Associate

Colin Bliss

Mr. Bliss has recently earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering with a concentration in Acoustics from the University of Hartford. Mr. Bliss supports CSA’s work in transportation noise and vibration projects as well as architectural acoustics, community noise and audio projects. He is experienced with Finite Element Analysis tools, computer noise models such as SoundPlan and Insul, general computing tools such as  MATLAB, and instrumentation used for collecting field sound and vibration data.

Principal Associate

Scott Edwards

Scott has over six years of experience in environmental noise and vibration, focusing primarily on transit, highway and sound insulation projects. Mr. Edwards has a B.S.E. in Acoustical Engineering and Music from the University of Hartford, and has completed master’s degree level coursework in saxophone performance at The Boston Conservatory.

He is a member of both the Institute of Noise Control Engineering and the Acoustical Society of America. He has worked on a number of transit projects, ranging from environmental impact assessment studies to final design of noise and vibration mitigation. Mr. Edwards has worked on noise barrier designs for both transit and highway applications, is a highly experienced FHWA TNM user, has extensive noise and vibration field measurement experience, and is an expert in the application of GIS to noise and vibration studies.

He also has experience with architectural acoustics and speech intelligibility. Mr. Edwards is also an accomplished saxophone player.

Master Technician

George Holey

George has over 30 years of experience in electronics and instrumentation. His specialties include providing quality manufacturing and service support for engineering and systems development, deployment of electronic noise monitoring equipment and production of electronic hardware devices including analog/digital circuits and power supplies.

George has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and is a veteran of the Air Force. He worked for three years as an electronic technician while serving in the Air Force, a year as an AM radio tech for the civil defense radio network in the New England/New York State area, and sixteen years as a broadband radio tech on a NATO contract in Europe. He was also the laboratory manager for a prominent acoustical consulting company for over five years.

Senior Associate

Tim Johnson

Tim Johnson joins the Boston-area office as a Senior Associate with nearly 20 years of professional experience. His practice areas have included noise and vibration from transit, highway, aircraft, and racetrack sources and building vibration studies. He has managed studies for all types of rail and transit projects throughout the country and is well versed in all the procedures and methodology for assessing noise and vibration from rail and transit systems used by the U.S. Federal Transit Administration and Federal Railroad Administration. He has presented at numerous public meetings and conferences across the country.

Tim specializes in noise and ground-borne vibration measurements from rail vehicles, ground-borne propagation testing, and measurements for assessing potential impact to sensitive vibration equipment. He is also experienced with outdoor-to-indoor vibration propagation testing and interior noise measurements to assess potential ground-borne noise impact at concert halls, theaters, and other sensitive spaces. Tim has significant experience with computer modeling and analytical tools, including proficiency with FTA & FRA Guidance Manuals, TNM, SoundPLAN, INSUL, FloorVibe and AISC Steel Design Guide 11, AutoCAD, and ArcGIS.

Bookkeeper

Amy Laberge

Amy Laberge has over 20 years’ experience in the Accounting/Banking industry with a focus in construction. In addition to full-cycle bookkeeping, her expertise includes: Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, Payroll, Job Cost, Inventory, Cash Management, General Ledger, and Financial Statements. Amy brings business management, contract management, human resources, and executive administrative support experience to the company.

Principal Associate

Shannon McKenna, P.E., INCE Bd. Cert.

Shannon is a Principal Associate at Cross Spectrum Acoustics, working from our California office. Shannon is a registered Professional Engineer in California, Washington, and Illinois. She is also Board Certified by the Institute of Noise Control Engineering. She has been working in transportation noise and vibration consulting since 2009. She has worked on a range of transit noise and vibration projects from the environmental phase through to final design. Shannon has managed large scale noise and vibration measurement programs, completed detailed technical analyses, and drafted technical reports to comply with NEPA and CEQA standards (National Environmental Protection Act and California Environmental Quality Act). Shannon holds a masters degree from Stanford University in Electrical Engineering with a focus on Signals Processing and is excited to extend the firms existing data processing capabilities while continuing to work with transit agencies and design firms on noise and vibration analyses.

Vice President

Lance Meister

Lance is Vice President and Co-Founder of CSA. He has over 22 years’ experience in transit and rail related noise and vibration projects and is a recognized expert in the field of transit noise and vibration.

