Who are we?

Owner/ Principal

Della Schall Young is a versatile business partner and project manager with over 20 years of experience on multi–disciplinary projects in both the public and private sectors. Her industry experience focuses on providing technical and project management expertise within water and natural resources management, permitting, and implementation of civil works support for transportation and municipal infrastructure projects. She is a certified facilitator skilled in generating consensus in both agreeable and disagreeable settings. As a skilled speaker, she conveys the most complex engineering concepts to both non-technical and technical audiences.

Della started her career in resources management as an intern for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Division of Waters (now Ecological and Water Resources). After graduation from the University of Minnesota, she worked as a flood damage reduction hydrologist for the DNR before taking a position with the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MNDOT)–Water Resources Section. At MNDOT, Della honed her transportation, drainage design, and regulatory compliance skills. Before starting Young Environmental Consulting Group (Young Environmental), Della led practices for two national consulting companies. Della’s 16 years at those companies brought her many successes and understanding of client and business operations.   

As owner and principal scientist of Young Environmental, Della offers experience and unwavering integrity. Outside of the workplace, Della volunteers much of her time on professional committees and commissions and at organizations that support community empowerment.

Learn more about Della on LinkedIn.

TEAM

The Young Environmental Consulting Group team is comprised of sharp, new minds and experienced industry professionals. We strive to foster long-lasting relationships with our clients and project partners.

Hannah LeClaire is a water resources engineer and has more than six years’ experience in water resources design and modeling. She enjoys spending time outside, whether running, hiking, camping, or skiing, and has channeled her passion for nature and adventure into her career. Hannah specializes in ecological, habitat, and stream restoration projects that provide sustainable solutions to benefit both natural systems and systems affected by human activities. She has worked with complex hydrologic and hydraulic models for watershed management, drainage improvement, and stormwater management. She brings a wealth of knowledge and experience in civil design, and has successfully managed projects from the planning and funding phases to design and construction. Hannah is an enthusiastic, dependable collaborator who eagerly contributes to the team’s efforts to deliver a high-quality product. She believes in building strong partnerships with all project stakeholders to bring innovative solutions to life.

Hannah’s service areas include the following: hydrologic and hydraulic modeling; stormwater best management practices and design; natural resource restoration evaluation, analysis, and permitting; civil design; geographic information systems (GIS) design and analysis.

Jen Dullum brings over 20 years of public and private work experience to Young Environmental. Much of her career has been spent coordinating natural resource programs. Jen is experienced in stormwater management, including MS4 permitting, inspection, and public education. More recently she has transitioned to developing and delivering public outreach and communications on topics ranging from pollution prevention to socially distanced environmental outdoor activities. Jen uses her range of knowledge to produce website updates, social media content, print material, and displays and exhibits.

Jen’s service areas include MS4 permitting and inspection, public education and outreach, and GIS systems.

Meghan Litsey has been involved in the stormwater and erosion industry for over ten years. As a certified professional in erosion and sediment control, she has extensive experience designing SWPPPs and permitting projects of varying types and scales. Meghan’s background includes working on large and complex construction projects, performing as a compliance manager to facilitate environmental permitting and documentation, regulatory agency coordination, and training and education. Working on both owner’s and contractor’s teams has provided Meghan with partnering approaches and effective communication skills. Meghan is also experienced in providing MS4 permitting support services, including written procedure development, ordinance revisions, staff training, inspections, asset management, and audit compliance.

 Meghan’s service areas include training internal and external stakeholders, developing construction SWPPPs, supporting MS4 permitting, and handling audit compliance and environmental permitting and documentation.

Lan Tornes has a broad technical background and enjoys a variety of challenging tasks. His career as a hydrologist and environmental scientist has focused on water, but also includes a variety of work in the physical and natural sciences. Lan is an experienced natural resource professional with strong leadership and technical field skills. He has more than 30 years of experience as a hydrologist proposing, planning, and executing a variety of complex resource investigations. One of his strongest assets is his ability to communicate with people of all backgrounds, professions, and education levels. As a detailed professional, Lan assists lead engineers and project managers with a variety of projects such as task coordination and execution and process documentation.

Lan’s service areas include monitoring data review and evaluation; and total maximum daily load study development and review.

Learn more about Lan on LinkedIn.

Will Young, Researcher and Business Analyst

Will brings over 25 years of project management, contract execution, market research, and negotiations experience to the firm. He identifies key stakeholders impacted by each project and assists with securing resources and subject matter experts to create strong cross-functional business teams. Will is passionate about learning, traveling, and family.

Will’s service areas are markets, business, and contract review and evaluation.

Get in touch with our team.

Interns

Young Environmental is proud to hire students as interns. We believe internships, in a tight labor market where we are all competing for the same resources, are a good way to train the next generation of employees. This summer, our interns conducted fluvial geomorphic reconnaissance and assessments for trout streams in the Lower Minnesota River Watershed. Their research provides a basis for future planning on target reaches for stream restoration and stabilization work in the area.