Starting in 2015, Ms. Locke has served as the LSRP for various sites including ISRA-subject facilities (both entire site and multi-tenant) with long environmental histories and many contaminated areas of concern (AOCs). In this capacity, she has supervised ISRA-subject transactions, soil groundwater, VI and ecological investigations and evaluation of emerging contaminants. Projects have also included remedial strategy development, implementation and complex permitting matters.

In addition to serving as an LSRPA Board of Trustees Member, Anita is also Chair of the LSRPA Finance Committee; and serves as the New Jersey Society of Women Environmental Professionals (NJSWEP) Golf Committee Co-Chair.

Alexander Saltzman, LSRP

Mr. Saltzman is an LSRP with more than a decade of consulting experience working on a variety of projects featuring residential, governmental, commercial, and industrial sites. He is proficient with various environmental laws, regulations, and associated technical guidance documents that have been established for New Jersey. Mr. Saltzman also has experience navigating compliance for sites within the regulatory frameworks of New York and Pennsylvania.

Mr. Saltzman has directed environmental investigations and remediation for various groups of contaminants, including solvents, petroleum products, metals, pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls, and emerging contaminants, such as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances and 1,4-dioxane. He has assisted numerous clients in the industrial manufacturing, chemical, pharmaceutical, energy, and redevelopment sectors. Mr. Saltzman has been involved in international transactional due diligence related to property acquisition and divestiture. He also has experience coordinating large-scale, cross-functional projects requiring input from several departments and their respective project managers, including geotechnical, survey, civil, and land use permitting departments.

Additional consulting experience includes managing the investigation and remediation of former manufactured gas plant sites for a major former energy sector client. Mr. Saltzman is familiar with the Industrial Site Recovery Act (ISRA) and has worked with owners of industrial properties to attain compliance with ISRA requirements.

As Senior Project Manager, Mr. Saltzman is responsible for overseeing the investigation and remediation of contaminated sites and helping to manage the daily performance of the environmental professional staff. His duties include mentoring staff, technical oversight, Quality Assurance/Quality Control review, and project implementation.

Mr. Saltzman also serves as a Continuing Education Course Instructor for the LSRPA. In addition to his role as a member of the Board of Trustees for LSRPA, he serves as the chair for both the Aspiring Professionals and Marketing Committees and member of Communications, Membership, and Fundraising Committees.

Jaan Haus, Esq.

Jaan M. Haus, a Partner in Riker Danzig’s Environmental Group, has a multifaceted practice assisting clients on a broad array of transactional, regulatory, and litigation matters involving state and federal environmental law.  Mr. Haus advises clients from a wide range of industries, including real estate developers, real estate investors, lenders, energy companies, commercial and industrial manufacturers, specialty chemical companies, aerospace companies, pharmaceutical companies, food distributors, and small commercial businesses.

He has extensive experience assisting clients with environmental due diligence, contaminated site remediation, licensed site remediation professional (LSRP) issues, brownfields redevelopment, operational permitting, regulatory compliance, siting renewable energy projects, cost recovery actions (under CERCLA and the NJ Spill Act), procuring environmental insurance and pursuing insurance coverage claims. He is also adept at assessing development constraints and obtaining waterfront development, CAFRA, wetlands, flood hazard area and stormwater management approvals for his developer clients.

Mr. Haus frequently manages contaminated site remediation matters from start to finish, which includes overseeing environmental consultants, negotiating access and service agreements, managing relationships with regulatory agencies, developing cost-effective and business-practical cleanup strategies, and counseling clients on long-term management and disposition of properties. He has assisted numerous clients with cleaning up and developing brownfields sites, including obtaining regulatory approvals, negotiating liability transfer agreements, obtaining funding, and implementing risk management and mitigation strategies, particularly through obtaining environmental insurance.

As a Chair of the LSRPA Legal and Legislative Committee, Mr. Haus is deeply immersed in the latest issues affecting site remediation and brownfields development.

John M. Scagnelli, Esq.

John Scagnelli is a graduate of Yale University and Yale Law school. Mr. Scagnelli’s environmental law practice covers the entire environmental law field, including environmental compliance, environmental litigation, environmental auditing, environmental permitting and environmental counseling. Mr. Scagnelli has had extensive legal experience servicing law firms, businesses and public entities. He serves as environmental counsel for banks and lending institutions, commercial and industrial companies, states and municipalities, real estate development organizations, and other organizations.

Mr. Scagnelli is a Partner and Past Chair of the Environmental and Land Use Law Group at Scarinci Hollenbeck, LLC. He previously worked at Whitman Breed Abbott & Morgan, a New York City firm, and served as Managing Partner of the firm’s Newark, New Jersey office and Chair of the firm’s Environmental Law Practice Group. Prior to that, Mr. Scagnelli worked at the Clapp & Eisenberg in Newark, New Jersey, where he served as Chair of the firm’s Environmental Law Department. Mr. Scagnelli also served as legal counsel with Chesebrough-Pond’s, Inc. and as Vice President and General Counsel of Allied Maintenance Corporation, a subsidiary of Ogden Corporation. Mr. Scagnelli has also served as special environmental counsel to public authorities and municipalities, including the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority, the Passaic Valley Sewerage Authority, and the Jersey City Redevelopment Authority, and the cities of Elizabeth and Hoboken, among others.

Mr. Scagnelli is a New Jersey Commissioner on the Interstate Environmental Commission.