People | LEI Engineering & Surveying of Oregon

LEI Engineering & Surveying of Oregon believes that its most valuable asset is its staff. We hire the best and brightest in the industry and give them the tools they need to effectively meet client and project objects. Key to the LEI Engineering & Surveying of Oregon's professionalism is that its staff combine a valuable mix of skills and expertise that include decades of seasoned experience and technological innovation. LEI Engineering & Surveying of Oregon's senior professionals and key staff possess a wealth of operational, technical and management experience that forms a framework which enables them to take advantage of the technological innovations initiated by the younger staff.

At LEI Engineering & Surveying of Oregon, we make it a top priority to always stay well versed in the latest technologies available. Not to be overlooked is that this technology is successful because it is integrated with experience and traditional methods. We also understand that technology is used to enhance, but not to substitute for, professionalism and customer service.

Jamie Van Agtmael, PLS, President, Principal

Mr. Van Agtmael has more than 18 years of civil engineering, land surveying, and construction management experience throughout the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. He is licensed as a Land Surveyor in the State of Oregon. Mr. Van Agtmael started his career as a survey crew chief and drafter for a land surveying, civil site design and civil roadway company in Albany, Oregon, further advancing to oversee civil designer, construction management and Inspection. In this capacity, Mr. Van Agtmael directed teams of drafters in civil design on project work then continuing to oversee construction staking and quality control inspection thought-out construction.

Mr Van Agtmael is also active in local Oregon communities. He was a baseball and football coach for youth programs and for local schools for many year. He has a heart for coaching and mentoring that he brings to LEI Oregon.

At the beginning of 2020, Mr Van Agtmael became the President of LEI Oregon. He ushered LEI Oregon into a new chapter of business with a focus on client satisfaction and the highest quality professional services work products.

Gregory J. Zartman, P.E., Principal Engineer

As a nationally recognized consultant forest and civil engineer with more than 26 years of experience, Greg Zartman is the engineer-of-record for all engineering work at LEI Oregon. He has a bachelor of science degree in Forest Engineering from Oregon State University, and has been honored for his contributions and exemplary work as an engineer by Oregon State University and recognized for his expertise by national publications that include the Western Journal of Forestry. In 2006, Mr. Zartman was awarded the Outstanding Alumni Award by the Oregon State University college of Forestry. Mr. Zartman has also lectured on topics including transportation planning, low volume road design, and complex drainage structure design at the Oregon State University Forest Engineering Department and for a variety of professional organizations.

Mr. Zartman is licensed to practice as a professional engineer in Oregon, Washington and Idaho. He has worked as project manager and engineer-of-record on a wide range of federal government design and professional services projects throughout the Pacific Northwest and Alaska with teams of professionals ranging from five design engineers and technicians to large inter-disciplinary teams of more than 40 professional and technical staff. Mr. Zartman's civil engineering experience includes a wide range of civil site design and infrastructure improvement projects for private and public agency clients. He is especially experienced in roadway planning, design, and construction projects. Mr. Zartman is equally experienced in Forest Engineering, having spent the majority of his early career working on federal timber sale and timber sale NEPA projects throughout the Northwest and Alaska. Mr. Zartman has worked as a engineer, engineer-of-record, and project manager for dozens of low volume roadway projects number in the hundreds of miles. In the early 2000s, Mr. Zartman developed low volume road design curriculum using the Softree RoadEng platform that he presented in classroom settings and also professional seminars.

Mr. Zartman is member of the Council on Forest Engineering, Professional Engineers of Oregon and he is also a past member of the Oregon State University Forest Engineering Advisory Committee and the Oregon State Engineering Board Forest Engineering Examination Committee.

Chris Fogerson, P.E., Project Engineer, Principal

Mr. Fogerson is a graduate Civil Engineer from Oregon State University who is registered with the State of Oregon as an Professional Engineer and a Land-Surveyor-in-Training (LSIT). Since 2011, he has worked extensively as a Project Designer and Design Drafter on a wide range of Civil Site Design and Transportation Design projects for public and private sector clients. He also acted a survey crew chief on numerous boundary, topographic, and construction surveys in Oregon, Washington, and Alaska. Mr. Fogerson has also worked in LEI's forestry operations as an engineer technician and forest technician. He is a proficient operator of AutoDesk Civil 3D, AutoDesk AutoCAD, ArcGIS, and a wide range of Civil Engineering design and support software.

Larry Allen, PLS, Senior Land Surveyor

Mr. Allen has more than 34 years of land surveying experience throughout the Pacific Northwest, including 25 years with the City of Seattle, Washington, Parks and Recreation Department. He has extensive experience in all aspects of traditional land surveying; including the public land survey, local boundary surveys, topographic surveys, deeds and recorded survey research, platting, and construction surveying. Mr. Allen is an integral part of the day-to-day operations at LEI and is proficient in the use of most mainstream survey instruments and data collection platforms. He is also a proficient operator of the Autodesk Land Development platform for survey data processing and final product preparation. Mr. Allen has worked in or on projects in most of the small cities located in the Willamette Valley.

Stephen P. Palmer, Ph.D., CEG, Senior Engineering Geologist, Associate

Dr. Palmer has over 30 years of experience as a professional engineering geologist working in the Pacific Northwest and southeast Alaska. He has broad experience in engineering geology disciplines that include site development, landslide evaluation and mitigation, aggregate resource evaluation and mine permitting, geologic hazard investigations, stream bank erosion assessment and mitigation, water resource studies, active fault investigations, and near-surface geophysical applications. He is a certified engineering geologist in Oregon and California, and a licensed engineering geologist in Washington.

