INSPIRE Environmental Grows Staff to Meet the Demands of Offshore Wind

INSPIRE Environmental, a leading Newport, Rhode Island-based marine environmental consultancy, is growing its staff resources in Rhode Island and New York to meet workforce demand in the offshore renewable energy sector.

In the past year, INSPIRE Environmental has added 12 new positions and, in the last month alone, has added four leaders in the fields of Marine Safety, Vessel Assurance, Training, Program Management, and Business Strategy. These leaders enable INSPIRE Environmental to continue staff expansion, while maintaining safety, quality and the most reliable marine scientific data collection and analysis in the industry.

CEO of INSPIRE Environmental, Jeanine Boyle, states, “The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) estimates that that the offshore wind industry will need to add an average of between 15,000 and 58,000 full-time employees every year from 2024 to 2030. This demand is supporting growth and fueling innovation at INSPIRE.”

Lisa Price joins INSPIRE Environmental as Program Manager, a senior management position with responsibility for developing tools and internal processes to drive effective, efficient, and profitable project management. Lisa will deliver process improvement and lead programs for internal training and mentoring. In addition, Lisa will manage projects in offshore energy, dredged material management, seafood waste, and contaminated sediments. Lisa has over 30 years of experience in the energy industry, with a recent focus on offshore wind environmental construction compliance. Lisa is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) with experience managing multi-million-dollar electric transmission and gas infrastructure construction, demand response, regulatory, permitting, and renewable energy projects. She is also a certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt and has a M.S.in Education, specializing in performance improvement. Lisa is based in Saratoga County, New York.

Jenn Stone joins INSPIRE Environmental as Health, Safety, Security & Environment (HSSE) and Vessel Assurance Manager. Jenn’s primary responsibility is for the safety and accountability of INSPIRE Environmental’s workforce, subcontractors, and customers both on the water and offshore. As a merchant mariner herself, Jenn brings over 15 years of industry experience working offshore and in vessel construction/repair in shipyards. Jenn’s passion for the ocean and environmental stewardship stems back to her time at Mass Maritime where she graduated with her undergrad degree in 2008 in Marine Safety and Environmental Protection. In 2020 Jenn went back to Mass Maritime to earn a master’s degree in Maritime Business Management. Since 2017 she has also been active in supporting and educating cadets seeking Environmental, Health & Safety (EHS) careers on vessels as an Adjunct Professor at Mass Maritime teaching intro to MARPOL and Sea Term courses onboard the schools training ship, Intro to Shipboard Environmental Operations. Jenn is based in Newport, Rhode Island.

Kristin ‘Kit’ van Wagner joins INSPIRE Environmental as Director of Training. Kit provides oversight and leadership for the continued development of INSPIRE Environmental’s internal learning management system. She will also lead the strategic development of new training capabilities that contribute to INSPIRE Environmental’s strategic growth in the offshore renewable energy space. In addition, Kit will apply her experience in project management to affect on-going improvements to internal project management practices. Kit is a leader in marine science interpretation and instructional design fields who has directed several innovative training initiatives over the years. During a decade at sea as an expedition leader, she gained critical experience in vessel operations, writing standard operating procedures and destination permitting. Kit is based in Newport, Rhode Island.

Anntonette Zembrzuska Alberti, JD joins INSPIRE Environmental as Director of Strategic Growth. Anntonette is responsible for leading strategic business growth, in collaboration with INSPIRE Environmental's industry-leading scientists, to support environmental partners, offshore developers, and regulators in meeting ocean-based climate, environmental, and economic development goals. Anntonette has over 30 years of success in business and strategy development for the energy sector, focusing on energy transition, renewable energy projects, energy policy analysis, contaminated sediment management, and environmental law. She has worked on over 250 energy projects that include on and offshore wind, carbon capture and storage, green hydrogen, microgrids, solar, transmission and distribution, non-pipe and non-wire alternatives, and energy storage. Anntonette is based in Saratoga Springs, New York.

INSPIRE Environmental is a part of The Venterra Group (Venterra) of companies. Venterra was formed to create a global services champion supporting the offshore wind industry’s rapid expansion and a leading role in the energy transition. It is building a service offering across the wind farm lifecycle, comprising services through the Engineer, Build, and Support phases of an offshore wind farm lifecycle. This is being achieved through a combination of acquisition and investment, assembling urgently needed capabilities to help the offshore wind industry meet its potential. INSPIRE Environmental’s recent hires are a demonstration of Venterra’s mission in practice.