We work hard and have fun. Some of our office activities include:
At Summit, we believe that being an active and caring member of our community involves donating time, resources, and assets to those in need.
Our goal is to cultivate a productive, engaging, and diverse workplace culture through:
Yet another amazing Summit Oktoberfest celebration in the books! This year we had an exciting rematch to last year’s stein hold and stein race, and decorated beer cozies while noshing on some great German bites from Franchetti’s.
Prost!
We could not be more proud of our team for earning our 18th “Best Places to Work” award from the North Bay Business Journal! Kudos to our talented group of Summiteers, and thank you all for continuing to make Summit Engineering such a great place to come to work.
We’re happy to welcome Jaime Zepeda as a Staff Engineer II in our Structural Division. Welcome to the crew, Jaime!
Join us in welcoming Yelcin Cifuentes as a Staff Engineer I in our Electrical Division. We’re glad to have you on the team, Yelcin!
Congratulations are in order for Kyle Moyer, who has just been promoted to Principal at Summit Engineering! As the leader of Summit’s structural division, his creative design solutions and dedication to the growth of the team make him an incredible asset. Cheers, Kyle!
As our Summer Internship Program draws to a close, we’d like to give a huge shoutout to our incredible interns who brought fresh perspectives, energy, and creativity to the team. Thank you for choosing to spend your summer with the Summit crew, and best of luck to each of you as you head back to school for the year
Summit warmly welcomes Taylor Belisle Lopez as a Staff Engineer I in our Water/Wastewater Division – welcome to the team, Taylor!
The Summit Crew had a blast watching the Giants’ walk-off the game at Oracle Park! Go Giants!
Let the games begin! In honor of the 2024 Summer Olympic Games, the team put their skills to the test in our own “Summit Olympics.” We battled it out with some bucket basketball, rubber band archery, Olympic trivia, relay, and even our own triathlon. We’ll see you in 2026 for the Winter Games
Special thank you to Sur la Table in Montgomery Village for hosting our team in an amazing cooking class. We learned how to make dumplings and egg tarts from scratch, and had a blast along the way!
We’re thrilled to have a group of bright, talented students joining us this summer. We’re ready for an exciting summer filled with learning, growth, and fun!
It has been a pleasure hosting the Mike Hauser Academy at our office again this year!
The Mike Hauser Academy is a summer program for incoming 9th grade English Language Learner students looking for more exposure to STEM subjects. We hosted these students for three days at our office and introduced them to what it’s like to be an engineer or planner in the real world.
Thank you to the Santa Rosa Metro Chamber of Commerce for coordinating another successful program!
Welcome to the team, Daniel! Join us in welcoming the newest member of our Electrical Engineering division, Daniel Rebich
The annual Summit Spring Picnic was a blast with carnival games, cornhole, and even some face painting. We were even treated to some barbeque from the Summit Principal team! We’re already looking forward to celebrating with everyone’s families again next year.
Huge congratulations to Robyn Meier for her 10-year anniversary at Summit: Robyn is an integral part of our Structural team, and a processes and systems whiz who helps keep our multidiscipline firm organized and running smoothly. Congrats, Robyn!
Warm welcome to the newest member of our Civil Engineering team, Brano. We’re happy to have you on the team!
We’d like to congratulate Tiffany Foster on her promotion to Staff Engineer II in our Civil Engineering division! We’re so thankful for Tiffany’s integral contributions to our Civil group as a Senior CAD Technician, and we can’t wait to watch her continue to grow into her new role. Congrats, Tiffany!
Congratulations to Robyn Meier on her promotion to Senior Project Engineer in our Structural Division! We are so proud of the incredible projects she has completed in her 10 years with Summit. Her technical expertise has helped shape our Structural team into what it is today. Well deserved, Robyn!
Celebrating Rebecca Neuren on her promotion to Project Engineer I in our Water/Wastewater Engineering division! Rebecca is a joy to have at Summit and always eager to learn a new skill and help out her team. Congratulations, Rebecca!
Join us in celebrating Ashleigh Higgins’ promotion to Head of Finance and Administration! Ashleigh’s contributions to our team cannot be overstated, thanks for keeping us on track and having a little fun along the way. Thank you for all that you do, Ashleigh!
Congrats to Jackie Peterson on her promotion to Administrative Assistant! We have Jackie to thank for so many processes and procedures that help make Summit tick, and we’re so glad to have her on our team. Way to go, Jackie!
