Perhaps the scariest aspect of the Flint water crisis (read Civil Engineering magazine’s article here) is the notion that it was merely the tip of the iceberg when it came to the problem of lead pipes and drinking water in the United States.

So, in the aftermath of the crisis – now more than a half-decade ago – civil engineers have been busy working on that proverbial iceberg, taking lessons learned from Flint to ensure water quality in communities across the country.

Civil Engineering Source asked several ASCE members to share their perspectives about how civil engineers can work to prevent “another Flint.”

In the aftermath of the Flint water crisis, what’s the most important thing civil engineers can do to help prevent a similar tragedy in other parts of the country?

Richard Fernandez

P.E., ENV SP, M.ASCE

Principal engineer, Aquario Engineering, San Diego

“One, water-quality lab technicians can be obligated to report toxic drinking water quality results to the public agency responsible for the delivery or regulation of the water.

“Secondly, hold all executives involved with the negligent stewardship of ratepayers’ drinking water quality personally responsible. This would send a signal to all involved in the industry that there are real consequences for not having the public’s water quality a priority.

“And another thing that civil engineers, ASCE, and other standard-bearers can do is endorse and enact a higher professional standard of care when making significant system changes that impact drinking water supply and the associated water quality. It’s especially necessary when the affected community includes a significant Black population or other minorities.

“This is what equity is about – providing a higher standard of care, especially for folks that are underserved.

“If a higher standard of care was taken in Flint during the analysis of switching water supplies, operating the water system, and encountering toxic water quality, this might have been prevented.”

Jean-Louis Briaud

Ph.D., P.E., D.GE, Dist.M.ASCE

ASCE President; Distinguished Professor, Texas A&M University

“JEDI [justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion] should be a human reflex and should permeate everything we do naturally. We are not there yet and need a reminder from time to time.

“When it comes to infrastructure, we need to be sensitive about the impact of new construction on the life of citizens. Of course, it is not possible to make everybody happy, but we need to consciously optimize infrastructure systems and consider many factors, including need, efficiency, cost, safety, and equity.”

Elise Ibendahl

P.E., PMP, F.ASCE

Global technology lead, flood modeling and planning, Jacobs, St. Louis

“As an industry, we need to embrace the concept of OneWater, fully recognize that all water has value, and understand that simply ‘fixing a problem’ doesn’t address other related entrenched issues.

“With increased priority for social equity worldwide, we’re working with water utilities across the globe to proactively adopt water equity and social and environmental justice initiatives that prioritize community benefits through capital investments in water, wastewater, and stormwater infrastructure. And by expanding the view of infrastructure beyond water, such as roads and bridges, we can look for opportunities to share investment with water-related needs.

“For example, if we’re building a new road or development we need to ask, ‘What can we also do to improve access to clean water while that area is torn up?’ This requires a collaborative, shared table for infrastructure projects that includes the community, policymakers, planners, and others in addition to engineers to make sure that multi-functional opportunities don’t pass us up.

“When everyone has a seat at the table, it can be a longer and harder process, but the outcomes are more sustainable from an economic and environmental perspective; outcomes that are inclusive of all stakeholders and enable us to overcome generational infrastructure inequities.”

Read the Civil Engineering magazine article about the lasting effects of the Flint water crisis and more from the “Equity and infrastructure: How infrastructure influences social equity” series.

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The water crisis that rocked Flint, Michigan, several years ago turned a once mighty industrial city — the cradle of General Motors — into a tragedy, a city that other cities didn’t want to emulate. And while the crisis impacted the entire city, many of the affected neighborhoods were predominantly Black and low-income (according to the U.S. Census Bureau, the city is 54.1% Black, and 38.8% of the city’s residents live below the poverty line).

The Flint water crisis initially unfolded in 2014, when the city shifted its water supply from Lake Huron to the Flint River to save money. But the new source of water was highly corrosive and caused lead from old pipes throughout the system to leach into the water supply. By 2015, this had led to a significant increase in lead exposure in Flint’s drinking water — up to 40% of the city experienced elevated lead levels. Residents were forced to resort to bottled water throughout the crisis. At least nine people died of Legionnaires’ disease, a waterborne form of pneumonia.

“Looking back at what happened in Flint, some of the immediate reaction, was ‘What happened in Flint was a really unique situation, and that would never happen in my community,’” says Elin Warn Betanzo, P.E., the founder of Safe Water Engineering LLC in Royal Oak, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. Betanzo’s firm helped uncover the water crisis in Flint in 2015. As time passed, however, there was a shift to people saying, “‘I wouldn’t want to risk that happening in my community,’” Betanzo says. “And (now) there’s been a shift toward more proactive work regarding lead in water.”

On the whole this has led to a much-needed push to eliminate lead pipes in municipal water systems. But funding challenges for this effort remain throughout the country.

Why lead?

Lead service lines were common in construction during the decades before World War II. Lead is soft, Betanzo says, so lead pipes move with “the ground freeze/thaw cycles so (there are) fewer breaks and leaks.” And lead also lasts a long time. On the downside, Betanzo says, “You cannot see, smell, or taste lead in water, so when it does corrode, no one complains.”

But we’ve known since ancient Roman times, she adds, that lead is also a poison. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, lead can have a variety of negative health effects. In children lead exposure can lead to behavior and learning problems, lower IQs, and hyperactivity. Lead can also adversely affect fetal development in pregnant women and cardiovascular performance in all adults, increase blood pressure and the incidence of hypertension, decrease kidney function, and cause reproductive problems for men and women. There is no safe level of lead exposure.

Lead use peaked during World War II, when the material was diverted for use in ammunition and other military supplies. Four decades later, a 1986 amendment to the Safe Drinking Water Act banned new lead pipes — although it did not require that existing lead pipes be removed. In 1991, the EPA issued the Lead and Copper Rule, which required utilities to take corrective action if lead levels exceeded 15 parts per billion in more than 10% of customer taps. The corrective action many utilities chose was to add phosphate-based corrosion inhibitors to the water rather than replace pipes, a more expensive option.

Many cities lack good records on the numbers of lead pipes they have. Lines that extend into customers’ homes are considered the responsibility of homeowners, so estimates vary but range from 6 million to 10 million lines nationwide.

According to a 2016 American Water Works Association journal article, about 7% of homes still have lead service lines, and these serve about 15 million to 22 million Americans.

While lead lines are present in many old homes in both low-income and affluent neighborhoods built before World War II, the remaining lines are largely located in urban areas and tend to be “concentrated in areas of Black and brown communities,” says Betanzo. And it’s urgent to remove lead lines in such communities, she says, because they already typically have so many health and educational disparities, and the lead “compounds them greatly.”

“And these are the same communities that have the fewest resources to replace the lead service lines” themselves, she adds.

Various approaches

Utilities often change from one water supply to another, as Flint did, but such changes require reworking the complex cocktail of chemicals used to coat lead pipes to mitigate corrosion. Even when these changes are carefully planned — they were not in Flint — there can be problems. “If you change from one corrosion-control treatment to another, it can mean dissolving one layer of protection to replace it with another,” says Betanzo. “There could be a high lead release in the middle.”

Municipalities have also been replacing lead lines — some more proactively than others — but not always systematically. For years, when water mains needed to be replaced, utilities would also replace the lines that ran into neighborhoods with another material — often plastic or copper — but those replacements generally stopped at the curbs. Property owners were then responsible for the portions of the lines that traveled from curbs to their homes.

“The practice of partial service-line replacement greatly increases the risk of lead exposure in the home,” says Betanzo, “because you’re cutting a lead pipe, you’re excavating, you’re shaking off any corrosion control on that pipe, and especially if you’re connecting it to a copper pipe — a dissimilar metal — you create a galvanic corrosion connection that accelerates lead dissolving in the water.”

In the wake of Flint, municipalities across the country are moving with greater speed to address their lead lines. According to Tom Neltner, the chemicals policy director in the health program at the Environmental Defense Fund, 42% of lead pipes across the country are in just five states: New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Michigan, and Illinois.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy signed legislation at the end of July to “require the inventory, replacement, and financing of lead service lines throughout the state within the next 10 years.” And the Illinois legislature also passed a bill requiring lead lines be replaced.

And in 2018 Michigan became the first state to require the removal of all lead pipes — by 2041. It is replacing 5% per year beginning this year. Last year, the state announced $102 million in funding for the replacements in disadvantaged communities.

Likewise, Denver began an aggressive program to remove lead pipes for up to 84,000 homes within 15 years, financed largely through a combination of hydropower sales, water service fees, and bonds; Denver Water is also providing free filters for affected households.

Louisville, Kentucky, overhauled its lead pipes at the end of last year. (Read “Louisville Water completes its multiyear lead pipe replacement project” in Civil Engineering.) And Newark, New Jersey, managed the remarkable feat of replacing all of its more than 18,000 lead lines in just a few years at no cost to residents.

Necessary changes

Flint provided engineers and water policy experts a significant lesson in the importance of listening to the communities that their work impacts. “Having two-way open communication is essential for building trust,” says Betanzo. “We’ve got lots of opportunity to improve in that.”

The Flint lead crisis also exacerbated a growing sense of distrust among residents in many places about the quality of their water. “When people don’t trust their tap water, they turn to bottled water and sugary beverages like sodas and juice,” says Peter Roquemore, the project manager of the water program at the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation. This shift, besides its obvious environmental and health impacts, can also create financial burdens for residents.

Perhaps the biggest challenges remain the replacement cost of the lead lines that remain — and political will. The EPA estimates that lead service lines will cost an average of $5,000 per household to replace, Neltner says, but that figure is reported be as high as $26,000 in Chicago, he adds. Plans to replace the city’s 400,000 lead lines at that cost have gotten little traction.

This spring, the U.S. Senate passed by an 89-2 vote a bill that would provide $500 million over five years to replace lead pipes.

Roquemore says a fully funded replacement program — once it can be determined what that amount should be — is the most equitable approach. Partial subsidies or rebates would still lead to challenges for low-income households that cannot afford the upfront costs. “We need a balance of requirements and funding to get the lead pipes out,” offers Betanzo. “It’s very expensive. Communities absolutely need funding support from state and federal governments to do this. (Utilities) cannot do it through rates, especially when lead service lines are concentrated in our low-income communities.”

Mixed messages from Flint

In August 2020, the city of Flint said it had replaced nearly 9,700 lead pipes and had 2,500 households left to inspect. According to the EPA, Flint’s water system currently meets regulatory criteria for lead and copper. A 2020 Politico investigation found that “after nearly $400 million in state and federal spending, Flint has secured a clean water source, distributed filters to all residents who want them, and laid modern, safe copper pipes to nearly every home in the city that needed them.”

But Flint water activist Melissa Mays — one of the plaintiffs in litigation the state settled in August 2020 that requires the state to pay Flint residents a total of $600 million — says residents are still contending with poor health, expensive home plumbing fixes, and bottled water. She maintains that the entire water system — including the mains — needs to be replaced.

“It’s simple,” Mays says. “You broke it. Fix it. Fix what you broke.”

Read all the pieces in “Equity and Infrastructure: How Infrastructure Influences Social Equity,” and “What can civil engineers do to prevent another Flint water crisis elsewhere?” from the Civil Engineering Source.

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Civil engineers play a critical role in our society. The structures they create shape our world, influencing significant issues such as social equity.

America’s interstate highway system connects communities but has also segregated them in some cases. Neighborhoods established in more industrial or vulnerable areas have often faced substantial challenges in developing. And during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, many students living in rural areas or disadvantaged communities struggled to keep up with school because of limited access to broadband.

Success and good quality of life for all rely on a built environment that is equitable and inclusive.

In this episode of ASCE Interchange, Maya Trotz, professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of South Florida, examines social equity in infrastructure.

“If we’re all given that opportunity to really flourish, I think that is what equitable infrastructure means for communities, the types of innovations, and the types of livelihoods that people might have,” said Trotz.

She believes that the key to equitable infrastructure is the word “access” – access to education, energy, clean drinking water, and everything that communities need to thrive. Engineers can then consider “the happiness factor,” using it as the metric to determine if an infrastructure system promotes good quality of life for the public.

To view all Interchange episodes, visit ASCE’s YouTube channel.

Discover more from the “Equity and Infrastructure: How Infrastructure Influences Social Equity” series.

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The recent reconsideration of a major interstate expansion project in Texas (read Civil Engineering magazine’s article here) has reignited conversation around the ways civil rights and community needs intersect with infrastructure.

These conversations, of course, go right to the core of what the civil engineer’s role is when designing and building infrastructure projects.

Civil Engineering Source asked several ASCE members to share their perspectives about how to best integrate community needs and civil rights into an infrastructure project:

What is the best way to integrate community needs and civil rights into an infrastructure project?

Kimberly Pugel

S.M.ASCE

Doctoral candidate in civil engineering, University of Colorado Boulder

“There’s no question that infrastructure addresses people’s needs and transforms lives; the real question is whose needs does a project serve? The needs of the more privileged, powerful, or vocal? Or of the more vulnerable, underrepresented, or hard-to-reach?

“Equitably integrating the needs of all citizens into infrastructure projects should start from the early stages of project design. The National Environmental Policy Act’s current scoping process, which requires public comment periods or public hearings after the final design has already been selected, in no way provides equal, meaningful opportunities for engagement. Meaningful engagement should be a collaborative process between all relevant stakeholders (including industry, governments, community representatives, and other interested parties) to explore issues and identify solutions together. Collaboration is different from public input; being collaborative means that all parties bring their knowledge and perspectives to the table, learn from each other, and create solutions that no single entity could have developed by themselves.

“My doctoral thesis has focused on the ways that diverse stakeholders can identify and solve complex infrastructure problems collaboratively, such as unsafe or unequal access to water or sewage systems.”

K.N. Gunalan

Ph.D., P.E., D.GE, F.ASCE

Senior vice president, AECOM, Salt Lake City, Utah; ASCE 2020 president

“It all starts with an in-depth understanding of the ‘purpose and need’ for the infrastructure project. This needs to be followed by an appreciation for the environment (project setting) and history, as well as genuine concern for those that may be affected by the project.

“Yes, we have all of these steps outlined in the federal National Environmental Policy Act process. But it takes leadership to implement them in a fair and equitable manner.

“Given the long history of infrastructure development, we have a number of both good and bad examples of how to integrate civil rights and community needs. The best way is to engage the community at the outset; make sure that everyone and all the concerns are heard, documented, and addressed. The majority of concerns arise from not being heard. It is all about communication!

“You need to make sure that the project does not disrupt people’s lives; does not impede opportunity for the community to grow and prosper; that it enhances and does not diminish the environment or the quality of life.”

Bob Prieto

A.M.ASCE

Chairman and CEO, Strategic Program Management LLC

“Two out of three large infrastructure projects fail. Given this simple and shocking fact, it is worth asking ‘Why?’ and ‘How?’ when responding to the question, ‘Can we better address social justice and community concerns?’

“Let me limit the causes of failure to two:

“First, the owner has never clearly defined the strategic outcomes that the project is to accomplish, nor obtained agreement on them or continuously communicated them. Second, large infrastructure projects rarely fail technically; they fail because stakeholder needs and concerns have never been addressed adequately.

“So, in addressing social justice and community needs, we must begin with stakeholder engagement. This is very different from stakeholder management, which is often more akin to manipulating a set of stakeholders towards somebody else’s predetermined outcome and solution. Stakeholder management has clearly failed to deliver success.

“Social justice and achieving community needs requires early and continuous engagement of both direct and often indirect stakeholders in defining what is to be done; what is to be accomplished; what is the outcome collectively desired. Engagement requires an ability not just to listen but to understand the context of the comments received. Listening is not enough.

“Finally, engagement is even more. It is about the stakeholders – the community – taking a role in leading and having a meaningful stake in success. Social justice and meeting community needs are not veneers to be applied at a later stage in a project.”

Kelly Farabee

P.E., PTOE, M.ASCE

Complete Streets project manager, S&ME, Tampa, Florida

“Our jobs as civil engineers are so important. We have the ability to drastically alter people’s lives – either for the good or the bad.

“Just look at the interstate highway system in the United States. On the one hand, it has enhanced connectivity throughout our nation. On the other hand, we can’t ignore the fact that many disadvantaged communities were sacrificed in the process of constructing the system.

“If we are to avoid such tragedies in the future, I believe we need to remember our past mistakes and learn from them. We need to approach projects from every angle to identify potential negative impacts to different members of the community. In particular, we need to take special care that disadvantaged or vulnerable groups are not taken advantage of just because they don’t have the same resources or political clout as other groups.

“Finally, we have to listen. We have to take the time to listen to the community in which we are working. How do they live? What challenges do they face? What do they love about their community? If we can better understand the needs of the local community, then we can find solutions that truly enhance their lives.”

Read the Civil Engineering magazine article about the suspension of the I-45 expansion project and more from the “Equity and Infrastructure: How Infrastructure Influences Social Equity” series.

The post What is the best way to integrate community needs and civil rights into an infrastructure project? appeared first on Civil Engineering Source.

A major interstate expansion project is on hold in Texas after the Federal Highway Administration raised concerns that it could violate Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. The FHWA’s concerns come as President Joe Biden’s administration pushes to reemphasize racial equity and environmental justice as part of its infrastructure package — and it could have lasting implications for national infrastructure construction moving forward.

In a letter dated March 8, the FHWA asked the Texas Department of Transportation to pause its North Houston Highway Improvement Project, which would widen, reroute, and realign Interstate 45 through downtown Houston. The FHWA noted that it was acting in response to three complaints that it had received that raised concerns about the project under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act as well as for environmental reasons.

The equity concerns stem from TxDOT’s projections that the project would displace more than 1,000 homes, two schools, five places of worship, and 344 businesses that employ roughly 24,870 people in a low-income community with residents who are predominantly people of color. The complaints came from Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas; the nonprofit environmental advocacy organization Air Alliance Houston; and a community organization called Texas Housers.

“Although TxDOT is responsible for the NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) process through a memorandum of agreement with FHWA, FHWA retains responsibility for evaluating and processing complaints against federal-aid recipients under Title VI,” the FHWA letter states. “To allow FHWA time to evaluate the serious Title VI concerns raised in the letters referred to above, we request that TxDOT pause before initiating further contract solicitation efforts for the project, including issuance of any requests for proposals, until FHWA has completed its review and determined whether any further actions may be necessary to address those concerns.”

Officials with the FHWA and TxDOT declined interview requests for this article.

Years in the making

Work on the I-45 project stretches back to 2002, when TxDOT and other public entities launched a series of planning studies to identify and address transportation needs in the area. They concluded that I-45 requires significant expansion and redesign to meet increasing traffic demands, improve mobility, expand transit and carpool opportunities, eliminate flooding, and enhance safety in the growing city.

“This (would be) the first round of major highway expansions since the infrastructure was built in Houston during the (President Dwight D.) Eisenhower era,” explains Brian K. Carroll, managing partner at Sanderford & Carroll PC and a former civil engineer. Carroll is an experienced construction lawyer who is knowledgeable about TxDOT projects and is unaffiliated with the paused Houston project. “This is an exceptionally critical expansion that’s badly needed to bring this corridor up to current standards,” he says. “Plus, this is a major hurricane evacuation route. We want to get this project built as quickly as we can for the safety of everyone.”

After identifying the need to expand I-45, TxDOT spent years developing a series of alternatives for the project. The department presented these alternatives to the public and other stakeholders five times between 2011 and 2016 before proposing a recommended alternative in 2017. Based on public comments gathered between May 2017 and June 2018, the department revised its recommended alternative to the current $7 billion proposal and issued its final environmental impact statement for the project in August 2020.

This protracted process is typical for TxDOT, says Carroll, who represents highway contractors and assists them in evaluating, preparing, and litigating claims arising from TxDOT projects.

“Everything with TxDOT takes a long time,” Carroll says. “It’s a very methodical process of design that includes getting schematic design contracts approved, combined with long-range traffic studies, as well as partnering with local municipal planning districts to project what the traffic volume will be in 10, 20, 50 years. Once that happens, they have to go through the draft environmental impact statement and the final environmental impact statement. After clearing those hurdles, they have to obtain federal and state money to build the project, and from there, they have to let it for construction. It’s a very slow-moving process. It can take years and years, even decades, to get a project from concept to construction.”

Voices of opposition

However, throughout TxDOT’s environmental review process and since the department released its final environmental impact statement for the project nearly a year ago, many area residents and other stakeholders have objected to the proposal.

Many of the complainants have cited social justice issues and environmental concerns because of the sheer number of homes and businesses that the project would displace. Among those voicing opposition to the plan is the Make I-45 Better Coalition, an alliance of historic preservation and environmental groups.

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner also opposes the project, writing in a December 8, 2020, letter to TxDOT that while “this project can be transformational and can achieve the city’s and TxDOT’s objectives,” the project “has shortcomings that must be addressed and impacts that must be further mitigated to maintain my support.”

David Fields, Houston’s chief transportation planner, agrees and says that the project should be reconfigured with the community in mind.

“Part of the project goes through historically low-income and minority neighborhoods,” Fields says. “The interstate was built that way (in) the ’60s, and it’s had a significant impact on those neighborhoods, both with flooding and cutting them off from economic opportunities. This project, as it stands now, will only make things worse for the people who live there. We don’t believe that widening a freeway right next to where these people are living is the best approach. A project that has as narrow of a footprint as possible is a high priority for us.”

Community members have also spoken in opposition to the project. A grassroots organization called Stop TxDOT I-45 has held protests and gathered stories from area residents and business owners whom the project would negatively impact. (Under eminent domain, TxDOT would have to pay property owners the appraised value for any property it wants to acquire.)

Among the residents that Stop TxDOT I-45 has spoken with are Elda Reyes, whose family has paid off the mortgage on their modest house and can’t fathom taking out a new loan to relocate, and Sean Jefferson, who paid $64,000 for his house and doesn’t have the money to purchase a new place, noting that the condos on the other side of the interstate sell for more than $300,000. “TxDOT hasn’t (done) anything but come and do a survey and send a letter in the mail saying … ‘We’re going to be taking this land for a freeway project,’” Jefferson said in one of the organization’s videos. “They always have major plans, but they don’t even seek the community feedback.”

Time to investigate

Despite vocal public opposition to its proposal, TxDOT issued a record of decision to advance the project in February 2021. The FHWA’s March review under the Civil Rights Act is what ultimately brought the project to a halt.

“We have received the letter from FHWA and are reviewing the FHWA requests,” said Bob Kaufman, the TxDOT director of communications and customer service, in a statement. “It’s unfortunate there is an expanded delay on this project, but TxDOT remains fully committed to working with FHWA and local officials on an appropriate path forward. We know that many in the community are anxious to see this project advance. This FHWA action indefinitely suspends key steps for this project.”

Just days after the FHWA issued its letter to TxDOT, Harris County filed a lawsuit to compel TxDOT to revise its project plans. (While Harris County geographically includes Houston, the city is not part of the lawsuit.) “For too long, transportation policy in our region has been stuck in the ’50s,” Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said in a press conference on the lawsuit.

“For a generation, we’ve gone on just building more lanes, putting down more concrete, thinking that somehow, magically, that’s going to reduce traffic and that’s going to make us more competitive,” Hidalgo said. “All the while, what we’ve done is created more flooding problems, exacerbated instead of solving traffic, and built bigger and wider highways while turning into one of the last urban areas worldwide without a comprehensive public transportation system. We cannot continue to support transportation policy that prioritizes cars over people.”

According to a June letter that FHWA division administrator Achille Alonzi sent to TxDOT executive director Marc Williams, TxDOT has agreed to meet federal environmental requirements and cooperate with the FHWA’s Title VI investigations.

“With respect to the scope of the ‘pause,’ the FHWA requests that the pause apply to right-of-way acquisition, including solicitations, negotiations, and eminent domain, and final design activities,” the letter states. “FHWA will similarly pause any of its activities and approvals, including but not limited to sign-off on the submitted Interchange Justification Report. There are numerous environmental and civil rights issues involved, and FHWA believes that no further actions (should) be taken on this project that might impact our Title VI investigation and any proposed remedies should the agency find that a violation has occurred.”

Future implications

Although it’s too soon to know how the FHWA’s actions will ultimately impact the project, Carroll is concerned about the precedent it could set for future projects, especially in Texas, which is a NEPA assignment state, meaning it has the authority to conduct its own environmental analysis without FHWA project-specific review and approval.

“For FHWA to step in and tell TxDOT that you’re not doing your job right is really concerning. That’s another level of federal oversight that’s going to slow down the construction of critical infrastructure, particularly in minority areas where they don’t have sufficient infrastructure to help alleviate traffic concerns and make things better,” Carroll says, adding that “it’s unfortunate that people are displaced, but that’s a function of most infrastructure improvements. If the standard is going to be that we can’t ever change the footprint of the infrastructure, it’s going to be extraordinarily expensive to build future infrastructure.”

Should the FHWA find that the project is in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, departments of transportation and infrastructure engineering and construction teams would most certainly need to more closely consider potential civil rights issues going forward. And the FHWA would need to develop guidelines for civil rights analysis, similar to the NEPA guidelines it has for environmental analysis, says Michael C. Loulakis, FDBIA, president of Capital Project Strategies LLC and a co-author of Civil Engineering’s long-running department The Law.

“If the ultimate test for a project’s viability will now involve determining whether civil rights are being violated because of impacts on neighborhoods, then how does a transportation agency pass the test?” Loulakis wonders. “I’m not aware of any standards right now that consider civil rights in this way. Depending on what FHWA does in this case, those standards will be necessary so that everyone knows where the bar is set.”

For now, it’s a matter of waiting to see what happens with the Houston project. “I could see the project being pulled from construction and going back to redesign,” Carroll says. “If that happens, it could be three to four years before we’re back in construction, which is probably a bad thing for Houston.” Of course, some people, like Hidalgo, disagree. “The message from the Biden administration to TxDOT is very clear: You can’t bulldoze your way to a massive infrastructure project without community input, without considering smarter transportation options,” she said in a June 23 Houston Public Media report. “And you can’t bulldoze your way through the Civil Rights Act.”

Read all the pieces in the series “Equity and Infrastructure: How Infrastructure Influences Social Equity,” and “What is the best way to integrate community needs and civil rights into an infrastructure project?” from the Civil Engineering Source.

The post FHWA invokes Civil Rights Act to suspend Houston interstate expansion appeared first on Civil Engineering Source.

The federal interstate highway system was a momentous undertaking, by some accounts the largest public works project in the history of the world. Writer Tom Lewis, in his 1997 book, Divided Highways: The Interstate Highway System and the Transformation of American Life (New York City: Viking Penguin), described the scale thusly: “Imagine the state of Connecticut knee deep in earth; that’s how much was moved for the interstates. Or a wide sidewalk extending from the earth to a point in space five times beyond the distance to the moon; that’s how much concrete was poured for the interstates.”

“Some people would say we did a good job (and that) we’re the envy of the world with our highway system,” says Joseph Kane, a senior research associate at the Brookings Institution. “They’re not wrong in some ways. We wouldn’t have achieved some of the economic growth we achieved without this network.” A 1996 report prepared for the American Highway Users Alliance estimated that the highway system returned $6 of value for every $1 invested.

