KNOWLEDGE. EXPERIENCE. RESULTS.
Highlights
Executive Director, Sustainability & Environmental, Department of Homeland Security
Senior leader, Pentagon Renovation, Department of Defense
Environmental Division Chief, US Air Force
Specialist in federal permitting, environmental compliance and planning, and historic preservation
Woman of the Year Award, Secretary of Defense
Practice Areas
Practice Areas
Waterway and maritime restoration
Strategic and program management
Federal agency consulting
Education
Department of Defense Vanguard Senior Leadership Program
PhD in Engineering Management and Systems Engineering, George Washington University
MS, National Resource Strategy, - Industrial College of the Armed Forces
MS, Management, Florida Institute of Technology, FL
BS, Biomedical Engineering, Vanderbilt University, TN
Contact
Dr. Teresa R. Pohlman
Senior Advisor
With decades of experience managing environmental projects and infrastructure, Teresa provides with expertise in permitting, regulatory negotiations, resilience, energy, sustainability, real property, infrastructure, environmental compliance, pollution prevention and environmental cleanup.
During her 40 years in federal government service, Teresa held senior management positions overseeing annual budgets of more than $1 billion for environment, infrastructure, and construction projects. As Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Executive Director for Sustainability and Environmental Programs for 17 years, she created the foundations for all DHS programs involving resilience, energy, permitting, sustainability, resilience, environmental compliance and planning, and historic preservation.
Teresa’s regulatory compliance oversight helped keep DHS projects on time and within budget. Because of her credibility and ability to get projects done in an excellent and expedited manner, her program received $500 million in the Inflation Reduction Act. As a result, DHS accomplished permitting for renewable energy and sustainability projects in record time and implemented innovative contracting to speed up the permitting and construction of the projects.
Teresa created the Resilience Baseline Assessment Tool to measure resilience risk that helped prioritize and speed project implementation and permitting timelines. She also negotiated with regulators at the New York State Department of Conservation (NYSDEC) on terms for a Consent Agreement that was the basis for Endangered Species Act projects and cleanup of contaminated areas on Plum Island.
Prior to this Teresa was a senior leader in the Defense Department’s nationwide Pentagon Renovation Program. She negotiated environmental and energy projects and was a leader in the planning to ensure the Pentagon Renovation Program was on the “cutting edge” of resilience, renewable energy, and sustainable design.
Teresa led a team in the strategic planning, project, regulatory, and policy recommendations and implementation for the Pentagon building force protection, following the September 11, 2001 attack. As a result, more than 50 local, regional, state, and federal government agencies and contractor personnel met to form a consensus on the recommendations. Under extreme pressure and in a very short time frame she coordinated with regulatory agencies, and planned, budgeted, and incorporated these projects (totaling $300 million) into the Pentagon renovation efforts.
This led to Congressional appropriations for the Pentagon renovation force protection projects that are now in place.
Prior to this, Teresa was the Environmental Division Chief for the US Air Force, managing its $1+ billion environmental program including cleanup, compliance, conservation, and pollution prevention at US and overseas bases. Teresa came into this position after her successful time as an Air Force Program Manager implementing a $300 million program to close Air Force bases in the US. Her earlier career included positions with the Naval Facilities Engineering Command,
Naval Coastal Systems Center, Mare Island Naval Shipyard, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.