Cheers to Kat Marovich for her promotion to Marketing Manager! We are so lucky to have her keen eye for detail, dedication to showcasing what makes Summit great, and endless contributions to the Summit culture. Her expertise has helped Summit elevate our brand, and we are excited to see her step in to this new role. Congratulations, Kat!
Summit’s own Jesus Hernandez had the opportunity to present to a group of students in the Engineering and Applied Technologies program at the Santa Rosa Junior College. Jesus and the students discussed the process of becoming an engineer, the joys and challenges that come along with the job, and everything in-between. We’re looking forward to seeing these up-and-coming engineers out in the field!
We’re thrilled to welcome Brian Dazey to our team as Assistant Division Manager of our Electrical Division! Brian comes to us with over 25 years of electrical engineering, design, project management, and construction administration services experience. He’ll fit right in with his multidiscipline project management experience, and work on a variety of market sectors. Welcome to the team, Brian!
Congratulations to Gina on her 20th anniversary at Summit!
We all appreciate your infectious humor, wealth of knowledge, and integrity. What an incredible accomplishment!
Happy Engineers Week! Our engineers use their expertise and inspired thinking to make the world a better place. How did we celebrate Engineers Week this year? With a classic egg drop of course!
Here’s to the future of engineering!
Congratulations are in order for Summit’s own Zak Zakalik on his retirement! As one of the founding members of our Electrical Engineering division, Zak has been a pillar of the Summit team for over 20 years. Thank you Zak for your infinite wisdom and dedication to the team. Cheers!
Through triumphs and lessons learned, laughs and sighs, and plenty of Summiteer shenanigans, what a wonderful year it has been. From ours to yours, we wish you a warm and joyous New Year. Bring it on, 2024!
We’re pleased to welcome Caylah Lunardi to the team as Human Resources Manager.
Another annual Summit Engineering Oktoberfest in the books! This year we celebrated with some beer-themed carnival games and a good ol’ fashioned stein hold and stein races. Prost!
Congratulations to our dynamic leader Yi Yang for winning the 2023 Vistage Leadership Award! Whether it’s scoping out new challenging projects, snapping some pretty amazing project photography, or showing off the latest Burning Man project, we’re lucky to have your creativity and wisdom to guide us. Very well deserved!
Join us in welcoming Kay Choe, the newest Planner on our team!
Shout out to our neighbors Adobe Associates for joining us in a game of kickball last week! Much fun was had and hilarious chaos ensued.
Ready for a rematch?!
Cheers to 17 years! Thank you to the North Bay Business Journal for awarding us our 17th “Best Places to Work” award, and an enormous thank you to our amazing Summit crew for making it easy to come into the office every morning. We appreciate each and every one of you! Here’s to 17 more!
As we say goodbye to our Summer Interns and wish them the best of luck as they head back to their college campuses across the state – we’d also like to take the chance to thank them all for choosing to join our team this summer. They learned from and supported our engineers, took part in adventures like floating the Russian River and some pickup volleyball, soils tests and site visits, and even humored us by laughing at our corny jokes for 9+ weeks.
Cheers to your next adventures!
We’d like to welcome Evan Brooks to our Structural Engineering Division. We’re glad to have you on our team!
We had the pleasure of hosting a group of students through the Mike Hauser Academy coordinated by the Santa Rosa Metro Chamber of Commerce.
The Mike Hauser Academy is a summer program for incoming 9th grade English Language Learner students needing more support and exposure to STEM subjects.
These students spent two days at our office learning and experimenting alongside our engineers to break the stigma against the “big scary” engineering field. It’s always a joy hosting these students, and our team loves the opportunity to share their work!
Congratulations to our HR Manager, Paige Wray on her retirement! Thank you Paige, for an amazing 9 years with Summit, and cheers to all of your adventures that await!
Join us in welcoming the newest member of our Structural Division, Ramika Eivazi Aliabady. Welcome aboard, Ramika!
Another annual Summit Summer Picnic for the books!
It’s great to spend some time with the team and their families outside of the office (and in the trees, apparently!)
We spent our day enjoying lunch from A La Heart Catering, playing plenty of cornhole, (climbing trees of course), and coloring at the kids table. Already looking forward to next year!
In order to celebrate the new office space, we threw an open house party to make some memories in the new space. Thank you to everyone who joined us in marking this milestone. Stay tuned for more adventures! Cheers!
Congrats to Kevin Ruffler on being promoted to Project Engineer! We’re so proud to have him on our Structural Engineering team and can’t wait to see his future projects. Cheers, Kevin!
