Our Team | The Urban Foresters

Meet Our Team

Sales

Joseph Rodriguez

Multifamily Market Sales

Joseph, or Joey to those who know him well, is our most tenured salesman. Joey handles the multifamily market for The Urban Foresters, and spends most of his time listening to customers’ tree service needs and understanding how we can meet those needs. Joey serves on the Product Service Council at the Houston Apartment Association as well as the Chili Cook-off Committee.

Wes Schoppe

Residential Sales

Wes piloted The Urban Foresters’ first internship in the spring of 2017 and has been here ever since. He graduated from Texas A&M with an environmental studies degree, although he completed much of his coursework while in Forestry. Wes has a deep passion for trees and is somewhat of a small-scale nurseryman, as he enjoys growing tons of cool, rare trees to plant out at his family’s farm as a hobby. Wes says, “My job is a thrill, because every day I get to use my passion to connect with people and to help them and their trees at their home!”

Kyle Kilgore

Commercial Sales

Kyle Kilgore began working with The Urban Foresters through our summer internship program. He has performed a variety of tasks related to the tree service industry in the Houston Area. Currently he serves as the commercial and industrial sales rep with clients who need tree services in sectors like commercial real estate, pipeline right of way maintenance and municipal contracts.

Jacob Rodriguez

HOA Sales

Jacob Rodriguez has been with The Urban Foresters since 2012 and currently serves all our HOA and HOA management companies. He started off as a Crew Driver, moved up to Crew Foreman/Driver within a few months, and moved into Residential/Commercial Sales a few months after that. When the opportunity arose nearly two years later, he was promoted to Operations Manager/V.P. Operations, where he served until March of 2019. Now he makes sure that neighborhood HOA trees look great all over the Greater Houston Area! Jacob is married to Kelly, a nurse, three daughters: Lilah, Hannah, and Emily, and a dog, Raleigh. Jacob graduated from Texas A&M in 2009 and is ISA Certified Arborist, Certified Treecare Safety Professional, and Texas Department of Agriculture Licensed Applicator.

Chris Ochoa

Inside Sales

Before joining us at The Urban Foresters in 2014, Chris Ochoa spent 10 years at his uncle’s outdoor power equipment store, where he sold us a majority of the equipment we use today. After completing 60 hrs of college credit at UH main and getting engaged to the love of his life, he was looking to be a part of something new and different. Chris enjoys spending time with his wife Maryanna and their son Oliver. As Chris says it: “My mission in life is to help people get to their end goal; I just happen to do that with trees.”

Adam Gully

Marketing Coordinator

Adam began working for The Urban Foresters in April of 2020. From casting and marketing at a startup faith-based film company to marketing, development, and project management in local and international nonprofits, Adam has honed his skills over a career dedicated to story-telling, helping others in need, and inviting people to live out a good story that is greater than themselves. Adam was born and raised in Mobile, Alabama (Roll Tide!) where he met his wife, Amanda, while earning their bachelors degrees at the University of Mobile. He enjoys good books and movies, house projects, and date nights with Amanda. He also loves playing soccer, hiking, mountain biking, and anything outdoors with his children Castle (age 7) and Liesl (age 5). Adam and his family currently reside in the Southwest Houston area, where he also serves as a part-time youth pastor.

Operations

Carlos Olvera

Branch Manager

If all of the moving parts involving Operations were viewed as an orchestra, Carlos would be the conductor. Carlos started his career 7 years ago when his father Andres, a foreman at the time, told him about a part-time position that we call Mil Usos, meaning “thousand uses”. This role handles our Plant Healthcare Program (PHC), which includes tree fertilizing and pesticides. Mil Usos also includes stump grinding, loading logs from felled trees with our grapple truck, and filling in as a driver for our crews when necessary. After honing his skills over many years and earning his Certified Treecare Safety Professional (CTSP) license, an opportunity opened up in 2019 to become our Branch Manager. He still gets to come to work every day with his father Andres who is now our current Mil Usos driver.

Andres Olvera

Mil Usos (“Thousand Uses”) Driver

Andres is the father of Carlos Olvera, our Branch Manager. He immigrated to Houston 20 years ago from Guadalajara, Mexico and has worked for The Urban Foresters for 9 years out of the 10 years the company has existed. Andres was a longtime foreman and now serves as our Mil Usos (“thousand uses”) Driver where he manages our Plant Healthcare Program (PHC), performing deep root fertilization and topical pest control. On most tree removal jobs, Andres will be there grinding stumps and picks up the felled tree logs with the grapple truck. Andres is a jack of all trades so anything else in between all of those roles, he does it!

