"The quick response times have facilitated many high profile projects with short deadlines which the Land Survey Branch could otherwise not have met.

...Many other projects are along highway corridors for pedestrian safety improvements which are, again, highly visible to the citizens and to the board. I appreciate your firm's dedication to quality and professionalism. And, thank you for delivering the highest quality at all times. "

— Ms. Vickie McEntire, L.S.
County of Fairfax, Virginia



"Like most Departments of Transportation, VDOT has a myriad of surveying needs coupled with very aggressive schedules and conservative budgets. Rice Associates has continued to provide these professional services on-time, within budget and to our standards.

They have surveyed some of the most rural roadways and some of the busiest interstates and consistently maintained a high priority for safety not only for themselves, but for the traveling public as well. Without reservation, I would highly recommend
Rice Associates. "

— Mr. Michael W. Zmuda, L.S. P.E.
State Survey Engineer
Virginia Department of Transportation
 Our Employees

David F. Rice, III, LS—President

David "Charlie" Rice was a founder of Rice Associates in 1986 and since that time has gained over 23 years of surveying experience on assignments situated throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia and in neighboring states. He has served as a key team member on numerous federal, state and municipal projects with focus on highway, roadway and bridge design and construction. He has supported the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) on a continuous basis since 1994 and has managed surveying efforts on over 150 VDOT projects. Charlie has also managed many significant projects that have been historic in nature and culturally sensitive. He is recognized as one of the most innovative surveyors in Virginia and is committed to conducting firm operations on the leading edge of technology. He has been an active member of the Virginia Association of Surveyors since 1993 and formerly served as the Region 1 State Director. Charlie is a registered land surveyor in Virginia and the District of Columbia and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and Business Management from North Carolina State University.

Robert C. Buckley, Jr., LS—Central Virginia Survey Manager

Robert Buckley has over 30 years of surveying experience on projects situated throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia. Initially concentrating on property boundary surveys, Chesapeake Bay preservation for land development and subdivision design, Robert moved into infrastructure and roadway design surveys over 14 years ago. Prior to joining Rice Associates he served as Survey Manager for a surveying and construction management firm based in Richmond, VA. He has been responsible for project planning and overall project management on hundreds of projects situated in all regions of Virginia. His experience has included GPS control, photogrammetric mapping, hydrographic surveys, topographic and route surveys, railroad, bridge, and power line transmission surveys. He is a member of the Virginia Association of Surveyors, Maryland Association of Surveyors, and the American Congress on Surveying and Mapping. Robert is a registered professional land surveyor in Virginia and is also a registered property line surveyor in Maryland.

Stephen Tolison, LS—Vice President

Steve Tolison has more than 30 years of land and hydrographic surveying experience in addition to extensive experience in utility designation and mapping. He has worked throughout the Mid-Atlantic region and has managed multi-year surveying contracts totaling over $45 million over the past 17 years coordinating the efforts of various sub consultants to meet schedules for the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT). He has managed programs for the Army Corps of Engineers as well as the Department of the Interior. He has been based in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia for over 40 years and during that period of time he has been responsible for managing as many as 60 survey personnel including up to 12 field crews and numerous support staff. Steve has extensive knowledge in the areas of conventional surveying, ground based and mobile laser scanning, and aerial mapping / photogrammetry, along with utility designation and mapping. He is an active member in the Virginia Association of Surveyors (Tidewater Chapter).

Douglas J. Rice, RPLS—Vice President / Director of Business Development & Marketing

Doug Rice has 33 years of experience gained while serving in both managerial and technical capacities. His background includes extensive experience in operations, project administration, and project management with additional expertise in the areas of business development and marketing. For ten years he served as senior project manager for a North Carolina based surveying firm with global operations. Doug specialized in providing subsurface surveying services including optical and laser shaft plumbing, incremental shaft mapping, gyro orientation and horizontal and vertical controls. Over a period of 23 years he worked with an Engineering News Record Top 10 program and construction management firm progressing from resident engineer to vice president and director of regional operations with responsibility for an 11 state region and the District of Columbia. He is a registered public land surveyor in the states of Texas and Arizona, and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Forestry from North Carolina State University.

Louis Sozio—Office Manager, Manassas

Louis Sozio has over 25 years of land surveying experience in the northern Virginia area. During his career he has served as technical director, manager of operations, assistant director and director of surveys, including director of all field operations. He has extensive knowledge and management expertise in highway / roadway route surveys, boundary surveys, topographic surveys, wetland surveys, construction stakeout and aerial surveys. He has also effectively managed large scale commercial and residential development projects from the planning stages, through platting and recordation processes. During his career he has developed and implemented a detailed field code data base library for survey parties to be use as a tool to expedite field time management and office drafting. Prior to joining Rice Associates, Louis was a partner in a survey only firm where he was responsible for overall project management including costing, scheduling and contract compliance.