But clearly, Kane adds, the highway system also hurt some communities “in some pretty marked ways.” The interstates, in some cases, cut huge swaths through vulnerable, largely Black, urban neighborhoods, accelerating forces of segregation as described by historian Raymond A. Mohl in a 2002 paper for the Poverty & Race Research Action Council, “The Interstates and the Cities: Highways, Housing, and the Freeway Revolt.” The interstates’ placement triggered what Mohl referred to as a “spatial reorganization of residential neighborhoods.”

According to Mohl, African Americans uprooted by the highways were often displaced into “working-class white neighborhoods on the fringes of the Black ghetto where low-cost housing predominated.” Those white people then fled for the suburbs, and the Black residents who were unable to follow were largely stuck in what became “second ghettos.” This, Mohl argued, helped mold the “sprawling, densely populated ghettos of the modern American city.”

We tend to think of the interstates as a product of the 1950s, but their roots go back much further. The federal Bureau of Public Roads, the precursor to today’s Federal Highway Administration, dates to 1916 when President Woodrow Wilson signed the Federal Aid Road Act, authorizing $75 million (about $1.9 billion in today’s dollars) in aid to help states cover half the costs of road building.

Future President Dwight Eisenhower famously appreciated the value of roads — first as a member of the Army’s first transcontinental car caravan in 1919, a 62-day excursion over inadequate roads that slowed the convoy of nearly 300 officers and soldiers to just 5 mph, and much later as the Allied commander in World War II, when he admired the efficiency of the German autobahn.

After years of planning and debate over funding, Congress passed the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956. It authorized a 41,000 mi limited-access highway system that would be funded through a Highway Trust Fund, “derived from excise taxes on fuel and tires,” Mohl wrote. “The federal government would provide 90% of the cost, with the states contributing the remaining 10%.” The BPR would provide oversight but “state highway departments would be responsible for determining the interstate routes and building the roads.”

The legislation budgeted $27.5 billion (about $243 billion today) for the project and targeted a completion date in 1972. Of course, the original highway system wasn’t fully built out until 1992, and the total cost of the system was $128.9 billion, according to the FHWA.

Social engineering

Building the interstates gave engineers a chance to show off their skill, designing and constructing 41,000 mi of highways, 16,000 entrances and exits, and, according to Lewis,“nearly 55,000 bridges and overpasses and scores of tunnels.” It would require heroic construction efforts in seemingly impassable locations, as was the case in Glenwood Canyon, on the Western Slope of Colorado.

But it also had the effect — mostly unintentional but sometimes not — of creating a kind of social engineering. It required seizing more land by eminent domain than “had been taken in the entire history of road building in the United States,” according to Lewis.

The justification for siting the highways through central cities was linked to the goal of what was known as the urban renewal movement of the 1950s and ’60s, and the two efforts must be understood in concert. The urban renewal movement developed out of the 1949 Housing Act, which made federal funds available to identify and clear out so-called slums in American cities, paving the way for redevelopment. Much of the identified urban renewal land was in poor and Black neighborhoods. And while the highway system plans impacted white working class and other ethnic neighborhoods — and even threatened some more affluent neighborhoods — they were largely built where land was cheap and political opposition was least likely to be organized or effective. In other words, poor neighborhoods that were predominantly home to people of color.

Mohl argued that highway planners in the 1940s believed that “new urban highways … would both revitalize the central city and permit better housing and living conditions in the suburbs.” This turned out to be true — but restrictive covenants in those suburbs meant that those who could enjoy these better conditions were mostly white.

By the 1960s, federal highway construction was demolishing 37,000 urban housing units each year; urban renewal and redevelopment programs were destroying an equal number of mostly low-income housing units annually. Mohl cited planning scholar Alan A. Altshuler, who estimated that the highway system would displace up to 1 million people, a disproportionate number of them Black.

“In states around the country, highways disproportionately displaced and destroyed Black homes, churches, schools, and businesses, sometimes leveling entire communities,” wrote law professor Deborah N. Archer in the Iowa Law Review earlier this year in “Transportation Policy and the Underdevelopment of Black Communities.” Although billed as an opportunity to remove blight, highways often tore through once-vibrant communities, ripping the social fabric and inflicting psychological wounds on those forced to leave their homes and those left behind.

Engineers of the era were not well trained to consider the social effects of their work, “the very real human problems of lives disrupted, neighborhoods destroyed, and livelihoods lost,” as Lewis put it. For example, Pittsburgh’s Lower Hill District — part of a larger neighborhood that was a nationally important center for African American arts and music — was partially destroyed in 1956 to make way for the construction of the Civic Arena (itself later demolished), and, several years later, the construction of Interstate 579. Together the projects, which disconnected the neighborhood from the downtown, led to the demolition of 1,300 buildings, the loss of 400 businesses, and the displacement of 8,000 residents, most of them Black.

“We know the word slum was part of the language being used to advance the urban renewal initiative on the federal level,” says Marimba Milliones, the president and CEO of the Hill Community Development Corp., which is working now to equitably redevelop the neighborhood. “It had to be declared a slum in order to advance the urban renewal initiative, and so therefore it was a slum.” Milliones cautions against romanticizing the condition of the buildings — many were not in great shape — but she points out that, as in any city, “there are ways to preserve property and to stabilize property to make sure it can last. We’re left with a lot of that in the middle and upper Hill District now. The question is, was the declaration of it being a slum even accurate, from an engineering, from an architectural, from a built environment standpoint?”

This scene played out in cities across the country; in Miami, planners rejected an abandoned rail corridor at the western edge of downtown for the site of I-95, instead shifting it a few blocks west — right through the center of Overtown, a predominantly Black neighborhood. In New Orleans, the beautiful Claiborne Avenue, lined with two rows of immense oak trees, served as the cultural and commercial center of the Black community. The trees were uprooted and 500 homes demolished to make way for I-10, which opened in 1968, devastating the community. A protest poster in Washington, D.C., criticized the highway as representing “white men’s roads through Black men’s homes.”

To be sure, many of these urban neighborhoods were poor with substandard housing — but they remained coherent, socially vibrant communities.

Pushback against freeways gathered momentum early on, in poorer neighborhoods and more prosperous ones. Passage of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1962 represented a first tentative effort to curb the authority of state highway departments and bring other voices to the process of making decisions about interstate routing. More affluent communities were able to organize and resist federal highway planners for years and block many projects, a process that came to be known as the highway revolts.

Equitable construction

There’s little doubt that some planners and engineers were cognizant of the racial implications of the freeway construction through America’s cities. Mohl noted that “one former federal highway official conceded in a 1972 interview (that) the urban interstates gave city officials ‘a good opportunity to get rid of the local n—–town.’”

Shannon Bruffett, a doctoral candidate in the University of South Florida history department, is completing his dissertation on the impact of federal public housing, interstate highway construction, and urban renewal programs on Black communities in Tampa, Florida. He contends that interstate highway construction in Tampa was one segment of a coordinated effort that also employed the construction of public housing and urban renewal programs to eliminate Black communities throughout the city, including the largest African American enclave — commonly known as the Scrub — which was once home to as many as 6,000 people of color. “It is almost incomprehensible to think that a city, year after year, through every federal program available, would work to displace those who have so little,” Bruffett says.

According to Norman Garrick, Ph.D., a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Connecticut, there probably were some people who had racial motivation, “but I don’t think that was necessarily the majority,” he says. “The bigger thing for me is not so much the motivation of planners in terms of being racist. The bigger issue for me is that some of the tools, techniques, and algorithms we developed — refined in the 1950s — definitely had unintended consequences of supporting inequitable treatment of racial minorities and also of poor people and also supporting a totally car-dependent society, one in which all other modes of transportation were pushed aside and marginalized.”

Garrick refers to “engineering economics,” which prioritized cost efficiency above all, as the method that made extending highways through poor neighborhoods where land was cheap appear to be the correct decision. He says poor modeling based on expected traffic growth did not take into account how building the road itself would greatly impact those projections.

“There is a legacy of harm that has come from these decisions,” Kane says. “Benefits of infrastructure can be long-lived, but the harms can (also) be long-lived.”

Indeed, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University concluded in a paper published in ASCE’s Journal of Construction Engineering and Management last year that low-clearance bridges, which tend to prevent the use of some types of public transportation, were more common in neighborhoods with more racial minorities. According to the paper, restrictive bridge heights “constrict the passage of certain vehicles, which may disproportionately affect those groups who rely more on public transportation, and may thus segregate across different socioeconomic and demographic groups.”

One of the authors of that report, Daniel Armanios, Ph.D., A.M.ASCE, an assistant professor in the Department of Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon, told Civil Engineering that the United States still does not have a satisfactory standard approach for incorporating local community and equity concerns in engineering decision-making around bridge siting and clearance heights or other physical infrastructure systems more generally.

Moving forward

Kirk Harris, Ph.D., an associate professor in the urban planning department at the School of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, contends that to move forward with infrastructure development, housing development, and economic development, planners must revise their existing practices and explicitly ask, “What are the relative benefits and burdens of those developments on populations that have been excluded or damaged under the existing set of practices?”

Indeed, the Biden administration has recently made racial equity a key principle of its proposed infrastructure plan. Cities are discussing freeway removal or freeway caps (including over I-579 in Pittsburgh), which can reconnect severed neighborhoods. In Houston, a proposed expansion of I-45 has been put on hold due to equity and environmental justice concerns.

Harris isn’t just laying down the challenge for planners; he’s also laying it down for engineers. “When you don’t understand your history and you don’t understand the nature of how systems have functioned for vulnerable communities and communities of color, and you fail to appreciate or understand those systems and their impacts over the long run and the inequalities they produce, you’re bound to reproduce them,” he says. “The fact that you may not have known about that history makes you complicit — so you must know.”

Read all the pieces in the series “Equity and Infrastructure: How Infrastructure Influences Social Equity.”

The post How the interstate highway system connected — and in some cases segregated — America appeared first on Civil Engineering Source.

In late March, the Biden administration released its American Jobs Plan, a $2 trillion proposal seeking to boost the state of infrastructure and other services across the country.  In unveiling the plan, the White House highlighted a desire to undo some of the harm that has resulted from earlier large-scale infrastructure projects, most notably the Interstate Highway System. “Too often, past transportation investments divided communities … or it left out the people most in need of affordable transportation options,” according to a summary of the American Jobs Plan released by the White House on March 31.

Against this backdrop, the Biden administration included within its wide-ranging plan a $20 billion program to “reconnect neighborhoods cut off by historic investments and ensure new projects increase opportunity, advance racial equity and environmental justice, and promote affordable access,” according to the summary. At the same time, the White House also vowed to target “40% of the benefits of climate and clean infrastructure investments to disadvantaged communities,” the summary stated.

Although the White House and Congress have yet to iron out their differences regarding a major infrastructure package, the administration’s proposals for improving racial equity and environmental justice have caught the attention and imagination of those seeking to redress harms associated with past infrastructure projects and ensure that future projects benefit everyone.

“It’s an opportunity to join with and see people that we just often haven’t seen, for whatever reason, when we’ve done these large infrastructure projects,” says Michael McAfee, Ed.D., the president and CEO of PolicyLink, a research and action organization that is dedicated to advancing racial equity.

At the same time, recent calls for a renewed focus on environmental justice within the infrastructure sector have raised questions about how civil engineers and others involved in the provision of such services can best go about ensuring their equitable development and delivery.

At the federal level

This focus on ensuring equity in infrastructure has been present since the earliest days of the Biden administration. One week after his inauguration, President Joe Biden signed his Executive Order on Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad. Among its provisions, the order directs federal agencies to “make achieving environmental justice part of their missions by developing programs, policies, and activities to address the disproportionately high and adverse human health, environmental, climate-related and other cumulative impacts on disadvantaged communities, as well as the accompanying economic challenges of such impacts,” according to the text of the order. “It is therefore the policy of my Administration to secure environmental justice and spur economic opportunity for disadvantaged communities that have been historically marginalized and overburdened by pollution and underinvestment in housing, transportation, water and wastewater infrastructure, and health care.”

The order also created two separate, though nearly identically named, advisory bodies — the White House Environmental Justice Interagency Council and the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council.

The White House Environmental Justice Interagency Council is led by the chair of the Council on Environmental Quality, Brenda Mallory, and comprises the heads of multiple federal agencies, including the Department of Defense, the Department of the Interior, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Transportation, the Department of Energy, and the Environmental Protection Agency. Biden directed the new interagency council to “develop a strategy to address current and historic environmental injustice” and “develop clear performance metrics to ensure accountability,” according to the order.

Meanwhile, the new White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council was incorporated within the EPA. The advisory council is charged with providing recommendations “on how to increase the Federal Government’s efforts to address current and historic environmental injustice,” the order notes.

Previous efforts

The recent actions by the White House pertaining to environmental justice are not the first such efforts by a presidential administration. In 1994, President Bill Clinton signed Executive Order 12898, Federal Actions to Address Environmental Justice in Minority Populations and Low-Income Populations. Essentially, the order directed federal agencies to “make achieving environmental justice part of (their) mission by identifying and addressing, as appropriate, disproportionately high and adverse human health or environmental effects of (their) programs, policies, and activities on minority populations and low-income populations,” according to the order.

Clinton’s executive order was useful, because it “raised the idea of environmental justice and injustice to the national level,” says Dennis Randolph, P.E., M.ASCE, a traffic engineer for the city of Kalamazoo, Michigan. Randolph, who has worked as a civil engineer in varying capacities at the local government level for 50 years, also is a member of the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council, which advises the EPA on matters related to environmental justice.

The 1994 order has had only mixed results in terms of its influence on the civil engineering community, Randolph maintains. “Much of what has happened with broadened awareness (regarding environmental justice) has been in the matters of providing opportunities for minority and disadvantaged community members to join as contractors or professionals in our business,” Randolph says.

However, thornier questions of how to contend with the legacy of past wrongs have proved harder to address.

“The idea that infrastructure we built resulted in injustice to people and communities, especially those with the least ability to influence or impact decisions regarding infrastructure, has been very difficult for many of us to accept,” Randolph notes.

As an example of such harms, Randolph cites aspects of the Interstate Highway System, which frequently disrupted established communities and displaced hundreds of thousands of people around the country. “Some pieces (of the system) wreaked terrible environmental injustice on poor and disadvantaged communities,” he says. 

A city separated

Before going to work for the city of Kalamazoo, Randolph held the position of director of works for the city of Grandview, Missouri. Like many urban centers throughout the United States, Grandview experienced significant dislocation at the hands of a major highway project. In the 1980s, before Randolph’s tenure in Grandview, a highway that would later become Interstate 49 was extended through the city. As part of this effort, the existing two-way service roads on either side of the highway were converted to one-way service roads.

However, the project provided no sidewalks on the bridges spanning the interstate and included few turnarounds and crossovers along the highway corridor. “It made it extremely difficult for people to travel from one side of the city to the other,” Randolph says. The changes “destroyed the cohesion in the neighborhoods,” he says. “It separated the city.”

Cut off from many of their customers, businesses began to leave the area. Lower-income individuals, particularly those without vehicles, found themselves essentially walled off from economic opportunities. “They were stuck,” Randolph says. They also had a more difficult time getting to grocery stores or other places they needed to go. At the same time, lower-income residents began experiencing health problems stemming from the pollution associated with the approximately 100,000 vehicles traveling through the nearby corridor every day. “They were showered by pollutants of all sorts,” he says.

For Randolph, Grandview’s experience highlights what can happen when an infrastructure project fails to account for its effects on those who are least able to cope with the changes it brings, changes about which they had little or no input. “It’s difficult to break out of a problem that was caused by a facility built to help someone else and (on which) no thought was given to you or to protect you,” he says.

Growing awareness

Injustices associated with past infrastructure projects began to receive greater attention from the federal government during the Obama administration, largely because of Anthony Foxx, the DOT secretary from 2013 to 2017.

“Secretary Foxx expanded the role of civil rights and equity in federal transportation applications and decision-making” within the DOT, says Daniel Armanios, Ph.D., A.M.ASCE, an associate professor in the Department of Engineering and Public Policy at the Carnegie Mellon College of Engineering. As a result, the DOT’s Departmental Office of Civil Rights evaluates various infrastructure projects to ensure that they “do not harm asymmetrically or unduly those of marginalized or disadvantaged backgrounds,” he notes.

However, transportation is not the only infrastructure sector with a history of unequal outcomes. Because of the well-publicized problems involving lead in drinking water in Flint, Michigan, and other U.S. cities, water infrastructure has emerged as a major concern for those working to advance more equitable public policy.

“Flint is probably what we would consider ground zero” for environmental injustice, McAfee says.

In 2014, the cash-strapped city, in a cost-cutting move, began using the Flint River for its drinking water supply. After the corrosive water from the river leached lead from pipes within the city’s distribution system, lead levels increased in drinking water samples. More concerning, the incidence of Flint children having elevated levels of the toxic material in their blood also increased, generating local and national outrage regarding the situation in the majority Black city. “It was a public policy decision to be cheap on caring for that infrastructure,” McAfee says.

Problems stemming from past infrastructure projects illustrate a failure on the part of civil engineers and others to take the time to understand how such projects will affect communities and learn from their members as to what they would like to see in terms of infrastructure, Randolph says. “As applied scientists, it is our role to listen to people, identify problems, and then use our knowledge of technology to solve these problems in a way that does not harm people,” he says. “This is what we have not always done and one reason the idea of environmental justice has been gaining traction.”

Correcting the damages

If the Biden administration succeeds in its bid to create a new federal program for reconnecting neighborhoods, advancing racial equity and environmental justice, and promoting affordable access, what might such an effort entail?

The program would need to focus on “addressing and correcting damages caused by projects in the past and preventing environmental injustices from happening in future projects,” Randolph says. Such outcomes can be achieved “specifically by making sustainability and resilience a key focus in our work, as these ideas encompass the support and welfare of humanity and the earth,” he says.

In fact, Grandview offers an example of how previous damages can be undone. The city “spent a lot of time developing a plan” to return the service roads along the I-49 corridor to two-way operation, Randolph says.

The new arrangement is expected to help reconnect Grandview neighborhoods that were cut off from the rest of the city by the existing configuration. “We had to do some creative engineering” to convince the Missouri Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration that the proposed changes would not jeopardize safety, he notes. Developed by the city in partnership with MoDOT, the $15 million effort known as the I-49 Outer Roadway Conversion Project is expected to begin construction this year.

More immediate solutions

McAfee agrees on the need to resolve problems caused by past infrastructure projects. “We should always have a reparative mindset,” he says. However, fixing problems associated with past projects cannot be the only focus, McAfee says. “We’re not going to move all the highways and roads and bridges today,” he notes. “That’s just not going to happen.”

But other, more immediate solutions can be brought to bear on existing problems. “What we can think about are transportation patterns, where low- and middle-skilled jobs are, and where the people are,” McAfee says. In such cases, what is needed are “adequate public transportation systems to get folks to those types of jobs,” he notes. “We can do those types of things.”

Ultimately, a greater focus on all people and how to meet their needs is required.

“We need an equity-centered consciousness as we go about implementing an infrastructure strategy,” McAfee says. At its root, such an approach must ensure that “communities that have often been disconnected from opportunity” are connected to opportunity, he notes. “That is really what the leading edge of the equity movement is,” he explains. “It’s not just about roads and bridges. It is about the people and communities and being able to make sure that they can participate in the civic life of a city, that they can fully participate, prosper, and reach their potential. That’s what’s at stake.”

Community review processes

As part of major development projects occurring in minority and disadvantaged communities, developers sometimes agree to various conditions as part of a project, including workforce training goals, involvement of disadvantaged businesses, and other economic and employment opportunities for the local community. Often, such conditions go a long way toward ensuring community acceptance of a project. However, what is promised does not always come to pass, and communities in such situations often are left without recourse, Armanios notes.

To protect themselves from this possibility, local governments and communities should require that development projects occurring within their borders be subject to “community development review process and guidelines” that ensure that promised benefits materialize and align with community expectations, Armanios says.

Ideally, this process would include “clear community milestones” that are evaluated at predefined stages of a project, Armanios says. In the event that the developer fails to meet a milestone or provide a promised benefit, the community would have the option to return the project “to the developer for revision,” he says. What’s more, such arrangements should be legally enforceable, “so there are consequences for parties that do not abide by those agreements,” he says.

More broadly, “new codes and standards” need to be developed for evaluating whether infrastructure projects produce equitable outcomes, Armanios says. “What I would love to see is the DOT’s Departmental Office of Civil Rights spearhead a convening of engineers, social scientists, lawyers, and local and state government officials as well as developer and community stakeholders to start building these standards,” he says.

The importance of partnerships

To ensure that infrastructure projects maximize community benefits, civil engineers and other development professionals should partner with community foundations, McAfee says. Community foundations are well positioned to convene local citizens and organizations to provide input on proposed projects, he notes. “All the civil engineers need to do is to have the curiosity and a commitment to want to see the humanity of people who for too long have been left behind when we’ve done this type of work,” McAfee says. “That would be the leading edge of practice for civil engineers and others within municipal government.”

Because of the lasting nature of most infrastructure projects, civil engineers and others responsible for their development must strive to assess and minimize their negative aspects, Randolph says. “While changes will remove some obvious problems, they can never make up for the years of lost opportunity, exposure to toxic air and water, and the loss of community that resulted from the misguided infrastructure,” he says.

“Preventing such failures should be a key part of every civil engineering project.”

Read all the pieces in the series “Equity and Infrastructure: How Infrastructure Influences Social Equity.”

The post Policy Briefing: Equity, environmental justice emerge as key goals of Biden infrastructure plan appeared first on Civil Engineering Source.

Modern society is diverse in many ways. And civil engineers, who play essential roles in shaping our society, have an ethical obligation to be equitable, both within the profession and through the things they create.

Over the past several years, the industry has taken steps to promote diversity and inclusion throughout its workforce. Civil engineers support communities and those who live in them. So it is vital that the profession reflects all members of society.

Engineers must also look at their work through the lens of equity. To fully understand the impact of their work, they must listen to the needs and interests of the communities they serve. The relationship between them is a two-way street. Just as engineers influence society, society influences the work that engineers do.

In the final part of this series, interviewees discuss how sound and ethical judgments can benefit communities and enhance the quality of life for all persons who are affected by civil engineers’ work.

View the full Engineering Ethics series.

The post Engineering Ethics: Social equity appeared first on Civil Engineering Source.

The 2021 Built Environment Social Equity Survey, organized by the National Institute of Building Sciences, is intended for people in the United States who are involved in real estate, design, construction, and/or maintenance of the built environment.

ASCE member input will play a critical role in informing future efforts to improve social equity in the built environment. Members of other societies are also participating in the survey, including:

National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS)
American Institute of Architects (AIA)
ASHRAE
Building Owners and Managers Association International (BOMA International)
Construction Management Association of America (CMAA)
Construction Specifications Institute (CSI)
Design-Build Institute of America (DBIA)
Energy & Environmental Building Alliance (EEBA)
Green Building Initiative (GBI)
Institute of Real Estate Management (IREM®)
International Code Council (ICC)
International Institute of Building Enclosure Consultants (IIBEC)
New Buildings Institute (NBI)
Regional Hispanic Contractors Association (RHCA)
RMC Research & Education Foundation
U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC)

The survey takes 5-7 minutes to complete. Those who participate will be entered in a drawing for one of four $250 Amazon gift cards.

Responses will be anonymous when collected and when shared with ASCE and other participating organizations.

The survey closes April 7.

Learn more and take the survey.

The post NIBS survey to help shape the future of social equity and the built environment appeared first on Civil Engineering Source.

“It’s a real transformational change for the university,” said panelist Alice J. Raucher, FAIA, AUA, LEED AP, architect for the University of Virginia, in a follow-up interview with Civil Engineering.

Yet COVID-19, which has forced students around the country to leave campuses and take classes remotely, has highlighted the need for equitable technology. “When we sent students home almost a year ago, many of our students didn’t have up-to-date hardware, nor did all of them have access to Wi-Fi,” said panelist Marilynn Davis, the chief real estate officer of Clark Atlanta University, a historically Black university near downtown Atlanta. “So we ended up purchasing 4,000 computers for … our students and in many cases creating hot spots for them so they could get their work done.”

CAU is partnering with Apple, Atlanta-based energy company Southern Company, and educational nonprofit organization Ed Farm to develop a tech and media arts innovation center called the Propel Center. The facility is intended to serve as a hub not only for CAU and its neighboring historically Black colleges and universities (Spelman College, Morehouse College, and the Morehouse School of Medicine) but also for HBCUs across the country.

At the University of New Mexico, in Albuquerque, many Navajo Nation students face a two-hour commute each way — every day — to reach the campus, and it’s estimated that 50% do not have reliable access to the types of technology necessary for remote learning, said panelist Ted Jojola, Ph.D., director of the UNM’s Indigenous Design + Planning Institute and regents and distinguished professor at the university.

One solution has emerged at the Lobo Rainforest, a new tech incubator, social space, and residence hall in downtown Albuquerque. “The Navajo Nation itself actually has made an arrangement with the university to rent 200 of those units for their own students,” said Jojola, “so that they don’t have to endure that kind of commute that they ordinarily would be subjected to.”

Bridging town and gown

Davis explained that she mentioned the Propel Center during the summit to highlight the need for schools, especially HBCUs, to partner with corporations to keep up with escalating demand for new school facilities to stay competitive.

“Unless you’re Harvard or (another) elite school, it can outstrip your resources to do this quickly,” she said. “The need for this is happening at a time in our nation’s history when companies are recognizing, for business reasons as well as social equity reasons, that they need to cultivate and nurture a whole group of students and future workers and thought leaders in communities that they have not paid attention to in the past. It’s a good moment to put those two together.”

Davis and other panelists also stressed the importance of reframing equity in terms of considering the communities that surround campuses, which, in the case of CAU, has suffered for decades due to disinvestment. One example she gave was the idea of partnering with Atlanta’s library system in the future to develop tech buildings so neighborhood kids could share the university’s resources and be inspired by seeing students and researchers who look like them.

CAU is also exploring ways to leverage its proximity to the center of Atlanta to revitalize both the campus and the community, ranging from mixed-income housing to addressing food deserts to supporting local businesses and skill development for the formerly incarcerated. The goal is to create new, vital spaces without displacing existing residents.

Representation matters

Lastly, the summit drove home that the symbols of the university matter and that spaces need to be made that signal to students from all walks of life that they matter. UNM, for instance, despite having a Native American population estimated to be around 5% (in 2017 numbers), doesn’t have a dedicated center for Native students, many of whom are first-generation students.

Last year, the University of Virginia completed a memorial to honor the estimated 5,000 enslaved Africans Americans who worked on the grounds and helped develop the campus between 1817 and the end of the Civil War in 1865. The Memorial to Enslaved Laborers memorial was designed by Boston-based Höweler + Yoon Architecture in collaboration with Mabel O. Wilson, Ph.D., a Columbia University architecture professor and founder of  Studio &; Charlottesville, Virginia, landscape architect Gregg Bleam; and Frank Dukes, Ph.D., a lecturer and distinguished institute fellow in the University of Virginia School of Architecture’s Institute for Engagement & Negotiation.