Gary Armstrong, Natural Resource Director, Associate

Mr. Armstrong has been a NEPA consultant for over 20 years. His work includes NEPA support to the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Department of Homeland Security, as well as several state agencies. Mr. Armstrong has provided NEPA analysis and planning skills in the Pacific Northwest including Alaska, as well as all of the Rocky Mountain states. Analysis work includes project level NEPA for transportation, infrastructure, and national security projects, as well as programmatic level NEPA for resource management planning and large scale facility development and management.

Mr. Armstrong has managed completion of over 200 NEPA projects throughout the United States, including multiple EIS level projects, involving up to 15 staff and budgets from $20,000 to $3 million. He is familiar with various agency NEPA procedures and processes, as well as working with state and local jurisdictions to successfully complete planning and analysis processes.

Prior to entering the consulting world, Mr. Armstrong spent 6 years working for state and local governments in Utah, Montana, and Nebraska, providing resource and community planning services including development of state park resource management plans, community comprehensive plans, and housing and economic development plans for rural communities.

Ryan Murray, Designer, Certified Erosion & Sediment Control Lead

Mr. Murray is a graduate Forest Engineer from Oregon State University. Since 2017, he has worked exclusively as a Land Surveying and Civil Engineering Drafter/Designer with experience working on civil, transportation, land surveying, and GIS projects for public and private sector clients. Mr. Murray has extensive experience in CAD Drafting and Design, with experience in multiple CAD platforms and associated design software, including Autodesk Civil 3D, HydroCAD and ArcGIS.

Mr. Murray began his career as a field technician, completing forestry field work and land surveying field work, including boundary surveying, topographic surveying, and construction staking. After receiving his degree, he moved into drafting and designing, advancing to project manager for an Oregon based company with a focus in stormwater, subdivisions, and road widening and rehabilitation. He is highly experienced in multiphase subdivisions, partitions and records of survey, transportation, and public improvements. Mr. Murray is also a certified erosion control inspector and is a registered CESCL in Oregon and Washington. He also has skills in lidar data processing, programming, and 3D modeling.

Melissa Fessler, Business Manager

Ms. Fessler is a graduate of Western Oregon University with a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration. She is LEI's Business Manager, responsible for a wide range of administrative functions and tasks for the firm. Since 2014, she has worked extensively as a technical writer and editor on wide range of civil site design and transportation design projects for public and private sector clients. She has worked extensively throughout all of LEI’s operations, including writing proposals and technical writing and editing for its project.

Christoper Huggett, Survey Crew Chief, Forester, Certified Arborist

Mr. Huggett has a BS in Forestry from Michigan State University. He began his career at LEI Oregon as a forester, successfully completing multiple stand exam and timber sale layout projects. Shortly after he began work for LEI Oregon, Mr. Huggett developed an interest in Land Surveying and joined LEI Oregon’s survey crew as a survey technician. Mr. Huggett’s attention to detail and technical competence allowed him to quickly become well versed in the operation of the Trimble Robotic Total Station.

As Mr. Huggett’s career continued, he advanced to performing as Survey Crew Chief for select survey projects. These projects included forestry cadastral surveys, private property monument searches, topographic surveys, and tree surveys. In late 2018, Mr. Huggett successfully obtained his Certified Arborist credential. Since mid to late 2018, Mr. Huggett has functioned as LEI Oregon’s primary survey crew chief for all land survey operations. He has successfully completed the field component of dozens of survey projects for LEI Oregon, including the survey of a 147-lot subdivision, site survey for two large apartment complex projects, and multiple hydraulic site surveys. Mr. Huggett is skilled in the use of Autodesk AutoCAD, ESRI ArcGIS, and Trimble GPS data management software.

James Van Agtmael, Survey Technician, Forester, Drafter

Mr. Van Agtmael started with LEI Oregon as a Forest Technician in 2016 and has completed four field seasons of unit layout, skyline profile data collection, boundary painting, common stand exams, and GPS data collection. In 2019, he became a full time employee for LEI Oregon, working on LEI Oregon's survey crew as a Survey Technician and as a Layout Forester on LEI Oregon's forestry side.

Mr. Van Agtmael has successfully completed drafting training with Chemeketa Community College allowing him to work as an office drafter for LEI Oregon's Civil Engineering and Land Survey side.

James Van Agtmael is multi-faceted in his skills and training, both in Forestry and Civil Engineering/Land Surveying Technology. He is a driven individual with a focus on working hard and producing quality work product for clients.

Gerardo Maldanado Ibarra, Drafter, Survey Technician

Mr. Maldanado Ibarra is a graduate of Portland Community College in Civil Engineering Technology, where he graduated with a 3.98 GPA and completed courses in surveying and AutoCAD/Civil 3D. He recently started with LEI Oregon as a Field Technician and Drafter. Since that time, he has completed field work for numerous boundary and topographic surveys; maintained lines and corners, marked and posted new property lines, and completed surveys within National Forest lands; fish pipe inventories on private forest lands.

Mr Maldanado is fluent in the use of Trimble Total Station, Automatic Optical Level, and recreation GPS, such as Avenza Maps. He has performed as one of LEI Oregon’s drafters for land survey projects including records of survey, partitions, and property line adjustments. He has also prepared point files for construction staking and completed in the field, including water lines and grading. He has also completed drafting on civil engineering plans, including plan sheet preparation that complies with format design standards, including labels and styles.