He holds a B.S. in civil engineering from Temple University and is a member of the Institute of Noise Control Engineering.

Lance is one of the authors of the FTA’s guidance manual on noise and vibration impact assessment and has been one of the instructors for the NTI/FTA noise and vibration training course for the past fifteen years, including the past five years as the principal instructor.

He has been the noise and vibration lead on over 250 transit projects throughout his career. He has extensive experience in light rail transit (LRT), bus rapid transit (BRT), streetcar, heavy rail, commuter rail, intercity trains and high-speed rail, and freight rail systems. He has participated in and managed projects ranging from Alternative Analysis and Environmental Analyses to Environmental Impact Statements and Final Design of noise and vibration mitigation.

Mr. Meister is a member of TRB and APTA and is on the planning committee for the Railroad Environmental Conference at the University of Illinois.

Mr. Meister’s activities have included field survey measurements, environmental assessments, and computer modeling of noise and vibration propagation. He has been involved in vehicle noise and vibration measurements, sound insulation projects for transit, and modeling of noise and vibration mitigation. Mr. Meister was also the principal designer of the FRA’s locomotive horn noise model, which is used to assess noise impact from horns at grade crossings.

Mr. Meister has extensive public speaking experience, including teaching the FTA/NTI course, presenting technical papers at conferences and presenting at public meetings. One of his strengths is his ability to present complex ideas and concepts in an easy to understand and accessible manner.

Principal Associate

Judy Rochat, PhD

Judy has over 25 years of experience in transportation noise and vibration, including highway, rail, and aircraft-related projects. She has experience in both the public and private sectors, with projects ranging from prediction model development and policy support to research and environmental impact analyses. Experience also includes extensive data collection and analyses, standards development, and professional course instruction.

Judy played an integral role in development of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Traffic Noise Model (TNM) and Roadway Construction Noise Model (RCNM), supported the Federal Aviation Administration Integrated Noise Model (INM), developed an advanced noise prediction spreadsheet following Federal Transit Administration guidance, and developed software for sonic boom research. She is one of the authors of the FHWA Noise Measurement Handbook and Field Guide and has participated in highway noise environmental analyses, including new alignments, highway expansions, bridge deck reflections, barrier design, homes, schools, churches, recreational areas, building noise reduction measurements, and barrier insertion loss determination for existing barriers. She is an international expert on tire-pavement noise and quieter pavements and has participated in numerous studies and tasks, addressing measurement, prediction, and policy issues related to how pavement type affects highway traffic noise; this includes being a key contributor to related U.S. measurement standards. She is also a certified instructor for the National Highway Institute Course, Highway Traffic Noise.

In addition, Judy has managed/participated in numerous rail noise and vibration studies, ranging from the original environmental analysis to final design. Studies have included light rail, streetcars, commuter rail, freight rail, rail yards, houses, multi-story buildings, historic structures, hospitals, recording studios, concert halls, and mitigation design. Also, Judy provided support for detectability studies related to both rail and aircraft noise. Judy has managed and participated in special research studies covering the following topics: alternate highway noise mitigation strategies, changes in sound due to noise barrier and building reflections, noise and vibration from road discontinuities, temperature effects on highway traffic noise, combining measured and predicted data to characterize vibration propagation, motorcycle noise, rumble strips, quieter pavement benefits and longevity, sonic boom propagation into the ocean, and drone noise spectral content and masking.

Judy has Doctor of Philosophy and Master of Science degrees in Acoustics from The Pennsylvania State University and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Applied Mathematics from the University of California at San Diego. . For the Institute of Noise Control Engineering-USA, Judy is serving as President (2022-2024) and is the Transportation Associate Editor for the Noise Control Engineering Journal; she also served as the Technical Activities Vice President and on the Board of Directors.  For the Transportation Research Board, Judy is Chair Emeritus of the Noise & Vibration Committee. She is also a member of the Acoustical Society of America and American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

President

Herb Singleton, P.E., INCE Bd. Cert.

Herb is the President and Co-Founder of CSA. He has over 25 years of acoustical engineering experience. His specialties include acoustical measurements and modeling. He has applied these skills to noise and vibration analyses for transportation, construction, industrial and architectural projects.

