Youth Engineers for a Green Future
Thanks to generous grant funding provided by the California EPA, SEF is partnering with the Southern California Chinese American Environmental Protection Association (SCCAEPA) to bring the “Youth Engineers for a Green Future” program to the campus of Jefferson Middle School and we could not be more excited!!
Open to ALL JMS students, the 8 week afterschool program will focus on educating the youth about green infrastructure with various lecture topics presented by technical experts, in conjunction with in-class activities, hands-on design projects, mentoring and more!
Space in the program is limited so don’t miss out on this incredible opportunity! Registration is open NOW!! Click here or on the flyer for registration information.
Meet our esteemed lecturers
Donna Chen
Ms. Donna Chen is a former Vice President of the Southern California Chinese American Environmental Protection Association (SCCAEPA). While at SCCAEPA, she led projects related to the use of California Native Plants for water conservation, water quality improvement, and habitat renewal. Before retiring from the City of Los Angeles, Ms. Chen was an Assistant Division Manager at the Bureau of Sanitation’s Watershed Protection Division where she oversaw conceptual and design phases of water quality projects, and headed sections that conducted water quality sampling, assessment, and analysis. Ms. Chen has over 25 years of experience in environmental management of stormwater, wastewater, and hazardous waste. She holds Masters’ degrees in Environmental Engineering and Biological Sciences.
Ms. Chen has contributed to, published, and evaluated over 25 technical documents, books, and articles on environmental topics, provided training for the U.S. EPA, California EPA, and states and local agencies. She also taught environmental and biology courses for University of California and California State Universities. Ms. Chen continues to lecture on water quality issues in the US and abroad, and conducts scientific studies for local agencies.
Ken Susilo PE (CA), D.WRE
A Professional Civil Engineer and a Diplomate, Water Resources Engineer, Ken specializes in the development, including alternative delivery, of multi-benefit, environmentally-enhancing solutions to stormwater management and water conservation by applying leading-edge technologies to enhance the natural and built environment. He has also been a Certified Professional in Stormwater Quality and Envision Sustainability Professional. Ken has served on the Water Environment Federation Stormwater Steering Committee, co-chairing the subcommittee for Technical Excellence, and on ASCE Report Card subcommittees for local counties and the State of California.
Ken’s expertise includes program management, implementation strategies, public-private partnerships, alternative project delivery, alternative compliance approaches, asset management, and triple bottom line (environmental, social equity, and economic) sustainability. A major part of his work involves finding stormwater solutions for NPDES Phase I and Phase II permittees (Clean Water Act) and local water agencies. Some of his public sector clients have included: City of Los Angeles, County of Los Angeles, County of San Diego, County of Orange, and City of San Diego.
His projects have been recognized by American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), Water Environment Federation (WEF), California Stormwater Quality Association (CASQA), American Public Works Association (APWA), League of California Cities, and California Water Environment Association (CWEA). ASCE recognized him as the Outstanding Civil Engineer (Private Practice) in the State of California in both 2006 and 2019.
Ken has served as a testifying Expert Witness in cases involving storm water, hydrology, flooding, sediment fate and transport, and water quality. He also managed the assessment of climate changes and sea level rise on infrastructure and developed adaptation strategies for a coastal California city.
In addition of his leadership role at Geosyntec, Ken also serves as the Public Policy Committee Chair and Diversity Task Force Chair for Asian American Architects/Engineers Association.
Curtis Fang, PE (CA)
Curtis Fang is a Professional Civil Engineer with over seven years of experience focused on multi-benefit stormwater management. Curtis has a thorough understanding of regulatory water quality drivers in California. Based on such understanding, he has helped private and public clients throughout California to find life-cycle solutions for stormwater compliance need, including watershed management program and stormwater capital improvement programs development, asset management toolbox development, grant application support, stormwater treatment system design, watershed monitoring program development and implementation.
A major part of Curtis’ work involves developing hydraulic, hydrologic and water quality models to assist stormwater BMP planning and design. He’s proficient with a wide range of industry standard modeling tools such as SWMM, HEC-RAS, LSPC, and SUSTAIN. In addition, he’s an advocate of developing python-based geographic information system-based model input generators, automated model calibration and validation postprocessors, and model output visualization toolboxes
As one the most recent highlights of his career, Curtis led the hydraulic and hydrologic analysis of the award-winning San Fernando Valley Green Infrastructure Design-Build Program, which received the 2020 American Society of Civil Engineer (ASCE) Los Angeles Section Outstanding Project the Year Award.
Alyssa Yu
Alyssa is an environmental engineer currently working at Geosyntec Consultants in Downtown Los Angeles, where her field of practice focuses on planning, designing, and constructing green stormwater infrastructure. She is first-generation Chinese-Vietnamese and grew up in the mixing pot of the San Gabriel Valley, which she still considers her community. As a Los Angeles native, she has seen the extent and complexity of environmental injustice in the area, which is what motivated her to study and work in the field of water resources.
While she studied at UC Berkeley, Alyssa and her friends started a student organization called Socially Engaged Engineers (SEE), with a mission to start conversations among current and future engineers about the interconnection of engineering and social issues, after noticing these ideas were notably absent from most technical-focused engineering curricula. The focus of SEE was not limited to using engineering specifically to solve social issues, but also understanding how social issues affect all engineering projects. As part of SEE, Alyssa developed and taught an eight-week seminar to other undergraduates about these topics, as well as helped host a two-day Social Impact Design-A-Thon focused on coming up with solutions to tackle some part of the drought in California.
Alyssa has about four years of professional experience in general construction and environmental engineering, including design, field oversight, and project management. She is most passionate about natural, passive water treatment and pursuing other ways to make clean water and air accessible through smarter, sustainable, and more equitable practices.