The memorial features a circular form made from two nested rings formed from local granite that are embedded into a hillside. The form is a reference to the “ring shout” dance that slaves performed to celebrate spiritual liberation, according to the university’s website about the memorial. An opening in the ring symbolizes a “broken shackle that signals the end of physical bondage.”

The $7 million memorial was the culmination of a student-led movement, stretching back more than a decade, that has led the university to reckon with its own history. “On the one hand, we all think that it’s (Thomas) Jefferson’s masterpiece,” Raucher said of the University of Virginia campus, “and (on) the other hand, you know, we hear that the university is referred to as ‘the plantation’ in the community. Our Black community is a great proportion of the descendants of the enslaved community that built the university. Our students are very active in this community and want to feel welcome.” She says the impact of the memorial on the campus community has been “quite extraordinary.”

As planners try to broaden our ideas of equity, they also link the concept with the very mission of higher education for all students, which Davis described during the panel this way: “How can we ensure a solid education to enable our students to compete in the 21st century and how can the built environment really help them to do that?”

The post How can college campuses be designed to be more equitable? appeared first on Civil Engineering Source.

Meet the 2021 ASCE New Faces of Civil Engineering–College honorees:

Erin Bereyso

Missouri University of Science and Technology – Missouri State University cooperative program

Inspired by her late aunt Kate, the first woman in her university’s physics department to earn a doctorate, Bereyso is completing a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering, environemtnal emphasis, this spring, with plans to pursue a doctorate of her own.

Her accomplishments span the social and the technical. As her school’s ASCE student chapter president, Bereyso has organized community service events for local food pantries and nearby stream cleanups. She also participates in the school’s Engineers Without Borders chapter.

Her research earned second prize at the 2019 EWRI World Environmental and Water Resources Congress. And she works year-round as an environmental engineering intern for her local electric cooperative.

“It feels like we are on the cusp of an environmental revolution,” Bereyso said. “Sustainability is becoming more central to business practices, and decreasing human impact on the environment is crucial to maintaining our current standard of living. It’s also exciting to know that my contribution to society as a civil engineer in the form of sustainable infrastructure will still be making a positive impact 100 years from now.”

Keenan Do

University of California Irvine

Do, like so many, experienced the events of 2020 – particularly the social unrest in the United States – and did not like what he saw. He wondered if civil engineering was perhaps part of the problem and, more optimistically, if it could be the key to a solution.

So, as president of the UC Irvine ASCE student chapter, he worked with his fellow chapter leaders to create the “Engineering a More Equitable Society: Healing Injustice within the Civil Engineering World” campaign on Instagram, reaching more than 5,000 people.

“In writing these posts, my friends and I grappled with scientific data and experiences we hadn’t considered before,” Do said. “Through these tough conversations, we concluded our series outlining a future vision for engineering called ‘Power with the People’ that emphasized ethics, equity, and empathy, which we hope will lead to further identification and investment in addressing infrastructure disparities.”

The chapter has since created a coalition that will continue to pursue similar work. And Do will continue these lessons learned in his work as he plans to study urban planning at graduate school.

Gaelle Ghanem

Lebanese University

Ghanem planned to pursue her Ph.D. so that she could someday teach. Then Aug. 4, 2020, happened – the deadly explosion in the Port of Beirut.

“It changed my plans,” said Ghanem, who helped volunteer in the explosion’s aftermath to help survey damage. “This disastrous event made me want to become an active engineer to offer my services to society.”

Ghanem has been an active member of Lebanese University’s ASCE student chapter since 2017, serving a term as secretary. She was also president of the school’s faculty social club. She interned with the Dar Group last summer and is now focused on using her skills to help her community.

“My future as an engineer in uncertain times like these is surely full of surprises, bad and good, which I hope will help me learn and evolve as a person,” she said. “In a country like mine, in Lebanon, giving back is what it is most about.”

Hritik Kothari

Purdue University

Student members around the globe look to Kothari for leadership. As ASCE’s Region 10 student president, Kothari represents nearly 25,000 student members in 74 international student chapters, spread across five continents.

Kothari is more than up for the challenge, having already led several large projects during his undergrad years at VIT Vellore in India, where he helped organize the country’s first ASCE student conference in 2018.

Now a graduate student pursuing a master’s degree in construction management at Purdue, Kothari is a project coordinator intern with Healy Construction Services.

“As a student, it feels great to have that responsibility on my shoulders, and I am thankful to my company to show great trust in me,” Kothari said. “My ambition is to run multimillion-dollar projects and improve infrastructure for the well-being of the nation.”

Jessica Lewis

Mississippi State University

Lewis views her civil engineering path as leading toward twin outcomes – research contributions to improve infrastructure and serving as a role model.

She’s off to a good start on both goals.

At Mississippi State, she’s served as an undergraduate research assistant, focused on materials and construction with an emphasis on asphalt paving. Meanwhile, she’s also very active with the I.D.E.A.L. Woman group on campus, doing community service projects and mentoring local students.

“I have a strong desire to raise awareness about opportunities that younger students can take advantage of,” Lewis said. “I ultimately hope to use my platform that I am building here at MSU to inspire younger students to pursue higher education, and especially to show the younger female and minority students that they too can be successful in this field.”

Myisha Majumder

Tufts University

Majumder does not have the typical collection of skills and interests you’d probably associate with a civil engineering major.

For instance, she served on the staff of the Tufts Observer, a student magazine, for four years, including a term as editor-in-chief – a rarity for someone with a STEM background.

Meanwhile, a double major in quantitative economics led her to a two-and-a-half-year internship at the Applied Economic Clinic, a nonprofit focused on energy, the environment, and equity.

She hopes to take much of that experience into her post-graduate work in the energy industry. She’s already brought it back to Tufts as a cofounder of the ASCE student chapter’s equity team, a student group that works with faculty to champion diversity, equity, and inclusion in the civil and environmental engineering department.

“I am excited about the amount of diversity engineering is attracting now,” Majumder said. “The recent engineering class enrolled at Tufts was over 50% women, showing a marked improvement from the last several decades. We still have a way to go with increasing diversity in race and ethnicity, and also creating an inclusive space for all marginalized identities, but we’re making the right steps. Diversity of thought is crucial for improvement and advancement of the field.

“I am also excited about the interdisciplinary work that is beginning to occur in the engineering world. While it is still important that we have students and industry experts working the classical engineering jobs, this can happen alongside innovative thinking and progressive work.”

Christopher Patron

California State University, Northridge

Patron never has to look far to be reminded of his career motivation.

“Since the age of 13, I was raised in a single-parent household with a widowed mother and two younger siblings,” Patron said. “As a first-generation college student and the eldest of my siblings, I saw my success in college as an essential way to demonstrate to my siblings that any form of adversity can be overcome through self-determination.”

He’s clearly been driven to succeed at Cal State Northridge, where he’s served as the vice president of the ASCE student chapter and the project manager for the steel bridge team.

Patron also has worked as an intern for LC Engineering Group, assisting in the design and analysis of site structures that are then integrated into work on residential and industrial buildings. He plans to pursue his master’s degree in structural engineering.

Emily Perkins

The Citadel

Inspired by her nuclear-engineer father and what she called the “problem-solving skills, ethical background, and influence an engineer can make,” Perkins is a third-year civil engineering student at The Citadel, with a rank position of team captain (master sergeant) in the Corps of Cadets.

Perkins has been an active member of ASCE and the Society of Women Engineers; is the proctor for the civil engineering department; and manages to find time to serve as captain of the Citadel’s rifle team.

During her summer and winter breaks, her Navy cruise training trips reinforce the fluid mechanics principles she learns in the classroom.

“I am excited to make a difference and an impact on my community,” Perkins said. “I look forward to having professional skills and judgment that can help others and improve the quality of others’ lives.”

Peter Psaltakis

Georgia Institute of Technology

Psaltakis is taking his place in the family lineage, following both his grandfather and father into the civil engineering profession.

Taking full advantage of the opportunities afforded him at Georgia Tech, Psaltakis has been very involved in a variety of activities, including steel bridge, intramural soccer, and the Chi Epsilon civil engineering honors society.

He also has been active in the ASCE student chapter, serving as president this year, with previous roles including student conference chair, secretary, and ASCE student ambassador.

“What I’m most looking forward to is the impact the projects I work on will have on my community,” Psaltakis said. “Inherently, as the name of the occupation suggests, civil engineers work toward making society a better place to live. While an engineer’s effect on a community is generally limited by a project’s scope, I plan to always put my best work forward and strive to make the world we share a better place.”

Colby Wong

California State Polytechnic University, Pomona

Wong maps the start of her civil engineering career back to the day she decided as a 6-year-old to build a chair her cousin could use at the dinner table. She wasn’t allowed to use a hammer, so she drove nails into the pieces of wood with the heel of her shoe.

“It wasn’t the most stable chair, so my grandpa had to add reinforcements,” Wong said. “He taught me step by step. Since then, my love for constructing things grew. To this day, that chair is still being used by my grandma around the house.”

As a commuter student at Cal Poly Pomona, she has made it a point to get involved with campus life, including several roles with the ASCE student chapter, which she now leads as president.

Wong decided to pursue structural engineering after a successful and inspiring internship with Southern California Edison’s seismic resiliency and climate adaptation team, and hopes to continue giving back to her community.

Learn more about the ASCE 2021 New Faces of Civil Engineering–Professional honorees.

The post Meet the 2021 ASCE New Faces of Civil Engineering–College honorees appeared first on Civil Engineering Source.

Garth grew up in Saginaw, Michigan, in a single-parent household with low income. Regardless of some challenges, it was his mom and family who led him to a moment that changed his life.

For his 10th birthday, they gathered money and took a weekend trip to Cedar Point, a theme park near Lake Erie. Millennium Force, the tallest, fastest rollercoaster in the world at the time, had just opened. And while standing in line, he gazed up at the winding tower of steel, and knew he wanted to design and build rollercoasters.

That inspiration has led him to a career as a structural engineer, and ASCE has honored Garth, P.E., M.ASCE, as a 2021 New Face of Civil Engineering.

He first discovered civil engineering while researching degrees needed for his dream job. But exploring STEM fields hasn’t always been easy for Garth. Growing up in the 1990s, useful resources were not available, and he felt many viewed his interest in the subjects as “taboo.”

He remembers those around him, including teachers, often discouraging him from his career aspirations, believing they “weren’t for Black people.” He recalls applying for his first job at 16, and feeling he was denied because of his race. And one harrowing night in 2019 is burned into his mind, after he says he was stopped by police, searched, and questioned about a robbery he’s not even sure existed, let alone pertained to him.

But, remarkably, Garth has used the experiences to fuel his fire.

Like a rollercoaster, he’s taken off and taken control of his career, focusing on community projects and education that fosters diversity, equity, and inclusion. Now as a structural engineer at Progressive AE in Grand Rapids, Michigan, he is inspiring future generations and those who are not deemed “typical” engineers. He’s seeking to bring awareness to inequality and injustices in society – a prominent message also found on his recently launched YouTube channel, EWB: A Culture Shift.

“The effort to increase involvement of underrepresented people not just in civil engineering, but throughout STEAM careers, is a wholehearted effort by all of us that we should be taking a part of,” said Garth. “It’s a very simple and easy gesture that could go a long way, especially in a profession that’s still continuing to grow and is facing more challenges as we move toward the future.”

He recently spoke with Civil Engineering Source about his career.

Civil Engineering Source: How do you hope to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion through your work as a civil engineer?

Garth: At Progressive AE, I serve on the diversity, equity, and inclusion board. We’re doing several things within the office that move toward implementing a cultural and psychological shift behind day-to-day operations. We talk about racial biases. And I personally share stories to show some of the challenges that people of color face, because I know I’m not the only person who has gone through what I’ve gone through. I’m just the one who was defiant enough to not listen to critics and to do what I felt like doing.

Before COVID-19, I also participated in Groundhog Shadow Days. I would talk to students in Grand Rapids about what I do as a structural engineer, the software I use, and share interesting projects I’m working on.

My main role at the moment, behind promoting more diversity, equity, and inclusion in this industry, is letting people know we [underrepresented engineers] exist and sharing our stories. Showing that we all have something in common, from our childhood or even today, that would inspire younger people to pursue a career in engineering, and those currently in the industry to understand that their words have meaning.

Source: Why did you decide to share your civil engineering journey through YouTube?

Garth: YouTube is the second-largest search engine online. People use YouTube to look up everything nowadays. So, I believe there is room to insert myself to show the life of a civil engineer.

I’ve seen other civil engineers who have started channels and have done well with exposing civil engineering. I also believe there’s a real opportunity from putting myself out there – letting people know I exist, talking about things that inspired my journey, tips and tricks about the industry, and talking about cool [civil engineering] topics.

Source: What does the future of civil engineering look like to you? How do you see yourself contributing to it?

Garth: The future will see more underrepresented groups in engineering. There’s a huge push in bringing women into this industry. Currently, I feel like it’s doing a great job, but there’s room to do even better. I also see more people of different races and religions coming to the table.

One thing I’ve noticed, especially when I’m at the table of a project or a DE&I meeting, is that there’s a lot about others’ experiences that people don’t know. So, I believe that having more people at the table with unique experiences can produce more quality, thought-provoking results for clients. In addition, it can increase the morale in the office. From there, it can increase profits and client satisfaction, the whole nine yards.

Saying all of that, I’m talking specifically about civil engineering or architecture. But there is a calling to all STEAM careers where there is a lack of DE&I. And we can improve it by sharing information and promoting careers that help us do our jobs.

Many don’t understand that a lot of our industry is an unknown to most people. So, that’s how I see myself contributing – sitting at the table, sharing my story, and being a voice for people who haven’t been heard at the table.

Source: What one piece of advice would you give to your younger self?

Garth: The thing I still struggle with today is patience. I’m an individual who wants to go bursting through a wall, straight toward a goal. I’ve caused a lot of my own self-stress getting into this industry and learning what I need to design buildings. I pushed myself and caused a lot of stress feeling like I was behind. In reality, it was me wanting everything to happen at once. Pacing yourself and being patient with yourself is the key to achieving the goals you have set for yourself. It’s not all going to happen at one time, no matter how much you try. You’ve done great to get to where you are. Trust the process.

Source: If your career could take you anywhere in the world, where would you want to go?

Garth: I would go to Africa. I have an interest in cities in Africa and the Middle East that are developing and modernizing. And there’s a host of cities that are beginning to get their basic needs, such as clean water, air conditioning, and homes. I have a desire to go into some of those cities that are currently developing into a more modern society, and to make an impact through my work or in servicing the community, similar to the work I’ve done through Habitat for Humanity.

Read more about the 2021 New Faces of Civil Engineering.

The post New Face serves as the voice of underrepresented civil engineers appeared first on Civil Engineering Source.

But thanks to her parents’ inspiration, Gharios chose civil engineering. Her father, an environmental civil engineer, introduced her to the CE world. And her strong, supportive mother taught her to never be intimidated by the “man’s world.”

When she was young, she wanted to play basketball. With no existing girls’ team, she signed up for the boys’ league. Her mom told her, “You are not a girl basketball player. You are just a basketball player. You can be just as good as anyone on that court.” This message went deeper with Gharios and has stuck with her for life.

Now a civil engineering associate at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power in California, Gharios is dedicated to enhancing the future of clean energy and encouraging young engineers to break the mold. ASCE has honored Gharios, EIT, A.M.ASCE, as a 2021 New Face of Civil Engineering.

Her mission is to inspire girls and young women to break stereotypes and choose careers in male-dominated STEM fields. It’s a goal emanating from her mother’s words all those years ago. As a 21st century role model, she’s taken to social media to spread that message.

“There aren’t many women in our field. When there are, there are often stereotypes about them,” said Gharios.

“I was in an MBA class with mostly business students. The guy next to me said, ‘I thought you were an engineer.’ When I said I was, he responded, ‘Your phone case is pink and sparkly. I wouldn’t think an engineer would have that.’ Something as simple as a girly phone case, to some people, doesn’t seem like it could belong to an engineer. So that’s what I hope my content does – breaks stereotypes.”

She recently spoke with the Civil Engineering Source about her career.

Civil Engineering Source: Why did you turn to social media to advocate for women in STEM? How did you come up with #StompingOutStereotypes?

Chloe Gharios: I’m a millennial, so social media began in my childhood. I always saw bloggers and women on social media talking about things. But I noticed there was nothing I truly related to. I love fashion, but at the same time, I wanted to see women who were doing what I was doing every single day.

Through K-12 outreach, I noticed how much kids were on their phones and on social media. So, I want them to see those kinds of role models as well. And that’s how it started. I thought I could reach more people than I would in person. I have a passion for going into schools and talking about engineering and education. But this way, I could show a little more personality and break the stereotypes.

#StompingOutStereotypes started completely by accident. I took a photo of my feet – one in a heel and one in a steel-toed boot. My message behind it was, “Be both.” You can love fashion and be girly, but also be an engineer.

When I posted it [on Instagram], I was on a trip. I was driving through the desert, lost service, and forgot about it. When I checked my phone again, it had gone viral.

I can’t take credit for #StompingOutStereotypes. Someone commented on the post, saying it should be a challenge. Then someone else came up with “stomping out stereotypes.” So, I said, “All right, let’s do it!” That’s when it blew up.

Now when you look at #StompingOutStereotypes, there’s hundreds of different versions. There’s one featuring a woman en pointe in a ballet slipper and her other foot is in a boot. My photo, for whatever reason, resonated with a lot of women.

There’s been a few other posts that have blown up, but not like #StompingOutStereotypes. One quote I’m known for is, “A female engineer is a princess who can build her own castle.”

Source: What other ways are you promoting women in STEM through your work?

Gharios: In 2019, my Los Angeles Younger Member Forum Group colleague, Nikki Zulueta, and I, came up with the idea to celebrate International Women in Engineering Day for the first time. About 50 women joined us in Manhattan Beach to talk about how women can break stereotypes and break glass ceilings. There were a lot of male attendees as well. They took part in the conversation about how men can be allies to women in the field.

In 2020, we held it virtually because there was no in-person option. There were about 75-80 women and men there. So that’s one of the big things I’ve recently been involved in to promote women in STEM, and specifically, women in civil engineering.

I also love going into schools, especially when there are two female engineers [visiting]. I remember one second-grade teacher asked her students, “Are you surprised to see who came for engineering day?” One little girl said, “Yeah, I thought it would be two boys, but it’s two girls.”

I like to show my personality when I go into schools. I wear a lot of pink and my hardhat to really show it on a level they can understand – “There’s this girl wearing pink, and I like pink. And she’s an engineer, so I can be an engineer.”

Unfortunately, for the last year, I haven’t been able to do that. But I’m still trying to keep up with students virtually. We’re doing Engineers Week again this year, but everything will be virtual.

Source: What is the quality you most admire in someone?

Gharios: I really like people who are straightforward because that’s how I am. I admire people who are true to themselves – true to their ideals and what they believe in and are proud of that. It’s something I try to promote too. In a different sense, you can go into STEM and be true to yourself. There’s no certain personality or way you should act to be successful in a STEM career.

Source: What does the future of civil engineering look like to you? How do you see yourself contributing to it?

Gharios: I hope the future of civil engineering is extremely inclusive, and women and all minorities start making up a larger portion of the profession. Civil engineers, and engineers in general, create the world. We’re creating the world for all people. So, if all people aren’t represented in our engineering world, then how are we creating a world that works for all people?

I hope my little corner of the internet and the real world helps contribute to that, by showing young people of all backgrounds and genders that they can contribute to their own world by becoming an engineer or having any STEM career. Nothing can stop them, and there’re no stereotypes they should mold to.

Source: Imagine you meet a genie. What are the three things you’d wish to change about the civil engineering industry?

Gharios: One thing I wish is that we knew everything going on underground prior to construction. That way, we don’t have to open things up to later find out there’s a huge problem. I’ve had way too many projects where we hit utilities that were never reported to be there. I don’t know why, but that’s the first thing that came to my mind.

Another would be that there are no stereotypes. Everyone could become a civil engineer and not have to deal with questions of whether they are fit to be an engineer. People would not assume a woman is an administrative assistant just because she’s the only female in the room. I wish all stereotypes were already broken.

And I think as much as people think social media has negatives, which everything does, it also provides a positive. There are many women speaking out through it now, showing their true selves and that they’ve made it. I think it’s inspiring to the next generation who is on these platforms and seeing these women killing it.

All media can be good, not just social media, because it can hit the next generation and the masses in ways we weren’t able to before. Like with ASCE’s Dream Big and seeing all these different things engineers can do. It’s inspiring to all age groups. As an adult you can appreciate it. But I’ve also shown it to high school and young elementary students. They all get something different out of it.

Read more about the 2021 New Faces of Civil Engineering.

The post New Face honoree is #StompingOutStereotypes across the profession appeared first on Civil Engineering Source.

Her official job title is pretty straightforward: associate bridge engineer for Pennoni.

But perhaps Schroeder’s inner poet is stronger than she realizes, because lately she’s been viewing bridges in a more metaphorical light.

Bridges, as she sees them, are not simply the literal structures she works on every day. Bridges also describe the different roles she plays as a practicing engineer – her work that connects communities, her countless hours of STEM outreach with students, her leadership positions in various organizations including ASCE and the Society of Women Engineers.

She doesn’t simply work on bridges. She is the bridge.

“I see a lot of my roles beyond work as bridging the gap for people,” Schroeder said.

ASCE has honored Schroeder, EIT, ENV SP, A.M.ASCE, as a 2021 New Face of Civil Engineering.

The number of bridges she has built – both literal and figurative – is remarkable for someone so early in her career. The list of just her ASCE activities is difficult to fathom for one person: Committee on Developing Leaders? Check. MOSAIC? Check. Leadership Training Committee, Committee on Precollege Outreach, ASCE Collaborate topic moderator, and resume coach? Check, check, check, and check.

She’s played a key role in planning the ASCE Structural Engineering Institute Structures Congress, particularly its student scholarship program. She was active in leading K-12 outreach efforts as a member of the Philadelphia Younger Member Forum. When she moved two hours west? You guessed it. She got involved with the Central Pennsylvania Section and now serves as its Younger Member Group president.

Many, many bridges.

“I just really appreciate all the mentors who believed in me and encouraged me to continue to apply for ASCE leadership positions that have helped me get to this point, and I want to pay it forward to help the next generation to succeed in their own career journeys,” Schroeder said.

She spoke recently with Civil Engineering Source about her career.

Civil Engineering Source: Is there a bridge or project that you’re most proud of?

Danielle Schroeder: My favorite project has been the retrofit for the Burlington-Bristol Bridge [which spans the Delaware River, linking Pennsylvania and New Jersey across the Delaware River].

The Burlington-Bristol is a cool project because it’s a moveable truss bridge. Specifically, it’s a vertical lift, so it moves up and down like an elevator so ships can pass underneath it.

I believe it’s about 90 or so years old, and recently it needed to be fully repainted. As part of the repainting process, you need to add tarps and access rigging, which adds extra load to the bridge, so several truss members on the bridge needed to be strengthened. Ultimately, 28 repair locations were needed, comprising three types of retrofits: top cover plates, bottom cover plates, and side cover plates.

I got to design most of the 28 retrofit plates to be put on the Burlington-Bristol, and the cool part about it is, because design and construction were completed within a tight one-year schedule, I also got to be part of the construction process and go out in the field and make sure that the things we designed on paper aligned with what was constructed.

So it was so cool to see both sides and really see something that I designed brought to life.

Source: What about professional accomplishments? Does one in particular stand out?

Schroeder: In 2019, I co-authored a technical paper about that project. It goes without saying, I wouldn’t be able to do that so early in my career without mentors helping me. One of my mentors and fellow leader in ASCE, Jesse Gormley, was a co-author on that paper, and without his expertise and help throughout the entire process, I wouldn’t have been able to accomplish this goal.

Of the 80 papers published for the conference that year, I was one of two EIT authors, which made me feel very accomplished.

Source: How have you been able to take on those big responsibilities – whether it’s a technical paper like that or a leadership position – at a young age?

Schroeder: I was watching ASCE Thurdays @ 3 the other day and [Region 4 Director] Bob Cagle, who I really look up to, was talking about the topic of mentoring. And he said, “None of us got where we are without the help of others.”

I really think that’s the best quote about mentoring.

Much of the success I’ve had so far is through those mentoring relationships I’ve made, and the biggest thing about finding mentors is just not being afraid to ask.

A quote that I go to a lot in many facets of my life is by Wayne Gretzky – and for people who love The Office, Michael Scott also quotes it. It’s “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”

And for most of things I do, especially as an introvert, I don’t know if I’m going to get it, or I don’t know how well this is going to go. But if I don’t try, I’ll never know. The answer is “no” because you didn’t ask.

I try to keep that in mind whenever an opportunity arises. It leads me to do things that are definitely outside of my comfort zone, but then still doing them anyway and asking for help when I need it.

Source: Your volunteer resume is impressive. What drives all of that work?

Schroeder: I have a variety of leadership roles through ASCE, but the ones that I am most passionate about are the ones that involve STEM outreach.

I didn’t learn about engineering until late into my high school experience. You kind of go into things you’re familiar with, so before I learned about engineering, I thought, “Oh, I’m going to be a teacher like my mom.” And I liked math and science, so I thought I’d be a math or science teacher.

I love anything that involves STEM outreach. I really appreciate the chance to share what I know so students can learn about engineering maybe earlier than I did.

But ASCE has also given me awesome opportunities for leadership – whether it was going to the Younger Member Leadership Symposium or currently as a member of the Committee on Developing Leaders. And it’s giving me opportunities to impact the future of our profession and help take what I know and share it with fellow civil engineers.

One of my leadership experiences I’m most proud of is working with ASCE’s MOSAIC [Members of Society Advancing an Inclusive Culture] and putting together our “best practices” guide. It’s been a lot of time, a lot of hours we’ve all put in, and I’m really proud of my part working to help the Society move forward.

Source: What’s one piece of advice you would go back to the ninth-grade you and offer?

Schroeder: I don’t think I realized how accessible social media would be when I was in ninth grade, and social media is only going to continue to play a bigger role in our lives in the future.

But I would tell myself, if you see someone who has a career or is doing something that sounds awesome to you, don’t be afraid to reach out. Send them a DM if it’s social media or connection on LinkedIn or even in-person when it’s safe to do so – “Can we chat for few minutes? I want to ask you some questions about you what you do.”

I wish I’d known that when I was younger and had explored the vast careers within civil engineering. There are so many different career paths you can take.

Source: If there were a movie made about your life – who would star as you and what would the name of the movie be?

Schroeder: My mind immediately goes to that infrastructure piece on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver – if we made that into an actual movie. I remember in that Edward Norton says, “It’s time … for your biannual bridge inspection.” As a certified bridge safety inspector, it was neat to see bridge inspection featured and pretty on-target since the National Bridge Inspection Standards require safety inspections at least once every 24 months. Many bridges are inspected more frequently though.

As for picking a specific person, I would love Emma Watson, mainly because of what she stands for, that she was a UN Women Goodwill Ambassador for gender equality as an advocate for their HeForShe campaign.

I don’t know about the movie title – how about Bridging the Gap? It would be about bridges in all facets, starring either Emma Watson or Edward Norton. [laughs]

Source: If we checked in on your career 10 years from now, what would we be talking about?

