Meet our Team
R3’s seasoned, professional staff have backgrounds in the public and private sectors, engineering, resource management, environmental science, and urban planning. We have dedicated our careers to the field of solid waste management and sustainability, and skillfully deliver expert industry analysis and unbiased recommendations to our municipal clients. Together we have assisted communities in implementing hundreds of solid waste management consulting projects — including solid waste planning, procurement and negotiation, operations and performance reviews, financial and rate analysis, and compliance assistance — throughout Southern and Northern California and the western United States.

Richard Tagore-Erwin
Principal
Mr. Tagore-Erwin’s project work encompasses all aspects of solid waste management and environmental consulting. Over the past 30 years, he has successfully provided hundreds of jurisdictions and public agencies throughout Southern and Northern California and the Western United States with solid waste procurement and management consulting services that encompass the following: development and implementation of Zero Waste plans; strategic sustainability planning and compliance assistance; financial planning, analysis, and rate reviews; service and rate surveys; and operations and performance reviews. His particular areas of expertise include designing strategic plans and negotiating solid waste Franchise Agreements that achieve legislative compliance with State ordinances and regulations such as AB 341, AB 1826, and SB 1383. These projects routinely involve working with and gaining feedback from diverse stakeholder groups to determine the feasibility of potential programs. As a certified meeting facilitator, Mr. Tagore-Erwin routinely conducts working sessions with municipalities and their franchised proposers, facilitates public workshops and community meetings with diverse community groups such as elected officials, haulers, facility operators, environmental groups, and the general public, and participates in Board of Supervisors and City Council hearings.
Prior to his work as a municipal management consultant, Mr. Tagore-Erwin was a Senior Consultant to the California Legislature, where he was instrumental in the development of many of California’s solid waste management laws, including AB 939, recycled content requirements, used oil recycling requirements, and labeling of rigid plastic containers. He has also served on several national panels on sustainability.
Mr. Tagore-Erwin has a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts in Political Science from the University of Hawai’i, Mānoa.

Garth Schultz
Principal
Mr. Schultz has extensive solid waste management experience in both the public and private sectors. He is particularly skilled in designing a variety of solid waste and sustainability plans and has served as project manager on a wide range of planning and program development projects for the management of solid waste, recycling, green waste, organic waste, and C&D debris. His areas of significant expertise include: developing strategies and implementation steps for Zero Waste and high diversion plans; assessing existing solid waste collection systems and programs; evaluating public outreach and education programs; developing and revising ordinances and policies; and engaging stakeholders and communities through workshops and outreach planning. Mr. Schultz is very knowledgeable of State regulations and skilled at assisting clients to achieve legislative compliance, particularly with regard to AB 1826 and SB 1383. In both his public sector and consulting roles, he has regularly presented before City Councils and Commissions. Mr. Schultz’s additional experience includes: assisting jurisdictions with procurement and negotiation of solid waste collection services; conducting solid waste operations and performance reviews; conducting rate modeling, reviews and restructuring; and performing data research and investigation.
Prior to joining R3, Mr. Schultz served as Manager of Operations and Environmental Services for the City of El Cerrito. He was a key partner in restructuring and modernizing El Cerrito’s municipal recycling collection operations and award-winning community recycling center. As a Public Works Manager, Mr. Schultz managed the City’s maintenance operations, including a $5 million annual budget funded by multiple special revenue funds, 20+ operations and customer service personnel, and maintenance services for parks, fields, trees, sidewalks, storm drains, and street sweeping.
Mr. Schultz has a Master of Public Administration and Public Policy Development from Cal State East Bay and a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science, with a Minor in Public Policy, from the University of California, Berkeley. He is a Lead Construction and Demolition (C&D) Facility Evaluator through RCI (Recycling Certification Institute), a member of RCI’s C&D Technical Council, and a member of CRRA (California Resource Recovery Association) and NCRA (Northern California Recycling Association).

William Schoen
Project Director
Mr. Schoen is an engineer with more than 30 years of solid waste operational and consulting experience, with primary expertise in the areas of solid waste operations, rate reviews, and financial analysis. He has managed recycling and landfill operations and reviewed the finances and operations of numerous municipal and private sector solid waste management operations, including divisions of Waste Management, Republic Services, Recology, Allied, and BFI. He has conducted financial analyses of long-term solid waste diversion and disposal alternatives, developed strategies for solid waste collection systems and Zero Waste plans, evaluated collection staffing and equipment requirements, and overseen visual and physical waste characterization studies.
Mr. Schoen has a profound understanding and significant experience in evaluating all aspects of solid waste collection systems, including every-other-week collection, co-collection systems, residential and commercial food waste collection programs, bulky item collection programs, and illegal dumping response programs. This operational understanding is vital to R3’s ability to critically evaluate a hauler’s operational assumptions and projections associated with implementing legislative requirements such as AB 1826, to identify and support recommended changes to those assumptions, and to form options for organics collection in compliance with legislation. Mr. Schoen also currently manages R3’s food-rescue research efforts throughout California and nationally.
Mr. Schoen has a Bachelor of Science in Bioengineering from the University of Pennsylvania.