Congratulations to Jake McConnell on his promotion to Project Engineer! He is an integral part of our Structural Engineering division and a joy to have on our team. Great job, Jake!
Join us in welcoming Sarah to our Civil division – we’re so glad to have her on our team!
Our team had the opportunity to work with LandPaths at one of their community gardens, Bayer Farms, to ready the space just in time for Summer activities. Huge thank you to LandPaths for sharing your space and letting us get our hands dirty! Our team loved getting out of the office and in the sunshine to lay some new flower beds and mulch paths for the farm.
For those that don’t know, LandPaths is a local organization that aims to foster a love of the land in Sonoma County through community and youth outreach programs. Visit landpaths.org to learn more!
Happy International Women’s Day!
“Don’t let anyone rob you of your imagination, your creativity, or your curiosity. It’s your place in the world; it’s your life. Go on and do all you can with it, and make it the life you want to live.”
– Mae Jemison, Engineer, Physician, former NASA Astronaut
Thank you to our incredible team of talented, witty, dedicated, and innovative women at Summit. We’re proud of all you’ve done and continue to accomplish each and every day.
Happy Engineers Week!
Engineers Week is the celebration and recognition of the engineering practice and all of the amazing work engineers provide the world.
We make a point to celebrate Engineers Week every year here at Summit; this year we practiced our “project delegation skills” by working in pairs to build Lego animals. One partner instructed while the other built without looking at the directions. (Trust us, it’s a lot harder than it looks!)
We are looking back at last year with an incredible amount of gratitude. We have accomplished so much in 2022: moving into a new building, launching a new website, record-setting projects within the office, and much, much more.
Most of all, we’re extraordinarily thankful to our talented, enthusiastic, and well-humored team that we call Summit.
Wishing everyone a very happy New Year and a joyful 2023.
Did you know Staff Engineer Rebecca used to be a professional chef? She brought her talents to the office and taught our team a few French classics to wow our dinner guests at the holidays including beef tartar, croque monsieur, and of course burgundy style escargot. Magnifique!
Huge thank you to Humane Society of Sonoma County for stopping by our office and making our space a whole lot cuter. They brought six kittens to play and cuddle and get the word out about their adorable adoptable pets.
Check out their website to see more furry friends available for adoption!
Summit volunteered alongside the nonprofit Rebuilding Together to help plant 143 trees at Bond and Glenbrook parks in Petaluma.
Rebuilding Together’s mission is to “repair homes, revitalize communities, rebuild lives.” We are always proud to lend a helping hand to better our community.
We would also like to applaud Lewis Watchorn, P.E. on his promotion to Senior Project Manager. Lewis has been a fundamental part of Summit Engineering’s structural division and our firm for many years. We’re incredibly thankful for Lewis’ continual contributions. Congrats, Lewis!
Another major congratulations for Tania Schram, P.E.’s promotion to Senior Project Manager. Tania is a key member of our project management team. Her strong ability to lead multi-discipline, complex projects makes us incredibly proud to have her on our team. Cheers, Tania!
Congrats are in order for Jason Flowers, P.E. who has been promoted to Senior Project Manager. Jason’s organization and communication are some of his strongest talents as a project manager and make him an incredible asset to Summit Engineering. He continually drives projects to success, no matter the size. Thank you, Jason!
Cheers to Kate Eidsen, who has been promoted to Staff Accountant at Summit! Kate is essential to our accounting team; her attention to detail and reliability make us proud to have her on our team. Congratulations, Kate!
Congratulations to Mustafa Jibat, P.E. for being promoted to Project Manager! Mustafa is an integral part of our Electrical Engineering division and driven member of our team. We’re incredibly proud of his growth here at Summit and can’t wait to see more of his innovative designs come to life. Congrats Mustafa!
Congratulations to Ashleigh Higgins on her promotion to Associate! Ashleigh’s excellent leadership of the administrative/accounting teams and valuable firm insight are essential to our success. We are incredibly grateful for her commitment and tenacity to push our team to success. Thank you, Ashleigh, for all that you do!
Lots to be thankful for! We celebrated our office move with our Tenant Improvement team and new neighbors this Monday with incredible catering from Mama Yali’s Dumpling Kitchen.
Thank you once again to everyone near and far that helped bring our new office space to life.
Summit wins the North Bay Business Journal’s Best Places to Work Award for 16 years and counting! Thank you to our incredible Summit team for making our firm such a great place to come to work each day.
