BERNADETTE KUHN

• Provide programmatic leadership for the City’s large-scale land stewardship projects and mitigation portfolio, integrating environmental priorities into capital infrastructure planning, water resource management, and regulatory compliance decisions.
• Supervise and mentor three full-time environmental planners, establishing performance expectations, workload priorities, and professional development plans in alignment with organizational goals.
• Manage approximately $8 million in capital water projects (diversions, wetlands, bridges), overseeing planning, design, permitting, construction, adaptive management, and consultant contracts.
• Develop and implement regional environmental prioritization frameworks (River Health Assessment Framework) and process improvements in collaboration with multiple agencies and partners to guide long-range investment and program decisions.
• Lead regulatory compliance, policy review, and mitigation strategy, including Clean Water Act Section 404 permitting, NEPA, Regulation 87, in-lieu fee programs, and application of the Colorado Stream Quantification Tool.
• Serve as lead negotiator and technical advisor in interagency agreements and MOUs, coordinating with City Attorney’s Office, Northern Water, and other stakeholders to meet mitigation and environmental commitments.
• Prepare and present executive-level briefings, policy memos, and public presentations for City Council, Tribes, basin roundtables, and statewide professional audiences.

• Led environmental monitoring, reporting, and adaptive management for federally regulated wetland mitigation projects in coordination with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
• Built interdisciplinary consensus among biologists, planners, and field staff to implement a comprehensive environmental monitoring and adaptive management framework.
• Designed and implemented GIS-based environmental prioritization tools to guide capital investment decisions and maximize ecological benefit.
• Managed early planning and design for a $3 million diversion structure improvement project, integrating environmental, recreational, and fish passage considerations.
• Coordinated with Colorado Parks and Wildlife and other resource agencies on habitat and fish passage projects.

• Led strategic planning and grant administration for federal and foundation funding programs totaling $3 million.
• Served as lead proposal writer and program administrator, ensuring compliance with grant requirements and maintaining a clean audit record.
• Guided and supported 15 faculty project leads through reporting, performance tracking, and program outcomes.

• Directed large-scale, federally funded environmental assessment projects for state and local governments, including EPA and BLM initiatives.
• Supervised multidisciplinary field teams, managing logistics, safety protocols, schedules, and deliverables across complex landscapes.
• Co-authored statewide and regional environmental assessments used to inform public land and infrastructure planning decisions.

Served on interdisciplinary NEPA teams, evaluating environmental impacts and resource protection strategies for proposed federal actions.