Winners of the 2019 ENR Texas and Louisiana Top Young Professionals competition represent all segments of the construction industry. Some have already started their own companies before age 40 while others have chosen to stay with the same company since they entered the workforce. Many have earned dramatic promotions, from hourly laborer all the way to the executive suite; others have continued to pursue academic growth throughout their careers.

Several of this year’s winners are working to bridge the gap between the industry’s aging experts and the technologically savvy recruits entering the workforce. Most of them strive to enhance diversity by expanding opportunities for women and minorities through a variety of avenues.

Mentorship also remains a common interest among this year’s winners, along with leveraging opportunities available at organizations to enhance their expertise and share it with the industry.

As in past years, this year’s contest was highly competitive. Judges reviewed nearly 50 entries before narrowing the list down to 20.

To be eligible, individuals must be working full time in some aspect of the commercial construction industry in the region, which includes Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Texas. Nominees must be under age 40 at the time entries were due.

Key selection criteria include industry experience and education; career and industry leadership; and community service and involvement.

Special thanks to the five judges who selected the 2019 class: Daniel Albus, associate, treatment, Parkhill Smith & Cooper; Kelly Carpenter, director of education, Associated Builders & Contractors, Pelican Chapter; Kristi M. Grizzle Gollwitzer, principal, Walter P Moore; Jing Johnson, president, PRISM Renderings; and Cara Lanigan, vice president, Clark Construction.

Amy Avery
Solving traffic problems and furthering women in construction
39, Associate
Kimley-Horn
San Antonio

Avery joined Kimley-Horn in 2002, and during the last 10 years she has worked on a variety of traffic projects in central Texas to help improve circulation, accessibility, signal optimization and safety. A key element of her work is the development of traffic-signal design plans and pedestrian-safety improvements.

She was the project manager on the San Antonio Tomorrow Multimodal Transportation Plan, selected as the American Public Works Association Texas chapter’s 2017 Project of the Year.

She also serves as a mentor and role model for younger women in the firm and is involved with the Women’s Transportation Seminar. Nine years ago, Avery was a founding member of the WTS San Antonio chapter. Since then, she has been either a committee member or board officer and is the chapter’s immediate past president.

Avery, who is a registered professional engineer in Texas and a professional traffic operations engineer, manages a team of three people. Her peers refer to her as the MVP of the San Antonio office. She received an Employee Recognition Award for Outstanding Promoter of Teamwork in 2017.

Avery has worked to improve her own skills and abilities by participating in several of Kimley-Horn’s in-house training programs. She taught a transportation and traffic operations module to young engineers and attended the firm’s career development workshop—part of Kimley-Horn’s women’s initiative, called LIFT (Lasting Impact for Tomorrow). Designed for emerging female leaders, the class focuses on building a personal brand, networking and improving presentation skills.

Mark Behm
Educational pursuits drive Texas designer
38, Founder/Principal
Behm Design/Build PLLC
Houston

From an early age, Behm was drawn to art, architecture, design and construction, which helped him decide that a significant part of his adult identity would be linked to architecture.

He earned an associate’s degree in engineering design graphics from Austin Community College in 2002, then transferred on to Texas A&M, graduating in 2005 with a bachelor’s degree in environmental design.

Behm began his career with Mancini Duffy in New York City, during which time he earned New York University’s Professional Certificate of Construction Project Management and LEED accreditation. He also began an internship working toward architectural licensure.

After six years, Behm returned to Texas to work for Coreslab Structures, then Engineered Exteriors in Austin. However, he wanted to further his understanding of the built environment, so he returned to Texas A&M for a master’s degree in construction management. He went on to work at Manhattan Construction on the redevelopment of Kyle Field.

Behm is a registered architect in New York and Texas. He was an estimator in preconstruction services in Manhattan’s Houston office until late 2018, when he founded his own company, Behm Design/Build.

As an undergrad, Behm was an active member of the AIA student chapter at Texas A&M, where he held several leadership positions, and he continues to be an AIA member today. He has held chapter and state leadership positions, including several terms as chair of the chapter’s professional practice committee, co-chair of professional development and an associate director on the board level.

He has volunteered as a mentor for the ACE Mentor program and served on the scholarship committee.

