Meet Gei's

Rachael Orellana

Program Manager

Rachael Orellana is a seasoned program manager in GEI’s Sacramento, California office. Rachael has 18 years of flood risk management experience.  She has a proven track record as a project and program manager for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), having worked for both the Sacramento District and South Pacific Division. Known for her strategic program management and project execution, Rachael has overseen a variety of flood risk management projects, ensuring timely and effective completion.

Rachael excels in stakeholder coordination and leadership.  She has managed large-scale collaborative efforts such as the International Levee Handbook, leading the Silver Jackets Interagency Teams for CA, NV, UT and organizing both in person and virtual workshops.  Her diverse project portfolio includes critical topics such as flood after fire, alluvial fan flooding, emergency action planning, table top exercises, flood inundation mapping, flood risk education and outreach, and floodplain management planning.  Rachael’s combination of expertise and leadership acumen positions her as a key contributor to advancing flood risk management initiatives.

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LOCATION

Sacramento, California

Highlights

  • Professional Engineer in CA
  • COL Carl Morrison Collaborative Leadership Award recipient Oct 2024
  • Chapter Lead for the Operations and Maintenance Chapter of the International Levee Handbook
  • Prior to joining GEI, I worked for the US Army Corps of Engineers for 18 years, working in Engineering, Operations, Construction and Planning Divisions.
  • One of my favorite projects while working at USACE was being the Project Manager and Technical Lead for 2 GEI contracts with over $4 million capacity to streamline processes, overseeing over $1.5 million in execution which included approxiimately18,000 encroachment permits and over 32,000 inspection data points.