Movers and Shakers for June 20

Aminata Taylor has joined United Way of Anchorage as chief financial officer, effective May 24. Taylor, a certified public accountant, most recently served as CFO for Camp Fire Alaska. She has worked in finance, information technology and human resources in both nonprofit and for-profit enterprises, including CliftonLarsonAllen, one of the largest accounting firms in the United States, where she specialized in tax compliance for non-profits. She also has worked in permanent supportive housing at Shelter House in Iowa City, Iowa, and for American Equity, an insurance company, in Des Moines. Taylor is one of 17 children and speaks five languages. She came to the United States from the West African nation of Guinea in 2008. A 2012 graduate of Coe College in Iowa, Taylor earned a master’s degree in accounting at the Kaplan University School of Business in Chicago in 2016.

Emery Schramm, CESCL, recently joined R&M Consultants Inc. as an engineering associate in the firm’s Construction Services Department. Emery will provide construction oversight, field inspections and materials testing on a variety of building, bridge, transportation, site development, utility and waterfront projects. Emery is a former R&M employee, originally joining the firm in 2007 as an engineering intern, working during the summer construction season for several years. She joined full-time as an engineering associate in 2013. Since being back at R&M, Emery has been working in R&M’s materials laboratory, calibrating testing equipment, conducting various tests in support of geotechnical field work and preparing for reaccreditation of the lab. Emery is an Alaska Certified Erosion and Sediment Control Lead; American Concrete Institute qualified in concrete, field and aggregate; and Western Alliance for Quality Transportation Construction qualified in aggregate, asphalt, embankment and base, and density.

KPB Architects hired Korynn Applegate as project designer and Brad Nygaard, RA, as architect. Applegate brings 16 years of experience as a designer, the majority in Anchorage. Her technical skills include an expertise in various architectural and graphic mediums for K-12 schools, preschools, early childhood development facilities, as well as multifamily and mixed-use housing projects. She holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Savannah College of Art and Design. Nygaard has more than 28 years of experience in the field of design. Nygaard recently spent most of 2019 and 2020 managing a design and contractor team on large-scale earthquake repairs which included damage assessment, seismic-restraint strategies and implementation of those strategies.