Rosanna La Plante, P.E., F.ASCE, a division manager with the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC), Regulatory Services Division, has been named a Fellow by the ASCE Board of Direction.
La Plante shares responsibility for the federally mandated pretreatment program and enforcement of the WSSC Plumbing & Fuel Gas Code. Prior to that she worked for Baltimore City Department of Public Works, where she led and managed the Department Environmental Project Delivery Section, overseeing the City’s $300 million capital program for stormwater infrastructure. She went into public service as a seasoned civil and environmental engineer, having been engaged for over 13 years with both large and small engineering firms.
With ASCE, La Plante has excelled as a technical expert and as a Maryland Section leader. She has chaired and served on five technical committees of ASCE’s Environmental and Water Resources Institute (EWRI). With the Maryland Section, she is treasurer, has been a director on the Section Board, and has chaired and led several committees. She is a founding member and past-chair of the Chesapeake Bay EWRI Chapter. She has also served on the Board of Directors for the Society of Military Engineers, Baltimore Post and is currently on the Board of Directors as the first vice president for the Engineering Society of Baltimore.
La Plante is well-known for her service as a mentor for young engineers and other professionals as well as for students interested in STEM. She is also a mentor, trainer and lecturer at a local high school as a STEM ambassador, an annual speaker at Morgan State’s Introduction to Engineering class, and was the 2014 Careers in Engineering speaker at the Women in Engineering Day during Baltimore Engineers Week. Since 2006, she has supported and served as event day coordinator for the DiscoverE Mid-Atlantic Region annual Future City Competition.
She is integral to the development and has served as a trainer for the National Green Infrastructure Certification Program of the Water Environment Federation, in partnership with U.S. municipalities, for identifying qualified professionals to install and inspect green infrastructure. For the City of Baltimore YH2O (Youth Water Mentoring Program) she has advised and trained more than six disadvantaged youth for entry-level positions in the water industry.
La Plante was recognized as the ASCE Maryland Civil Engineer of 2019, and has received five other awards for her engineering management, professional engineering leadership, mentoring, and civil and environmental engineering expertise.
