Leadership & Staff
LEADERSHIP
Our senior personnel have worked together for decades: we are engaged and passionate about what we do, and we pride ourselves on providing exceptional service and value to our clients.
Thomas DeBusk, MSc
President and Principal Scientist
Thomas DeBusk, MSc
Thomas DeBusk (President and Principal Scientist) has 40 years of experience conducting and managing water resources investigations in Florida, the Americas, Europe and Asia. He has broad experience in aquatic biogeochemistry and ecology, and in the treatment of natural waters, stormwater runoff and wastewaters using biological, chemical and physical processes. Tom has managed multi-disciplinary research investigations for both government and private clients. He is an internationally recognized expert on the design and optimization of wetland, macrophyte and algal-based treatment systems and has published widely on his research on water quality and water treatment technologies.
Michelle Kharbanda, BSc
Vice President and General Manager
Michelle Kharbanda BSc
Michelle Kharbanda (Vice President and General Manager) has been a DBE team member for over 25 years, and during that time has led the optimization of many aspects of the firm’s operations, including laboratory, research and consulting activities. She specializes in data verification and validation. As General Manager, Michelle also currently oversees all administrative and operational aspects of the firm.
Mike Jerauld, MSc
Senior Scientist
Mike Jerauld, MSc
Mike Jerauld (Senior Scientist) has 15 years of environmental research/consulting experience. His expertise centers on both the factors influencing and the ecological outcomes related to water quality in natural and constructed ecosystems. This expertise has been developed by involvement in diverse projects, including spatial, temporal and multivariate analysis of canal and wetland regional monitoring data, treatment wetland performance evaluation and optimization, design and analysis of multi-matrix (water, soil and biota) experimental and field monitoring programs for nutrients and trace metals, and assessment of downstream Everglades recovery. He has provided project design, oversight of field programs, and data analysis and interpretation for several complex, multi-year projects which have produced actionable results for the improvement of water quality in the greater Everglades ecosystem. Mike excels at interpretation of data analyses and in communicating findings to technical and lay audiences.
Kevin Grace, MSc
Senior Scientist
Kevin Grace, MSc
Kevin Grace (Senior Scientist) has designed, conducted and supervised a wide range of environmental projects since 1997, and serves as the Technical Lead at DBE’s North Florida office. He has managed several multi-year research programs that couple field-scale vegetation and soil surveys with targeted mesocosm and laboratory experiments tailored to understand the driving mechanisms for nutrient cycling within aquatic plant and algal communities. Kevin has designed and implemented field monitoring programs for stormwater treatment areas, lakes, streams and natural wetland systems, with a focus on factors that influence sediment-water column nutrient exchange and vegetation responses to stressors. Kevin also has a strong analytical background, has developed specialized laboratory analysis techniques for environmental soils, water and biota, and provides oversight of DBE’s field QA/QC practices.
Jim Myles, MSc, GISP
Senior Scientist
Jim Myles, MSc, GISP
Jim Myles, MSc (Senior Scientist) Jim Myles, MS, GISP, has over 20 years of experience performing and managing environmental monitoring and water resource management projects. He has strong problem-solving skills, which he has successfully applied to many complex projects involving tracking sources of pollutants (nutrients, fecal coliforms, petroleum products, arsenic, creosote, dioxins, furans, etc.) in surface waters, groundwater, soils and sediments. Jim is accomplished at developing custom databases, and in organizing and analyzing large geospatial datasets in the ArcGIS platform. He is well-versed in relevant surface water and groundwater Standard Operating Procedures, and has applied these protocols to water quality investigations and hydraulic studies designed to pinpoint contaminant sources in Florida ‘spring-sheds’.
Nancy Chan, MSc
Laboratory Manager
Nancy Chan, MSc
Nancy Chan (Laboratory Manager) has been a DBE team member over 20 years, and has managed DBE’s laboratory operations for 18 years. Through her formal education in Industrial Chemistry and her years of experience at DBE, she has developed a broad understanding of the laboratory processing and analysis aspects of environmental waters, soil, and biological tissues. Nancy is an expert in the analysis of difficult matrices and with utilizing scale-down techniques essential to low volume/low mass samples (e.g. soil porewaters). She has extensive knowledge of flame atomic absorption spectrometry and ion chromatography, and oversees specialized laboratory tests, such as phosphorus fractionations and phosphorus uptake capacity on solid samples, and analyses of enzyme activity on surface water and algae. Since 2000, under Nancy’s management and QA/QC guidance, DBE has continuously implemented the latest NELAC/TNI requirements, and successfully completed ten NELAP and eight client-specific inspections.
"Conservation is a state of harmony between men and land."
Aldo Leopold