Infrastructure Task Force

Please join the East Bay Leadership Council's Infrastructure Task Force for a presentation from Bay Area Air District staff on how the agency's permitting processes and regulatory policies intersect with economic development across the Bay Area. The discussion will explore the relationship between the District's permitting and regulatory framework and housing production, commercial development, job creation, business investment, and the broader regional economy. Attendees will also learn about the Air District's ongoing efforts to improve permitting efficiency and the direction of the District's current and future rulemaking efforts.

OUR SPEAKERS

Kelly Crawford serves as Deputy Executive Officer of Engineering & Compliance for the Bay Area Air District, where she oversees the agency’s permitting, compliance, and enforcement programs. She has more than 15 years of experience managing air quality, energy, environmental, and climate change programs in both the public and private sectors. Before joining the Air District, Ms. Crawford served as Senior Advisor for Energy and Environmental Justice at the U.S. Department of Energy and led the air pollution control program for the District of Columbia. She holds an executive certificate in public policy from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, a master’s degree in emergency management from the University of Maryland University College, and a bachelor’s degree in environmental science from the Rochester Institute of Technology.

Viet Tran, serves as Deputy Executive Officer of Public Affairs and oversees the Air District’s Communications, Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs, and Outreach/Special Projects functions. He has over 25 years of private and public sector experience managing and implementing public relations strategies and working with elected officials at the federal, state, and local levels. In his role as the director of public affairs at Entergy New Orleans, Viet served as company spokesperson to government and community organizations as well as the media. He previously served as area director with the Mayor’s Office of Los Angeles. Viet earned his bachelor’s degree in public administration and public policy from the University of Southern California.

Victor Douglas is the Director of Regulatory Development Division at the Bay Area Air District and has over 35 years of air quality regulatory development experience. He has worked at the Air District since 2001 leading and directing rule development projects such as Rule 11-18: Toxic Risk at Existing Facilities and Rule 6-4: Metal Recycling and Shredding Operations. Prior to coming to the Air District, Victor worked at the California Air Resources Board developing airborne toxic control measures to reduce emissions and exposure to toxic compounds. He has a degree in Chemical Engineering from California Polytechnic University, Pomona and grew up in Pittsburg, California.

Pamela Leong is the Director of Engineering at the Bay Area Air District, where she leads the team responsible for permitting stationary sources of air pollution across the nine-county region. She has been with the Air District for over 24 years, working on a wide range of programs including permitting complex facilities such as refineries, large data centers, and emerging technologies in Silicon Valley; emissions banking; rule development; and the design and implementation of the agency’s online permitting and database systems. Prior to joining the Air District, Pamela spent 11 years in industry working on a hollow fiber membrane air separation project that originated at Dow Chemical and later became Generon, an independent provider of industrial gas solutions. At Generon, she contributed to research and development of hollow fiber gas separation membranes and supported the project through scale-up to full production. While at Dow, she also served as a project manager for the expansion of a specialty chemical plant in Pittsburg, California. Pamela holds a degree in chemical engineering from University of California, Berkeley and has lived in the Bay Area her entire life.