Darryl E. Forsythe, LS—Senior Project Manager

Darryl Forsythe has over 25 years of surveying experience and is licensed to practice in Virginia, Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia. He has served in the role of project surveyor on civil / site development projects in both public and private sectors providing services including ground control, property surveys, topographic and route location surveys. During the course of his career he has worked on a variety of project types ranging from major mixed-use developments to federal projects such as the U.S. Capitol Visitors Center. The focus of his efforts has been directed toward transportation related infrastructure projects including urban thoroughfares, rural roadways and bridges. Darryl has been a member of the Virginia Association of Surveyors since 2001.

Obadyah Foord—Office Manager, Richmond

Obadyah "Ob" Foord has 10 years of experience encompassing a wide variety of projects involving conventional surveying, aerial mapping, bridge situation surveys, boundary surveys and GIS related surveys. He has worked on federal, state, and municipal projects throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia with focus on projects situated in the eastern part of the state. He started his career with Rice Associates and has progressed from CADD draftsman and instrument person to operations manager and project surveyor. Ob serves as one of the firm's technical experts in ground based LIDAR scanning and has been factory trained in the use of the Leica ScanStation 2. He has served in various technical capacities on many of the firm's major highway, roadway, bridge and boundary projects. Ob is responsible for coordinating field and office activities in the Richmond office.

Randy A. Stowers, LS—CADD Manager

Randy Stowers has 22 years of surveying experience in a wide variety of projects ranging from residential surveys to verifying and redesigning alignments for Washington Metro Area Transit Authority tunnels. He has managed surveying efforts on dozens of projects for the Virginia Department of Transportation and Fairfax County Land Survey Branch. Randy has also performed numerous surveys for the design and construction of roads and infrastructure on large residential and commercial projects and has platted thousands of lots. Randy is a graduate of the Virginia Apprenticeship Program and has held a Virginia Survey License since 2001.

Frank M. Sokoloski, CP, RPP, SP—Director of Photogrammetry

Frank Sokoloski is an ASPRS-certified photogrammetrist, licensed in Virginia and Oregon. With more than 29 years of experience in the mapping and GIS profession and more than 3 years of experience as a land surveyor, Frank has managed photogrammetric and GIS projects through a depth of insight developed only through experience. His expertise and accomplishments involve scheduling, staffing, estimating, employee and user technical training, budgeting, development of best practices, quality assurance / quality control, project design and planning, project tracking, and effective communications. As cornerstones in his management approach, Frank is assiduously attentive to detail, schedules, and communication, all elements of management that are imperative to project success.

J. D. Little, CP—Senior Photogrammetrist

J.D. Little, a Certified Photogrammetrist, has over 29 years of surveying and mapping experience, with specialized expertise in preparing photogrammetric products from aerial photography. He has advanced training in all facets of photogrammetric production including analytical stereo plotter compilation, aero triangulation, image scanning, and production of final CADD products. J.D. is proficient in compilation, aero triangulation, image scanning and enhancement utilizing Intergraph Softcopy technology and software. He has managed numerous photogrammetric efforts associated with Virginia Department of Transportation projects and well versed in preparing deliverables in MicroStation and GeoPAK formats. J.D. holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Geography and has completed post-graduate courses in photogrammetry and advanced photogrammetry.

Terra Ann Dickerson—Internal Marketing Manager

Terra Dickerson has nine years of experience in coordinating and managing proposal production efforts for large, medium, and small federal, state, municipal and commercial projects and programs. Her expertise extends to transportation, facilities, land development, water / wastewater, GIS, and environmental and civil engineering markets. For a period of eight years Terra served as Marketing and Small Business Coordinator for a leading globally recognized engineering firm where she was responsible for ensuring strategy was carried forward throughout the entire proposal process; scheduling production efforts; interfacing with subcontractors; and organizing / managing overall pursuit efforts to assure proposal milestones and deadlines were satisfied. Terra holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Marketing and Management from Texas Christian University.

Sara Richardson-McCreery—Web Site Designer / Public Outreach Specialist

Sara Richardson-McCreery has 14 years of creative design experience, the last 12 of which have been devoted to web site design and development. She served as senior web designer for Sitelab Interactive, a Top 100 Interactive Agency, for a period of five years and in 2002 founded Spike Likes LLC, a Colorado based web design and development company. Sara has written a number of technical articles for Yahoo! Small Business and Microsoft Office Live. She has received several awards including the 2008 WebAward Standard of Excellence for the MapMyRun web site and a 2010 best in category IAC award for email marketing. She serves as a consultant to Rice Associates leading the firm's web site development and public outreach efforts. Sara holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Kansas and a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Washington.