Nate Frost
Project Director
Nate Forst recently joined R3 and is a sustainability consultant with 15 years of experience with developing and managing solid waste, recycling, and sustainability projects and programs. His expertise in waste and recycling programs extends to business, non-profits, and the public sector.
Nate has contributed to best practices in sustainability, helped write guidance for the Federal Aviation Administration on airport waste reduction, and has improved numerous solid waste programs through enhanced data tracking/reporting and cost-saving solid waste and circular economy strategies. Additionally, as an entrepreneur he has honed skills in a variety of capacities including business development, data analysis, and client management.

Janet Barile
Operations Manager
Ms. Barile provides support services on a wide range of planning, operational, and financial projects. She has also provided administrative assistance with the evaluation of services for municipal operations.

Peggy Paulsen
Marketing Manager
Ms. Paulsen is an experienced Marketing Manager, brand strategist, social media expert, and with nearly a decade in experience producing proposals, designing websites, organizing data, and ultimately, helping leaders showcase their talent in the professional services world. Working amongst these high-level professionals, her main role is to remove the distractions and focus on how best the R3 team can solve the problem at hand. She excels at storytelling and painting a clear picture via supporting graphics, to illustrate the story and highlight the solutions. Peggy understands the complexity of these professions and is adept and transforming reports and materials into presentations and handouts.
Peggy is a very energetic and creative person, with a keen eye for detail and organization. Juggling multiple tasks at once is commonplace, and she excels under pressure. She has a strong appetite for learning and is an active member of and volunteer for the Sacramento chapter of the Society for Marketing Professional Services.

Carrie Baxter
Project Manager
As a Project Manager, Ms. Baxter has over 10 years of experience in a wide range of solid waste operational, planning, and financial projects with R3. She specializes in assisting local jurisdictions to negotiate and improve waste hauler collection contracts that incorporate best practices and legislative requirements. She has also created disaster debris management plans for various cities in California, and delivered a presentation at the 2018 CRRA conference on this subject. Other services Ms. Baxter provides include: evaluating clients’ solid waste services, program options, and needs; providing financial analysis services such as studying client jurisdiction rates and diversion incentive methods; supporting operations and performance reviews; evaluating billing and reporting systems; and conducting on-site route audits. She also routinely conducts comprehensive solid waste and recycling benchmarking and rate surveys.
Ms. Baxter has a Bachelor of Science in Organization, Management, and Leadership from the University of San Francisco and is a member of CRRA (California Resource Recovery Association) and NCRA (Northern California Recycling Association). She is diligently training to complete the 2019 Spartan Trifecta, which includes three separate obstacle courses of varying lengths, from 4 to 12 miles, that contain up to 30 obstacles per course.

Rosemarie Radford
Project Manager
With her strong background in research and technical writing, and her solid waste industry experience, Ms. Radford provides valuable support for solid waste management planning, program development, regulatory reporting, and solid waste implementation plans by analyzing data, coordinating field studies, conducting surveys, and writing comprehensive reports. Her diverse solid waste planning experience includes: Zero Waste planning; legislative compliance assistance; organics program analysis; municipal code analysis and revision; data and tonnage tracking and modeling; and strategic planning for landfill, organics, and recyclables processing capacity. Ms. Radford’s other areas of expertise include: negotiation and procurement assistance; operations, programs, and facility reviews; research and data compilation; operational and performance reviews of haulers; and financial planning, including rate modeling, rate studies, and rate reviews.
Ms. Radford has a Master of Public Administration in Environmental Science and Policy from Columbia University and a Bachelor of Science in Conservation and Resource Studies from the University of California, Berkeley. She is a Construction & Demolition Recycling Facility Evaluator through the RCI (Recycling Certification Institute) and a member of CRRA (California Resource Recovery Association) and NCRA (Northern California Recycling Association).

