Sirena Brownlee, Environmental Planning Lead at HDR, has spent more than 27 years navigating the wild world of environmental consulting—literally and figuratively. She began her career as a wildlife biologist in Alaska, spending 13 years working with birds, marine mammals, and complex environmental challenges in some of the most remote and spectacular places in the country. For the past 14 years, she has traded some of her field gear for project schedules and regulatory guidance, leading complex NEPA projects and multidisciplinary teams throughout the western U.S. As a senior environmental project manager and NEPA lead at HDR, she brings a unique combination of boots-on-the-ground science, regulatory expertise, and practical project management to environmental reviews for major infrastructure projects. Along the way, she's learned that navigating federal regulations can be just as unpredictable as the Alaskan wilderness—and that a little creativity, collaboration, and a good sense of humor go a long way toward getting projects across the finish line.