Many thanks to all EERI members who took the time to consider and choose from the exceptional candidates for the 2022 EERI Board of Directors! EERI would like to welcome our new President-Elect and two new Directors:
President-Elect:
Janiele Maffei (M. EERI, 1992)
Chief Mitigation Officer, California Earthquake Authority
Sacramento, California
Janiele Maffei received an M.S. degree (1980) in Civil (Structural) Engineering and A.B. degree (1978) in Architecture, both from the University of California, Berkeley. Ms. Maffei is licensed as both a Civil Engineer and Structural Engineer in California with over 40 years of experience in the design of new buildings, retrofit designs of existing buildings, seismic evaluations, seismic loss estimation studies, design of equipment anchorages, preparation of construction documents, project management, and construction administration. After fifteen years as a project manager and regional office director with Degenkolb Engineers, she opened her own practice where she managed complex design projects involving many disciplines. In 2011, Ms. Maffei joined the California Earthquake Authority (CEA) as its Chief Mitigation Officer. In this capacity, she serves as the Executive Director of the California Residential Mitigation Program and manages the CEA research department.
Directors:
Zahraa Saiyed (M. EERI, 2011)
CEO & Principal, Scyma Consulting, LLC
San Francisco Bay Area, California
Zahraa Saiyed, P.E., Associate AIA, LEED AP, M.EERI, 2011, is a multi-disciplinary disaster risk reduction, public policy, and risk governance consultant with background and training as an architect, building scientist, structural engineer, and educator. She is a co-founder and principal of Scyma Consulting located in the Bay Area, a Research Affiliate with MIT’s Urban Risk Lab, and is a Senior Disaster Risk Reduction Consultant for the World Bank, where she works on earthquake engineering, wildfire management, mental health, and community engagement. Zahraa has co-chaired the EERI Public Policy and Advocacy Committee since 2018. In this role, she has contributed to the advancement of seismic safety policies at all governmental levels, advocated on behalf of EERI, and facilitated the creation of regional public policy committees. She is a graduate of U.C. Berkeley in Architecture and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Architecture and Structural Engineering with coursework from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.
Nicholas Gregor (M. EERI, 1992)
Consulting Seismologist
San Francisco Bay Area, California
Nick Gregor, Ph.D., is a consulting seismologist located in the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Area and has been an active member of EERI since 1992. His primary discipline and focus for the past 25 years is for the understanding and application of seismological principles, research, and models for seismic hazard assessments. After completing his Ph.D. at U.C. Berkeley, he joined the seismology group at Bechtel, which provided a great learning environment for technical interactions between seismologists, geotechnical, structural, and earthquake engineers. His tenure of nearly 25 years culminated in 2019 as the senior seismologist for the company. Since leaving Bechtel, Nick has been an independent consultant working on small and large projects both domestically and internationally. Nick is currently the EERI representative for the Advanced National Seismic System (ANSS) National Steering Committee and a member of the technical workshop meeting planning committee for the Consortium of Organization for Strong Motion Observation Systems (COSMOS).
Maffei, Saiyed, and Gregor will assume their new posts at the first Board of Directors meeting in 2022. "Congratulations to the new President-Elect and Directors! I look forward to working with you in 2022 and beyond. I also want to extend my deep thanks to all the candidates, and to the EERI members who participated in the election," said EERI Executive Director Heidi Tremayne.
The Institute extends appreciation to outgoing board members, Past President Laurie Johnson (M. EERI, 1990), Vice President Judith Mitrani-Reiser (M. EERI, 2001), and Director Tara Hutchinson (M. EERI, 1995) for their service and dedication to the institute. EERI’s leadership and staff appreciate the insight and diligence that they brought to the Board during their tenure.
EERI would also like to thank the Election Tellers who were critical in the election process: Mostafa Badroddin (M. EERI, 2020), Shannon Casares (M. EERI, 2013), and Debra Murphy (M. EERI, 2007).
