Announcing Rincon's Principal-Level Promotions
We are thrilled to announce our newly promoted leaders at the Principal-level! These individuals have demonstrated outstanding dedication, expertise, and leadership within our firm, and we could not be prouder to recognize their achievements with this well-deserved promotion.
Please join us in congratulating Rincon’s new Principals:
- Brenda Eells, MP
- Brenna Weatherby
- Jennifer Jacobus, PhD
- Kimiko Lizardi
- Reema Shakra, AICP
- Rosalyn Prickett
Brenda Eells, MP
Principal
“Since joining Rincon a few years ago, Brenda has brought a calm and optimistic leadership style that is both inspirational and motivating to those around her. She is integral to the strategy behind Rincon’s largest client programs and her thoughtful and pragmatic approach to client and project management engender trust with her clients and also with staff she is leading in executing those projects.”
— Jennifer Haddow, PhD, Executive Vice President
Brenda Eells has over 24 years of environmental planning consulting experience, with two of those years with Rincon. Brenda collaborates across business lines to lead a large portfolio of utility, renewable energy, and solid waste projects. In this new role, Brenda will continue to build teams in support of our utility and renewable energy clients and explore additional opportunities to expand Rincon’s support of renewable energy infrastructure projects, including offshore wind, green hydrogen production and distribution, and other emerging technologies.
“Every day I’m motivated by working with an enthusiastic team of dedicated and talented colleagues. Rincon has allowed me to expand on my career in utilities and renewable energy and to explore new opportunities in renewable energy infrastructure. I’m excited to be able to provide Rincon leadership to continue to build teams and seek out opportunities to support the fast-moving green energy transition.”
— Brenda Eells, MP
Brenna Weatherby
Principal
“Brenna has been instrumental in moving forward several strategic initiatives. She is always willing to step into any challenge, while still maintaining her composure (and sense of humor) and being very supportive of the team. Brenna is vested in the success, not just of the Planning Team, but for the whole of Rincon. I really enjoy working with her and look forward to continued collaboration.”
— Deanna Hansen, Vice President, Environmental Planning
Brenna Weatherby joined the Rincon team 5 years ago and has 23 years of experience. In her new role, Brenna will coordinate and collaborate across Rincon’s service lines to promote cross-sector opportunities related to land use and sustainable planning. She is primarily responsible for leading Rincon’s Community Planning team, a statewide practice aimed at creating more livable and sustainable communities. Brenna oversees the housing group, focused on providing comprehensive planning services to jurisdictions as they navigate the housing element preparation and implementation processes, and advises on community engagement efforts for long-range planning projects, fostering inclusive and equitable collaboration between residents, community organizations and local government. Internally, Brenna participates in companywide recruitment and staff advancement efforts and is a member of Rincon’s Board of Directors.
“Through Rincon I have been able to take my career to places I never thought possible. The work has been challenging yet so incredibly rewarding. I’m so thankful for the opportunity to lead our talented group of planners and excited to see what the future holds.”
— Brenna Weatherby
Jennifer Jacobus, PhD
Principal
“Jennifer is an acknowledged expert in her field and brings a wealth of experience to our team as well as visibility across the Water industry through her leadership role in external professional organizations. Over the past year she has helped to expand our team’s capabilities and resources and has taken the reins on the Water market sector statewide. Her leadership style is a mix of supportive mentorship mixed with high expectations, which brings out the best in people and helps them to reach their highest potential. I am excited to see her step into an expanded Principal role and look forward to seeing what she achieves.”
— Jennifer Haddow, PhD, Executive Vice President
Jennifer Jacobus has over 20 years of experience and has been at Rincon for one year. As Principal in charge of the Water Practice, Jennifer provides strategic focus on delivering Rincon’s broad range of services to our water market clients. Jennifer collaborates with the leaders of Rincon’s business groups to develop integrated services covering planning, funding, CEQA/NEPA, sustainability, resilience, biological resources, cultural resources, hydrogeology, due diligence, permitting, and monitoring. Jennifer also oversees environmental compliance for complex water resource projects throughout the state, including groundwater, potable reuse, recycled water, surface water and storage, water rights, treatment, and conveyance infrastructure.
“Everyone at Rincon embodies a creative and entrepreneurial spirit that is needed to find solutions to today’s environmental and water supply challenges. I appreciate the willingness of our teams to be on the forefront of innovation and technology and stay solution oriented. I look forward to supporting our collective vision of the future.”