Ryan Calkins
Project Manager
Mr. Calkins, a Marine Corps veteran, joined R3 after serving as Route Manager for Waste Management (WMI) in Stockton. His successful career managing private sector waste, organic, and recyclable collection systems for WMI and California Waste Solutions (CWS) in the Bay Area included the following responsibilities: training Route Managers; training and certifying sites in Onboard Computing Systems Dispatch (OCSD) systems; using Geographic Information System (GIS) software for rerouting and mapping routes; managing unionized drivers; and coordinating daily collection and operational needs with fleet maintenance services. As a Senior Project Analyst at R3, Mr. Calkins’ extensive Operations experience is extremely valuable to his work on all projects involving review and analysis of residential and commercial processing operations. He has contributed his talents to R3 engagements in these areas: Collections & Processing Operations Analysis & Review; Collection System Routing Technology; Hauler Performance Standards Reviews; Municipal Operations Reviews; Solid Waste Route Studies; Contract Compliance Audits; Detailed Rate Reviews; and Franchise Agreement Reviews and Recommendations.
Mr. Calkins has a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from San Francisco State University. He is a Construction & Debris Recycling Facility Evaluator through the RCI (Recycling Certification Institute) and an active SWANA member who recently completed their Manager of Collection Systems certification process. Mr. Calkins’ and his fiancée’s Australian Shepherd, Mulder, just graduated from puppy training and is now ready to sit still at all of the area’s finest breweries and coffee shops.

Jordan Muratsuchi
Senior Project Analyst
Mr. Muratsuchi comes to R3 from Hawaiʻi where he was the Executive Director of an environmental 501c(3) nonprofit focused on waste management and community beautification. He has a diverse comprehension of environmental management, with experience in waste management, community-based natural resource management, environmental remote sensing, restoration ecology and ecological restoration, stormwater management, and environmental engineering. He has designed and built small-scale biodigesters, performed litter studies and analyses, planned recycling and community outreach events, and assisted in multiple research projects focused on local and community-based natural resource management. He is solution-focused and well-versed in working with governmental, business, and community stakeholders and clients.
Mr. Muratsuchi has a Master of Science in Natural Resources and Environmental Management from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering (Environmental Concentration) from The University of Michigan. His most recent published work is as chapter co-author in Detours: A Decolonial Guide to Hawaii. He enjoys gardening, baseball, and science fiction–and his barbecue is to die for!

Nikhil Tagore-Erwin
Project Analyst
Mr. Tagore-Erwin joined R3 after completing studies in Biology and Political Science and gaining experience in project and office management plus business marketing. As an Associate Analyst, he provides valuable support on a wide range of projects, including: Detailed Rate Reviews; Rate Surveys; Hauler Performance Reports; Financial Analyses; Solid Waste Planning; and Grant Application Reviews. His contribution on these projects includes in-person client meetings, conducting surveys, performing online and in-the-field data research, and compiling and critically analyzing the resulting data and findings.
Mr. Tagore-Erwin has a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of Hawai’i, Manoa. He is a dedicated gym rat and gamer who loves sharing his treasured Kona coffee with his fellow Californians.

Claire Wilson
Project Analyst
Ms. Wilson’s background in environmental science and ecology combined with her experience in research and data analysis plus community outreach, education, and advocacy are valuable assets to R3. As a Project Analyst, she provides important support on a variety of solid waste management projects, including: Zero Waste planning and implementation; negotiations and procurement; rate-adjustment reviews; and performance reviews. She has helped our clients manage their hauler contracts, achieve compliance with State and local legislation, and implement new and exciting policies and programs around reuse and Zero Waste.
Ms. Wilson is passionate about working with local governments to reduce and better manage their waste streams. She has a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and is a member of NCRA (Northern California Recycling Association), a certified Zero Waste Community Associate, a member of CPSC (California Product Stewardship Council), and the recipient of a 2019 Young Professionals scholarship from CRRA (California Resource Recovery Association). In her free time, Ms. Wilson loves to travel to the farthest corners of the world, eat spicy food, and ski. On weekends you can find her exploring the streets of San Francisco and Berkeley, yoga mat in hand.

Kristy Dalay
Project Analyst
With her fine-tuned information design and organization expertise, Ms. Dalay serves as R3’s proposal coordinator and a project support member. She collaborates on proposal marketing strategies, and also oversees proposal timelines, development, production, and delivery. She designs visually appealing, easy-to-understand graphics and outreach materials to help R3’s clients engage and educate their target communities about such new legislation as AB 1826 and SB 1383. Ms. Dalay also provides quality assurance/quality control; report and presentation creation, preparation, coordination and revision; social media marketing; and front-end website development.
Ms. Dalay has a Bachelor of Arts in Design from UC Davis, is a recipient of a 2019 Young Professionals scholarship from CRRA (California Resource Recovery Association), and holds a Zero Waste Community Associate Certification from Zero Waste USA and a Sustainable Resource Management Certification from the National Recycling Coalition. She enjoys hiking and trail running, trying new dishes and drinks, traveling the world, and meticulously documenting all of the above via photos and videos!