PEOPLE
Key Staff
PEOPLE
Key Staff
KATIE MAES, PG, CEG
Director of Geology
Katie Maes started her lifelong love of geology with the Geology Department at University of California at Santa Barbara, to learn from some of the premiere professors of the time, including pioneers in knowledge derived from the relatively new understanding of plate tectonics. After obtaining her Bachelor of Science in Geology with emphasis in hydrogeology during 1994, she moved to Orange County to join the booming geotechnical industry. That began a full career of “site investigation to final construction” on a myriad of projects throughout Southern California, particularly focused on the structural geologic features and hazards that heavily impacted the construction and real estate industries.
Katie’s career now spanning three decades, was mostly spent working alongside geotechnical engineers to solve particularly difficult hillside problems. Assessment of many of the landslides that afflict the region have provided a solid background for characterization of subsurface conditions, for design and implementation of best-cost state of the art mitigation techniques (tiebacks and soil nails, caissons, geotextiles, etc.). Other areas of expertise include active fault evaluations, groundwater modeling, working with regulatory agencies, risk assessment, real estate transactions and land deals.
Extensive geologic site investigations utilizing numerous methods combined with detailed downhole-logging of many hundreds of drilled vertical investigation boreholes (as deep as 180 feet), created amazing opportunities for structural geologic modeling. During 2010, her Laguna Beach home was severely flooded when a cloudburst sent more than 2 feet of water and mud through the living areas. Now thinking from the viewpoint of “what would 3 inches per hour of rain do to this site/project?”…, a new perspective on drainage and protective engineering considerations was conceived.
EDUCATION
Bachelor of Science in Geology, University of California, Santa Barbara, California, 1994
PROFESSIONAL REGISTRATIONS
California, Professional Geologist, GEO 7131
California, Engineering Geologist, EG 2216