Schroeder: Ten years from now, I plan to have my P.E. license. I hope I will continue to work on awesome projects like I am right now, while continuing to gain more leadership and technical experience. Ultimately, I aim to become a project manager who leads large-scale projects and continues to make a difference in my community.

And something else that I really want to do is start some kind of scholarship for women and underrepresented genders that would help current students throughout their engineering studies.

Read more about the 2021 New Faces of Civil Engineering.

The post New Face ‘bridges the gaps’ – both literal and figurative appeared first on Civil Engineering Source.

As a kid, he was more into animals, nature.

“I was always fascinated and intrigued by the wonders of the natural world,” said Alston, who grew up a creative, inquisitive only child in Germantown, Maryland. “As a child, I would read all types of books about animals, their ecosystems, and the role that people have played in both the preservation and the destruction of our planet’s precious resources.”

But part of that love for nature manifested itself as a passion for water. And it wasn’t long before that interest in water led to a bachelor’s degree in environmental science from Claflin University – a historically Black university in Orangeburg, South Carolina – and a master’s degree in environmental engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign.

After two years as an environmental consultant for CDM Smith in Chicago, Alston now works as a plant engineer for the Gary (Indiana) Sanitary District. Invested in giving back to the community and inspiring others, he is an active member of ASCE, the National Society of Black Engineers, and the Water Environmental Federation. For ASCE, he serves as a committee member for MOSAIC (Members of Society Advancing an Inclusive Culture) and is the professional mentorship and student outreach chair for the Illinois Section.

ASCE has honored Alston, A.M.ASCE, as a 2021 New Face of Civil Engineering.

He spoke recently with Civil Engineering Source about his career.

Civil Engineering Source: What led to your decision to attend Claflin University?

Timothy Alston: When I was applying to schools, I kind of wanted to get away from the nest, experience life outside of Maryland.

But I think it was my first semester of my senior year in high school when my counselor, who was a family friend of ours, talked to me about looking at Claflin, which he called a “hidden gem of the South.” My family had a tradition of attending HBCUs, so I was already familiar with their historical significance, and how they foster the success and achievements of Black students, as well as creating a support system not just financially, but academically that is usually harder for disenfranchised students to find at larger and predominantly white institutions.  

But for me, I grew up in a diverse community, surrounded by people of all racial and ethnic backgrounds. So at the time, I couldn’t imagine thriving in a space that seemed homogenous on its surface. But my counselor pulled me aside and said, “It’s not just about race. It’s about opportunity.” And he told me about Claflin in Orangeburg, South Carolina – a small, liberal arts HBCU. He said they have an impressive campus, a strong family environment, and a robust STEM program. I applied, I got in, and I was selected as a Presidential Scholar, which awarded me a full ride.

Source: How do you think attending an HBCU influenced your career?

Alston:  It was an amazing experience. The difference in going to a small university is that it’s more family oriented. And with an HBCU, you have a lot of professors, who look like you, they want you to succeed, they check in on you. Looking back, it helped keep me on track, and I definitely appreciated those relationships I was able to forge with my professors.

For an example, I had an environmental science professor, Dr. Johnson. He saw my potential, knew that I was passionate about environmental science and engineering. And even though I wasn’t in the engineering curriculum, he would give me articles or publications on engineering. I was doing my own readings on the side, learning more about the discipline and how broad and fascinating it was. 

He actually took me on an internship with him to the Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York my sophomore summer, where I was able to work with him on bioremediation research. We looked at how environmentally friendly materials, such as garlic extract, could be used to improve the bioremediation capabilities of aquatic bacteria that were able to break down carcinogenic metals, such as chromium. That experience really got me engaged in research and environmental engineering principles.

I feel like going to Claflin really helped expose me to a lot of opportunities that I might not have had if I had gone to a larger university, where I’m fighting over hundreds of other students who want the same opportunities as me. It allowed me to stand out and make an impact.

Source: After seven years of school, you could have gone the Ph.D. route. Are you happy that you’re in the field now and applying all these things in real life?

Alston: Yeah, I’m definitely happy that I chose to go into industry. After grad school I accepted a job with CDM Smith. I was able to work with the environmental team there, and we did a lot of groundwater sampling and remedial investigative projects. I helped lead different groundwater sampling teams looking for contamination at different sites around the country.

I definitely enjoyed working in that field, and it helped get me to where I am now, where I’m working as a water utility process control engineer.

Source: I know you’re passionate about social reform and community outreach. How have you tried to combine those things with your civil engineering work?

Alston: I’ve always had a passion for mentoring and outreach.

Fast-forward to now being in Chicago. I didn’t know much about Chicago other than what I heard on the news, which was always negative. The first thing you think about Chicago, if you’re not from here, is gang violence, shootings, people getting killed. I didn’t know how big, diverse, and beautiful the city was until I actually lived here. But then again if you’re a professional, you might be blind to the struggles and the systemic racism that plagues the city historically.

I decided that I wanted Chicago to be a place where I laid down roots, so I wanted to get involved in the community. That propelled me to join professional organizations –  whether it was NSBE or ASCE – and I’ve been able to get really involved with those organizations primarily in terms of outreach and mentoring. 

For example, with NSBE right now we have a program called 500 by 2025 where we want to graduate 500 Black undergraduate students from Northwestern, IIT, UIC, and University of Illinois. We provide these 500 students with a scholarship, and they also get a mentor who helps them along their journey – whether it’s professional or academic advice, resources, a sounding board, or connections.

I’m a mentor to a student here at my alma mater, who’s a junior. And it’s been great. I’m able to talk to him, help with his resume, give him resources on how to potentially navigate that environment. When you feel like you’re isolated, especially during COVID-19 when social interactions are restricted, it’s kind of nice to talk with somebody who’s in the field so they can give you that knowledge outside-in.

I could keep going on and on. I’m really passionate about mentorship and outreach because I had that foundation growing up, while a lot of people that look like me don’t necessarily have that – especially living in a big city where school systems are not that great. I feel that it’s my duty, and I want to be there to do what I can.

Read more about the 2021 New Faces of Civil Engineering.

The post New Face finds passion for water resources, community building appeared first on Civil Engineering Source.

Starting in late July and finishing in mid-November, the Los Angeles Recovery Series focused on “re-envisioning our cities” in the aftermath of both the COVID-19 pandemic and the racial justice protests that followed the killing of George Floyd during an arrest in Minneapolis. Each webinar focused on one of the following: urban design and planning, development, city leaders, community, and mobility.

Katherine Perez, an associate principal in the Los Angeles office of the international engineering firm Arup, moderated the urban design and planning, development, and mobility webinars. In each discussion, panelists emphasized the need to promote greater equity and inclusion within the design profession and within the projects generated by those professionals.

Design dilemmas

During the urban design and planning session, Perez noted that design professionals need to examine the “systemic problems” in the land use decisions that traditionally have determined where certain public facilities — from parks to freeways — would be constructed. Such decisions often had “disproportionate impacts on communities of color,” Perez explained.

These decisions were often influenced by the people able to attend the planning meetings with “the time and resources to advocate for their plans,” noted Helen Leung, a planning commissioner for the city of Los Angeles and a co-executive director of LA Más, which advocates for neighborhood resilience, especially in “working class communities of color.” Leung called for designers and planners to seek out the views of “people who have not traditionally had a voice in these matters.”

Kush Parekh, an associate principal at the design firm Studio-MLA, noted that people living in single-family homes were experiencing the pandemic differently than those living in more densely populated neighborhoods. “The pandemic has brought out some inherent inequalities,” he explained. Moreover, the design of public spaces — often intended to bring people closer together in social experiences — has flipped during the pandemic because of concerns over safety and the need for social distancing.

Balancing acts

Christopher Hawthorne, the chief design officer in the Los Angeles mayor’s office, pointed out the need for balance in how the pandemic was being addressed in the public realm. For example, allowing restaurants to expand into public spaces, such as on sidewalks or in streets, to create more outdoor dining opportunities served as a “lifeline for restaurant owners,” he said. But the same measures presented challenges for some people unable to afford eating at those restaurants who were “just trying to move through their own neighborhood,” Hawthorne explained.

Achieving such balance is difficult. “The day of a small restaurant with no outdoor space is over in Los Angeles,” predicted Tom Gilmore, the CEO of the real estate developer Gilmore Associates, during the webinar on development. Gilmore also noted that the problem of homelessness in Los Angeles had just been gaining crucial attention when the pandemic struck and “took a lot of the oxygen out of the room.” But the pandemic will eventually end, he said, while homelessness will still need to be addressed.

A different sort of balance was at work in two projects discussed by the other development panelists. Lee Raagas, the CEO of Skid Row Housing Trust, a nonprofit organization that works to provide permanent stable housing for the homeless, discussed an innovative project that will combine housing units with an on-site medical clinic. Likewise, Ricardo Pagan, the founder of development firm Claridge Properties, highlighted a planned luxury skyscraper that will also house a school and include affordable apartments as a community benefit.

Moving about

During the mobility webinar, Dylan Jones, director of the mobility lab at the architectural firm Gensler, discussed how smartphones and other technologies have created new choices and modes of transportation for people. Jones suggested that the concept of transit-oriented development was shifting toward a more broadly defined mobility-oriented approach. Under that concept, mobility hubs might not just provide different modes of transportation, Jones suggested, they could become destinations themselves — perhaps by providing the technology for people lacking good broadband access at home to plug into the internet.

Justine Johnson, a mobility strategist at Ford Smart Mobility LLC, a subsidiary of the Ford Motor Co., discussed the concept of mobility as a service and the growing power — and contentiousness — of digital data that can be collected by vehicles and the surrounding transportation infrastructure. She also stressed the need for affordability in transportation networks to help ensure equity and provide greater choices.

George Kivork, a senior public policy manager at Lyft, discussed how various customers of his firm use both ride-sharing and public transit during an average week. Kivork also stressed the need for flexibility and adaptability among different modes of mobility. For example, a person who drives an electric vehicle to the airport must be able to find a charging station there, and someone who rides a bike to a bus stop to reach the same airport needs a safe place to leave that bike.

Inclusive design

Although no engineers participated in the webinar panels, Perez has discussed the various topics of the series with her Arup colleagues. For too long, she notes, engineers have been part of an approach that essentially tells a community what it will be given — a new park, for instance — rather than trying to find out what the residents of the neighborhood actually want or need. Even worse, Perez explains, the decisions about where to locate freeways, landfills, or other less-desirable infrastructure “unevenly damaged diverse neighborhoods, poor neighborhoods, at-risk neighborhoods.”

Moving forward, though, “engineers are fundamental” to issues of inclusion and equity because of “their innovation, their creativity,” Perez says. At various city bureaus of engineering, she adds, engineers tell her they would like to have data-driven systems — similar to the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design green building rating system — to measure equity achievements.

Paul Moore, P.E., a principal in Arup’s integrated planning practice, stresses that engineers often control the budgets for infrastructure work, especially for transportation projects. “Lots of funding goes through state and city (departments of transportation) that are usually run and staffed by engineers,” Moore says. “So, while policymakers and planners can have fantastic ideas and intentions about how to reshape cities, it’s engineers who are often empowered to implement the ideas.”

In some locations, Perez notes, bus stops are designed essentially for what she describes as a 30-year-old white man — even though women, especially those of color and/or with young children, are more likely to ride the bus.

That scenario can lead to a design that fails to meet the needs of the actual users, Moore notes. “Your perspective as a designer can really influence what you see as the basics in the design of that bus stop,” he explains. For example, a hypothetical 30-year-old white male might not feel that “standing in the dark at night is a threatening situation,” Moore says. “Or maybe you’re young, and so standing in July sunlight for 15 minutes isn’t a big deal.” But considering “the full set of who might be using this bus stop is really important to making sure that the actual basic necessities are in place,” Moore stresses.

Ensuring equity

To help ensure that engineering projects are implemented in a more equitable manner, Arup uses the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals as a general framework, notes Erin McConahey, P.E., an Arup fellow and principal. For specific projects, Arup also relies on its own social equity toolkit — developed internally by the firm’s planning team — to help evaluate projects. The toolkit was created in 2019 and provides “the kinds of questions you might want to ask the variety of stakeholders so that you get a more well-rounded picture of what their needs are prior to progressing with development of the project,” McConahey explains. “So as the design of the development moves forward, it adds information that may not be as quantitative as an engineer would usually feel comfortable with but still is as important as the numerical outcomes that we would usually be developing through engineering analysis.”

A key consideration involves any secondary impacts that might affect the local community, McConahey says. The toolkit helps engineers consider the project “from a value-chain point of view, asking to whom does the value accrue? And to whom do the adverse effects (cause) burden?” she explains.

The membership of the Los Angeles Headquarters Association includes several engineering, architecture, and construction firms, including Arup, AECOM, Gensler, KPFF, Skanska, and Walter P Moore.

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The authors of a new paper in the Journal of Management in Engineering, “Gendered Knowledge Accessibility: Evaluating the Role of Gender in Knowledge Seeking among Engineers in the US” by Cristina Poleacovschi, Amy Javernick-Will, Sheng Wang, and Tony Tong, investigate the role of gender in people’s perception of knowledge. The study, based on the real-life knowledge seeking interactions of engineers, is available in the ASCE Library.

Abstract

Women are heavily underrepresented in engineering companies. Gender issues arise in daily interactions where employees may not seek knowledge from others when they need it, even if they know who possesses the knowledge, because they may find the knowledge holder difficult to access. In this research, drawing upon social role theory, it is proposed that knowledge accessibility varies across four different types of gender groups (women seeking knowledge from women, women seeking knowledge from men, men seeking knowledge from men, and men seeking knowledge from women). The hypotheses were tested with data collected from an engineering organization. Based on 530 knowledge-seeking interactions provided from 312 engineers, it is found that, in general, women perceived higher levels of knowledge accessibility than men. Knowledge accessibility represents the time and effort that individuals spend in the process of knowledge seeking. Moreover, the highest perceived accessibility was when women sought knowledge from other women; in contrast, the lowest perceived accessibility was when men sought knowledge from women. The theoretical and managerial implications, especially career-related implications for female professionals in a male-dominated industry, are discussed.

Read the full paper in the ASCE Library: https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)ME.1943-5479.0000865

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HASHTAGS MIGHT BE READY conversation starters now, but they began simply as metadata tags so that content—be it on social media or otherwise—could be easily searched online. Today, they have grown into the dominant way of organizing large online conversations. This includes the microblogging site Twitter, where hashtags passed through their ironic-aside phase circa 2010, survived the ribbing of Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake in 2013 that made the use of the tags momentarily passé, to finally become a legitimate way to organize conversations and weekly chats. Then there are those hashtags that have become viral sensations in their own right—such as last year’s #IceBucketChallenge—in response to which enormous numbers of people joined in to show their support for a cause. Such has been the case in the last few weeks as engineers have made #ILookLikeAnEngineer a social movement to support women and diversity in all disciplines of engineering.

The tag #ILookLikeAnEngineer was begun by Isis Wenger, a software engineer known in that industry as a “full-stack engineer,” as a result of the negative comments  made after she participated in one of her employer’s recruitment campaigns. She called for women to join her in standing up as engineers using the #ILookLikeAnEngineer hashtag. Participation quickly went viral—including within the civil and structural engineering fields—and encompassed individuals, universities, companies, and major organizations that want to support the inclusivity for which the hashtag stands.

“One of the Society of Women Engineers’ objectives as an organization is to change the image of what people think of when they hear the word ‘engineer,’” said Colleen Layman, P.E., the president of the Chicago-based Society of Women Engineers, and the power-water management practice director and a vice president of the Omaha-based architecture, engineering, and consulting firm HDR, Inc. Layman wrote in response to questions posed by Civil Engineering online. “In so many ways women still face the challenge of being taken seriously for their accomplishments and their skills in the engineering workplace,” Layman noted. “The response that Isis received—‘Are you really an engineer?’—is unfortunately too common a reaction from the general public even today, in the 21^st century,” she said. “While some workplaces are more female-friendly because of culture or leadership, it is still a common challenge that women engineers face in the workplace.”

In her 20 years in the power-generation industry, Layman has seen the situation for women in civil and structural engineering slowly improve. “I have seen two general trends,” Layman said. “First of all, many millennials seem to have a better acceptance of, and even an expectation of, being in a diverse work environment. They have a desire for a better work-life balance than many previous generations—making benefits like parental leave and flexible work schedules, items that were once considered ‘women’s issues,’ into family issues,” she noted. “Also, more male leaders in engineering organizations are recognizing the value of and the need for diverse thinking as a key to success in a fast-paced, global workplace.”

This has also been the experience of Angelina Stasulis, P.E., M.ASCE, a structural engineer in the Atlanta office of Walter P Moore who has been an engineer for six years. In written answer to questions posed by Civil Engineering online, she explained that her participation in #ILookLikeAnEngineer was meant as a celebration of diversity. “Engineers aren’t all socially awkward, pocket protector-wearing nerds,” she said. “We’re normal people, from all different backgrounds, with a passion for applied mathematics and science.

“You never hear someone saying ‘I’m a male engineer,’” she added. “Why make the opposite distinction? I’m an engineer, just like all of the other men and women in our field.”

Participants in the #ILookLikeAnEngineer hashtag point out that the field of civil engineering has become a far more inclusive space than it was even a decade ago. “When I was a student and a young professional, I experienced my share of sexual harassment, both blatant and subtle,” said Gretchen Dolson, P.E., LEED AP, the nonhydro-renewables practice leader in the Lincoln, Nebraska, office of HDR. Dolson, who wrote in response to questions posed by Civil Engineering online, has been an engineer for 18 years. “As I have continued in my career, I’ve seen a reduction in conflicts that I attribute to better awareness in the industry, acceptance in peers ‘learning’ to work with women, and personal growth in handling scenarios more effectively than [was the case] when I was younger,” Dolson said.

Many engineers interviewed for this article say that they remember a time in years past when coworkers automatically assumed that a new female employee was an administrative assistant rather than an engineer. But some, like Emily Dhingra, P.E., CFM, M.ASCE, the coastal engineering team lead for the Germantown, Maryland, office of the global firm AECOM—who has been an engineer for just 12 years—have had a different experience. “I have never felt that I didn’t belong in this field,” Dhingra said in written responses to questions posed by Civil Engineering online. “For many years, my boss was a woman engineer and her boss was a woman engineer,” she said. “I lead a team of 10 engineers and scientists, and 7 of them are women. So, I do find civil engineering to be welcoming and inviting of any person—male or female—who’s up for a challenge.”

That’s welcome news for the civil engineering profession. “I know that there are some corners of the industry where women, still, are perceived as not being welcome, and I have heard stories like the one that started #ILookLikeAnEngineer, but I’m thankful and grateful to all the men and women I’ve worked with; I don’t have any real ‘war stories’ to tell,” Dhingra said. “It’s important that we continue to talk about why there aren’t more women going into (and staying in) engineering, but we should also highlight the women who are happy and successful in their jobs.”

Laura Whitehurst, P.E., S.E., LEED AP BD+C, M.ASCE, an associate in the San Francisco office of the international structural engineering firm Walter P Moore, has been an engineer for seven years, and also wrote in response to questions posed by Civil Engineering online. For her, #ILookLikeAnEngineer is also a tribute to just how far acceptance of female engineers has come. “My mother is a geologist, and her mother was a structural engineer, so I’ve had a lot of good role models for strong, female STEM [science, technology, engineering, and mathematics] professionals,” Whitehurst said. “The stories I’ve heard about my mother’s and grandmother’s challenges in the workplace have definitely made me appreciate the changes that have come about since then. I think the ability to judge an engineer on sight is fast receding, and I want to help push that trend,” Whitehurst explained.

Acceptance of diversity has been shown to result in innovative engineering solutions, according to Nadya A. Fouad, Ph.D., a professor and chair of the department of educational psychology at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, and coauthor of the 2011 report “Stemming the Tide: Why Women Leave Engineering,” which was published by the university. But as has been covered extensively by the media, it is difficult to retain women in STEM fields. “Our strongest finding is that although the more diverse the engineering team, the better the innovations, women are leaving for environmental reasons,” Fouad said in a written responses to questions posed by Civil Engineering online. The reasons range from a lack of advancement opportunities and poor investment in employees’ training and development, to a “chilly—and sometimes toxic—environment where there are poor supervisor behaviors,” Fouad noted.

With anecdotal evidence showing an improvement in the treatment of women and a growing diversity in the civil and structural engineering fields over the past few decades, the question becomes what the hard data indicate for the future. “In 2013, women earned 21 percent of the bachelor’s degrees in civil engineering,” said Maria Ong, Ph.D., a senior research scientist at the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Technical Education Research Centers, Inc. (TERC), a research and development lab for STEM education. Ong wrote in response to questions posed by Civil Engineering online. “[Women’s] representation in civil was almost twice as much as that in mechanical or electrical (12 percent), but less than in chemical engineering (32 percent),” she noted.

The situation for women of color—that is, women who identify as African American, Asian American, Latina, and Native American—is not as positive, according to Ong. Over the past decade, civil engineering has had the fourth-lowest average (following aerospace, mechanical, and electrical) for women of color earning bachelors’ degrees, “though it’s worth noting that, in absolute numbers (not percentages), in 2013, women of color earned the most engineering degrees in civil,” Ong said.

And the opportunities are certainly there, according to Ong, who noted that civil engineering is one of the fastest-growing professional engineering fields. “The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that employment of civil engineers will grow 20 percent from 2012 to 2022, faster than the average for all occupations,” Ong said. In comparison, the same projections indicate that architecture and engineering overall are expected to grow a mere 7.3 percent between 2012 and 2022. “To meet this demand [for civil engineers], and to remain economically and globally competitive, the United States needs to increase the size and diversity of its advanced, domestic engineering workforce,” Ong noted. “Women, and especially women of color, are a largely untapped source. We need to be striving to have each group’s representation in civil engineering, and in all STEM fields, reflect their representation in the nation.”

Not only will this increased diversity offer increased numbers for the profession, it will also improve the problem-solving capabilities of the engineers. “I believe there needs to be a cultural shift in engineering, and in all of STEM, whereby everyone accepts that full participation of women, minorities, and other underrepresented groups can lead to new ways of understanding the universe, as well as new perspectives that can transform the practices and outcomes of science and engineering,” Ong said.

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The COVID-19 pandemic has changed where and how kids learn. But civil engineers have innovated and adjusted so that they can continue to inspire students around the world.

“The reason I do outreach is to engage with kids and encourage them to explore the wonders of engineering. It makes me feel good passing on my passion for STEM, and I still get those feel-good feelings now; it’s just weirdly through a computer screen,” said Monica Crinion, P.E., M.ASCE, a bridge engineer for AECOM based in Chicago and chair of ASCE’s Precollege Outreach Committee.

“Our committee is definitely pivoting online. All of our members who participate are really trying to make that turn and make sure we don’t lose a year of outreach to students. We don’t want to lose traction. And sometimes the best changes happen when you don’t get a choice and have to just go with it.”

Case in point: ASCE’s new virtual engineering experience, Dream, Build, Create, a series of outreach events in November through public libraries across the country, introducing engineering to people of all ages, especially families and children.

The program includes free screenings of the award-winning documentary Dream Big: Engineering Our World, Nov. 10, 14, 17, and 24. ASCE is also organizing several virtual panel discussions – or “dream teams” – where participants can join live conversations with a group of young, diverse engineers.

“If you want to see industry grow and you want to see this career path continue to be what it is, we’ve got to put that effort into it,” said Fernando Ceballos, P.E., M.ASCE, a project manager at Pape-Dawson Engineers in Plano, Texas, and longtime devoted outreach champion. “What better way than teaching kids early on that this can be a future for them?”

Ceballos will lead a Spanish-language dream team panel discussion Nov. 19. The complete schedule features a “Cities of the Future” panel Nov. 10; “Women in Engineering,” also Nov. 10; and “Black Engineers,” Nov. 18.

“The Dream Big film does a really good job of showing the future of what they can be and what they can achieve,” Ceballos said.

“Being part of these efforts, it’s awesome to know we’re doing everything we can to make it easy for students to engage with engineers – bilingual efforts as well. You want to give kids the opportunity to say, ‘You know what? These people look like me; I can be like them someday.’

“It’s extremely rewarding to know that you can make an impact in someone’s life.”

To get involved:

• Register to receive Dream, Build, Create information, including Vimeo links and passcodes to English, Spanish, and closed-captioned versions of Dream Big, specifics on how to access the Dream Team panels on Facebook Live, plus weekly updates.

• Share the Vimeo links and passcodes with your network – libraries, teachers, families, and friends.

“Dream Big was really set up beautifully with all the associated activities. So, the resources are already there for ASCE members to get out and do outreach,” Crinion said. “It’s challenging, but it’s also inspiring. I think ASCE-wise, business-wise, and outreach-wise, we’re going to come out of this stronger than we were when we first went in. We’ll learn things that have helped us adapt professionally. Dream Big supports that with all the activities, so I’m really excited for this project and these panels.”

Learn more about Dream, Build, Create screenings and panels.

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Today we hear from Frederick Paige, Ph.D., EIT, A.M.ASCE, associate professor at Virginia Tech. He talks about his journey through the civil engineering profession, as well as his identity as an African-American civil engineer.

Music courtesy of Timothy Triplett and Frederick Paige.

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Today we talk about unconscious bias with Kim Parker Brown, P.E., F.ASCE, a senior program manager for the Naval Facilities Engineering Command in Washington, D.C.

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Today we talk with Sidney May, P.E., M.ASCE, past president of ASCE’s Alabama Section Birmingham Branch. After more than a decade of work in the private and public sectors, Sidney struck out on her own in 2019 and is now the lead engineer for her own firm Sidney H. May, P.E., LLC. She also has been active volunteering in local schools and mentoring students.

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Birdel Franklin Jackson III, P.E., M.ASCE, lives in Alpharetta, Georgia, enjoying retirment after a long and successful civil engineering career. In today’s episode, he reflects on his life and career, from segregated Memphis to the ASCE Student Chapter at the University of Toledo and the Jackson-Davis Foundation the organization he named after his parents to give scholarships to African-American civil engineering students.

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Yvette E. Pearson, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE, is the associate dean for accreditation, assessment and strategic initiatives at Rice University in Houston. She has been an active member of ASCE for two decades, and she talks today about her work with ASCE’s MOSAIC, her new podcast, Engineering Change, and why this moment is the right moment for positive change.

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Has this ever happened to you? You were in a group—it could have been as a kid on the playground, as an adult in a meeting, or at any point in between—and you made a suggestion: “Let’s do X.” And it was a good suggestion. But everyone just kind of hemmed and hawed; no one jumped onboard. The idea got dropped.

Then sometime later, in the same group, someone else—someone who, for whatever reason, seemed to be the accepted leader of the group—made the same suggestion: “Let’s do X.” First one person agreed, then another, then everyone else jumped onboard. And boom: the group had made a decision, and the action was taken.

Why did the group accept the idea from that person and not you? The social sciences tell us humans are pack animals; we work best when we have an inspiring leader to follow. Where we often get tripped up, it seems, is in deciding—often based on history or appearances rather than merit or innovative ideas—who the leader is. Often, we rely on the people we have traditionally relied on—and that leaves out too many important voices.

