GBB promotes Jennifer Porter to vice president

Gershman, Brickner & Bratton Inc. (GBB), McLean, Virginia, announced July 9 that Jennifer Porter has been promoted to vice president. Porter, who joined GBB as senior project manager in 2017, has more than 17 years of experience working on sustainability initiatives for both governments and the private sector, with extensive expertise in solid waste management, recycling and composting program evaluation and development.

“Jennifer has successfully tackled high-visibility, strategic and ambitious projects which involved multi-disciplinary teams and a wide range of stakeholders. She has proven she is up to the challenge,” GBB President Steve Simmons says. “The combination of her passion for the environment, business acumen and expertise make her a great addition to GBB’s leadership team.”  

At GBB, Porter has managed multiple key projects, including leading the team tasked with planning and implementing the development of a sustainable business park in Kent County, Michigan, that aims to achieve 90 percent waste reduction by 2030 with an emphasis on implementing a circular economy model. Porter also led the strategic review of solid waste management services, contracts and service providers for the city of Taunton, Massachusetts, and is now heading the procurement efforts for waste collection and processing services. She was also project manager for public sector assignments in Deschutes County, Oregon; the Chittenden Solid Waste District of Vermont; the city of Baton Rouge/Parish of East Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Charles County, Maryland; and the city of Columbus, Ohio. Additionally, Porter led a comprehensive waste audit/assessment at Boston’s Logan Airport as part of a sustainability plan implementation for the Massachusetts Port Authority.

Prior to her work with GBB, Porter was conservation program coordinator for more than six years with the city of Portland Oregon’s Office of Sustainable Development, where she managed citywide recycling change, led multifamily recycling projects resulting in a 21 percent rise in volume and a 90 percent decrease in contamination, headed the renewal of the 10-year franchise for the city’s 23 residential waste haulers, coordinated the annual residential rate setting for the $43 million annual enterprise fund, established strong working relationships with multiple stakeholders, and developed a statistical model for a commercial food composting program.

She has also worked as COO at Tarrytown, New York-based Rivertown Composting, manager of corporate sustainability for Fairfax, Virginia-based Healthy Buildings, and director of workforce initiatives at the Honesdale, Pennsylvania-based Wayne Pike Workforce Alliance. She has also volunteered and held board positions with many organizations, including the Association of Oregon Recyclers, the Columbia-Willamette Clean Cities Coalition, the Hollywood Farmers Market and the Sunnyside Gardens Community Association.

“I am thrilled for this leadership opportunity at GBB,” Porter says. “I’m eager to contribute to GBB’s growth while continuing to work closely with clients and project teams on paradigm-shifting projects that create customized, sustainable and technically sound solutions for complex solid waste management challenges.”

Porter earned a master’s degree in urban and regional planning from Portland State University and a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Wells College in New York.