The State of AI in Environmental Review: Meet Our Instructors

Lauren Schramm

Moderator
Senior Transportation Planner, Environmental Science Associates

As a Senior Transportation Planner at ESA, Lauren is recognized for her leadership at the intersection of environmental policy and technology-enabled process improvement. She led a team that created an AI chatbot that won the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Modernizing NEPA Challenge, a national initiative focused on identifying innovative approaches to improve the efficiency, transparency, and effectiveness of the National Environmental Policy Act process. Building on this work, Lauren leads the National Association of Environmental Professionals Working Group on Technology. Lauren works closely with several federal and state agencies in this space and has been published alongside the National Labs.

Lauren holds a Master of Science in Wildlife and Fisheries Resources from Clemson University, and a Bachelor of Arts in Biology and Environmental Studies from Alfred University. She has been recognized with a 2025 Emerging Environmental Professional Achievement Award from the Academy of Board Certified Environmental Professionals, and named as one of the 35 Women Under 35 To Know by the American Council of Engineering Companies of Georgia.

Jordan Eccles

Speaker
Deputy Director for Innovation, Council on Environmental Quality

Jordan Eccles is a Presidential Innovation Fellow serving as Deputy Director for Innovation at the White House Council on Environmental Quality. He brings expertise in digital strategy, artificial intelligence, and data analytics to infrastructure planning and mission-driven implementation. With more than a decade of experience across the Department of Defense, Dr. Eccles has led efforts to modernize processes and tools in support of operational effectiveness. Most recently, he worked with the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Operational Energy, where he developed innovative approaches to improve fuel efficiency and maximize combat capability. His work pioneered software-based fuel logistics solutions that saved tens of millions of dollars by reducing waste and non-mission inefficiencies. He previously supported Air Force Encroachment Management and Community Partnership programs at more than forty installations. Dr. Eccles has also served as co-founder and CTO of a credit card security startup, a postdoctoral associate and adjunct professor at Duke University, a Surface Warfare Officer in the U.S. Navy, and a high school science and math teacher.

Matthew Aumeier 

Speaker
Environmental Policy & Systems Innovation Specialist, Idaho National Laboratory

Matthew Aumeier specializes in environmental policy, enterprise systems innovation, and land use planning at Idaho National Laboratory, where he has spent the past six years advancing NEPA compliance, regulatory modernization, and environmental review processes. His work focuses on designing enterprise environmental compliance systems, modernizing regulatory workflows, and applying artificial intelligence to improve the efficiency, consistency, and usability of environmental review. Prior to joining INL, Matthew served four seasons with the U.S. Forest Service on three National Forests in Idaho, supporting land management and environmental stewardship. He earned a Master of Science in Environment & Sustainability from the University of Michigan, about which he is admittedly more than a little enthusiastic, and a Bachelor of Science in Natural Resource Conservation from the University of Idaho. Matthew has been a member of the National Association of Environmental Professionals for approximately five years and currently serves as an At-Large Director for the Idaho Chapter.

Keith Benes

Speaker / CEQ Q&A Moderator
Managing Director, Euclid Strategies LLC

Keith J. Benes has more than 20 years of experience in environmental law and policy, with expertise spanning legal counsel, environmental review, and project management. Throughout his career, he has advised on the preparation and defense of environmental documents in litigation and managed NEPA reviews for major infrastructure projects totaling tens of billions of dollars.

While serving with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Policy, Benes conceived and managed PermitAI, a multi-year research initiative exploring the use of Large Language Models (LLMs) to improve environmental data and environmental reviews. PermitAI continues as the largest U.S. government research and development project focused on this area.

Benes currently serves as Co-Founder and Senior Adviser at the Siting Resource Center and as a Senior Researcher at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln School of Law. He holds a JD, magna cum laude, from Georgetown University Law Center; an LLM, with merit, from the London School of Economics and Political Science; and a BA from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.

Reeve Bull

Speaker
Policy Director, Fulcrum Foundation

Reeve T. Bull is the Policy Director of the Fulcrum Foundation.  Prior to this role, he worked as the Director of Virginia’s Office of Regulatory Management (ORM), an office dedicated to promoting regulatory modernization and streamlining the permitting process.  He earlier served as the Research Director of the Administrative Conference of the United States, a federal agency dedicated to regulatory improvement, and worked in private practice for the law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP.  He has over 15 years of experience in the regulatory and administrative law fields.  He has written extensively on regulatory benefit-cost analysis and other topics.  He received his law degree with highest honors from Duke University Law School and a BS in Chemistry from the University of Oklahoma.  He is not a member of NAEP but has worked extensively on regulatory issues, which led to his work on permit reform at ORM.

Pam Hudson-Danko

Moderator
Retired Senior Attorney, FAA’s Office of Chief Counsel
Owner, Danko Engineering

Pam (Hudson) Danko, a member of NAEP, is a nationally known NEPA attorney and specialist providing extensive NEPA compliance services to federal agencies and private entities. She is a prolific writer of NEPA articles, including the NAEP Annual NEPA Case Law Review. She is the founder of Hudson Danko Eng’r, LLC and is a member of the faculty for Utah State University’s Janet Quinney Lawson Institute for Land, Water, and Air’s Certified AI-Ready Environmental Professional (CAREP) program.

Mrs. Danko recently retired as a senior attorney from the FAA’s Office of Chief Counsel Airports and Environmental Law branch after serving a long tenure with the Department of the Navy’s Office of General Counsel. Her experience includes roles as a Deputy Managing Counsel for NAVFAC Southwest, and a sampling of her relevant experience includes environmental reviews and permitting for Fleet testing and training activities, FAA airport projects and grants, construction, commercial space transportation and real estate actions.