Our nation seems to have decided long ago who the leaders were, and by and large, they have been members of the “majority”—straight, white, wealthy males. In recent decades, the demographics of the United States have shifted to such an extent that it can be argued that no one group has a majority anymore. But our leadership profile has not changed all that much.

While it is true that many corporate, educational, and governmental institutions have gone to great lengths to promote diversity—and some surely do a great job of hiring and promoting employees from traditionally underrepresented groups—there still seems to be a lack of diversity in the leadership ranks. Walk into any convention of thought leaders and executives, in almost any profession, and with a small number of exceptions, you will still see a vast expanse of white, male faces.

Leaders from different backgrounds have different experiences, ideas, and perspectives than others, which result in ideas and actions others might never have thought of.

Diversity among not just rank-and-file employees but among leadership is critically important, not only because it is equitable and just but because leaders from different backgrounds have different experiences, ideas, and perspectives than others, which result in ideas and actions others might never have thought of. Leaders from traditionally underrepresented groups will have points of view that many in the majority could not even imagine.

A case in point: On June 2, Yvette E. Pearson, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE—who is the associate dean for accreditation, assessment, and strategic initiatives at Rice University in Houston, the chair of ASCE’s Members of Society Advancing an Inclusive Culture (MOSAIC), and the host of the podcast Engineering Change—wrote a profound and moving piece for ASCE News titled “I Can’t Breathe and This is Why”. She wrote the piece in response to the killing in Minneapolis on May 25, of a black man, George Floyd, by a white police officer who knelt on Floyd’s neck while Floyd begged for his life and pleaded, “I can’t breathe.” Video of the incident sparked daily protests nationwide and globally against the tragedy and a host of other, similar racial injustices. (The protests were still ongoing as this issue went to press in mid-June.)

In her article, Pearson recounts difficult life experiences as a black woman that many of us have never had. She tells of being stopped by the police for no reason other than the color of her skin and of her brother having a gun held to his head by a white police officer who gave him no citation or reason for stopping him as he drove. She recalls teaching her then-3-year-old daughter not to open her purse in a store because, as a black person, even a very young one, she might be suspected of stealing if she did. She described having to teach her growing child how to react to the police if she was ever stopped, so as to maximize the chances of not being shot by them.

Pearson’s experiences are as common in the black community as they are inconceivable in the white one. And they are a perfect example of why we need a true diversity of voices, experiences, cultures, and points of view in every company and institution and in every profession—and at every level of leadership. We don’t know what we don’t know. And the only way we can learn is by ensuring that our leaders are drawn from a genuinely diverse pool.

This column first appeared in the July/August issue of Civil Engineering.

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Though just three years into her career, she’s already been extraordinarily active in ASCE, most recently serving locally as the K-12 outreach co-chair for the Philadelphia Younger Member Forum, as well as in Society-level posts on the Structural Engineering Institute’s Structures Congresses Committee and as a corresponding member of the Members of Society Advancing an Inclusive Culture (MOSAIC) committee.

In today’s Member Voice, appropriate for June’s celebration as Pride Month, Danielle writes about why sharing her personal pronouns promotes respectful civil engineering communication and a safer work environment for everyone.

“Hi, my name is Dani Schroeder and my pronouns are she/her.”

For the last year or so, this is how I have been introducing myself when I am meeting new people. When I attended ERYMC 2020 earlier this year, I added my pronouns to my name tag. While some may not understand why I do this, this small action is one way to be an ally to support people with gender expansive identities. As a cisgender person (my gender identity is in alignment with the sex I was assigned at birth) I have never questioned the pronouns that people use for me. By stating my pronouns, I communicate that a person’s identity is very important, while also making this practice a social norm.

Canon 8 of the ASCE Code of Ethics states, “Engineers shall, in all matters related to their profession, treat all persons fairly and encourage equitable participation without regard to gender or gender identity, race, national origin, ethnicity, religion, age, sexual orientation, disability, political affiliation, or family, marital or economic status.”

But that doesn’t mean we are all treated equally by society. Until June 15th of this year, there was no federal law in United States that provided workplace protection for people who are LGBTQ+. According to the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey, of the 21,715 trans and gender nonconforming people surveyed, 30 percent of respondents who had a job in the past year reported mistreatment (being fired, denied a promotion, or experiencing some other form of mistreatment related to their gender identity or expression). In this same survey, nearly one-third (32 percent) of respondents limited the amount that they ate and drank to avoid using a public restroom in the past year.

Although this information about gender identity is U.S.-centric, there are many cultures around the world that have understood and accepted the concept of a third gender, including Māhū in Hawaii and Tahiti as well as Fa’afafine in Samoa. As the civil engineering profession is a profession about people, sharing my pronouns is one way that I help to support a safer environment for the people I interact with daily, especially in the workplace.

We all have the power to create and advocate for change. In terms of pronouns, here are some general best practices that I have incorporated:

• Introduce yourself as “Hi, my name is XX and my pronouns are XX. What pronouns would you like me to use for you?” This introduction may not be natural to you at first but, similar to public speaking, the more you do it, the more natural and easier it becomes.

• If you do misgender someone, just a brief “sorry” to acknowledge the mistake and correct the pronoun use is sufficient.

• When you do not know what pronouns that person goes by, it is common to use “they/them” until you are able to ask.

• Be mindful of word choices. For example, when addressing a group of people, use gender neutral language such as “everyone,” “folks,” or “y’all” instead of “ladies and gentlemen” or “guys.”

• Consider using expansive honorifics – using “Mx.” Instead of Mr./Ms./Mrs. or leaving it out altogether if possible.

• Add your pronouns to your digital profiles (and perhaps your email signature). This is another way to inform people of your pronouns while also contributing to an inclusive environment.

This is not an exhaustive list, so please continue to stay open to hearing from your friends and colleagues about gender and their experiences. We are all people, let us do our part to be more supportive of the LGBTQ+ community.

**P.S.: When editing your LinkedIn profile on your computer, you cannot use the character “/”. However, you can use “/” when editing your last name on the LinkedIn app on your phone.

The post Why I Include My Pronouns in a Professional Setting appeared first on Civil Engineering Source.

A longtime ASCE leader, Shields currently serves as a Region 4 governor. He was set to take part in ASCE’s virtual roundtable discussion, June 10, “Engineering a Culture of Inclusion in the Face of Injustice.” However, technical difficulties limited his participation, so he shares his story and comments here as an ASCE News Member Voice article.

George Floyd’s statement, “I can’t breathe,” is one that has been said all too often in the face of injustice.

I wear a smart watch that monitors my blood pressure, and sometimes when I just think about race relations and injustices in America, my watch advises me to pause and take deep breaths for at least one minute.

I have also noticed, in this time of COVID-19, that I hold my breath when crowded by unknown, unmasked persons. Social distancing allows me to breathe – freely. Staying away from messy discussions about racism keeps my blood pressure down. So when I was asked to participate in the ASCE “Engineering a Culture of Inclusion in the Face of Injustice” discussion, my watch advised me to have a minute of deep breathing. Afterward, I told myself to politely decline the invitation to be a panelist.

As it turns out, I did call in but could only share a few comments because of technical glitches. Here is what I wanted to share:

I was born and raised in segregated rural North Carolina. Early on, I was indoctrinated with American history, mostly from the white man’s perspective, and observed privileges that I did not have.

I have been ridiculed, discounted, physically threatened and called hurtful names. I made mental notes of things that provoked such unjust treatment.

In other words, early in life, I unknowingly applied the scientific method to develop the following hypothesis about racism – “Racism is evil.” For me, the recent events in our country validate that hypothesis.

I joined ASCE in the mid-1970s and, since then, have followed its efforts to promote diversity and inclusion. In the late 70s I served on the Committee on Minority Programs, and recently served on the Committee to Advance the Profession (which included the Committee on Diversity and Inclusion). I have observed the hard work being done by [ASCE MOSAIC leaders] Yvette Pearson, Quincy Alexander and others to align ASCE’s Code of Ethics with our professional obligations. But there is still much work to be done.

As we discuss why racism in this country is something that everyone needs to be working to eliminate, and how people can start that healing process and improve society, I say, observe, be knowledgeable about behaviors (yours and others) and speak out. When you step into an office setting, committee meeting, board room, join a video conference or enter a job site, look around ask yourself, “Does what I see reflect the diversity, inclusion and equity that we talk about?” I am conditioned to make that observation simply because I am often the only person of color present.

We have many grand words recorded in documents such as the Declaration of Independence, the preamble to the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, some of the constitutional amendments, our ASCE Code of Ethics and countless written speeches made by persons with good intentions. We, as engineers, understand our ethical obligations; however, we, as a nation, must come to grips with “matters of the heart.”

That effort needs the involvement of the collective human race to reject racism and injustice in all forms.

The post Engineering a Culture of Inclusion in the Face of Injustice appeared first on Civil Engineering Source.

In today’s Member Voice article, Pearson is not writing about civil engineering. She’s writing about the civil systems that make up civil engineering: the people. She writes about why the recent death of George Floyd and the subsequent civil unrest hits so close to home to her; why racism in this country is something that everyone needs to be working to eliminate; and how people can start that healing process and improve society.

I have been absolutely overwhelmed by the events in our country this past week. As everyone knows (though not all are willing to acknowledge), what we’re seeing and experiencing started long before we knew the names George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Atatiana Jefferson, Eric Garner, and so many others.

I decided to write this article as an outlet for the stress and the pain I feel and to share insights that will inform people who have not had these experiences with the hope of motivating change. I am not writing this as a representative of Rice University or the American Society of Civil Engineers. I write this as a Black woman in America. The mother of a Black child. The daughter of Black parents. The sister, aunt, niece and cousin of Black men, women and children.

As I drive to and from work every day (pre-coronavirus stay-at-home orders), on road trips, etc., I am constantly mindful of what I should and should not do in the event that I’m stopped by police. I wonder if I’ll be shot for reaching for my crutch to get out of the car. My mother worries about me being killed for not raising my arms if asked – or commanded. You see, I’m disabled. I have limited mobility and I can’t raise one of my arms. One of my hands stays in a fist. I was born with cerebral palsy. It’s been that way all my life. So the thought of the very real possibility of being killed for “resisting” or for an officer feeling “threatened” because of my limitations raises deep concerns every time I get into a vehicle.

Many of you are thinking this will never be a problem if I don’t do anything to get stopped, and you’re wrong. I, like countless other Black people, have been stopped for driving while black (DWB). Years ago I was stopped by two White police officers on a dark, deserted section of I-10 between Houston and Baton Rouge (when I was younger and my limitations were not as severe as they are now), ordered to get out of my car, and when I asked (calmly) why I was being stopped, there was no response. My mom, who was in the front passenger seat, started to get out of the car asking what was going on with her daughter and the cops yelled at her with utter disrespect. How do I know I was stopped for DWB? I was not given any citation – not even a warning. Before finally letting me get back into my car one of the officers said they couldn’t tell if my license plate was a Southern University or an LSU plate. Translation, DWB.

During that same year my brother was stopped in Baton Rouge for DWB by a White officer who held a gun to his head, yelled at him, called him a n*, and threatened to shoot him if he even so much as looked at him. Again, no citation, no warning. DWB. It frightens me to think that if my brother had asked a simple question about why he was being stopped, he would not be with us today. And the officer would have certainly come up with a lie and he would have been believed because cameras were not ubiquitous at that time. And now, even though they are, cops still get away with murder.

Years later, when my brother moved to Dallas, he was stopped again for DWB. He was headed to a friend’s house and was stopped, handcuffed, and forced to sit on the curb while the officer searched his car and ran his license all while saying things like, “You need to tell me if you have warrants. Are you sure you don’t have any warrants? Why do you have all these clothes in the back of your car?” It’s very clear that this officer stopped my brother because he was fishing for an arrest, and he assumed a young Black man would have warrants. And if having a junky car was a crime, lots of folks would be in trouble. Again, no citation, no warning, nothing. After yanking him up from the ground by his arm, hurting his rotator cuff, the officer ultimately told my brother the light above his license plate was out. And for a Black man, that results in a traffic stop, being handcuffed, and a vehicle search. Translation, DWB.

When I see situations like those with George Floyd and so many others, I think, “There but for the grace of God go I, or my brother, or my friends.” For this reason, our conversations with our children are different from most people’s. I recall telling my daughter at a very young age – as young as 3 years old – not to open her little purse when we’re in a store because there was a possibility that while she was taking something out she might be falsely accused of putting something in.

Fast forward about a decade (give or take) and “the talk” came. Not the talk that all parents have with their kids as they enter puberty; rather, the talk that nearly every Black parent has with their children at some point, many before they are out of elementary school – what to do and what not to do if stopped by the police. Don’t get me wrong; I am not saying all police are bad. Also, not all bad police are White. I have known several good cops, some of whom are family members or family friends; and I’ve been happy to see countless officers speak out against the officers in Minneapolis or even join in the protests. I have also known bad Black cops. The problem is that the system has failed to root out the bad seeds on the police force; not only the perpetrators of crimes like those against George Floyd, but also the people who protect them. Thus, the problem persists. And it leads to other problems.

Look at the situation with Amy Cooper in Central Park. Had Christian Cooper not been videoing her, that incident could have had a very different outcome. Things like this happen because based on the history of racism in this country, people know that they can bring utterly false accusations against Black people and be believed. Too many Black people, especially Black men, have been arrested, imprisoned, executed on death row, hung, shot, or otherwise slaughtered because of false accusations.

When will it end? When will false accusations like Amy’s become illegal? On the surface, it may seem small to some; however, given the painful examples from our history in America, Mr. Cooper could very well have lost his life because of false accusations from a White woman.

This systemic racism manifests itself throughout the fabric of our society, including on college campuses. There have been numerous incidents of police being called for Black students and faculty who were just going about their days, and in most cases, nothing was done to punish the people who made the calls and the false accusations. Here are links to some examples that have occurred very recently (not all were White perpetrators):

•  Faculty member calls the police because a Black student won’t change seats after someone else leaves the class.

• Custodian calls police to report a Black student who “seems out of place” while eating lunch in the living room of her residence hall.

• Faculty member calls police for Black student who put her feet on a chair.

• Swimmer held at gunpoint by police while returning from a college swim meet.

• Police called for Black student napping in residence hall.

Some of the callers/false accusers got what essentially amounts to a slap on the wrist and were “forced” to do some type of diversity training. I believe this type of misbehavior will continue until laws are passed that make these types of calls and false accusations illegal and accusers are punished for what they do.

All of the incidents I shared above occurred on college campuses or involved college students engaged in campus-sanctioned activities. This shows me, my daughter, my brother, my niece and nephews and my colleagues who are Black that neither our education, nor the neighborhoods we live in, nor anything else matters to people who hold deep-seated hatred for Black Americans. And little has been done by our leaders to hold them accountable for their wrong-doing and to put policies and practices in place to deter this behavior in the future.

Like a lot of parents who have children on the verge of transitioning to college, I’m thinking about the best schools for my daughter to attend – schools that are a good fit for her, schools that offer strong programs in her area of interest, what the cost of attendance is, what scholarship opportunities there are, whether she’ll attend a university near home or far away, and how we’ll both adjust to her being away from home. As a parent of a Black child, I also have to ask questions like: Is this a campus where my daughter will be safe, not just as a woman, but as a Black woman? Will the police be called because someone thinks my daughter “seems out of place” in her dorm or anywhere else on the campus? Will she be able to sit in a campus coffee shop without being harassed? Will she have an equal and equitable opportunity to succeed?

As Blacks, most of us have to work twice as hard to get half as far as our non-minority peers; and we have to do that with the added stress of what we face in society every day, wondering if going about a normal day might ultimately cost us our lives or our loved ones their lives.

Over the past week, I’ve received questions about what we can do to change things. Of course, change will not happen overnight, but here are a few thoughts on how we can move in a positive direction toward effecting the change that is needed.

1. Recognize and acknowledge systemic racism exists. For too long people have been satisfied with saying that there are a “few bad apples” in police departments or other settings who carry out injustices and they fail to recognize the people who create and support the systems that do not hold them accountable. We cannot solve a problem that we do not acknowledge or that we don’t acknowledge fully. We must acknowledge systemic racism exists and that it impacts every facet of life in America.
2. Vote. Pay attention to what people are saying (or not saying) and doing (or not doing) not only when racial and other atrocities occur, but also on a daily basis. Most people can say “the right thing” in the moment when something bad happens, especially when they are on camera. But what are they doing and saying when they are off camera? Exercise your right to vote and vote for people who unashamedly denounce and work against all forms of discrimination and injustice toward any groups and who do so “when nobody’s looking.”
3. Decide what you can do as an individual from wherever you are. If you cannot get out to protest peacefully with the masses or don’t feel comfortable doing so, perhaps you can give to organizations that are boots on the ground (or wheels on the ground) for social justice. Or perhaps you can organize and/or participate in meetings among people in your community – at work or at home – to identify challenges and devise strategies to overcome them. There’s always something we can do.
4. Don’t leave it up to Black people (or other people who face discrimination) to solve the problem of racism (or any other “-ism”). There are a lot of people who believe that efforts towards justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (JEDI) should fall squarely on the backs and the shoulders of those of us who are part of marginalized populations, and this can’t be farther from the truth. It’s everyone’s responsibility. Everyone has a role to play, and there’s no middle ground. Either you’re for JEDI or you’re against it. And if you’re a bystander, you’re against it. Speak up and correct your colleagues and peers when you hear a racist (or any other “-ist”) joke/comment. Question why certain people are being weeded out of the applicant pool. Help create policies and/or processes to eliminate inequities at your school or on your job. Report discrimination, harassment, and other unethical or unlawful behaviors when you witness them.

And finally, I offer this.

I think any good-hearted compassionate human being is hurt by what we’ve seen in America. I also believe that sometimes things do not impact us as much as they should unless they are happening to us or to someone we love or care about. I say that to admonish you to examine your network – personally and professionally. If it looks too homogenous, expand it. There are people in this country who have never engaged with others outside of their race, and that’s unbelievable. Get to know people who have identities, cultures and experiences different from your own. Really get to know them. Open up so they’ll get to know you. Become part of each other’s lives. If more people do this, fewer will be numb to the experiences of others. When things “hit home” people are more likely to take action for change.

I hope this helps.

The post I Can’t Breathe and This Is Why appeared first on Civil Engineering Source.

Situation

AN ASCE MEMBER maintains a personal Facebook page on which he regularly shares humorous graphics, videos, and popular memes. As evidenced by his postings, the member’s sense of humor runs the gamut from innocent to salacious, with topics ranging from family and home life to current hot-button social or political issues. Yet, while some of his previous posts may have reflected polarizing or even unpopular points of view, in the months since COVID-19 rose to international attention, the member’s “humor” has been increasingly targeted at one subject—people of Chinese nationality or descent. The member has made numerous posts mocking the Chinese language or accent, repeating negative stereotypes about the Chinese diet, or implying that all people of Chinese ethnicity are carriers of disease.

Despite the purportedly personal nature of his page, the member’s account contains multiple linkages to his professional life. The member is employed at the management level in a large engineering firm, and his employment information and job title are clearly identified on his page. In addition, the member has recently been elected to a leadership role in his ASCE Section, and the member’s profile picture and timeline prominently feature items related to his participation at ASCE events.

While the posts are visible only to the member’s Facebook friends, that list is heavily populated by fellow employees, clients, and vendor contacts for his firm along with other ASCE members and volunteers.

Alarmed at the racially divisive nature of the local leader’s jokes, another ASCE member contacts the CPC for its opinion on whether this conduct should be considered a potential ethics violation.

Question

Did the engineer’s actions in making these posts on a personal social media account violate the ASCE Code of Ethics?

Disparaging humor aimed at people of diverse backgrounds sends a message that differences are a feature to be mocked rather than celebrated and signals to those who are “in” on the joke that it is acceptable to express negative views of people with differing characteristics.

Discussion

Fundamental Canon 8 of the ASCE Code of Ethics reads: “Engineers shall, in all matters related to their profession, treat all persons fairly and encourage equitable participation without regard to gender or gender identity, race, national origin, ethnicity, religion, age, sexual orientation, disability, political affiliation, or family, marital, or economic status.” Guideline a under that canon directs members to “conduct themselves in a manner in which all persons are treated with dignity, respect, and fairness.”

Since its adoption in July 2017, this canon has occasionally sparked question as to whether its concepts are either necessary or appropriate for inclusion in an “ethical” mandate. Some critics, for example, note that Canon 8 closely models U.S. laws affording fair treatment to members of protected classes; they argue that the behaviors covered under this provision are better addressed in the legal arena. Others observe that the term “respect” is often attached to everyday courtesies and social norms, raising concerns that Canon 8 improperly seeks to govern manners rather than morality.

But the inclusion of these concepts in an ethical canon sends an important message about how critical the notions of inclusion and respect are to the enduring success of the civil engineering profession. Today’s professional landscape offers perhaps greater risk and opportunity than ever before, continually challenging engineers to find better ways to serve clients, protect the public, and enhance the quality of life. Inclusion and respect create a culture that invites a diverse pool of professionals to embrace this challenging environment and affords them the necessary conditions to cultivate and apply their talents.

Conversely, a culture that is repressive or intolerant of differences may be off-putting to new professionals or may limit their ability to contribute unique ideas or perspectives. Such intolerance can be demonstrated through outright acts of discrimination, or it may take more indirect forms, such as social cliques, differing access to mentorship or other opportunities, or as in this case, disparaging remarks or humor. Far from being just a joke, disparaging humor aimed at people of diverse backgrounds sends a message that differences are a feature to be mocked rather than celebrated and signals to those who are “in” on the joke that it is acceptable to express negative views of people with differing characteristics. This effect is heightened all the more when the person making the joke occupies a position of leadership or esteem, as it further legitimizes behavior that isolates or excludes outsiders.

In this case, the CPC felt that the
member’s prolific interactions with
professional colleagues on his Facebook
page meant that his activities there
were not purely personal.

Of course, recognizing the harms of racially divisive humor does not end the analysis of this case study. In fact, in the actual case on which this scenario is based, the CPC spent less time considering the propriety of the conduct itself and more time debating whether it was possible to apply ASCE’s Code at all because the member’s comments appeared on a personal social media account.

One of the biggest open questions for professional codes of conduct is the extent to which they apply to a member’s personal conduct. One possible view is that there is no difference between professional and personal ethics and that individuals who commit to an ethical standard are expected to follow that standard in all aspects of life. Conversely, it could be argued that the domain of professional ethics begins and ends at the workplace and that standards for performing professional service to others have no bearing on a person’s private life.

Perhaps a more realistic argument lies somewhere between these two poles, recognizing that the application of professional codes must be judged in each individual case. For example, while it might be unreasonable to apply a professional standard of competence to activities that do not involve the delivery of engineering services, it might be wholly appropriate to examine whether an act of fraud or crime in a nonengineering capacity might still cast doubt on an individual’s professional integrity.

In this case, the CPC felt that the member’s prolific interactions with professional colleagues on his Facebook page meant that his activities there were not purely personal. They believed that the member’s postings thus reflected poorly on his professional judgment and were certainly not in keeping with the strictures of Canon 8. Moreover, they felt that the member’s leadership role in his company and his professional society conferred an even greater obligation on him to be mindful that others may judge those organizations by his conduct—for example, perceiving that they are unwelcoming of, or discriminatory against, people of certain ethnicities.

At the same time, the CPC was reluctant to take a heavy hand in policing the social media activity of ASCE’s membership and was not convinced that formal disciplinary action was the best means of addressing the member’s conduct. The CPC ultimately declined to open a case but instead contacted the member informally to advise him of its concerns and to recommend that he pay greater heed in future to Canon 8’s requirements and the values expected of leaders in the Society and in the broader professional community.

The post How ASCE’s Code of Ethics May Apply to Personal Conduct during the Pandemic appeared first on Civil Engineering Source.

Jose Castro, an assistant engineer in water resources for Michael Baker International in Irvine, California, tells his story of both how he was inspired to pursue civil engineering when he was a student and how he now inspires students through outreach work (1:52).

In Extracurricular, we hear from Ashlyn Alexander, who has an interesting, athletic, team-building hobby outside of her day-to-day work as a road and highway engineer for Parsons (11:33).

And in Member Memos, we hear what compels civil engineers to volunteer their time (15:28).

Listen to the episode below, and subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts.

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But what to read?

So many choices. So many books.

For the second consecutive year, ASCE News has compiled its annual list of beach reads, perfect for the civil engineer whose idea of relaxing in the sun features a heavy dose of interesting, thought-provoking civil engineering summer learning.

Becoming Leaders: A Practical Handbook for Women in Engineering, Science, and Technology, 2^nd Ed

This update of the popular handbook by F. Mary Williams and Carolyn Emerson provides professional women in engineering, science, and technology with timely information and practical tips for career success.

Engineering Legends: Great American Civil Engineers

This volume offers a unique, entertaining view into the professional achievements and personal lives of 32 great American civil engineers, from the 1700s to the present. Author Richard Weingardt, a structural engineer, delves into the motivations and challenges of a diverse set of professionals.

Don’t Throw This Away! The Civil Engineering Life

Ranging from serious discussions of suburban sprawl, technology run amok, and bridge aesthetics, to comical accounts of packrat habits, quacking moments, and engineering fashion, Brian Brenner’s entertaining collection of essays offers a distinctive combination of quirky humor and engineering right stuff.

Public Speaking for Engineers: Communicating Effectively with Clients, the Public, and Local Government

Go step by step through the process of preparing for a presentation, including speech planning, design and delivery and emphasizing the importance of understanding your audience. Author Shoots Veis knows both sides as a practicing engineer and a former city council member.

Adventures in Managing Water: Real-World Engineering Experiences

Water engineers share first-hand accounts of the challenges they’ve faced on projects as they worked to provide adequate, reliable, affordable, and clean water supplies to communities around the world.

(Bonus “read” — pop in your earbuds!)

Catch up on Season 1 of ASCE Plot Points podcast

Subscribe and listen wherever you get podcasts.

The post Top 5 ASCE Summer Beach Reads appeared first on Civil Engineering Source.

Growing up in the Dominican Republic, Díaz-Fañas, C.Eng, Ing., P.E., M.ASCE, was different in a place where normalcy reigned. He was exceedingly smart. Exceptionally ambitious. And, in perhaps his most significant divergence from community expectations, he was gay.

“I remember, I was pointed out always as, ‘Oh, he is a little sissy, he has a lot of mannerisms,’” Díaz-Fañas said.

Guillermo Díaz-Fañas could have gotten angry.

Díaz-Fañas came to the United States to attend graduate school as a Fulbright Fellow. He moved to New York City and started a promising civil engineering career specializing in geotechnical and earthquake engineering. And yet he couldn’t escape the feeling of being ostracized.

“I’ve suffered discrimination and even, to some extent, harassment for being different,” Díaz-Fañas said. “A lot of microaggressions and commentary that happened all the time. It got very dark eventually.”

But he didn’t stay quiet, nor did he get angry. Instead Díaz-Fañas started Qu-AKE – the Queer Advocacy Knowledge Exchange – a nonprofit serving and supporting LGBTQ+ professionals who work in the built environment.

