Passarella & Associates, Inc.

Kenneth C. Passarella

Prior to founding Passarella & Associates in 1996, President and Principal Ecologist Ken Passarella was an environmental consultant and ecologist in both the public and private sectors. He holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Marine Science from Jacksonville University and the University of South Florida, respectively, and has guided a number of major public and private projects through the local, state, and federal permitting and environmental planning process.

Ken has over 30 years of experience and is certified as a Professional Wetland Scientist by the Society of Wetland Scientists and as a Senior Ecologist by the Ecological Society of America. He is also certified by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as a wetland delineator. He is a member of the Society of Wetland Scientists, Ecological Society of America, the National Association of Environmental Professionals, Florida Association of Environmental Professionals, and the Florida Airports Council. Ken has served as president and board member of the Florida Association of Environmental Professionals and also was the founder and president of the Southwest Florida chapter.

Shane Johnson

Shane Johnson joined Passarella & Associates in 2004. As a team leader, he supervises project teams and oversees business development, client relations and document preparation, as well as conducting jurisdictional determinations, environmental construction inspections, environmental-impact and ecological assessments, listed species surveys and wetland monitoring.

Shane has over 15 years of experience and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Zoology from Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Before joining Passarella & Associates, he worked as a shorebird technician with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation where he documented the nesting behavior of the area’s bald eagles. He previously served as a research assistant with the Cooperative Wildlife Research Laboratory in Carbondale, Ill., working on a meadow vole diet-composition study.

Shane is a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Authorized Gopher Tortoise Agent and has also completed a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission workshop focused on identifying and handling invasive exotic reptiles. He holds memberships in the Florida Association of Environmental Professionals, the Florida Airports Council, the Society of Wetland Scientists, and the Calusa Herpetological Society where he served a four year term as president.

Bethany Brosious

Bethany Brosious joined Passarella & Associates in 2006. She provides ecological consulting services for private and public development and focuses on airports, mining projects, urban development, mitigation design and oversight, and public utility projects. She has had extensive experience preparing local, state, and federal permitting documents; conducing agency negotiations; environmental construction inspections; wetland jurisdictional determinations; and listed wildlife permitting, surveys, and relocation.

Bethany has over 10 years of experience and holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Animal Science from the University of Florida and Environmental Science from Florida Gulf Coast University, respectively. Prior to joining Passarella & Associates, she served as an intern with the South Florida Water Management District where she handled data management for Picayune Strand restoration projects. She previously also served as a graduate research assistant at Florida Gulf Coast University’s Coastal Watershed Institute where she conducted a zooplankton-monitoring project. Bethany holds memberships in the Florida Association of Environmental Professionals, Society of Wetland Scientists, and the Florida Airports Council. She served on the Board of Trustees for the Calusa Nature Center and Planetarium for two years.

Heather Samborski

Heather Samborski joined Passarella & Associates in 2014. She has been involved in numerous projects involving wetland jurisdictional determinations, local, state, and federal permitting, agency negotiations, mitigation design and oversight, exotic species management, and listed species surveys, permitting, and relocation.

Heather holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Biology from Eastern Connecticut State University and Environmental Science from Florida Gulf Coast University, respectively. Her Master’s Thesis research was on habitat selection by Florida panthers in habitat with invasive exotic plant cover.  She is a member of the Society of Wetland Scientists and the Florida Association of Environmental Professionals where she served on the Board of Directors of the Southwest Florida Chapter from 2014 through 2018 and as Vice President from 2018 through 2019.

Jacob Taminosian

Jacob Taminosian joined Passarella & Associates in 2018 where he oversees a project team and provides environmental and ecological consulting services for private and public development. His experience includes preparing local, state, and federal permitting documents such as wetland mitigation and monitoring plans; performing wetland delineations; conducting wetland jurisdictional determinations with agency staff; and overseeing listed wildlife species surveys and permitting.

Jacob has over four years of experience as an environmental consultant and holds a Bachelor of Science in Biology with a concentration in Environmental Science from Florida Southern College. Prior to joining Passarella & Associates, he interned with a 501(c)(3) non-profit land trust and conservation organization, carrying out gopher tortoise surveys and relocations throughout Central Florida and assisting with vegetation monitoring for wetland mitigation banks.

Jacob has been a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Authorized Gopher Tortoise Agent since 2016 and has attended multiple Gopher Tortoise Technical Assistance Group meetings. The Lee County Board of County Commissioners appointed Jacob to the Eagle Technical Advisory Committee in 2022 to assist Lee County with the monitoring of bald eagle nests and to provide technical advice to landowners on bald eagle regulatory requirements. He is a member of the Florida Association of Environmental Professionals and the Society of Wetland Scientists.

Melissa Kruse

Melissa Kruse joined the Passarella & Associates team in 2004. Prior to becoming the Marketing Director, she was the Executive Administrator managing the administrative team and assisting Ken Passarella. In her role as Marketing Director, Melissa creates and updates all print and electronic marketing content; prepares proposals, statements of qualifications, and presentations; creates ads and press releases; manages social media, public relations, and relationship marketing efforts; develops eMarketing initiatives; handles website development and management; and produces the company’s monthly newsletter. Melissa brings expertise in digital marketing, graphic design, relationship marketing, marketing communications, and public relations.

Melissa earned a Bachelor’s degree from Florida State University and holds a Master’s degree in Marketing Communication from the University of Denver.