Meet our staff
We have an efficient staff of 18, with strong capabilities and extensive experience in conducting geotechnical and coastal engineering investigations, and providing earthwork construction testing and consultation during earthwork operations. The HKA team has successfully completed improvement projects totaling over 500 million dollars in the greater Monterey Bay area in the past 10 years alone!
Moses cuprill, pe - principal engineer
Mr. Cuprill is the President, C.E.O, and one of three Principal Engineers at HKA. His responsibilities include managing and supervising geotechnical and coastal engineering projects, interacting with clients, developing plans for various geotechnical and coastal services, preparing cost estimate proposals, directing field studies, laboratory testing, analysis of data, development of recommendations, and preparation of report summarizing findings. Mr. Cuprill also manages project budgets and monitors efficiency. Mr. Cuprill has been with HKA for over 12 years and before that worked as the Lead Concrete Materials Engineer at Graniterock.
B.S. Civil Engineering - Cal Poly San Luis Obispo '99
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john kasunich, pe, ge - Principal geotechnical & Coastal engineer
Mr. Kasunich has more than 35 years of experience in coastal and geotechnical engineering projects throughout Central California. He is a Principal Geotechnical and Coastal Engineer and one of the founders of Haro, Kasunich & Associates. He founded the company, along with Joe Haro, in 1984.
M.S. & B.S. Civil Engineering - University of California Los Angeles '72
Joe Haro, pe, GE - Principal geotechnical Engineer
Joe Haro has over 40 years of geotechnical experience in Central California including liquefaction, ground improvements, retaining walls, foundations, etc. He, along with Mr. Kasunich, founded the company in 1984.
B.S. Civil Engineering - Fresno State '70s
mark foxx, CEG - SENIOR coastal ENGINEERing geologist
Mr. Foxx has practiced engineering geology since 1982 and has worked part-time for Haro Kasunich and Associates since 2000. He has focused on coastal investigations pertaining to coastal erosion, bluff recession, ocean wave runup, and coastal processes. He is also licensed as a Real Estate Broker, General Contractor, and Pilot. His broad experience doing construction, developing subdivisions and brokering real estate is invaluable in helping clients evaluate property and obtain permits for their proposed development.
B.S. Geology Cum Laude - Washington State University '75
M.S. Earth Sciences - University of California Santa Cruz '84
Chris George, PE - senior ENGINEER
Chris is a Senior Engineer and project manager that has been with the company for over 30 years.
B.S. Civil Engineering - San Jose State University '90s
Robert Hasseler, PE, GE - Senior Geotechnical Engineer
Mr. Hasseler has over 30 years of engineering experience, including geotechnical investigations for power plants; transmission lines; roads and bridges; water storage tanks; drainage systems; retaining walls; airports; military installations; police, fire, and correctional facilities; state and national parks; recreational facilities; educational facilities; healthcare institutions; and commercial and residential construction. Mr. Hasseler has experience in managing and performing all phases of geotechnical engineering projects, including initial contact with the client, proposal preparation, permitting and scheduling, subsurface investigation, instrumentation, analysis, design, report preparation, laboratory testing and construction monitoring. He has also been responsible for engineering review and oversight of construction and special geotechnical inspections.
M.S. Geotechnical Engineering - University of California, Berkeley, California '93
B.A. Physics - University of California, Santa Cruz, California '88
jeff davis, BS - Staff Engineer
Jeff has been working in the geotechnical consulting field at HKA for almost 20 years. He worked as a Staff Level Engineer for many years and more recently has focused on construction monitoring and testing. He is HKA’s most senior field technician and has hands on experience working on a variety of challenging geotechnical projects during construction. As a Senior Field Technician Jeff performs compaction tests and making geotechnical decisions during construction monitoring for numerous past HKA projects.
B.S. Soil Science - Cal Poly San Luis Obispo '03
Ashton Buckner, P.E. - Senior geotechnical engineer
Ashton has been with HKA for 7 years. He started shortly after graduation as an Entry Level Engineer and has become licensed and climbed the ranks to become a Senior Geotechnical Engineer. Ashton has managed projects including subdivisions and multi-family structures on soft weak soils, landslide repair, and expert witness work. He currently manages complex projects as well as oversees Staff Engineer work.
B.S. Civil Engineering - San Jose State '17
marco azevedo - lab technician
Marco is a senior field and lab technician. He was our former lab manager and has recently become a senior field technician, managing construction projects all over the Central Coast.
NICK HARWICK LABORATORY MANAGER
Nick recently joined HKA after spending years working as a geologist for a variety of consulting companies. Nick is overseeing HKA’s soil testing laboratory and program.
joey ponzio - senior field technician
Joey is a senior field technician responsible with managing construction projects.
dana keith - ADMINISTRATION
Dana is an office manager in charge of billing and other administarive and human resource tasks.
Phone: (831) 722-4175 ext. 104
sylvia ruvalcaba - administration
Sylvia is an office manager in charge of field technician dispatch, nuclear gauge administration, and other administrative tasks.
Phone: (831) 722-4175 ext. 106
nancy hasseler - ADMINISTRATIOn
Nancy is the bookkeeper who handles receivables (i.e., work HKA or its subconsultants performed for clients). Contact her with any questions about your bill and payments, your account history, or any other matter related to the hours we worked on your project. She has been at HKA over 30 years. Nancy enjoys bookkeeping because numbers always do their job, they never call in sick, and they never get impatient!
Attended University of Maryland
Phone: (831) 663-4276
vicky odello, PE - SENIOR engineer (firm consu)
Vicki is a Senior Engineer and has worked part-time at HKA for 30+ years. She has been involved in every aspect of geotechnical engineering projects, large and small, including project management and supervision of geotechnical analyses and investigations for residential, commercial, industrial and municipal projects for new development and distressed structures. Projects include foundation underpinning; expert witness; coastal bluff analysis; field work; subsurface drilling exploration; landslide slope stability analysis; retainment; drainage; report preparation and presentation; plan review work; earthwork monitoring and construction testing. Her primary work areas are Big Sur, Carmel Valley, Pebble Beach, Monterey Peninsula, and Monterey County. Vicki enjoys an efficient, confidential, concierge-type approach with her long-term and new clients.
M.S. Engineering Science (Geotechnical) - UC Berkeley '88
B.S. Geology - Sonoma State '86
Megan Walls, P.E. Senior Geotechnical Engineer
Megan has been with HKA for 3 years and worked at WRECO prior to joining our team. Megan works on coastal engineering and geotechnial projects. She prepares reports, plans, and interacts with permit agencies. Megan recently joined the Senior Engineer ranks at HKA and has shown ability to work on complex coastal and geotechnical engineering projects.
Thayara Almeida, E.I.T. Staff Engineer
Thayara is a staff engineer with HKA and has been with the firm for 3 years. She is willing to learn and take on the hard work of difficult geotechnical engineering projects. She has worked on soil nails walls, landslide repair, subdivisions, and coastal bluff retreat evaluations in complicated geologic environments. Thayara knows how to work smart and hard.
Juan Perez, E.I.T. Staff Engineer
Juan Perez is a staff engineer with HKA for the past 3 years. Juan is a very fast learner and can handle any type of geotechnical engineering project we present to him. Juan is skilled with Civil 3D and has proven to be a competent project manager.
John Buringa, E.I.T. Staff Engineer
John recently joined HKA’s staff and has has previous experience with other geotechnial consulting firms. He can teach himself different geotechnical analysis and is confident with project management. John has worked on liquefaction projects and foundation settlement projects among others. John is an accomplished rock climber and Eagle Scout.