“Instead of looking at the negative things, I got this energy inside of me that told me, ‘Go make something positive out of it,’” said Díaz-Fañas, P.E., M.ASCE.

“I started doing some research, and I saw that there was no organization out there for LGBTQ+ individuals in civil engineering. That’s nonsense. So I said, ‘You know what? Let’s just focus and create one.’

“So, I gathered a few colleagues and friends, we came up with some ideas and eventually that’s how Qu-AKE was born.”

All about visibility

One of the greatest challenges for the LGBTQ+ community in civil engineering continues to be a lack of visible role models.

“When I talk to career professionals and especially more senior ones, they tell me stories that identify with me,” Díaz-Fañas said. “We found this commonality that we do not necessarily know leaders who identify as queer, because the reality is that our profession tends to be a very conservative, very traditional one.”

Certainly, that’s what Tricia Clayton found as a civil engineering student in North Carolina. So much so that she lived what could almost be called a double life as an undergraduate.

“I had my set of friends who were my gay friends, and they were separate from my engineering friends that I met through school. And those groups never met, never interacted,” said Clayton, who recalls coming out as queer, to herself, during her first year of college. “I kind of liked that compartmentalization of my life, but I realized how unhealthy it was when I had two different personalities based on the group of people I was around.

“I just didn’t see any LGBTQ professors – at least not out LGBTQ individuals as faculty members. Not that many as students either. I’m sure they existed, but we just didn’t talk about it.”

Now an assistant professor in the civil engineering department at the University of Texas at Austin, Clayton, Ph.D., A.M.ASCE, thinks not talking about it might be part of the problem.

“Often when LGBTQ folks talk about their personal lives, it’s seen as, ‘Why would you bring that up?’ Or ‘That’s not an appropriate thing to talk about in a professional setting,’” Clayton said.

“But when you’re in a conservative workplace environment, it’s totally OK to talk about your spouse and your family life if it’s a more hetero-normative sort of family. So that’s one of the issues.”

Clayton continued, “And in engineering, the talk is usually technical. It’s a technical space, so there’s no need to bring in your personal story – at least that’s the perception. We don’t bring our personal stories into the classroom enough in engineering education, so then you don’t have that visibility.”

Having merged those two so-called identities into one during her graduate school years in Seattle at the University of Washington, Clayton has worked to be an LGBTQ+ role model to her students in Austin and is now participating in a Qu-AKE initiative called the BE Queer Project, a program to boost LGBTQ+ visibility in built-environment professions.

She says it remains challenging to resist the urge to compartmentalize and be so open and vocal, but the cause is one that is well worth leaving her comfort zone.

“I’m continuously trying to be more out and be more visible to try to be that person that I wish I’d had as a student,” Clayton said. “It’s really important to me. I want to continue to grow myself, and I hope it helps others to grow too.”

Evidence of an evolution

There are signs of progress writ large.

In 2017, the ASCE Board of Direction voted to adopt new language into the Society’s Code of Ethics–Canon 8, stating that “Engineers shall, in all matters related to their profession, treat all persons fairly and encourage equitable participation without regard to gender or gender identity, race, national origin, ethnicity, religion, age, sexual orientation, disability, political affiliation, or family, marital, or economic status.”

Signs of progress around New York, as well.

This Sunday – for the second consecutive year – members of the ASCE Metropolitan Section will participate with Qu-AKE in the NYC LGBTQ+ Pride March. This year NYC will host World Pride, in commemoration of the 50^th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising. Qu-AKE is expecting representation from over 15 firms, as well as a float for it organization.

“It will be a memorable event,” said Daniela Zellers, P.E., M.ASCE, the Met Section vice president. “It’s fundamental for awareness. And it’s important for employers to have diversity in their workplace, hearing different perspectives and how that can be constructive to the work environment. All these different points of view contribute to innovative ideas, new ways of thinking, thinking outside the box, and are truly beneficial to design companies and engineering companies.”

And there are signs of progress on a more personal level.

At 30, Díaz-Fañas already enjoys an extremely successful career as a senior technical principal engineer for WSP USA. ASCE honored him as a 2018 New Face of Civil Engineering, and the Engineering News-Record followed this year, naming him one of New York’s Top Young Professionals.

Where he used to worry over bringing his then-boyfriend (now husband) around work events, he no longer gives it a second thought.

“Now, people ask, ‘Where is Saïd? Why didn’t you bring him to the office party?’ Or with ASCE or other organizations that have conferences, people ask about my husband more than they ask about me,” Díaz-Fañas said, laughing.

“I feel that I have been able to leave those struggles behind. I know I have a track record in my short time working in my field that proves that I do have substance to my work. I have the backup of my company. I have the backup of organizations like ASCE and Qu-AKE. I know that I feel protected.

“I’m very thankful.”

As Qu-AKE celebrates its one-year anniversary, he knows that while plenty of work remains to be done, there are plenty of engineers to help.

“To the others out there, I know it’s hard to come out. I know it’s hard to be open, because sometimes you do not have a mechanism of protection,” Díaz-Fañas said. “That’s why Qu-AKE exists. You can reach out to us for advice and we can try to help. We are here to advocate for promotion and inclusion of our community.

“Because at the end of the day, we are not just gay or lesbian or trans or women or men, we are people. And we are people that serve people.”

The post Turning adversity into a platform for pride appeared first on Civil Engineering Source.

Last year, that meant developing a new strategic plan for ASCE. At its quarterly meeting in Arlington, VA, March 10, the Board moved from strategy into implementation, highlighted by the approval of a future-focused reorganization of the Society’s Committee on Advancing the Profession.

“I’m very excited, because in essence what happened with CAP was taking a step back to look forward,” said ASCE President Robin Kemper, P.E., LEED AP, F.SEI, F.ASCE.

“And people were willing to look at the bigger picture and say maybe there’s a better way. We were willing to take that chance, to take those steps to be more efficient and have everything fit better.”

Members of CAP worked for a year to prepare a reorganization plan that better aligns its activities and objectives with ASCE’s new strategic plan.

The changes will see CAP focusing on four areas:

• Engineer Tomorrow

• developing talent and leadership

• professional career growth

• sustainability

“I’m excited about the new volunteer experience,” said CAP Chair Joshua Shippy, P.E., M.ASCE. “I think we’ll be able to really reinvigorate some people and get things done more quickly. We will be able to identify a task or product that is needed, assign it to people who are excited about it, and make it happen.”

Among the restructuring, the Board approved creating MOSAIC, an advisory council focused on issues of diversity and inclusion. Members Of Society Advancing Inclusion Council – replaces the previous Committee on Diversity and Inclusion.

“The whole conversation about diversity and inclusion needs to be in everything we do,” said Marsha D. Anderson Bomar, AICP, F.ASCE, technical region director on the Board.

“I think it’s great. A lot of times when you say diversity, everybody just thinks, ‘OK, the color of my skin is different.’ But there are so many dimensions to diversity, and we need to really think about all of them in what we do as an organization and in our day-to-day jobs.”

Sustainability Certification

The Board received an update on the Sustainable Infrastructure Certification Program from Cris Liban and Liv Hasselbach, who talked about the potential development of a new Academy for Leadership in Sustainable Infrastructure Engineering.

The presentation generated discussion among Board members, as they continue to determine how best to maximize such a program within the strategic plan and ASCE’s bigger picture.

Does a sustainability certification provide vital validation for civil engineers as they move through their careers? Should sustainability expertise be more of an assumed aspect of professional licensure or ASCE’s existing certification programs or membership requirements?

The Board approved continued exploration of these questions, with plans to further discuss the program at the July meeting.

The post ASCE Board Takes Big-Picture Approach appeared first on Civil Engineering Source.

Ariel Christenson is a proud member.

These days – or more accurately, these nights – she finds herself awake in the hazy daze between midnight and dawn, feeding her infant son, J.J.

It’s peaceful; it’s wonderful. It can also be daunting when you do the math and realize your work day starts in just a few short hours.

That’s when the texting comes in. Ariel has several friends also nursing newborns and has met many more through an engineering working moms Facebook group. Her phone is filled with people who know all about the balancing act – motherhood and engineering.

“It’s been nice having other moms going back to work and talking to them, knowing there are other people out there going through what you’re going through,” said Christenson, structural engineer for Short Elliott Hendrickson in St. Paul, MN, past-president of the ASCE Minnesota Younger Member Group, and new mom.

“I’m not the only one up at 3 a.m. There are other moms out there responding to my texts at 3 a.m.”

*

That Christenson has found a community of like-minded engineers each passing through similar moments on their life timelines should not be surprising. It’s not as if the woman who balances a civil engineering career with motherhood is some rare find. Department of Labor statistics show that 70 percent of U.S. women with children under the age of 18 are participating in the labor force.

However, when ASCE News explored the ASCE Salary Survey data earlier this year, several women suggested motherhood as a potential reason women civil engineers start making less than their male counterparts, on average, about 10 years into their careers.

“I don’t think there is a woman who hasn’t considered it as a potential tradeoff,” said Rose McClure, P.E., S.E., M.ASCE, a structural engineer for Simpson Gumpertz & Heger in San Francisco. “So many women working as civil engineers are now in their 20s and 30s and struggling with that question: can I have this career that I’ve worked my whole life for and also have a family?”

Christenson and so many other women in ASCE have answered that question affirmatively. As Mother’s Day 2018 approaches, here are some of their stories:

Some days your office is the local Chuck E. Cheese

Valerie McCaw remembers it well. Middle of the work week. Middle of the work day. She was at Chuck E. Cheese.

“My son was 5 at the time,” said McCaw, then working as a manager for a new branch in a large CE consulting firm in Kansas City. “He had an ear infection, so he couldn’t go to daycare.”

No problem. After trips to the doctor and the pharmacy, her son was running around, having fun, eating pizza. She was set up in one of the booths, working, talking on the phone to her boss.

That’s when the animatronic house band started singing.

“My boss was like, ‘Where the heck are you?’” McCaw said.

Such is life as a single-parent civil engineer. It’s a funny memory now for McCaw, but it’s also one that demonstrated to her the value of working for a company that cares.

“My boss then, he used to be single parent himself, so he was really cool about it,” McCaw said. “The next time I saw him he gave me a bunch of Chuck E. Cheese tokens.”

Not every work situation was so accommodating. Earlier in her career, working at a different firm, McCaw was pregnant with her son. She was one of five women at the company who were expecting babies. Four of them quit.

“I was the only one who came back to work,” McCaw said. “This was 1991, and I applied to work from home the first three months, and they turned me down because, ‘You would set a precedent that we can’t do.’ And I told them, ‘A precedent has already been set! Everyone else quit!’”

McCaw’s son grew to be allergic to grass and trees, so you can imagine the number of doctor’s appointments.

“The hardest thing, being a single parent, is when you have a kid that’s sick,” McCaw said. “I’d have to make informal arrangements. Some people handled it fine. Some firms had no sick leave for when your kid was sick. So I didn’t have a vacation for three years because I used all my vacation for his illness.”

If it sounds like McCaw is bitter, she isn’t. She tells her stories with a sharp sense of humor; a civil engineer who knows how the system works, is grateful for her experiences, and now passes on her wisdom to other women engineers in the Kansas City area.

As the president of her own VSM Engineering firm – employing about 10 people – McCaw, P.E., D.WRE, ENV SP, M.ASCE, does her best to accommodate her employees’ work-life balance needs. She has two women – both moms – who work virtually for her.

“It’s fun to look at their timesheets,” McCaw laughs. “They work during all sorts of time slots, but they’re two of my best employees. Their work ethic is great. Their technical work is awesome.

“Everybody has to decide what your personal situation is when you have kids. I went back to work when my kid was eight weeks old, and he was in daycare the whole time. And he’s a great kid. He’s doing just fine. But some women want to stay home, and I respect that. You just have to decide what’s best for you.”

Of course, as time went on, every work decision McCaw made also involved her son.

“I remember, I talked to him, I said, ‘I’m thinking about starting my own firm,’” McCaw said. “‘Now, your school won’t change, your friends won’t change, but we may have to move.’

“And he said, ‘Mom, go for it!’ He’s just the coolest kid.”

Wow, how do you do it?

It’s a question that most often most probably is intended as a compliment.

Except it’s not. Not really.

“I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone out to a construction site. Someone finds out I have kids, and then they’re like, ‘Wow, how do you be an engineer and have kids?’” said Stephanie Slocum, P.E., M.ASCE, an associate principal at Hope Furrer Associates in Pennsylvania. “I get that question all the time. It’s like I’m greeted as this alien creature.

“And I asked my husband, ‘How many times do you get that question?’ He said, ‘Never.’ The men don’t have that conversation.”

So just the mere existence of “civil engineering mom” as a category is proof that there remains a double standard of sorts. Civil engineering dad isn’t really as novel a concept. Often, it’s just assumed.

“There’s a gender role perception issue in this country,” Slocum said. “And I think it’s getting better, but it’s probably going to take another generation. I’m seeing with millennials who want to start a family, the guys want to share what they’re doing at home with their wives. They don’t expect that if they get a phone call and the child is sick that their wife is going to be the one who drops what she’s doing at work and goes to get the child. They don’t expect that their wife is going to drop out of the workforce and stay home with the kids.”

It’s a topic near and dear to Slocum’s heart. She and her husband, Jason – also a civil engineer – have three daughters. She’s poured all of her wisdom and lessons learned into a new book, She Engineers: Outsmart Bias, Unlock Your Potential, and Create the Engineering Career of Your Dreams.

So what about that question, the one she gets all the time – how does she pull off the work-life balance?

“The answer is I have a supportive workplace, and I have a really supportive husband,” Slocum said. “We set ourselves up to be able to do this. It’s not going to just happen if you don’t have the conversations.

“I encourage people to have these conversations really early in your marriage or your relationship – here are our goals and this is how we’re going to get there.”

Get your red pen ready; make a plan

Ariel Christenson – she of the 3 a.m. text community – had those conversations with her husband, Jack. Early and often.

The two went to high school together (though it was such a big school, they actually didn’t meet until after they graduated), and married in 2014. Together, they have forged a remarkable life plan befitting two engineers (Jack is a mechanical; Ariel a structural).

“We waited to start a family until we were well-established in our careers,” Ariel said. “Certainly, No. 1, I wasn’t ready to have a kid until recently. And we liked our life the way it was, pretty comfortable. But then we were like, ‘You know what, it’s time for the next stage in our life. We’re ready to have a family.’

“I think that’s just how I work,” she added, laughing. “I’m always looking for the next thing. I’ve always been really active in a lot of different things, so adding one more thing to my plate seemed sort of natural.”

Enter Jack Jr. – better known as J.J., born last November. Ariel stayed home with her son for the early part of the winter.

“It was amazing being home with my son, just seeing the changes that happened over the first 12 weeks,” Christenson said. “He’s already holding his head up, outgrowing all his newborn clothes, kind of babble-talking with me, and smiling a ton.”

Stay-at-home mom was never in the cards for her, though.

“Coming back to work has been really nice. I feel like I have real purpose,” she said. “I go to work, I’m a contributing member of my household and to society, but I’m still able to come home and be the parent I need to be, too.”

Having a new baby in the house is obviously life-changing, but the couple’s work adjustments have been more subtle than drastic. Jack, for instance, now takes his late-afternoon conference call at home so he can spend more time with J.J.

Ariel, meanwhile, made sure she was with a company that valued work-life balance – at Short Elliott Hendrickson – before she had a baby. All part of the plan.

“Our managers are great about saying, ‘Hey, I have to go get the kids,’ or ‘I’m leaving for this – let’s catch up in the morning.’ It’s OK to let work take a side-burner to your family sometimes. They understand,” Christenson said. “That really let me know that I was going to come back to a job where they were happy to see me again, that I was going to pick up right where I left off.

“I came back and had a bunch of emails while I was gone from my supervisor encouraging me to sign up for all theses continuing education opportunities. Even though I was gone, I was still being copied on those emails. They still had me in mind.”

That’s not to say the first week wasn’t without its pitfalls.

“There was a point this week when I got back to my desk and I couldn’t think of the equation for the shear strength of concrete,” Christenson said, laughing. “I had to look it up to double-check. A few cobwebs in the attic upon the return to work.

“But there are certain things you don’t forget. I got a set of design plans, and I had my red pen out and went to town on it.”

Passing the torch

In many ways, Helen Mattei Claycomb, EI, A.M.ASCE, was your typical civil engineering student. Figuring life out, studying hard, trying to prepare for her career.

In other ways?

Well, it’s not everyone whose mother is the president of ASCE. Not to mention occasionally your college professor.

“It was pretty cool,” Helen said.

Helen’s mother, of course, is Norma Jean Mattei, Ph.D., P.E., F.SEI, F.ASCE, ASCE’s past-president and dean of the University of New Orleans College of Engineering.

“Growing up, I don’t think I fully saw my mom,” Helen said. “I just saw her as my mom until I had one of her classes. That’s when I really got to see, ‘Oh, my mom has a complete life besides just being my mother.’

“As I got older, seeing my mom as an instructor, seeing how she teaches, seeing how she interacts with everyone, it was pretty eye-opening to see her as a real person.”

For Norma Jean, that separation was by design. Even as her career flourished, she made sure to read at her daughters’ preschool, to chaperone their field trips, help with Girl Scouts, drive the neighborhood kids to early-morning swim practice.

“You have to navigate these waters as you go, take on things as they happen, as they change,” Norma Jean said. “It’s was very different being the mom of a second-grader than it was being the mom of an infant, and so on. It’s never static. You have to manage it and make sure you are parenting the way you want to parent.”

And sometimes, Mattei said, you don’t know the way you want to parent until you actually are a parent. Norma Jean and her husband, Richard, waited until their 30s to have children: two daughters, Helen and Genevieve. She always envisioned herself as a working mom, but it wasn’t easy.

“I knew myself well enough to know that I wouldn’t be the best mom if I stopped working,” Mattei said. “But you really don’t know anything until you hold that baby in your arms. Because when you hand that baby over to someone else to care for them, that’s when it’s real. If you make that decision, you’ll have to then share that close relationship with your caregiver.

“But I was pretty certain that I would make my kids, as they were growing up, and my husband crazy if I stayed home,” she laughed.

Mattei and her husband shared the parenting duties as best they could. They avoided jobs that required a lot of travel – at least when the kids were younger – and committed to keep their home in New Orleans close to extended family, no matter what career opportunities arose.

“When we were really young, she was doing research at UNO and teaching, but she was mainly focused on us,” Helen said.

“And then as we grew older and maybe didn’t need as much help anymore, she started focusing on what she wanted to do. It worked out perfectly. Now I’m out of college; my sister is almost done. So if mom has to jet around the world, no big deal. I guess it just takes balance. You can’t do everything. You have to find the right time and place.”

Helen is following in her mother’s civil engineering footsteps. Recently she works in the offshore oil and gas structural engineering group for EDG Inc. in New Orleans – with a pretty special perspective on this whole civil engineering motherhood balance.

“I think my mom is basically Super Mom, doing everything she does,” Helen said.

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Studies show that only 14 percent of the civil engineering workforce is composed of women. About 40 percent of women who have engineering degrees never enter the workforce or drop out.

So, why does this matter?

Women represent over half of the U.S. population and bring unique perspectives to advancements in society. There’s evidence that women are interested in civil engineering, but there’s a general lack of support for women, which is essential to thrive in the field.

In this edition of the ASCE Interchange, Stephanie Slocum, P.E., M.ASCE, a structural engineer and associate principal at a woman-owned engineering firm, Hope Furrer Associates, discusses her book She Engineers: Outsmart Bias, Unlock your Potential, and Create the Engineering Career of your Dreams and the state of women in civil engineering.

“The number one thing for a high performing team is trust,” said Slocum, who believes listening and accepting different viewpoints leads to innovation and success.

Slocum also examines three major issues facing women engineers, including denial of gender bias in the workforce, a lack of female mentors and role models, and the necessity of work-life balance integration. Despite these challenges, Slocum concludes that building trust is a good first step.

To view all Interchange episodes, visit ASCE’s YouTube channel.

ASCE Interchange is brought to you by Contech Engineered Solutions, a leading provider of site solutions for the civil engineering industry. Contech’s portfolio includes bridges, drainage, erosion control, retaining wall, sanitary, stormwater, and wastewater treatment products. For more info, visit www.ContechES.com or call 800-338-1122.

The post The state of women in civil engineering appeared first on Civil Engineering Source.

As president-elect, Kemper has been busy visiting ASCE groups all over the map, inspiring members in person. Interviewed via email for ASCE News’ month-long series, Women in Civil Engineering, Kemper touched on a variety of issues, including why she sees work-life balance as a triangle.

ASCE News: What advice would you offer a young woman entering civil engineering?

Kemper: The first piece of advice I would tell a young woman, actually any young engineer, is to not let anyone tell you that you can’t or shouldn’t do something because they think it is not a good idea. Find your passion and follow your heart.

But always listen to what are people are saying. There may be a good reason why someone suggests that you not do something, and they may be right in giving you that advice. But the person who will care about you the most is you, and you need to take ownership of your future and pursue it as you think is best.

ASCE News: What is most responsible for the continued wage gap between men and women doing the same work, and how do we fix that problem?

Kemper: I think what is most responsible for the continued wage gap between men and women is centuries of history and cultural role models. Women continue to be the major contributor to child raising, with little or no support from most employers and the government. Time taken for family is frequently interpreted as a lack of company commitment and can result in women (and some men) being relegated to the “slow track” of advancement. While spousal support is improving, women still tend to bear a disproportionate share of the family workload.

But I think there is hope in the near future as the millennials move up into leadership roles in their companies. Typically, both men and women millennials want to have a more balanced life. If we change our culture to acknowledge and embrace a more balanced life and blur the traditional role models, then employers will become “gender blind” and the wage gap will close.

ASCE News: What has been the single biggest challenge as a woman in the profession?

Kemper: I believe balancing work and family is still the single biggest challenge for a woman in the profession. I heard Jacqueline Hinman [recently, CEO of CH2M] speak and to paraphrase her, you can do it all, just not at the same time.

I refer to my life as an equilateral triangle. At each point of the triangle is one of the three most important things in my life: family, career, and ASCE. Throughout my life, the triangle keeps rotating around and what is at the apex of the triangle is what I am concentrating most on at that time. Right now, ASCE is at the apex of my triangle. My husband has a similar triangle, and he has found it not only doable but fulfilling.

ASCE News: Who have been your mentors throughout your career?

Kemper: Not surprisingly, my first mentors were my parents. They encouraged everything I pursued. There were times I wanted to take things to the next level, such as ice skating and horseback riding, but that meant a major financial and/or time commitment. Instead of saying no to me, we would have discussions and I would decide that it would be best if I did something else.

Even though my father is a nuclear engineer/physicist, when I said I wanted to study architecture, he never tried to dissuade me or even talk to me about engineering. He only asked that I consider applying to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where he was a professor.

My next mentor was the chair of the civil engineering department at RPI, Dr. Larry Feeser, [an ASCE Distinguished Member]. I decided in my sophomore year that I wanted to double-major in architecture and civil engineering with an emphasis on structural engineering building design. It was Larry who crafted a program for me to get my B.S.C.E. with only taking courses in my junior and senior years. It was Larry who introduced me to ASCE. I consider Larry to be one of my key mentors to this day.

The rest of my mentors are my ASCE family. There are more names than I can list but Chuck Pennoni, 1992 ASCE president; Greg DiLoreto, 2013 ASCE president; and Pat Natale, ASCE past executive director, are people who especially helped me in making decisions in my career and ASCE.

ASCE News: At what point did you feel like you were in control of your career?

Kemper: This is a difficult question for me to answer because on some levels I feel I have always had control of my career, but on other levels, I am always being subjected to the whims of the economy. I have been laid off three times in my career.

My first job out of graduate school was in Louisville, KY, because that is where my husband was pursing his doctorate. I always wanted to work with architects doing their structural engineering design (don’t forget, when I started college, my major was architecture). But in Louisville I got a position at Bechtel and spent my first nine months designing drilled caissons. Not exactly what I envisioned I would be doing in my career, but it was great experience nevertheless.

I tell people that all experience is good experience, even if you hate what you are currently doing. You can learn as much from what you don’t like as you can from what you do like. It wasn’t until we moved to New Jersey that I got my “dream job,” working at a structural engineering consulting firm doing building design.

ASCE News: What aspect of the profession do you think still most needs to change for women to maximize their potential and opportunities as civil engineers?

Kemper: Talking to young women, what I find the most disconcerting is hearing that quite a few of them find the workplace not inviting and sometimes hostile. Therefore, aspects of the culture need to change. Change is difficult and most people fight it, but change is always necessary for progress to occur.

I believe some change will occur as more millennials move into management positions in their firms. I think millennials, both men and women, do not have the same gender biases that older people have. I believe it is important that if someone is not happy about a workplace situation, they need to take the initiative to try and change it. Change will not happen unless you become part of the solution.

But to maximize the potential and opportunities for our future civil engineers, both men and women, I think the profession needs to become more people oriented. Employers need to recognize that their employees are multifaceted and have more to offer than performing their regular assignments, and have interests beyond the confines of their office. After all, we are a service profession. And service is helping or doing work for someone, or in other words, service is about people.

ASCE News: What sign of progress gives you the most hope as you look forward to the future of the profession for women?

Kemper: What gives me the most hope as I look to the future of women in civil engineering are all the great women leading Student Chapters, Younger Member Groups, Sections, Branches, and Institutes whom I have met. Based upon my personal survey of the recent colleges I have visited, in general, the number of women students pursuing engineering was approximately one-third. Yet I find a disproportionate number of women in leadership roles; many times more than half of the leaders are women.

The post President-Elect Q&A – Robin Kemper Discusses Women in Civil Engineering appeared first on Civil Engineering Source.

Throughout the ASCE News Women in Civil Engineering series, the roundtable has dispersed wisdom about hope and challenges. In this edition, women look toward the future and offer advice to their younger peers.

What advice would you give a young woman entering the civil engineering profession?

Marsha Anderson Bomar

AICP, ENV SP, F.ASCE, executive director, Gateway85, Norcross, GA

“If you like solving problems and want to be able to see your work turn into something real, this is the profession for you. There are so many different ways to use your knowledge and skills; be open to opportunities to learn and seize those to keep exploring until you find the path that truly suits you. Shadow others who are doing the tasks or the projects that you aspire to do, so you can learn what is required to be successful.”

Kim Parker Brown

P.E., F.ASCE, senior environmental engineer and program manager in the Environmental Restoration Division of the Naval Facilities Engineering Command Headquarters, Washington, DC

“My advice would be to make sure to initially work as hard and diligently as you did when you were in college. The endurance that it took you to get through college should be shown in your work as you embark on your new career in civil engineering. You want to show that you are prepared for the job and make the employer confident in why they chose you for the position.

“Next, seek out a well-respected mentor at the organization. The mentor may not always be someone who looks like you, can be a male or female, young or seasoned, but someone who has made an impact on others at the organization.”

