Directors

Selma Sierra is the Director for Energy and Environmental Policy at Energy Dynamics Laboratory (EDL) at Utah State University Research Foundation. Prior to joining EDL, Selma was the State Director for the Bureau of Land Management in Utah. As Director, Selma was entrusted to manage nearly 23 million acres of public lands and 300 million acres of subsurface mineral estate and nearly 900 full time and seasonal employees. One of her most notable achievements was the completion of a nearly 8-year land use planning process that updated the environmental analysis and land allocation decisions for more than 10 million acres of public lands in Utah.

Selma has had extensive experience in public lands management issues. Prior to Selma's appointment to State Director, she was the Chief of Staff in the national office of the BLM. As Chief of Staff, Selma implemented the Director's priorities in coordination with BLM's senior executives and Department of the Interior's senior officials.

Ms. Sierra has also served as the Assistant Director for Communications for the BLM's national office, the Director of External Affairs and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Human Resources Management for the Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior. Selma was Communications Director and Legislative Assistant to U.S. House of Representative Joe Skeen who served as Chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee for Interior.

Selma has also worked in State and local government where she served as the Deputy Chief of Staff and Chief Legislative Liaison to the Governor in New Mexico, and the Director of Public Affairs for the City of Las Cruces. Selma is a native of New Mexico and a graduate of New Mexico State University.

Mr. Gilmer is a registered Geophysicist with the Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG) and the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE).

With more than 40 years of field experience in international Oil and Gas, Coal and Potash project planning, permitting, exploration, development and evaluation, Mr. Gilmer has worked extensively with Intrepid Potash, Agapito Associates, Inflection Energy and BP Amoco (formerly Amoco Corporation) as a Senior Geophysicist and Hydrogeologist.

Since 1988, Mr. Gilmer and his geophysics consulting company (GGI) has been serving clients needing hydrogeological, reservoir simulation, geological and geophysical expertise in the oil and gas, mining, water resources and environmental fields. Typical projects have included site characterization (planning, soil gas, drilling, sampling, geophysics and fluid flow) for mines, natural gas(CBM and shale) fields, RCRA facilities and USTs; satellite image processing and analyses re geologic structure, vegetation changes and well location; database and GIS development; ground water flow and contaminant transport modeling; CBM field simulation; corrective action plan preparation for USTs; remediation planning and implementation for USTs; water demand and consumptive use studies for water districts; aquifer test analysis for water supply wells; well field siting/development studies; municipal well design, construction and testing; water rights analysis; augmentation plan development and expert witness testimony. GGI also provides contract geophysical services to other consultants and industry.

In addition Mr. Gilmer assisted the Special Projects Manager in projects at Intrepid’s mines near Moab, UT, Carlsbad, NM, and Wendover, UT. Tasks included map development for geologic and engineering purposes (NM, UT), assessment and design of salt water injection wells (NM and UT), design and interference testing of brine relief wells (NM), flow modeling of brine toward relief wells and mine shaft (NM), water balance modeling (NM), brine chemistry characterization and mapping (NM), new solar pond evaporation modeling (NM), injection and extraction well siting and design for new solution mine (NM), pipeline designs for new solution mine (NM), core drilling oversight (NM), vertical and horizontal well work over design and oversight for solution mine (UT), horizontal well site selection and design (UT), aquifer test analyses for deep brine supply wells (UT), new deep brine supply well siting, airlift development design and specification review.