Phillip is Straughan’s Director of Water and Environmental Resources, bringing experience supporting transportation, ecosystem restoration, water resources, resilience, and coastal projects since 1993. He has extensive experience throughout North Carolina and the Southeast, including 12 years with the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT), where he held progressive environmental leadership roles and ultimately served as Project Management Group Unit Head, overseeing environmental planning, permitting, compliance, and project development activities.
Mr. Todd’s technical background includes natural resource inventories, environmental permitting, stream and wetland restoration, mitigation banking, stormwater management, flood mitigation, coastal resilience, and living shorelines. He has extensive experience coordinating with federal and state resource agencies, consultants, local governments, and stakeholders to address permitting, compliance, and construction-related challenges. Phillip specializes in:
- Living shorelines
- Ecosystem Restoration
- NEPA
- Environmental Permitting
- Coastal resilience
- Mitigation Banking
- Constructability reviews
“The water and environmental resource fields are broad and constantly evolving. As we learn from the past, we continue to adapt our scientific approaches to restore and innovate for a better world.”
Tell us about your most exciting or rewarding project.
My most existing and rewarding project is the shoreline protection that has been implemented at Brunswick Town/ Fort Anderson State Park, pre-Revolutionary War and Civil War site. I have studied the site and how the shoreline has responded to the disruption of vessel generated wakes.
Best wildlife encounter?
My best wildlife encounter is a black bear at Yellowstone National Park. Late at night, my family was driving back into the park from a rodeo in Wyoming. The bear crossed the road and in front of us and started hanging near the vehicle.
What’s in your garden?
Okra, tomatoes, jalapenos, bell peppers.