Menzer Pehlivan

Ph.D., P.E., M.ASCE, geotechnical engineer, CH2M, Seattle, WA

“Be assertive and understand your worth. Many successful women suffer from imposter syndrome, where they feel they are not good enough and their successes are the result of luck. Women, therefore, tend to undersell their capabilities, which lead them to not pursue some opportunities thinking they are not qualified enough. It is very difficult to overcome the imposter syndrome, but it would be helpful to have a mentor whose opinions you respect and who can remind you of your talent and capabilities.”

Veronica O. Davis

P.E., M.ASCE, co-founder/principal planning manager, Nspiregreen, Washington, DC

“My biggest advice would be to find mentors within the profession. Potential mentors would be people within your company, someone you met through a professional organization, former bosses, a leader in your industry, or someone you heard speak at a conference.

“I have had mentors who guided me through challenging career decisions, gave me insights on salaries, and provided me access to opportunities. Even to this day I have mentors who give me tough love when I needed it most, coach me out of my funks, and help me grow as a person and a leader.

“There will never be a one-size-fits-all mentor, and each relationship will look different. I have some mentors I’ve known for decades that I call on a few times a year and some that I meet with monthly. I have others where our relationship lasted a few coffees.”

Maria Lehman

P.E., M.ASCE, director of strategic initiatives, Ecology & Environment Inc., Orchard Park, NY

“Get as diverse a technical experience as you can early in your career, so you have a solid foundation in several areas. If you focus too much in one area, you will not have resilience when the market changes to move to another area of interest. Learn to be adaptable!

“Volunteer to tackle new challenges. Use your ASCE friends as sources and sounding boards to help you advance and show you how to succeed in new areas.

“In a perfect world, everyone should have a supervisor who cares about their staff development, but in the real world, sometimes that just doesn’t happen. You need to sell yourself and abilities to advance. Be respectful but assertive. And use ASCE to find mentors!”

Jennifer Sloan Ziegler

Ph.D., P.E., M.ASCE, project engineer, Waggoner Engineering, Jackson, MS

“Keep going. You are not in this alone.

“Breaking into engineering can seem like a daunting challenge, especially for young women just starting out in the traditionally male-dominated field. Keep going – do what you can to break through and find your voice in the profession. Be active in professional organizations such as ASCE, it can help you find your voice and feel comfortable exerting it.

“Find a mentor – they pick you up when you’re down, push you past where you think your limits are, celebrate your victories, provide sage guidance, and commiserate on your losses. In turn, mentor somebody else. You may not be where you think you should be, but you have so much to offer and somebody will benefit.”

Suzy Trabia

EIT, A.M.ASCE, Engineer II, Atkins, Las Vegas

“My advice to young women entering the civil engineering field is to not be afraid of taking on new challenges at work, learning new skills, and speaking up. Always take a seat at the table and share your unique ideas and perspective. Taking on challenges head-on will allow young women engineers to be heard and respected in their organizations.”

Shelia Montgomery-Mills

P.E., M.ASCE, senior project manager, Birmingham Jefferson Convention Complex, president, Civil Construction Solutions, Birmingham, AL

“My advice to young women entering the civil engineering field is to proactively pursue learning from others involved in all phases of a project. I learned so much just from spending time on construction sites, watching how the work is performed, talking to the people doing the work, and asking a lot of questions. I feel that much of my success can be attributed to being willing to learn from everyone involved in a project – planning, design, through construction and owner occupancy.”

Rebecca Luman

P.E., M.ASCE, Healthy Tweaks LLC, Houston, TX

“Whenever possible, work for firms that have good mentoring programs. Be sure to take the time to visit with your mentor, learn from their experiences, set near- and long-term goals, and understand what it means to be a project manager before the opportunity arises for you to become one.

“Join your local ASCE branch and get involved. Then, choose at least one other non-technical/non-profit organization to be involved with to be able to ‘see’ outside the lens of an engineer.

“Start taking continuing education classes immediately after graduation. Hint: Your ASCE membership gives you five free courses a year.”

Lydia Marshall

A.M.ASCE, assistant engineer, City of San Diego

“Don’t be afraid of hard work, and be confident in yourself and in your abilities. Also, be curious and try to think a few steps ahead of every decision you make. These are the things that helped me tremendously in my development.”

Denise Nelson

P.E., ENV SP, M.ASCE, environmental engineer, The Berkley Group, Richmond, VA

“I’d encourage a young woman entering civil engineering to never stop networking. There are so many civil engineering sectors, numerous niches within each sector, and all types of companies in the industry. You can learn so much from other people’s experiences and lessons learned, so don’t be afraid to network. Asking questions is a great way to break the ice; consider:

• How did you get to this position?

• What advice would you give me?

• What does your day-to-day look like?

• Is there anything innovative that excites you right now?

• (and always save for last:) Can you recommend someone else I can talk with?”

Judy Nitsch

P.E., F.ASCE, founding principal, Nitsch Engineering, Boston, MA

“Get summer jobs during college and work at a design firm, a construction company, and an agency so you get a feel for each type of work and workplace. That will help you understand the material in your classes better and help you decide what kind of work you would like to do once you graduate. That experience will also make you much more employable!”

Thalia Valkanos

EIT, A.M.ASCE, legislative correspondent, U.S. Senate, Washington, DC

“In short: you are valuable and necessary. Never let anyone ever make you think otherwise. Also, become involved and active in ASCE! Meeting other women through ASCE from across the country has been inspiring and has served as a wonderful reminder of why I chose this career in the first place.”

The post CE Roundtable: Advice for young women in CE appeared first on Civil Engineering Source.

More than 1,200 ASCE members participated in the ASCE News Women in Civil Engineering series by contributing their headshots for an ASCE collage. More than three dozen women contributed their insights and perspectives to the series content. It was a remarkable response and important subject matter.

Read more from the series here, and check out highlights from ASCE’s #HerEngineering hashtag on social media:

The post ASCE’s Faces of the Women in Civil Engineering Series appeared first on Civil Engineering Source.

For ASCE News’ Women in Civil Engineering series, the roundtable will focus on issues affecting women in the profession.

This week, our panel gets a bit more personal and shares different hurdles each has faced throughout their careers.

What has been your single biggest challenge as a woman in the civil engineering profession?

Avery Bang

A.M.ASCE, president and CEO, Bridges to Prosperity

“Not having as many people that I can point to and say, ‘That’s who I want to be in 40 years.’ There certainly are many female role models in the sector, but I think young women have to search a bit harder to find those folks.”

Marsha Anderson Bomar

AICP, ENV SP, F.ASCE, ASCE Technical Region director, executive director, Gateway85, Norcross, GA

“Not being seen as a woman in the profession but rather as a professional who incidentally is a woman. I strove to be heard as a knowledgeable professional and recognized that I was visible because I was a woman but did not want that to be the driver for my acceptance or lack thereof. There is sometimes a bias about women being able to do the job as well as their male counterparts. Being seen as a woman first plays into that bias.”

Kathy Caldwell

P.E., F.SEI, Pres.11.ASCE, president, Caldwell, Cook and Associates, Gainesville, FL

“The challenges and opportunities I have experienced in this great profession have made me the person and engineer I am, and I am grateful for them. The biggest obstacles are ‘difficult people,’ but that is gender neutral!”

Veronica O. Davis

P.E., M.ASCE, co-founder / principal planning manager, Nspiregreen, Washington, DC

“The biggest single challenge as a woman in the profession is a lack of women in leadership. When I was a junior engineer at a consulting firm, there were only two women out of over 180 vice presidents. Part of the reason I started my own company is that I did not see a path to leadership without working three times as hard as my male counterparts.”

Maria Lehman

P.E., M.ASCE, director of strategic initiatives, Ecology & Environment Inc., Orchard Park, NY

“Having to speak up all the time to be noticed. While most of my bosses during my career were supportive of women, they were also myopic to women’s value and achievements. Most women are not driven by ego and assume that good work alone will get you noticed, promoted, and advanced. That is not true in many cases, so we need to work to get our opinions across, don’t allow ourselves to be over-talked and keep up our tenacity. It can be mentally exhausting, but at the end of the day, if you don’t stick up for yourself, who will? As a woman advances in her career, she must also be very mindful to mentor and offer opportunities to women coming up in the profession.  That will change the face of the profession.”

Diane M. Linderman

P.E., ENV SP, M.ASCE, managing director, VHB, Richmond, VA

“I couldn’t come up with one! We all face challenges in our careers – females and males. It is how we meet those challenges that defines our success. When I started my career almost 40 years ago, it was a very male-dominated profession. I never let that influence me. I was confident as I sat in the room. Were there times when I felt left out or not included in the ‘good old boy’ network? Sure, I did. But I didn’t let that define me or stop me from being a part of the solution. What is important is to earn the respect of your peers and those in decision-making positions.”

Rebecca Luman

P.E., M.ASCE, Healthy Tweaks LLC, Houston

“The single biggest challenge as a woman in the profession is maintaining the balance between retaining a full-time position as an engineer and advancing my career, and being a nurturing mother/wife, ensuring my family is not neglected.

“I would love to see ASCE collect and understand statistics behind how many women stay in civil engineering and for how long after graduation and/or starting a family. Using this information, we could develop a network of engineering/consulting firms that mentor women, helping them realize their potential as they transition through the various phases of life, encouraging more women to stay in the profession.”

Denise Nelson

P.E., ENV SP, M.ASCE, environmental engineer, The Berkley Group, Richmond, VA

“The family/work balance is an ongoing challenge. While men face this, too, there are substantial differences. Most obviously, being pregnant on a job that may require field work or any task requiring personal protective equipment can be risky, at worst, or tiring, at best. There are still the common misperceptions that women taking maternity leave are a burden to the company or project and that women won’t return to their careers when maternity leave ends.

“I would love to see more supportive work environments for professionals with children. I’ve found that having children has helped me learn to be more flexible, improvisational, and creative in working with people and solving problems. It’s also kept me grounded – the decisions we make in civil engineering today are to serve future generations.”

Jennifer Sloan Ziegler

Ph.D., P.E., M.ASCE, project engineer, Waggoner Engineering, Jackson, MS

“Work-life balance. I feel, justified or not, as if I have to put in more hours, be more active in professional extracurriculars, and have more certifications and licenses than my male colleagues in order to be taken seriously and/or presented with the same opportunities. It is frustrating, but my husband and I make it work. It is, however, one of the main reasons I have not had children yet – I cannot quite figure out how to add children to my already busy schedule without dropping something else.”

The post CE Roundtable: What Has Been Your Single Biggest Challenge as a Woman in CE? appeared first on Civil Engineering Source.

And at every stop, she inspires a new group of engineers – not simply as the ASCE president but as the fourth woman in the Society’s history to serve as president, as the second in a historic run of three straight ASCE female presidents. Women and men, girls and boys, view her as a role model.

It’s a responsibility that maybe wasn’t in the job description. But it’s one she carries well and wears proudly.

For ASCE News’ Women in Civil Engineering series, Swallow talked with ASCE’s Ben Walpole about the role she plays, plus a variety of issues she’s seen and has experienced regarding women’s place in the profession.

ASCE News: Let’s just get right to it. What’s responsible for the gender wage gap, and how do we solve it?

Swallow: I think there are a couple of things responsible for it.

I think there’s a lack of knowledge and awareness around it among employers and employees alike. And even though the ASCE Salary Survey has shown the disparity, when you get down into the local office does the individual female engineer know she’s making less than her male peer? Does her boss actually know that there’s a difference? I don’t know that there’s a holistic awareness of the issue. So it’s something that we need to highlight.

ASCE News: Do you feel like there have been changes – improvements – throughout your career?

Swallow: So I’ve been practicing for 23 years, arguably half of a career, right? I would say there are changes we are seeing – more students representing broader, more diverse backgrounds progressing into more diverse Younger Member groups. And at some point, that diversity starts to filter up in ASCE and in our profession.

Interestingly, there’s always been overrepresentation of women in leadership at the student level, at the Younger Member level, and even at the Section and Branch levels. And we’re starting to see a little more equity in the profession at those lower levels. The challenge is: do we continue to lose the women as they advance into their careers?

Again, it’s perception. There’s a perception when you have overrepresentation of women in the leadership roles of ASCE or at some companies, you can get this idea that OK, we fixed it. But in reality, there are public and private sector organizations where there aren’t any female engineers, or maybe there’s one woman holding her own. And maybe it’s a fantastic place and she loves working there, but she’s the lone woman in the organization.

It’s been interesting touring as president. In general, when I go to my visits, I have very mixed groups. However, at one visit this year, the only other woman in the room was an award recipient who was not an ASCE member.

ASCE News: Any job I’ve ever started, I’ve been nervous and wanted to prove myself. But I don’t think it was for any other reason other than ‘I’m new here and I want them to know I can be trusted.’ Nothing to do with gender or whatever. Have you ever felt, going back to when you were just starting in the profession, or even now when you travel as president of ASCE, that awareness like, ‘OK, I’m a woman, I need to prove something; I need to convince them of something’? Or is that just not how you’re wired?

Swallow: I don’t know that I’ve ever thought of it as ‘I’m a woman, and I have to…’ I don’t think of it that way. I think the same as you: I have to do my best. I have to make sure that they understand what I’m able to do and recognize my abilities and what I’m able to contribute. I don’t know that I’ve ever thought of having to do more.

That said, I was on a women’s panel at the EWRI Congress this past year in Sacramento. All of us were roughly the same age, same point in our careers. What was interesting was, to a person, we all felt that through the early parts of our careers, we’d had that sponsorship, mentorship, and support. And that started to change as we hit this sort of mid-level. That started to change as we advanced through our careers and got to these higher positions.

ASCE News: What do you attribute that to?

Swallow: Fewer opportunities, fewer openings at that level. More competition. And so the people who at one time were supporting and sponsoring us are now our peers.

ASCE News: Do you think that changes if the power mechanism flips? If the owners are women?

Swallow: No. We all – men and women – have unconscious bias. I mean, you’ve seen those studies where the resumes are Jack versus Jill. Same qualifications. Jack gets the job.

ASCE News: Is it an engineering thing? Maybe it’s a society thing, so where do you even start?

Swallow: It is a society thing. But because we’re underrepresented in engineering, it’s magnified in engineering, if that makes sense. Because of this underlying bias, there’s a need for women to do more, to have their accomplishments recognized and be competitive for promotions.

I was talking to a woman, and one of the things she said – and this goes to those biases, how we interact in offices. They do a monthly birthday party for the staff, and she started to notice that at the birthday parties the men would just kind of wait for someone to cut the cake. And the person that cut the cake was always a woman. Just because. There was nothing malicious about it. But, generally, the women throw the parties. The women just do it, because they’re used to doing it.

Admittedly, it’s not the biggest deal in the world. But those little things add up, especially in the workplace where the focus should be on the job you do and the skills you bring to the table; not some outdated gender role. We were talking about microaggressions and, you know, death by a thousand papercuts. So instead of getting frustrated by it, she just assigns it and the responsibility rotates. And the guys are happy to do it. They don’t care. There are ways to work around the underlying biases if you recognize it’s happening.

ASCE News: How important do you think it is for women to have mentors who are women? Did you have any mentors who were women when you were coming up? You were kind of following your dad into the profession, right?

Swallow: Yes and no. I think my mom at one point said something about me not liking engineering. And I was like, ‘I’m gonna do it.’ [laughs] But having a dad who was an engineer definitely gave me awareness.

The mentor one is always a hard one for me, because I don’t know that I ever had that traditional role of a mentor. I didn’t have that traditional person. I definitely had people who I reached out to technically, outside of my current employer. And I don’t know why I had that in me to where I would reach out and say, ‘Hey, you, who work for my competitor, would you teach me how to do this?’ But I did that, and it worked.

I think that goes back to the idea that as a young engineer people were willing to help me out. If I asked. I had that ability, or the courage, to ask. So I’d ask, and people would help me. And at some point, that’s changed.

There weren’t a lot of women, and not any that I knew very well within the profession.

As a result, though, I strove to pull the women I know today together. I set up a quarterly “ladies who lunch” kind of thing. Part of it was so I could see my friends that I didn’t get to see because we’re all so busy. And the other part was, as a function of not having a lot of women in my early career, I wanted to try to change that for the women who are entering the field now. I want to create that network.

ASCE News: What has it meant to you to be part of this historic triumvirate of female presidential officers with Norma Jean and Robin?

Swallow: It is amazing. I don’t think I ever imagined that we would have three women serving in the presidential offices at the same time. I also think it’s helped to normalize the presence of women in the highest ASCE leadership positions as well as in the engineering profession. And lastly, I’m excited that it may help tell our younger professionals that are moving up the ranks that anything is possible – because, indeed, it is.

The post Presidential Q&A – Kristina Swallow on Women in Civil Engineering appeared first on Civil Engineering Source.

She remembers earlier in her career, inspecting a warehouse in Oakland after an earthquake. The place was a mess – the horizontal trusses shattered, the ceiling caving in.

Force, the lead investigator – and, yes, as her first name suggests, a woman – urgently sought the superintendent with her report.

“I said, ‘How do you do? I’m Linda Force. This building is about to collapse. You need to get your people out of here,’” Force said.

“The first words out of his mouth were, ‘Well, who do you think you are, girlie, telling me what to do?’

“I said, ‘I’m the girlie who’s gonna call the police to come drag you out of here if you’re not out in 30 minutes.’”

Flash forward to 2018.

In January, the ASCE Board of Direction convened with three women at the head table, leading the meeting. For the first time in the Society’s 165 years, all three presidential officers are women – President Kristina Swallow, President-Elect Robin Kemper, and Past-President Norma Jean Mattei.

“This is for all the little girls out there thinking they want to be an engineer and knowing there’s a path for them,” Swallow told the crowd at the ASCE 2017 Convention in New Orleans to huge applause during her presidential induction ceremony.

Civil engineers like Linda Force, like Kristina Swallow, like Norma Jean Mattei, like Robin Kemper, they’ve broken barriers. They’ve crashed through that mythical glass ceiling.

But with women composing just 14.4 percent of the civil engineering workforce, according to the 2018 Bureau of Labor Statistics population survey data, it’s clear that these leaders remain the exception and not yet the new normal.

It would seem a perfect time, then, to explore the state of the profession for women; the strides the profession has made toward gender equality and the challenges that still exist?

So, ASCE News is launching a series this month, Women in Civil Engineering. We started, like any good investigation, by following the money. The 2017 ASCE Salary Survey provides a surprising look into the gender wage gap.

And then we talked to ASCE members. We collected your insights and perspectives about the issues you’ve faced throughout your careers – what’s changed, and what still needs to improve.

The questions are not new. The engineering profession has been examining these issues for decades. But there’s no doubt these topics remain relevant. We reached out to women in the Society, asking them to contribute headshots for a photo mosaic. We were hoping for about 200 photos. Within a week, we’d received more than 1,200. Clearly, these are subjects close to the heart for many civil engineers.

In that spirit, we’d love to hear from you.

We’re encouraging women to post a photo of yourself working in the field to social media using the #HerEngineering hashtag.

And women and men, please join the conversation over at ASCE Collaborate.

As Shelia Mills-Montgomery so eloquently said in the Collaborate forum, “There is no one correct answer to any of the questions. Each affected, female or male, has their own experiences to pull from and will likely have widely varying opinions. That is why the discussion is the key.”

Click on a headline icon to read each story. We’ll be updating this page throughout March with new content:

The post ASCE News Series: Women in Civil Engineering appeared first on Civil Engineering Source.

In this week’s edition of ASCE Member Voices, as part of the ASCE News Women in Civil Engineering series, Ingram talks about why equitable treatment of women is fundamental to what engineering is all about, and how she learned these lessons through an unlikely source: stand-up comedy.

Engineers solve problems to improve lives across the globe. In a world void of engineers, we would not have the internet, potable water at the turn of a faucet, or a reliable bridge in high-wind conditions. Engineers work together to advance humanity, assure safety, and serve communities. The welfare of people is at the core of the profession.

Women, however, have not been fully embraced to engineer the very works society benefits from. This conflicts with the essence of engineering itself. How can a profession, fueled by philanthropy, innovation, and big dreams, be faced with this circumstance?

I am a structural engineer at WSP USA and optimistic that this will change, as engineering is also based on progress. I know that we will collectively thrust the engineering industry into alignment.

Three lessons I have learned, outside of the engineering environment, encourage such a breakthrough. These observations appeared to me in an unlikely place – a comedy club in Washington, DC.

Collaboration Across Perspectives

I have always enjoyed film and storytelling. And I had a desire to give stand-up comedy a try. Surely I could tell a few jokes on stage … right? Maybe I’d start with something like “Why did the engineer cross the road?” Maybe not. Anyhow, I signed up for a comedy class at the DC Improv in Washington, DC, to find the answer.

The class was called “Five Minutes to Funny.” Over a few weeks, they promised to guide you through the development of a five-minute set. At the end of the course, we the students would have the opportunity to perform in front of a live audience! My class consisted of women and men from various disciplines, ranging from a writer at a popular television station to a professional in the biotechnology field.

Each week, we spent time learning the basic elements of a comedy set. Most of the time, however, was spent performing our own material in front of the class each week. It was a judgement-free zone where we could collect feedback from the instructor and a diverse group of classmates. Our sets were ultimately influenced by people across occupations, cultures, and perspectives. As noted in The Medici Effect, by Frans Johansson, diversity drives innovation and innovation happens at the intersection of ideas, concepts, and cultures. The individual product of each student grew into a collaborative effort. My set improved immensely from incorporating my classmates’ comments. In solving engineering problems, welcoming the viewpoints of women can only drive society further than any meeting held without us.

Considerate Communication

During the comedy class, I learned that jokes are delicately crafted. A comedian takes the audience on a journey from setup to payoff, and there are a variety of witty ways to arrive at a punchline. Akin to a load on a structure, this punchline creates reactions. (Pardon me, please, I just could not resist the comparison.)

The difference between a good and a bad punchline could be one word or a slight change in voice inflection. A great punchline can leave your audience laughing uproariously. A poor punchline, however, can leave you with the rumbling sound of an HVAC unit or crickets. Most of all, a bad punchline results in a disappointed audience. The crowd feels let down and the energy in the room takes a dive.

Similar to an audience at a comedy show, it is important to consider my colleagues’ feelings while communicating in person and through email. Yes, there are deliverables to be achieved in a business environment. Nevertheless, as we pursue project goals, I ask myself, “How do I make my colleagues feel with this choice of words and delivery?” Being mindful of how we communicate with our associates, even in difficult conversations, can lift morale in an office and promote inclusion. This also helps projects to succeed.

Focus on Subject Matter

I reviewed my material for weeks. Then I was at work one day, and the big night was that evening: I had to transform from engineer to comedian. Each of my classmates had invited family and friends to the show, and the club was packed from wall to wall. I was sitting on a stool backstage, taking deep breaths. That was when I heard them call my stage name. (Yes, I have a stage name. Think of it as a “safety factor” of sorts, in case my performance went awry.)

As I stepped onstage, the light was blinding. I could hear the audience, but wasn’t able to see anyone, except my husband. This worked in my favor. My focus automatically shifted to the content of my jokes, as opposed to peering at the audience. I often make this mental shift in engineering settings. I put blinders on when I walk into a meeting, focusing instead on the subject matter that attracted me to the profession.

As a teen, I was inspired to study structural engineering by the infrastructure and architecture in my hometown of Chicago. I was captivated by soaring skyscrapers and beautiful bridges, and did not discover that I had chosen a “nontraditional” profession for women until much later. This is likely because I grew up with several math and science instructors who were women, as well as positive male role models.

My own father studied math and engineering. Besides, would that discovery have discouraged me or otherwise mattered? I do not focus on the fact that I am a woman, even when others do. As a woman, though, I instinctively offer a distinct perspective. My gender is one facet of who I am. Focusing on subject matter and engineering solutions, instead of genetic differences, could generate positive solutions for our communities’ issues. Improving people’s lives is at the heart of the engineering profession. Women have made significant engineering contributions for a long time, from Emily Roebling to Dr. Mae Carol Jemison.

So, why did the engineer cross the road?

To build a bridge for the girls coming behind her.

I have now had more supportive engineering mentors, both men and women, than ever before. Attracting young women through engineering outreach is vital to increasing the pipeline of talented engineers. Also, as we attract more women to the profession, we should focus on retaining the ones who are here now. A great start is for those in management roles to ensure that women are engaged in leadership opportunities, technical assignments, and, simply put, added to Outlook meeting invites.

Now, if I were reading this article, I would also want to know how the stand-up comedy performance went.

Thankfully, my jokes landed, and the audience had a great time! The night ended in laughter for myself and my classmates – well, most of my classmates. Either way, our accomplishments owed something to the structure of the class and the lessons learned; lessons that can be applied in or out of a comedy club.

An emphasis on collaboration, considerate communication, and subject matter led us to our success.

The post The Essence of Engineering (Via Stand-Up Comedy) appeared first on Civil Engineering Source.

For instance: Is there a gender wage gap in civil engineering?

Depending on whom you ask, the gender wage gap is either a persistent problem in the industry, with women consistently earning less than their male counterparts; or that gap is a myth, an overblown narrative that was rectified years ago.

This is where the ASCE Salary Survey can offer some clarity. The 2017 survey, for the first time, attracted a pool of respondents diverse enough to generate gender-specific data.

But what did that gender-specific data reveal?

It’s complicated.

The 2017 ASCE Salary Survey aggregate findings (see table) show that men and women with P.E. licenses earn a roughly equivalent base salary over the first 10 years of their careers. It’s during the middle stage of a career that a wage gap appears.

While men with 11-20 years of experience make an average of $104,000, women earn $98,628, a 6 percent gap. The gap widens during years 21-30, with men making an average of $125,000, compared with women at $114,645 – an almost 9 percent division.

The plot thickens at the experience level of 31-40 years. Women who work into the fourth decade of their career see their situation improve. The numbers shift in the opposite direction with women civils averaging $135,000 a year, compared with men at $132,000.

So, what began as a seemingly straightforward yes-or-no question gives rise to a new, more nuanced inquiry: what trends in the industry are creating that gender wage gap that begins to show itself during the second decade of civil engineering careers?

No simple answers there either.

Motherhood

The most prevalent theory as to what is causing a wage gap around age 30 is the idea that motherhood often alters women’s careers.

“I don’t think there is a woman who hasn’t considered it as a potential tradeoff,” said Rose McClure, P.E., S.E., M.ASCE, a structural engineer for Simpson Gumpertz & Heger in San Francisco. “So many women working as civil engineers are now in their 20s and struggling with that question: can I have this career that I’ve worked my whole life for and also have a family?”

Increasingly the answer is yes, but it is still complicated for women in ways that men often don’t have to account for.

“In certain parts of the country, it’s very much expected that as soon as you have kids, you’re just going to give up on your career or it’s at least going to take the backseat for a while and resume later,” said McClure, who two years ago helped research and assemble a survey report on trends among structural engineers for the Structural Engineers Association of Northern California.

And even if the engineer is committed to balancing motherhood and career, her career growth may be hindered by different assumptions and biases.

“I’ve spoken to many people around the country about this topic, and I find that sometimes business owners are reluctant to take that gamble on a woman because they think there’s a good chance she may leave for personal reasons and prioritize her family over her career,” McClure said. “All of those things come into play when it comes to raises and promotions, whether you like it or not.”