Five interns joined us this summer to be part of our first annual Summit Summer Internship Program. While we’ve proudly hosted interns in the past, this year Summit formalized a program with all five divisions. They engaged in immersive engineering experiences in their specific division, as well as classroom sessions designed to supplement their school learning with hands-on experience only a multi-discipline firm can offer. They have now all returned to their respective campuses for the 2022-23 school year, and we miss them already! See you out in the field, future engineers!
This summer, we had the absolute joy of joining local students for the Mike Hauser Academy hosted by the Santa Rosa Metro Chamber of Commerce.
Six engineers and an intern visited classrooms of incoming high school freshman to discuss their roles at Summit and their growth as scholars in engineering. Students were given unique activities to provide immersion into the field of engineering, challenging their critical thinking and deepening their connection to the STEM field.
Project Engineer, Ben Griesser noted, “Providing guidance to students is what connects us to future generations of engineers. We strive to improve our community with the work we do, but we can only improve society by inspiring the next generation towards heights greater than those we achieved.”
We can’t wait to see these future engineers out in the field!
This year’s annual Summit Picnic was “Down on the Farm”! We noshed on delicious lunch from A La Heart Catering and played a few rounds of cornhole while catching up with Summiteers and their families.
In celebration of Earth Day, Summit teamed up with Neighborhood Garden Initiative (NGI) for a volunteer event tending a local community garden and helping construct a farmstand for the property. NGI is a local non-profit that builds gardens right in people’s backyards, allowing them to utilize their own space and learn how to tend and grow their own food. They also provide community gardens and many other creative gardening projects year-round. We were happy to put our engineering skills to the test and throw in a little elbow grease to help pull this local garden together!
AIA Redwood Empire Chapter asked our very own Demae Rubins and architect Daniel Piechota to lead a tour of their members through Silver Oak Winery. The tour focused on the highly sustainable practices of the winery and its applications to LEED Platinum and the Living Building Challenge. The group was able to tour the tasting room and processing facility, all while sipping on a splash of Silver Oak’s famous Cab along the way. Not a bad day at the office!
There’s nothing quite like the official Summit Olympiad! This year, five teams competed as Canada, Japan, USA, Colombia, and Croatia in a total of six “Winter Olympic” events[AH1] around the office. The teams came to a photo finish with Canada taking home the gold, Colombia winning silver, and USA rounding out the podium with bronze.
Congratulations to Monica and Anu Shah for winning second place in the ICF Builder Awards! The 2017 Tubbs Fire destroyed more than 5,200 structures, half of which were homes in Santa Rosa. Monica and Anu Shah’s home was one of them. Both being engineers, the Shahs designed a new home rebuild utilizing an innovative technology called insulated concrete forms (ICF). The home has a net zero-fire-resistant-passive geothermal concrete shell, curved floating concrete staircase, second-floor glass bridge to the balcony, solar parapet roof skirt, and a rooftop deck. The walls, floors, and roof are 100% ICF.
We were awarded North Bay Business Journal’s Best Places to Work award for the 15th year! We are so proud of our team who continue to make Summit Engineering such a fantastic place to spend the workweek. Cheers to 15 years (and counting)!
Summit teamed up with Conservation Works to participate in a beach clean up along our Sonoma Coast. We’re thankful for such an amazing team of people who are committed to making our world a better place.
After a year and a half of being apart, Summit finally welcomed back the staff to our office. We celebrated by enjoying some lawn games outdoors and seeing one another face to face (even if it was behind the mask!) Welcome back team, we’re glad to have you here!
Congratulations to our very own Nicholas Peters who has been promoted to Electrical Division Manager! Nicholas has been an incredible asset to both the electrical team and the rest of the firm. We’re continually grateful for his contributions and clever design solutions.
The North Bay Business Journal has selected Tania Schram as a 2020 “Forty Under 40” award recipient. Tania has shown her commitment to Summit Engineering and the overall engineering profession through the past 15 years. As a leader in the Civil Division, Tania is passionate about providing sustainable designs and mentoring young engineers. She continues to be a steady and inspirational leader.
Summit hosted a booth the annual North Coast Wine Industry Expo (WINExpo) on December 5. WINExpo is the largest trade show and conference focused exclusively on Napa, Sonoma, Mendocino and Lake counties, and is the 2nd largest wine industry show in North America. With over 3,000 wine professionals attending, the event was a great opportunity for us to connect with clients, vendors, and others in the wine industry.
Hats off to Demae Rubins (Principal and Planning Division Manager) for being selected as a 2019 Women in Business award recipient. Demae has been recognized as a leader, innovator and visionary in the North Bay. Congratulations Demae; we are proud to have on you the Summit team!