— Jennifer Jacobus, PhD
Kimiko Lizardi
Principal
“I have had the pleasure of working with Kimiko for almost 20 years. Her enthusiasm for the work and ability to find creative solutions have always impressed me. And even in the most stressful of situations, she finds a way to keep a positive attitude. I am amazed with how she meets all of her responsibilities and still has time to mentor and lead staff. I am looking forward to many more years of collaboration with Kimiko in her new role.”
— Deanna Hansen, Vice President, Environmental Planning
Kimiko Lizardi has been in her field for 22 years, having joined Rincon nearly two years ago. As a Principal within the Environmental Planning group, Kimiko leads the strategic direction of the team (CEQA, Community Planning and Sustainability) in collaboration with other business groups and the Executive Team. Kimiko has supported the growth of Rincon with an eye on collaboration and expanding work and opportunities across service lines. In addition to her collaborative roles leading cross-service line leadership meetings and business operations, she is actively developing our companywide strategic planning. Kimiko is working within the group to create a shared vision, increase collaboration and meet our financial and operational goals. On a project level, she is overseeing comprehensive planning programs including general plan updates, housing element updates, zoning code updates, and specific plans for clients across the state. Kimiko leads by example demonstrating a strong work ethic and organizational skills, reliability, and an openness and willingness to make the time to provide guidance, to share experiences, be a sounding board, and support staff development. She is well-connected in the planning field and serves as programs Co-Chair for San Diego APA and has long-established relationships with clients and consultant partners.
“Stepping into this new role is an exciting opportunity to continue growing with Rincon. Being part of a dynamic and forward-thinking organization gives me the platform to do great work, to continue to explore and learn alongside our talented teams and to make a meaningful impact”
— Kimiko Lizardi
Reema Shakra, AICP
Principal
“It is a great pleasure to have Reema promoted to serve as a Principal. Reema’s leadership, friendly demeanor and understanding of complex climate issues makes her a favorite amongst our team and a go to expert by our most important clients. Reema has been an important member of the team and we are excited to have her continued leadership as we continue to grow and evolve our sustainability climate resilience practice.”
— Erik Feldman, Principal, Environmental Planning
Reema Shakra has over 18 years of experience and has been at Rincon for two years. Reema oversees Rincon’s Adaptation team and works closely across Rincon’s multiple service lines to drive cross-collaboration. In this new role, Reema will increase focus on the strategic direction and performance of the Sustainability Climate Resilience (SCR) practice which grew out of our environmental and planning services, emphasizing the technical analysis and planning specific to climate action and climate change impacts. Since its creation in 2010, Rincon’s SCR Practice has evolved into a core service with a team of more than 20 dedicated and creative climate experts focusing on greenhouse gas mitigation, decarbonization, vulnerability analysis, adaptation, and resilience. She will be working to expand the SCR market share, meeting company priorities to develop new client relationships, and expanding our SCR services to existing clients. Reema will continue to actively and effectively mentor the SCR team with a focus on climate adaptation services, while also functioning as the client manager, and primary point of contact for a variety of clients based on the needs of the practice, project, or client.
“I’m thrilled to take on this new role at Rincon, a company of dedicated and passionate professionals who excel at client service, innovating daily to improve the quality and inclusivity of our communities”
— Reema Shakra, AICP
Rosalyn Prickett
Principal
“Rosalyn has demonstrated outstanding leadership in the areas of strategic relationship development and business development. She also brings exceptional understanding of and attention to risk management both for our clients and for Rincon itself. In the short time she has been here her enthusiasm for, and command of, water resources planning have made other members of our team excited about the opportunity to expand their skills and benefit from her mentorship.”
— Jennifer Haddow, PhD, Executive Vice President
Rosalyn Prickett has been in the industry for 23 years and recently joined Rincon in late 2022. She excels at managing multi-stakeholder water supply planning and engineering programs, including potable reuse, recycled water, groundwater, and domestic water and sewer consolidation efforts. Rosalyn is a versatile and collaborative program manager with a passion for building client and stakeholder relationships. As part of the leadership team with Rincon Water, she is driving business development across a wide variety of service lines that serve water and wastewater agencies, including water supply planning, program management, funding support, regulatory permitting, environmental compliance, and construction monitoring. As Principal, Rosalyn will focus on technical and business development of Rincon’s water resources planning services, in addition to overall strategic growth of our water market in Southern California.
“I love being a part of Rincon Water – a group of creative, energetic, and dedicated folks! In joining the ranks of Rincon’s principals, I look forward to building on the suite of integrated water resources planning, environmental, and sustainability services we provide to water and wastewater agencies in California.”
— Rosalyn Prickett