Society is changing, though, and has been for some time. Women work. Men parent. The gender roles aren’t as narrowly defined as they were even a generation ago.

“What I will say is that the trend toward 50/50 [mother/father] caregiving is really one that the savvy business owner is quick to recognize,” McClure said. “Pretty soon they’re going to have to address this issue and grant work-life flexibility for all their employees and not just think it’s limited to the female employees.

“It is a changing workforce, and I think our profession is doing a fairly good job of recognizing that. It’s not upon us yet, but it’s certainly on the horizon.”

Self-Advocacy

Nadya Fouad, Ph.D., distinguished professor in the Educational Psychology Department at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, helped lead the Project on Women Engineers’ Retention. She points to a more passive approach toward self-advocacy among women as a potential explanation for the wage gap around Year 10.

“It’s when there are individual decisions to be made for advocating for more salary or seeking promotion that you start to see the differences,” Fouad said. “In general, women are more likely to wait to be ‘tapped on the shoulder’ and men more likely to advocate for themselves. Of course, there are individual women who do a good job of advocating for themselves, but both male and female supervisors should be thinking actively about who, among their direct reports, could be tapped on the shoulder to seek a promotion or raise.”

ASCE 2018 President Kristina Swallow agrees: “Even with self-evaluation of our work – as women, we tend to wait until we’re overqualified before we even begin to think that we might be qualified, let alone deserve a raise. Men don’t do that as much.”

It sounds simple then. Speak up for yourself.

Except of course it isn’t that easy, especially for those whose natural inclination isn’t to get loud. But Yvette E. Pearson, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE, associate dean for accreditation and assessment at Rice University and vice chair of ASCE’s Committee on Diversity and Inclusion, said that kind of personality, for better or worse, can be a learned skill.

“Early in my career, I would be in meetings and say something that would seemingly go unheard,” she said. “And 15 minutes later, one of my male colleagues would say the exact same thing and all of a sudden it’s a brilliant idea. And I’d think, ‘Wow, was it not a brilliant idea when I said it?’

“And I’ve talked to a lot of women engineers who have experienced this. I think a lot of us have loud and deep voices now, and it’s because we’ve had to change the way we express ourselves, including our volume and tone, just to be heard.”

In some cases, the solution to the gender wage gap can be the gender wage gap itself. Data like the ASCE Salary Survey can help make the case for a raise, a promotion, or more equitable compensation.

“I did a lot of research on what my pay should be before I interviewed for jobs,” said Valerie McCaw, P.E., D.WRE, ENV SP, M.ASCE, president of VSM Engineering in Kansas City. “I had all of the data.

“Sometimes as a girl you think that people won’t like you if you negotiate. But you have to stand up for yourself. Back when I was younger, it was a competitive thing; now it’s a worth thing.

“When I talk to young women now, I tell them, ‘Do your research, and, most importantly, you are worth it.’”

Mentors and Decision Makers

Stephanie Slocum, P.E., M.ASCE, recently published a book, She Engineers: Outsmart Bias, Unlock Your Potential, and Create the Engineering Career of Your Dreams, that examines the many issues confronting women in civil engineering. She sees female leaders, owners, and mentors as crucial to the industry’s efforts to close the gender gap.

“I think the bigger issue is that you look at who is running engineering firms, and there aren’t a lot of women,” Slocum said. “Men have a lot of mentors and folks like themselves higher up in the organization that they can look to and emulate. The women? Not so much. Everyone needs one-on-one constructive feedback to grow. And while ideally men in leadership positions would also mentor young women, you can see how that is challenging given current events. It’s very unlikely someone reaches the top of any industry without a mentor who provides that honest feedback.”

The image of the groundbreaking woman, the only female in a civil engineering graduate program breaking norms and charting a new path, is honorable and romantic as a character type. But in reality, it can be lonely.

“The women I’ve talked to – and I’ve certainly felt this way, myself, many times – tend to feel pretty isolated,” Slocum said. “They are often the only female there, especially at smaller firms. And when you’re the only female there, any behavior you show that maybe someone doesn’t like, well, now that’s attributed to all female engineers.”

It’s a lot of pressure.

And if you don’t have those mentors – women you can look to who are owners, who are community leaders – it can be dispiriting to continue with any degree of ambition in your career.

The hope is that with more and more women in leadership positions now – ASCE’s trio of female presidential officers being particularly prominent examples – it will be easier for the next generation of women engineers to envision themselves achieving similar success, and now they’ll have the resources and mentors to get there.

“I have some women I mentor here in Kansas City,” said McCaw, who as an owner of her own firm employing about a dozen people is one of those women leaders younger engineers can emulate.

“They ask me all the questions they can’t ask at their company, and I give them my unvarnished opinion. People did that for me when I was young, so it’s my turn to do for them.”

Meanwhile, the more owners who are women, the more problems related to the aforementioned motherhood and self-advocacy issues are mitigated.

ASCE Board member Marsha Anderson Bomar, AICP, ENV SP, F.ASCE, is the executive director of Gateway85, Norcross, GA: “When I started my own firm in 1990, I redefined many of the rules. You had core hours you needed to work but lots of flexibility to put in the rest of your time. This gave everyone the chance to be a school chaperone on a field trip, coach a team, help an elderly parent. It was not just about women with young children, it was about everyone having a life outside of work. Some refer to this as work-life balance; I called it harmony, and I see more and more organizations now adopting some of the methods and principles that we used to give people a chance for both a fulfilling career and a good life.”

Bias

The 2017 ASCE Salary Survey also collected information about job satisfaction, gauging civil engineers’ feelings about factors including compensation and advancement opportunities.

While the majority of respondents answered positively, the percentage of women satisfied with their work trailed their male counterparts in each of the five categories.

Implicit bias, explicit bias, and workplace climate often still present challenges for women.

“I remember going out on a construction site, being asked, ‘Since when do they let secretaries on construction sites?’” Pearson said.

Swallow calls it “death by a thousand papercuts.” Incidents, comments, microaggressions.

These are not tales of civil engineering past, either. Thalia Valkanos, EIT, A.M.ASCE, is a legislative correspondent for the U.S. Senate after working five years as a civil engineer in New Hampshire. She dealt with unconscious bias as a student.

“In ordinary conversation, a common response to my successes and title as an engineer is, ‘No, really though, what do you do?’” Valkanos said. “On the first day of calculus in college, a male student loudly asked if I was in the correct class. While concluding a discussion on a project with a former colleague, I was asked if I had scheduled my next nail appointment.

“It’s critical that all women in STEM develop a thick skin to protect themselves from these archaic and potentially damaging comments, and that we exercise our power, autonomy, and free speech to propel our rights into actual equality. I’m optimistic that the workplace will improve for women as our presence in STEM grows.”

As with anything, it begins with awareness.

“We have to think about what we hear and how we listen,” Pearson said. “If there’s a woman coming forward to express some type of grievance she’s experienced in the workplace – what does the supervisor hear? Do they hear, ‘Oh, here’s somebody trying to get on this Me Too movement’? Or do they hear, ‘Oh, she’s another angry black woman’? Or do they listen and hear, ‘Oh, wow, we may have a problem with this. We need to figure out how to address it’?
“I think that’s what employers really need to do better. We see evidence of it in the news every day across different professions. You see it in the entertainment industry, you see it in politics, you see it everywhere. Unfortunately, I think it’s a societal issue.”

Which gives civil engineering an opportunity to take the lead.

“I know what I’ve seen, and the data backs this up,” Slocum said. “The STEM fields tend to be some of the most gender-biased fields around, partially because we pride ourselves on being technical and logical people. There is a right and wrong to that math equation.

“But maybe now you’ve gotten where you are in your career isn’t 100 percent based on that technical, logical, merit-based ability. That’s a hard pill to swallow. Maybe just maybe it had something to do with positive bias toward you and negative bias toward others.

“More than 50 percent of women believe that that sort of bias affected their careers. At the same time 75 to 80 percent of men said, ‘Gender bias has nothing to do with my career.’ I got here all on my own. We all know that’s a myth. We all need each other. No one gets anywhere on their own.

“But I think that plays into it as well. We have this quasi-denial thing going on because yeah, I’d love to think that I’ve gotten everywhere on merit alone. It was all me, all my hard work, all my connections – that sounds great. That’s the American way, is it not? Individualism. But that’s not how it is.

“Bias is a nuanced thing. But if we recognize it and are willing to talk about it, all of a sudden it’s no longer hidden. We start to make decisions in a more enlightened way.”

Reasons for Optimism

One need look no further than the three women leading ASCE – President Swallow, President-Elect Robin Kemper, and Past-President Norma Jean Mattei – for signs of hope. Together, they oversee a Board of Direction that is the most gender-diverse in the Society’s history.

The value of a diverse civil engineering workforce is evident to former ASCE President Chuck Pennoni, P.E., LS, Pres.92.ASCE, chairman and founder of Pennoni, headquartered in Philadelphia.

“If you’re living in a diverse society like we are, I think you want to be able to try to match up the people in your organization with the profile of society,” Pennoni said. “And we know that people with different backgrounds think differently. A man and a woman don’t always think the same way. That makes things richer. You’re looking at things from different perspectives. And you end up with a better result.”

Certainly the ASCE Salary Survey offers a more positive picture than the one portrayed by last year’s U.S. Census Bureau’s report, Income and Poverty in the United States: 2016, which found that in the overall workforce, women make 80.5 percent of the average male’s annual salary. But it’s clear there’s more work to be done.

“To be honest, I hope that in 15, 20 years this is a footnote, and we don’t have to worry about this anymore,” Slocum said. “I feel like we’ve come a long way since the 1980s, but we haven’t gotten nearly as far as I would have thought we would by now. I’m on a mission to change that, because I don’t want to see my daughters 20 years from now having the same challenges in their careers that we’ve had.”

ASCE is collecting data for its 2018 Salary Survey through April 6. Participate today.

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For ASCE News’ Women in Civil Engineering series, the roundtable will focus on issues affecting women in the profession. The initial panel finds reasons for optimism. Spoiler alert: the three ASCE presidential officers are inspiring a lot of hope.

What signs of progress give you the most hope for women in the profession?

Veronica O. Davis

P.E., M.ASCE, co-founder/principal planning manager, Nspiregreen, Washington, DC

“ASCE has had three women presidents back-to-back-to-back. It gives me hope that under their leadership we can push the conversation regarding retaining women in the profession. In addition, there has been a growth of women-owned civil engineering firms, where the leadership is mostly women. In general, I find many of these companies, such as the one I co-own, have more progressive policies that benefit all employees, such as flexible schedules, collaborative environments, and a focus on health and well-being. Hopefully, these companies will continue to grow and build legacies for generations to come.”

Shelia Montgomery-Mills

P.E., M.ASCE, senior project manager, Birmingham Jefferson Convention Complex, president, Civil Construction Solutions, Birmingham, AL

“I see many more women in classrooms and starting out in the engineering field the past few years. In the last three years I have met with at least a dozen female students interested in construction, and most all of them ended up following that path. Not only are women going into engineering, they are diving into the truly male-dominated field of construction. What gives me the most hope is that those women who have chosen the path love it!

“Even more important is the support men are giving by inviting us to join the team and appreciating the unique prospective we bring. I recently spoke to an Honors EGR 100 class, where there was a good mix of young men and women, and they were most struck by my story of being senior project manager for construction projects and often being overlooked while my male superintendents would be addressed as if they were in charge. I greatly appreciated their stepping up each time and setting the record straight. It is so good to see a class full of students that just do not see gender as those before them did.”

Kathy Caldwell

P.E., F.SEI, Pres.11.ASCE, president, Caldwell, Cook and Associates, Gainesville, FL

“ASCE’s president, president-elect, and past-president are women!”

Kim Parker Brown

P.E., F.ASCE, senior environmental engineer and program manager in the Environmental Restoration Division of the Naval Facilities Engineering Command Headquarters, Washington, DC

“The most impactful sign is the number of women engineers who have been and are entering into the position of president of ASCE. Another indication of progress is the number of women who are in varying leadership positions throughout ASCE and in the civil engineering profession as a whole. More women are holding top positions in private industry as well as public agency organizations, and both women and men are seeing this more as the norm rather than the exception in our profession.”

Diane M. Linderman

P.E., ENV SP, M.ASCE, managing director, VHB, Richmond, VA
“The dynamics and diversity in the room are changing, and that gives me a lot of hope. Women are in leadership roles in national industry organizations – the president-elect, president, and past-president of ASCE are all women, and the president-elect of APWA is a woman as well. Women entering the profession today have a ton of great role models. And the conversation around equality and empowerment in the industry has become an everyday discussion – awareness is one of the first steps in changing perceptions and bias.”

Lydia L. Marshall

A.M.ASCE, assistant engineer, City of San Diego

“Going to engineering events/conferences and not only seeing us there in increasing numbers, but as technical experts and lead presenters on complex engineering projects.”

Judy Nitsch

P.E., F.ASCE, founding principal, Nitsch Engineering, Boston, MA

“The freshman class at my alma mater, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, is 44-percent women. That percentage gives me great hope that more women are embracing STEM careers.”

Suzy Trabia

EIT, A.M.ASCE, Engineer II, Atkins, Las Vegas

“A sign of progress is seeing all three ASCE president positions be occupied by women for the first time in the Society’s history. This is impactful as younger female engineers can be inspired to take on high leadership roles. Our profession needs to do our part to ensure they are included in these opportunities when they aspire to reach for their goals.”

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Fifty years later, it is a remarkable document (read the entire article here), at once reflective of its time and very much ahead of its time.

The author occasionally works from societal assumptions that probably seem out of date to today’s reader: “Many of the ‘feminine’ arts are actually related to technical work. Except for the size of the batch, there isn’t too much difference between making cookies and making concrete. …”

But mostly Hamilton writes with wit and power: “Women are no longer content to keep house and keep quiet; they make laws, perform operations, and run businesses.”

What, one wonders, would Judy Hamilton think of “Should Your Daughter Be A Civil Engineer?” 50 years later?

We called her up to find out.

“What a surprise to find that my article can still be found,” Hamilton said.

“I don’t know what inspired me to write it. But I remember my boss thought I shouldn’t use any humor in it. Well, he also thought I was a dilettante because I had other interests besides just engineering [laughs]. But I don’t know, I just thought if you had a little bit of humor in it, people would be more interested in reading it and passing it on.”

If anyone ever posed the question to her father – should your daughter be a civil engineer? – Hamilton has spent her life answering it in the affirmative.

Hamilton, P.E., M.ASCE, is still a civil engineer as she approaches her 79th birthday, serving as a FEMA reservist. She traveled to Georgia last November for a month doing mitigation work after Hurricane Irma. She started her career working for the Bureau of Reclamation in the 1960s, before spending four decades based in Colorado working as a consultant, mainly in groundwater hydrology, engineering geology, and environmental studies.

She talked to ASCE News about her career and that CE magazine article. We read selections from the piece, asking her how the 2018 Judy felt about the 1968 Judy’s perspectives.

Hamilton in 1968: “If you happen to realize that women can be engineers, and that your daughter may have the capabilities to become one, unless you encourage her, she will probably never even think of entering the field.”

Hamilton in 2018: “I don’t think a lot of that is true anymore, that there’s a stigma against women in engineering. There’s certainly a lot more emphasis on getting women into engineering now, with the STEM programs. And I was just at a meeting the other day and someone was saying that 30 percent of the students at the Colorado School of Mines are women. Certainly, I don’t think there’s any disincentive to go into engineering and math anymore. There may be locally or in families, but I think there is much more encouragement of women going into engineering now.”

Hamilton in 1968: “… there simply are not enough women engineers around to talk to all of the interested girls. And if your daughter does express an interest in engineering, she’s likely to face some discouragement from her associates.”

Hamilton in 2018: “I think that’s definitely changed. Very different now. When I got into engineering, I was very active in the Society of Women Engineers, and that was very helpful. I met some very successful women engineers, and that was a big encouragement.

“I remember when my sister was in high school. She’s four years younger than I, and she was telling me about one of her teachers reading notices about an engineering program for high school students. And she said, ‘Well you girls won’t be interested in this.’ That has certainly changed.”

Hamilton in 1968: “Today, combining a career and a family is much easier than it was in the past. … a woman engineer who wants to stay home for a few years while her children are young doesn’t have to give up her career. By spending a few hours a week taking courses in her field or attending professional and technical meetings, she can keep up to date enough to obtain a good job when she does return to work.”

Hamilton in 2018: “I think now, from what I’ve encountered, most women just keep working. They may take a month or so off, and they put their child in childcare and keep working. I think for economic reasons now, a lot of women have to keep working.”

Hamilton in 1968: “Engineering should be an ideal profession for women. If your daughter has the interest and aptitude, give her all the encouragement you can.”

Hamilton in 2018: “I think fathers relate better to their daughters now than they did when I was young. Just from what I’ve seen with my nephews, they’re much more involved with their children than fathers were when I was young.

“That probably should help women. It used to be when I was young, you were supposed to maybe work for a couple years, have a child, and then stay at home. There’s a very different attitude now. Families now do not expect their daughters to get married and stay home.

“I’m a lot more optimistic now. I think women are a lot more accepted.”

Articles like hers helped push that trend toward acceptance. Not that she ever was trying to start a movement.

“I don’t think I really thought that much about it,” Hamilton said, chuckling. “I’ve always just kind of plowed along doing what I want.”

Thanks to Erin McCauley, P.E., M.ASCE, manager of capital delivery at California Water Service, for bringing Judy Hamilton’s article to the attention of ASCE News.

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Money was tight for Fernando Ceballos growing up in Brownsville, Texas, a city on the Rio Grande River right at the southernmost tip of the state.

At home, it was just him, his mom, and his little brother, so when rent came due, 8-year-old Fernando did what he could to pitch in.

“I was knocking on my neighbors’ doors, selling tacos, tamales, slices of cake, things like that,” Ceballos said. “My mom made me an entrepreneur at an early age. I thought of it as, ‘Well, I’m just poor and we need to pay the rent,’ but she was showing me what business development was, what marketing was, and the importance of building relationships.”

Ceballos carried that work ethic and those solutions skills with him as he grew up, proudly becoming a first-generation high school graduate, a first-generation college graduate, and now a project engineer for Pape-Dawson Engineers in Plano, TX, working in the land development department on commercial and residential projects. ASCE has honored him as a 2018 New Face of Civil Engineering.

Ceballos’ story would be remarkable enough if the ending was simply all about his own success. But that’s not it. Ceballos has become a powerful voice in the community – volunteering with both ASCE and the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers – inspiring and mentoring youth, especially those in underserved areas.

“When I was young, I would’ve liked to have had a mentor or just a professional figure to ask for advice,” Ceballos said. “So I kind of bought into that whole idea of becoming the person I wish I had growing up.

“I hate knowing that people are throwing away potential or not fulfilling their calling because they’re scared or they don’t know what route to take or they don’t even know what questions to ask. So I try to share whatever I’ve learned, share it with my community and let them learn from my experiences.”

So how did Ceballos get here without a version of the 27-year-old him to act as a mentor in his life? In his words, he pieced it together. He credits his mother, who worked three jobs his entire childhood, his grandmother, his uncle (an engineer in Mexico), Project Lead The Way high school teachers, and sports.

Ceballos was an all-state chess player in middle school and even competed in a national tournament in Arizona. He also excelled at football, playing all three positions on the offensive line, during high school. All while keeping up with his Technology Student Association competition projects, placing on the regional, state, and national stages.

“Chess really taught me to slow down and think about the endgame and where I wanted to go. You have to think a few moves ahead,” Ceballos said. “With football, the coaches helped me develop my character, putting in the work during practice so you could succeed when it was gameday. The coaches were father figures.”

Ceballos studied civil engineering at Texas A&M University, where he served on numerous leadership boards for several student organizations. He is currently a member of both ASCE’s Committee on Pre-College Outreach and the Committee on Diversity and Inclusion. He also serves as SHPE’s Region 5 vice president, overseeing 45 student and professional chapters.

Ceballos talks with students at career day functions or in classroom visits every few weeks. His journey from selling tacos door-to-door to engineering leader is, you can imagine, one that resonates with his audiences.

“We always say, ‘See it to be it.’ If the students don’t see themselves in the speaker, it’s very hard for them to be convinced,” Ceballos said. “That’s why I’m so passionate about wanting to create more leaders in the engineering world. Typically, we engineers are more focused on the technical side, and we sometimes have a deficiency in sharing what engineering is all about – which is making the world become a better place.

“The more we can help our engineers become better public speakers and better leaders and gain that influence, the easier it’s going to be to inspire the future leaders of the country.”

Ceballos is well on his way.

“I tell them to look past the stereotypes. Don’t let other people’s expectations for you become your reality,” Ceballos said.

“I want to fight stereotypes for people with dyslexia, or Hispanics, or whatever background they come from. Anyone can become whatever they want to become. Engineering, it is all about solving problems.

“That is what I’m bringing to the table.”

ASCE will honor all 10 New Faces of Civil Engineering – Professional at the 2018 OPAL Gala, March 15 in Arlington, Virginia. Read more about the rest of the New Faces class.

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Jessica Chen probably isn’t going to talk to you about how good the Los Angeles Rams defensive line was last season. Truth be told, she doesn’t much care.

She can, however, carry on a far more interesting conversation. She can tell you all about how the Rams’ new football stadium was designed and constructed.

Born and raised in China, Chen now lives and works in Los Angeles as an engineer for Walter P. Moore, where, at only 25, she’s already contributed to massive sports infrastructure projects, including the new Rams stadium, the Minnesota United soccer stadium, and the Jacksonville Jaguars Daily’s Place.

“Not being American, I didn’t grow up watching football, but it’s such a huge thing here,” Chen said. “The whole sports industry is creating so many opportunities for not only structural engineers but developers and for so many people. It’s a really great thing.”

Chen has been honored by ASCE as a 2018 New Face of Civil Engineering.

Growing up in China, she was always fascinated by buildings and structures. When it came time to do a presentation in English class at school, she chose famed architect I.M. Pei as her subject.

“So, engineering was the path that I wanted to go on toward realizing my skills in math and physics, but also turning it into something that everyone can see and benefit people’s lives,” Chen said.

She studied civil and structural engineering at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. A study-abroad semester in Michigan piqued her interest in the United States, so she was excited to pursue her master’s degree at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, focused on civil engineering in high-performance structures.

For someone whose civil engineering passions skewed toward the architectural, the MIT program was a perfect fit.

“In grad school, our director was part of both the civil engineering and the architectural departments,” Chen said. “He inspired me a lot in pursuing an interdisciplinary approach. Our grad project had to include architectural design work, too.

“I think it’s a trend right now for structural engineers to be more computationally capable, because when you work with architects it’s very important that you can actually come up with solutions from the engineering side to help them to improve the design. So, I think this interdisciplinary work among architectural and structural and computational is very niche but also really interesting and will be a big trend in the future.”

Chen’s talents in interdisciplinary engineering – combining different ideas and approaches – lend themselves well to the ambitious assignments she’s taken on at Walter P. Moore.

Even if she’s not the biggest sports fan in the world.

“I think I’m really lucky to be engaged in these massive projects, especially at this early stage of my career,” Chen said. “My company is pretty specialized in the sports projects, so we’ve got quite a lot of this work.

“I like these massive projects because it takes a whole village to do it. You have the opportunity to work with a lot of really good, experienced engineers. And I’ve had a lot of chances to go to the meetings in Inglewood with the architects and the fabricators. It’s very good experience, and I’m definitely very proud. Like what we work on might turn out to be used in the Opening Ceremonies for the Olympics. It makes you proud of the work and proud of your profession.”

ASCE will honor all 10 New Faces of Civil Engineering – Professional at the 2018 OPAL Gala, March 15, in Arlington, VA. Read more about the rest of the New Faces class.

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For Sarah McEwen, it was almost too good to be true.

She moves to Jackson, Mississippi, to start her career as a water resources engineer, and what does she find? A detailed replica of the Mississippi River Basin constructed over 200 acres of park land.

It’s a water resources engineer’s dream, right?

“It’s the largest scale model in the world, and it’s in Jackson, Mississippi,” McEwen said. “Crazy.”

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built the Mississippi River Basin Model during the mid–20th century to conduct flood mitigation experiments and research.

But if it seemed almost too good to be true for McEwen, it’s because it was. The Army Corps ceased operations at the model in 1973; reopened then closed the model again in 1993; and years of neglect had not been kind to the site.

Undeterred, McEwen decided to take action.

She rallied some local ASCE members, as well as other leaders in the community, to save the Mississippi River Basin Model.

“We decided, ‘Okay, it’s now or never. Either we’re going to save this thing or it’s going to continue to decay,’” McEwen said. “‘Let’s see what we can do to get the ball rolling – clean up the space, add some educational components, and just preserve this cultural and historical landmark.’”

The team established the Friends of the Mississippi River Basin Model nonprofit organization to help refurbish and maintain the model. McEwen now serves as the group’s president, and ASCE has honored her as a 2018 New Face of Civil Engineering.

McEwen was probably predestined to be an engineer, even if she didn’t realize it at first. Her mother, father, and older sister all are engineers. Growing up in Alabama, McEwen discovered her own passion for civil engineering at a Mississippi State University engineering summer camp.

“It was just a great experience,” McEwen said. “I kind of saw that maybe I didn’t want to do all these other things; maybe I was going to be an engineer; maybe that’s just how I’m wired.”

She attended Mississippi State, where she joined the ASCE Student Chapter and focused her studies on water resources. She now works in Jackson as a water resources manager for AECOM and is married to another civil engineer, Jason McEwen.

McEwen enjoys outreach work – she has served as a guide in a program that helps people with visual and hearing impairments play soccer – so the Mississippi River Basin Model has been a perfect combination of her interests. She and the Friends have started to clean up the model, clear paths, and hope to add signage, enlisting help from the Jackson State University ASCE Student Chapter and different Scout groups. They welcome school groups year-round. They share the history but also use the model as a tool to shape the future, by inspiring excitement in children for civil engineering.

“If it was just a model that was used by the Army Corps, we probably couldn’t save it, because people would just see it like, ‘Oh, that’s something derelict. It’s an old experiment that no longer has any value,’” McEwen said. “But this model had such an impact on modern computational technique. The experiments that were run still impact some of the decisions made by the Army Corps. That’s so neat to me. So many people have grown up in our area going to visit it, and we have people from all over the world come visit.”

McEwen is the vice president of the ASCE Jackson Branch and is involved in several other professional organizations. She volunteers with local Jackson Public Schools in STEM outreach, as well as with the Jackson State Student Chapter, who attend clean-up days at the model.

She hopes her work at AECOM, her volunteering, and of course the rebirth of the Mississippi River Basin Model can contribute positively toward her community. She may be from Alabama, but McEwen has found a home in Mississippi.

“There have been tons of books written on why Mississippi is such a strange, weird, wonderful place,” McEwen laughed. “I see such hope in the City of Jackson. Mississippi has so many extremely intelligent, passionate people who are working hard to make things better a little bit at a time.”

ASCE will honor all 10 New Faces of Civil Engineering – Professional at the 2018 OPAL Gala, March 15 in Arlington, Virginia. Read more about the rest of the New Faces class.

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