Mrs. Danko, a retired U.S. Navy Commander (Oceanography), is an alumna of FSU College of Law (J.D., cum laude), where she was the Beverly Stout McLear Environmental and Land Use Scholar, and an alumna of Auburn University (B.Eng.).  With programming experience in Fortran, Unix, HTML, and Java — and graduate coursework in AI — she is particularly passionate about using both her law and technical skills to leverage technology to modernize environmental reviews and permitting.

Anastasia Bernt 

Speaker
Anastasia Bernt, Data Scientist, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Anastasia Bernt is a data scientist at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory specialized in the intersection of energy systems, earth science, and artificial intelligence. With 7 years of R&D experience, her project history involves architecting AI-native applications and GeoAI pipelines used across industry and 50+ U.S. federal offices. As PI/PM of DOE-funded projects and the technical lead of the applications thrust across PermitAI initiatives, Bernat has managed large data product teams in the last 2 years to deploy a suite of permitting- and science-relevant applications and datasets. This includes 4 AI-native applications to streamline National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) reviews, the first comprehensive and AI-ready dataset of NEPA documents (NEPATEC), and a techno-economic simulator for advanced geothermal systems (GeoCLUSTER). Bernat received a B.S. in Environmental Science and Honors B.A. in English Literature & Language from the University of Chicago. As a non-member, Bernat has represented PermitAI at 2 NAEP conferences.

Danny Reinke

Speaker
Senior Environmental Scientist, U.S. Air Force

Dr. Reinke has more than 30 years of NEPA experience working for private consulting firms and for DoD and other federal agencies. Currently he works at Edward AFB, CA where he is a Senior Environmental Scientist for NEPA and Natural Resources issues.

Before coming to Edwards AFB he worked for the Army National Guard at both the installation and NGB headquarters level where he developed the initial NEPA guidance for the Army National Guard.

Dr. Reinke received a BS in Biology/Chemistry from Southwestern Oklahoma State College
(1973) and a MS in Botany (1975) and PhD in Plant Ecology (1980) from the University of Kansas.
Dr. Reinke is a member of numerous national and international environmental organizations and is the senior author of two books. “The NEPA Reference Guide” 1999 Battelle Press and “Endangered Species, Legal Requirements and Policy Guidance”2001 Battelle Press both coauthored
with Lucinda Low Swartz.

Sai Munikoti, PhD

Q&A
Senior Data Scientist, Language Intelligence, PCSD, PNNL

Sai Munikoti is a senior data scientist at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory focusing on artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. His work primarily involves the development and application of multimodal large language models. He received his PhD in electrical and computer engineering from Kansas State University in 2022. In addition to his doctorate, he holds an MS from the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar and a BE from the Birla Institute of Technology Sindri, India. His focus area is on advancing the U.S. Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration's nonproliferation mission via trustworthy AI reasoning models and developing AI capability for streamlining and improving environmental review and permitting processes. He has published in multiple journals and conference proceedings, including IEEE, ACM, the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, and Knowledge Discovery, among others. 

Nicole Moon

Speaker
Strategic Communications Artificial Intelligence Lead, HDR

Nicole Moon is the Strategic Communications Artificial Intelligence Lead at HDR Inc., based in Phoenix, Arizona. With more than 25 years of communications experience, she brings her background as a journalist and government communicator to support and enhance transportation projects through strategic public involvement, communications and digital outreach. Nicole has a passion for helping teams explore and implement AI use cases in ways that support their work without losing the authenticity and human connection at the core of effective communication. She also has a deep expertise in digital communications with a focus on creating and implementing digital strategies that inform, engage and connect people to the projects and programs that affect their lives. She has a Bachelors of Art in Journalism and Masters in Business Administration from the University of Nevada, Reno and is Accredited in Public Relations (APR) by the Public Relations Society of America.

Carla Benton-Hooks

Speaker
Environmental Program Manager (Districts 3 and 6), Georgia Department of Transportation

Carla Benton-Hooks, PMP, is an Environmental Program Manager with the Georgia Department of Transportation, where she leads environmental delivery for transportation projects in Districts 3 and 6. With nearly fifteen years of experience in environmental policy, NEPA compliance, and project management, she is recognized for her strategic leadership and collaborative approach. Carla holds a Master’s in Environmental Policy and Management from the University of Denver and a Bachelor’s in Marine and Environmental Science from Hampton University, and is a certified Project Management Professional.

She is passionate about continuous improvement, innovation in environmental planning, and mentoring emerging transportation professionals. An AI novice with an early-adopter mindset, Carla is focused on building practical experience and staying current with new developments. She sees meaningful opportunities for AI to support more efficient NEPA processes and remains committed to championing partnerships, innovation, and thoughtful environmental stewardship across Georgia’s transportation network.

Jonathan Roberts

Speaker
Senior Advisor, U.S. Technology Modernization Fund

Jon Roberts is a Senior Advisor for Fund Development at the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) in the U.S. General Services Administration. He is responsible for sourcing and supporting strategic growth of the TMF portfolio, delivering impact beyond the sum of individual investments. He spearheaded the TMF’s 2026 Calls for Proposals focused on permitting technology and AI adoption.

He previously served as a White House Presidential Innovation Fellow, leading enterprise modernization initiatives and private sector engagement programs at USDA and the White House Council on Environmental Quality. He has also designed and delivered multimillion-dollar innovation prize and accelerator programs on behalf of agencies including NASA, DoW, CDC, and NIH.

Jon is speaking in his personal capacity.