The people behind Resilient Shore

Nature-based solutions are our priority

This project has been in the works for more than five years. In that time, Jeff Rhoads, Stuart Siegel and Kathy Schaefer, the three cornerstone members of Resilient Shore, have studied the situation in great detail. Each founder brings essential, complementary expertise to the table – design, engineering, biology, maintenance, finance, flood risk management. Our priorities are nature-based, emphasizing shore ecology, wetlands management, and habitat improvement. Our work is augmented by a team of architects, engineers, biologists and naturalists.

The Core Team

Planning and Design

Jeffrey D. Rhoads, President of Argonaut Company, provides the planning, design and administrative bedrock for the organization. He has two architectural degrees: an MA from MIT and a BA from UC Berkeley. He is a LEED AP California Licensed Architect, and a member of the Bay Planning Coalition Sustainable Waterfronts Committee, Federation of San Rafael Neighborhoods, Sustainable San Rafael, San Rafael Chamber of Commerce – East San Rafael Group, SPUR, San Rafael Heritage and San Rafael’s 2040 General Plan Steering Committee.

Jeff’s 35-year career includes landscape scale design and forward planning in cities, new towns and master-planned communities, and early historic preservation advocacy.

Risk Management and Infrastructure Finance

Kathleen Schaefer is a nationally recognized expert in flood risk management. She is part of an innovative research team working at the UC Davis Watershed Science Center examining opportunities to convert flood risk into value that can be leveraged to buy down risk. Kathleen is a passionate advocate for replacing our nation’s antiquated flood control philosophy with a modern, science-based, data driven, integrated, flood risk management philosophy that engages the whole community.

After spending a two decades working for FEMA, she is now pursuing a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering at UC Davis focusing on innovative approaches to flood risk management.

Community Engagement

Dr. Jeanine Pfeiffer has worked in over thirty countries as a social scientist, monitoring and evaluation specialist and ethnoecologist. A Fulbright scholar and National Science Foundation/National Institutes of Health grantee, her applied research findings on biocultural diversity, resource management, community welfare, and social justice have improved policies and practices for inter-governmental programs worldwide. She has also worked with the United Nations and Conservation International on excellent stakeholder engagement, and served as a science advisor and community coordinator for Mendocino County during the Marine Life Protection Act Initiative.

Strategic Partners