Early Career Professionals Challenge 2025: The Judging Event | GROUP AWARD | Rivers and Coastal Group

Hosted by the CIWEM Rivers and Coastal Group

Event description

In celebration of the CIWEM River and Coastal Group 75th Anniversary the group are holding a new competition in 2025 and intend for it to become part of CIWEM’s of annual branch and group awards programme.

The Challenge Award is for early career professionals within the first three years in the water and environment sector and is designed to foster collaboration across organisations and geographies to solve a challenge in the water and environment sector.

The successful teams were announced at the Briefing Event on 19 May 2025 and have been invited back to present their work in front of a judging panel and audience at the Judging Event taking place on 15 July 2025. This event will be introduced and followed by keynote speakers.

To find out more about the competition and how you can take part next year, please click on the button below which will take you to the Early Career Professional Challenge Award page.

Part of CIWEM Awards and Competitions.

Link to the Award Page

The Challenge Theme

2025

For this year’s challenge we have aligned the theme to our Rivers and Coastal Group Technical Conference 2025, which took place earlier this year. The theme for this conference was:

"balancing the challenge of translating policy into practice with uncertainty within the rivers and coastal space”

All teams have been asked to explore and develop ideas on the issue of applying national or regional river/coastal policies into practice and translate these ideas into a podcast episode in which they tackle the issue in one of three contexts: uncertainty, stakeholder engagement or resource management.

Who are the team finalists

Team 1

Bryony Collins | JBA Consulting

Cara Fogarty | JBA Consulting

Ella Oakley Slater | Arup

Teagan Jackson | AECOM

Team 2

Alex Woods | Arcadis

Francesca Evans | Environment Agency

Thomas Ridalls | Moffatt & Nichol

Vikki Wakeham | Moffatt & Nichol

Team 3

Katie Holmes | AECOM

Rosamonde Venn | Mott MacDonlad

Toby Harrison | TetraTech

Team 4

Amy Harley | ARM Group Ltd

Roman Guarente | Arup

William Miles | JBA Consulting

Team 5

Jennifer Horner | Lower Medway Internal Drainage Board

Keir Smith | Western Sussex Rivers Trust

Thea Dancer | Groundwork

Team 6

Adithya Menon | Arup

Mary Teresa Ouma | The University of Nottingham

Molly Hanson | WSP

Usman Bala Soja | Newcastle University

Team 7

Michelle Huang | Environment Agency

Ngo Woghiren | University of the West of England

Olivia Fearn | JBA Consulting

Stevie Pip Johnson | WSP

Team 8

Alex Baker | Barnes Common Limited

Ana Reyes Coca | Environment Agency

George Robson | Rebalance Earth

Ronan Farrell | Glanua

Team 9

Ethan Bernstrom Girvan | Stantec

Nirmisha Bhatt | Environment Agency

Ruth Gale | JBA Consulting

Team 10

Abigail Callender | RPS

Jorge Thompson | AECOM

Thomas Lea | RAB Consultants

About the chair and judges

Hannah Burgess | CIWEM President and Regional Delivery Director (Flood, Coast and Maritime) | Binnies

CIWEM President Hannah Burgess is a fellow of CIWEM and a chartered water and environmental manager. She has worked in flood and coastal management for 21 years and has witnessed first-hand the devastating impacts of flooding and coastal change. For her day job, she is a regional delivery director for the Binnies UK flood, coast and maritime business (part of the RSK Group). Hannah has volunteered for CIWEM since 2005 and was past chair of the Rivers and Coastal Group and the West Midlands branch. She was a founding member of the Women in FCERM initiative and the Chair of the RSK Women’s Network. In summer 2024, Hannah also won the RSK Group People Award for Network Builder of the Year.

Peter Rook | CIWEM Early Careers President | JBA Consulting

Peter is the current CIWEM Early Careers President 2024-25 and a Principal Analyst at JBA Consulting. He has eight years’ experience in the flood and water management sector and is responsible for a team delivering a wide range of work for public and private sector clients.

Emily Blaney | CIWEM Early Careers President Elect | WSP

Emily is CIWEM Early Careers President Elect and a chartered Principal Consultant at WSP with a comprehensive understanding of the complexities and inter-disciplinary requirements of flood risk management projects seeking to integrate project teams and deliver multi-beneficial solutions.

Dr Jamie White | School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences / Birmingham Institute for Sustainability and Climate Action | University of Birmingham

Dr James C. White is a Research Fellow in Water Sciences in the School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences and an affiliate of Birmingham Institute for Sustainability and Climate Action. His research focuses on quantifying freshwater ecosystem responses to environmental changes to help guide sustainable management solutions from environmental flows and river restoration via ‘big data’ through to community-based research and citizen science.

Sam Willis | Associate Director- Sustainable Water Management | WSP

Sam is an Associate Director in the Sustainable Water Management business at WSP with over 20 years’ experience in strategic flood risk management in the UK, Ireland and New Zealand. His technical experience is in hydrology, detailed fluvial and coastal hydraulic modelling, business case development, surface water management, project management of large interdisciplinary studies and public consultation and engagement.

Joanne Barlow | Senior Associate - Resource Lead for Rivers and Catchments | Mott MacDonald

Jo is a Senior Associate and Resource Lead for Rivers and Catchments at Mott MacDonald with over 20 years’ experience. She was on CIWEM’s River and Coastal Group committee for eight years, chairing the group in 2022-23. Her technical experience is in river geomorphology, and she has worked on a wide range of projects covering flood risk, river restoration, catchment water quality, water framework directive and water resources.

Are you a CIWEM member? Want to find out more?

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More about the Early Career Professionals Challenge

If you have any queries about this event please contact the Rivers & Coastal Group at rcggroup@ciwem.org.

For full details go to the Early Career Professionals Challenge 2025 Award page.

About the venue and getting there

The event will take place at the WSP Offices at The Mailbox, Wharfside Street, Birmingham, B1 1RQ. Birmingham railway and bus stations are within easy walking distance and there are several bus routes that run near the offices for those travelling by bus.

Travelling to the venue

As part of CIWEM’s commitment to tackling the climate and ecological emergency we would encourage delegates to use the most environmentally sustainable means of transport possible.

By Train

Birmingham New Street station is five minutes’ walk away. Exit Birmingham New Street Station via “B” end of platform and Navigation Street or Hill Street exit.

By Bus

Closest bus stop is Navigation Street.

By foot

A short walk from Birmingham New Street. Enter through the front of The Mailbox, up the escalator to the first floor.

By car

If you are coming by car, please consider sharing the journey with others to reduce your environmental footprint. Closest car park is the Q-Park Mailbox on Royal Mail Street.

As this is an in-person event, please remain vigilant to control the spread of COVID-19 and stay safe.

We request that if you think you might have contracted COVID or have recently had the disease, that you do not attend this event.

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Early Career Professionals Challenge 2025: The Judging Event | GROUP AWARD | Rivers and Coastal Group | IN-PERSON

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