About Us
Sustainability for all the places between the buildings.
 
Maria Cahill headshot

Ok, you got me. There's no "us", just me. These pages are all about me, Maria Cahill. It just seemed simpler that way. Some folks say I'm going to have five employees someday, so keep checking back here!

 

Education

I received my bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering (B.S.C.E.) from the Pennsylvania State University way back in 1992. I spent four years of a five-year program in the Architectural Engineering department specializing in structural engineering and gained a background in the materials and systems used to create functioning buildings. When I took my first geotechnical engineering class, I was hooked and transferred to the civil engineering department for my last year to graduate with a specialization in geotechnical engineering.

I passed my Engineer-in-Training exam right after graduating. I've met the work experience requirements to sit for the Professional Engineer's license (P.E.), but just haven't taken the exam yet. Hey, I was busy playing in a band until my early 30's and then I was too busy actually doing green project management. Who knows, it could still happen.

Previous Work Experience

For eight years before moving to Portland, I worked for pioneers in sustainable land development in landscape architecture (Andropogon Associates and Rolf Sauer & Partners, now Viridian Landscape Studio) and engineering offices (Cahill Associates) in the Philadelphia area. Within these firms, I created drawing sets for construction and had started to design and project manage strictly green projects. I also assisted with a few master planning projects both for land development projects and for regional watershed studies.

In the four years before starting Green Girl LDS, I carried out civil engineering design and project management to create construction documents and secure permits for some of the leading sustainable projects in the Portland metropolitan region including two Living Building Challenge projects. In addition to those duties, I was the Sustainability Technical Advisor at both the engineering firms who employed me, providing mentoring and resources to co-workers. In this time, I established herself as a creative problem solver with both private design team members and public agencies. A key component to my success was application of my robust communication and design skills to balance the technically achievable solutions with the combined goals of stakeholders such as the building owner or developer, other design team members, building occupants, and local, state, and federal permitting agencies.

Click here to download a copy of my personal hybrid curriculum vitae/resume if you'd like more info in a compact pdf format!

And, here's a Statement of Qualifications for Green Girl for inclusion with RFP

 

Green Web Hosting! This site hosted by DreamHost. This web site was designed with a black background and white text because a rumor was spread by Blackle that it reduced greenhouse gas emissions, but that turned out to be a big fat lie debunked by actual experimentation AND... people had trouble reading my website, so I changed it to white. It's still hosted by Dreamhost, a carbon neutral company. Please consider the environment when printing this or mailing me things or traveling to see me for a meeting or... ohhhh, just do your best and change your practices when you learn something new.

Updated 20 May 2010