Tom Modena has been an environmental engineer in the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality for over 25 years. He presently works in the Office of Remediation Programs as the project manager for all of Virginia's non-Federal Superfund sites. Formerly, he worked in the Brownfields, FUDS (formerly used defense sites), site assessment, and the water quality and quantity planning programs. He was on ITRC's Permeable Reactive Barrier Team for several years and is now on ITRC's Remedial Process Optimization Team.

Prior to working for state government, he worked as a structural engineer in private industry and as an agricultural engineer for the U.S. Peace Corps.

He received a B.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of Massachusetts, an M.S. in Physical Oceanography and an M.E. in Civil Engineering both at Old Dominion University, and Graduate Certificate in Public Management at Virginia Commonwealth University. He is a Registered Professional Engineer in Virginia.