PRESS RELEASES

HMIS Strengthens In-House Legal Team with Two Key Hires

Hanford Mission Integration Solutions (HMIS) is the central service integrator for the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) ongoing cleanup mission at the Hanford Site in southeast Washington. HMIS manages essential sitewide services—such as water and power supply, road infrastructure, IT systems, security, training, and safety standards—integral to supporting cleanup operations. Operating under DOE’s Hanford Field Office, HMIS acts as the “site integrator”, ensuring that cleanup contractors and specialized teams have the reliable support they need.

The Hanford Site spans 580 square miles, housing reactors and processing plants that produced plutonium, generating millions of gallons of radioactive and chemical waste. Cleanup efforts, governed by the 1989 Tri-Party Agreement (DOE, Environmental Protection Agency, WA Ecology), include:

• Decommissioning and cocooning reactors
• Treating and vitrifying tank waste
• Demolishing contaminated buildings and remediating soil and groundwater
• Operating extensive groundwater pump-and-treat systems near the Columbia River
• Managing onsite debris disposal, e.g., via the Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility (ERDF)

HMIS plays a critical enabling role in the cleanup of America’s most contaminated nuclear site by maintaining and integrating the vital infrastructure and services that cleanup operations require. The broader Hanford cleanup remains a massive, multifaceted endeavor—managed under strict regulatory oversight and community engagement—and is poised to extend into decades as it tackles tank waste, groundwater remediation, structural decommissioning, and environmental restoration.

HMIS retained The Energists to search for two key lawyers to join the HMIS in-house legal team in a Counsel role: one focused on labor and employment law and the other focused on Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) and procurement. It was crucial to the HMIS leadership that the new team members brought not only the substantive legal knowledge and experience but also fit well into the existing legal team and would relocate to the Richland, Washington office site.

After a national search, HMIS selected and hired two new legal team members in the Counsel role: Jacqueline Marrast-Simpson and Tacy Gillespie.

Jacqueline brings over a decade of legal experience with a strong background in litigation, compliance, government contracting, and public service. Her career includes impactful roles with the Washington State Office of the Attorney General, Columbia Basin College, the Benton and Franklin Counties Superior Court, and The Trinity Law Firm. Jacqueline has advised on matters ranging from Title IX and ADA compliance to procurement and ethics in government service. She holds a Juris Doctor and a Master of Public Administration from the University of Pittsburgh, and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Queens College of the City University of New York. Her deep expertise and dedication to public service will make her a tremendous asset to the HMIS legal team.

Tacy brings over a decade of legal leadership experience across the mining, manufacturing, and technology sectors, including executive and in-house counsel roles at Teck American, Clearwater Paper Corporation, Amazon Web Services, Rio Tinto, and Coeur Mining. Most recently, she served as Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary for Teck American Incorporated, where she led U.S. legal and compliance operations, advised on major environmental and litigation matters, and served as a board member and officer for multiple subsidiaries. She holds a Juris Doctor from Gonzaga University School of Law and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Brigham Young University. Tacy also serves on the boards of the National Mining Association and the American Exploration and Mining Association.

We are proud to have supported HMIS in welcoming these two distinguished legal professionals to their team.