Erick Flores

Foreman

Originally from El Salvador, Erick has been with The Urban Foresters since 2011, one year after it was founded in 2010. He is our longest serving employee and is best friends with Douglas Gutierrez, another foreman on our team. He brings a wealth of tree care experience to our team and really excels at taking a tree and giving it a high-end, beautiful look. Erick is married, has 3 boys, loves football and is very involved with his church.

Victor Mejia

Foreman

Victor was born in El Salvador and has been with The Urban Foresters since 2012. He has been doing tree work since he first came to the United States and is extremely knowledgeable and skillful in tree care. When he’s not working, Victor likes to run, work out, and play soccer. One of his big side projects is continuing to develop land that he owns in El Salvador and plans to one day retire there. Since coming to the United States, Victor has taken learning English very seriously and still attends ESL classes with his son Ronaldo, whom he trained to be our youngest foreman.

Albino Osorio

Foreman

Albino hails from Michoacán, Mexico. He came to America when he was 18 and immediately began working in the tree care industry. Now 45 years old, he has been with us for 5 years, starting as a climber and quickly becoming a foreman. Before coming to work for us, he did tree work for electric utility companies doing emergency removals from power lines. Albino brings a wealth of experience to his team and to The Urban Foresters. He is married and has 3 daughters.

Ronaldo Aparicio

Foreman

Originally from El Salvador, Ronaldo is the son of foreman Victor Meija. He moved to America in 2016 when he was seventeen years old and immediately started working for us as a ground hand where he did cleaning, raking, and picking up trash, while learning the ropes from his father Victor. A year after coming in with no experience, he became a top-level climber. Last year, he was promoted to foreman and is the youngest foreman in our company. He currently attends Houston Community College where he is taking ESL (English as a Second Language) classes with his father Victor.

William Cordero

Foreman

William is 29 years old and has been with us for about four years years. He started as a driver and worked up to being a foreman. Before coming to work for us, he did tree work for the Harris County Flood Control Department. William is also about to be a new dad!

Douglas Gutierrez

Foreman

Douglas is originally from El Salvador and has been doing tree work in the Houston area for many years as a foreman. He has been with us for the last three years, starting as a climber and was quickly promoted to a foreman. Douglas is married with kids and is best friends with Erick Flores, another foreman on our team.

Administration

Grant Crowell

Founder

Grant is the founder of The Urban Foresters. His day to day activities at the company include setting the vision for the future, running the weekly meetings with key staff that keep the company on target and pioneering new initiatives during the early phases of implementation (for instance, I am writing my own bio right now on this screen… pretty weird to be talking about myself!)

Jason Jesko

Vice President of Sales

Jason has been at The Urban Foresters for almost as long as Grant. He came on board during the very early years and rode the insanity rollercoaster with Grant. Since 2014 Jason has taken a heavy focus on sales. Spending countless hours understanding our clients, building his knowledge and learning to be a great coach, Jason now serves a healthy sales team as the Vice President of Sales.

Ted Doolittle

Chief Accountant

Ted came to The Urban Foresters in June of 2019 with more than thirty-five years of accounting experience which began in the mid-80’s at the Kelly Services Midwest Payroll center in St. Louis, Missouri. A military brat born in London England, Ted moonlights as a professional actor and also loves to read, write, watch live theatre (especially musicals) and stream British mysteries. He also loves baseball, college football and Baylor men’s and women’s basketball. Ted has been married to his wife Martha since 1989 and they have one daughter, Dorothy, who they adopted from China.

Marina Houghtaling

Administrator

Marina began working for The Urban Foresters in October of 2017 and was originally hired on a short-term basis to help with Accounts Receivable. However, as the company continued expanding, she began working closely with property management companies, insurance agents, and the State of Texas to make sure all necessary compliance paperwork, Certificates of Insurance, and the registrations for our fleet of trucks, trailers, and equipment are maintained and up-to-date. She organizes and files, helps answer phones when needed, and maintains all of office supplies. Marina has a BS in Communications from Clarion University in her native state of Pennsylvania (Go Steelers!). She and her husband Mark have been married for 22 years and have two boys, Adam (age 20) and Aaron (age 16).