He has a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has also taken Master’s courses in Audio Acoustics at the University of Salford in the United Kingdom.

Herb is a registered professional engineer in the states of Massachusetts, Colorado, Georgia and Minnesota. He is a member of NCAC and a Board Certified Member of Institute of Noise Control Engineering. He has participated in ANSI working groups to develop standards for community noise ordinances and developing standards for vibration testing for rail and transit applications. Herb is currently serving on the INCE Certification Board.

Herb has been one of the instructors of the NTI/FTA noise and vibration training course for the past ten years. In addition, he is the developer of the FTA General Assessment noise spreadsheet given out to all course attendees.

He has performed environmental noise and vibration assessments for a variety of transit projects ranging from commuter rail and light rail to heavy rail extensions. He has supported those projects through public hearings and NEPA processes when necessary. He has analyzed station acoustics and public address systems as well as performing detailed noise and vibration mitigation design for transit systems.

Herb has conducted acoustical engineering analyses for architectural and industrial applications, including sound insulation assessment, speech intelligibility predictions, and HVAC commissioning measurements. He has modeled noise and vibration sources, performed laboratory analyses of vibration mitigation products, and developed signal processing techniques for the vibration propagation procedure described in the FTA guidance manual’s Detailed Vibration Analysis section.

Senior Associate

Joelle Suits, P.E.

Joelle has over seven years of experience in acoustics and noise control and is a graduate of The University of Texas at Austin with a master degree in mechanical engineering specializing in acoustics.  Joelle has worked on a number of transit, rail, highway and community noise projects at CSA.  She is an expert in the application of GIS to environmental noise projects and develops noise and vibration modeling tools using Matlab and Octave.  Ms. Suits’ experience from graduate school includes noise measurements of power tools, hearing threshold measurements, and measuring the effect of noise on human signal detection through her Master’s thesis research. Her research focused on improving the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) standard NFPA 1982 by measuring different noise sources found on the fireground, the effects of wearing firefighting equipment on hearing, and the affect of noise on the search for downed firefighters.

Ms. Suits has a Bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. She is a member of the Acoustical Society of America and the American Society of Mechanical Engineering. Ms. Suits is also a licensed Professional Engineer in Utah.

Principal Associate

David Towers, P.E., INCE Bd. Cert.

Dave has over 45 years of experience as an acoustical consultant, having worked in a variety of areas including environmental, industrial, and architectural noise and vibration control. He specializes in noise and vibration control for rail transportation systems and for construction projects. Dave has participated in a wide range of rail transportation projects in the U.S. and abroad including noise control for vehicles and facilities, compliance tests, environmental assessments, construction noise and vibration control and community measurement programs. He has provided acoustical consulting and design services to architects, engineers, planners, railroads, rapid transit properties, and government agencies worldwide.

Dave is co-author of the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) transit noise and vibration guidance manual as well as the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) manual for high-speed ground transportation projects. He has contributed to several technical handbook chapters over the course of his career and has also authored a number of technical papers for various professional organizations such as Institute of Noise Control Engineering (INCE), the Acoustical Society of America (ASA), the International Workshop on Railway Noise (IWRN) and the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).

Dave has earned a Bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Columbia University and a Master’s Degree from Purdue University. He is a registered professional engineer in five states, a Fellow and Board-Certified Member of INCE and a Member of the International Committee for the IWRN.

Associate

Keith Yoerg, P.E.

Mr. Yoerg has over five years of experience working on transportation noise and vibration projects. His work has supported projects in various phases of development including environmental analysis, final design, and in-service maintenance and state of good repair. Mr. Yoerg’s responsibilities range from organizing and conducting field measurement campaigns to data processing, analysis, and technical reporting. His focus on rail transit projects includes significant experience applying the methodology and guidance in the Federal Transit Administration’s (FTA) Transit Noise and Vibration Impact Assessment Manual.

Mr. Yoerg earned his B.S. degree from the University of Southern California Viterbi School of Engineering and is a registered Professional Engineer in the state of California. He is experienced utilizing Geographic Information Systems (GIS), MATLAB, and Excel to conduct noise and vibration studies. Mr. Yoerg is also proficient in noise modeling with CadnaA, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Traffic Noise Model (TNM) and Roadway Construction Noise Model (RCNM) software.