- Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida, Ph.D. in Biology/Genetics
- Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida, M.S. in Biology/Zoology
- University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut, B.S. in Biology
Overview
As a core member of the GELF team, Dr. Brian J. Dougherty, Director of Technical and Regulatory Services, provides technical support across many of the Firm’s transactions. He reviews consultant reports for brownfield redevelopment projects, ensuring accuracy and completeness, and advises on strategies to navigate regulatory requirements while keeping projects on track and in compliance. Brian brings more than three decades of technical and regulatory experience, including leadership roles at the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP).
Before joining the Firm in January 2024, Brian served in multiple senior roles within FDEP’s Division of Waste Management, including Program Manager and Environmental Administrator, where he was the statewide technical lead for contaminated site cleanup programs. In these roles, he oversaw complex remedial decisions, closure strategies, and consistency across district offices, while supervising expert staff and coordinating technical support across petroleum, hazardous waste, brownfield, drycleaner, and CERCLA programs. Earlier in his career, he managed programs overseeing thousands of active petroleum cleanup sites, directing significant budgets and helping develop the state’s preapproval and performance-based cleanup programs. He also led the development of a unified statewide cleanup-tracking database, bringing consistency and transparency to regulatory oversight.
Of particular significance, Brian played a direct role in rulemaking and implementation under Chapter 62-780, Florida Administrative Code, the rule governing contaminated site cleanup in Florida, and contributed extensively to Chapter 62-777. Over more than a decade, he served as rule manager or senior contributor for multiple revisions, addressing risk-based cleanup criteria, soil and groundwater modeling, direct exposure standards, pesticide-impacted agricultural sites, and the evolution of institutional controls beyond traditional deed restrictions. He directed the development of new and alternative cleanup target levels as science evolved and new contaminants emerged, including PFAS, and helped develop guidance for large-parcel assessments with residual pesticide contamination, an increasingly important issue for redevelopment. Brian also coordinated FDEP’s Contaminated Media Forum, a statewide technical workgroup examining scientific and regulatory issues such as background soil methodologies, statistical tools, and application of cleanup target levels at complex sites.
He has participated in interagency working groups addressing hazardous waste, exposure pathways, and public health protection, and has been deeply involved in policy development, statewide program implementation, and outreach related to contaminated media and risk-based corrective action. This background allows him to anticipate regulatory challenges, align remediation strategies with agency expectations, and reduce review cycles, disagreements, and project delays.
For clients, this experience means that cleanup strategies are informed not only by what the rules say, but by how regulators expect them to be applied in practice. Brian’s ability to translate between hydrogeologists, risk assessors, and legal teams is critical in resolving complex regulatory issues, defending cleanup strategies, and aligning remediation with redevelopment planning. He helps craft technically robust approaches, anticipate challenges, and develop defensible, cost-effective solutions that support successful project outcomes.
What Brian finds most rewarding about working in brownfields redevelopment is piecing together the right combination of tools and strategies to bring a site into compliance and helping property owners move projects forward while protecting human health and the environment.
Originally from Connecticut, Brian moved to Florida in 1978 to attend university and has called Tallahassee home ever since. When he is not advising clients or reviewing technical reports, Brian enjoys taking long walks with his dog, Jenkins.