Austin Brauel
Determined to help grow construction’s next generation
29, Project Manager
Landev Engineers Inc.
Houston

Upon joining the workforce after graduating from Texas A&M with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering in 2013, Brauel saw firsthand the generation gap that was hurting productivity in his department. He helped train the older CAD staff in new production and design technologies that increased efficiency in the group and helped them compete with larger firms in the private development arena. Since then, Brauel has participated in numerous education seminars to continue the learning cycle.

Brauel is a licensed professional engineer in Texas, an ENVISION Sustainability Professional and is currently pursuing his LEED certification. He’s also an active member of the American Society of Civil Engineers and has served for two years on the board of directors of the Houston branch of the Texas section.

During his tenure as the technical activities chair on the Younger Member Committee for ASCE, he organized several technical tours for the Houston branch that counted toward continuing education credits for licensure renewal.

For the past two years, Brauel has organized the bi-annual Shadow the Engineer day and STEM/NOVA day at the Houston Museum of Natural Science.

In February 2018, Brauel was selected as the ASCE Houston Branch’s Young Engineer of the Year and recognized at the annual Engineer’s Week Banquet in Houston for his civic and humanitarian activities and involvement in professional societies.

“The secret to being good in the AEC arena is quite simple but not necessarily easy—choosing to take personal responsibility for everything you perceive to be a problem within your sphere of influence,” Brauel says. “The secret to being truly great in the AEC arena? Having the courage to take personal responsibility for everything you perceive to be a problem within your industry as a whole.”

Kelly Daniel
Leading geoscience and K-12 construction efforts
37, Project Manager/Client Account Manager
Kleinfelder
Austin

For the last nine years, Daniel has managed high-profile environmental assessment and remediation projects throughout Texas and Oklahoma. She recently completed a project utilizing organoclay as a remedy to an oil seep and an alternative to excavation, preventing the addition of a significant amount of hydrocarbon-heavy soils to a landfill.

Daniel manages Kleinfelder’s K-12 portfolio, leading a team of engineers working across five school districts in central Texas to provide geotechnical, construction materials engineering and testing, and environmental due diligence services. She also manages geotechnical and construction-materials-testing projects for the Texas Facilities Commission, most notably at the Texas School for the Deaf and the Capital Complex excavation projects.

Daniel graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a bachelor’s degree in hydrogeology and environmental geology in 2004. She mentors young scientists and engineers seeking to advance their careers in environmental, geotechnical and construction-materials engineering.

Although her education focused on the geosciences, she took it upon herself to learn the fields of geotechnical engineering and construction-materials testing. She holds a license as a professional geoscientist in Texas and is designated as a corrective action project manager by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

Daniel has driven for Meals on Wheels and More in Austin for over seven years as part of a Kleinfelder-sponsored route and manages Kleinfelder Austin’s relationship with Ronald McDonald House Charities. In addition, she serves on the board of directors for the Pflugerville Education Foundation and is in the second year of her term as vice president of finance.

Daniel received the 2018 Austin Under 40 Award in the energy, mobility and transportation category for the waste-saving solutions she provided to an energy client. She was also a runner-up for Austinite of the Year.

Drew Dudley
Entrepreneur delivers structural engineering excellence
30, Managing Principal
Dudley Engineering LLC
College Station, Texas

Dudley earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering—and pursued excellence on the football field—at the University of Kansas. After hanging up his cleats, he went on to Texas A&M to earn a master’s degree in structural engineering, all while working for a local civil engineering firm during the academic year and at Burns & McDonnell during the summer.

After graduation, he became a structural engineer at Walter P Moore, where he served as project engineer on the Kyle Field renovation at Texas A&M, helping the fast-track, $450-million project come in under budget and on schedule.

While at Walter P Moore, Dudley was selected as an adjunct professor at the University of Houston, teaching a building science course. More recently, he was offered a position as an adjunct professor in Texas A&M’s Construction Science Dept.

His next professional milestone was establishing Dudley Engineering in College Station. The firm’s first year revenues exceeded $260,000 and the second year is on-track to top $600,000.

At the local level, Dudley is part of a council consisting of the local chief building official, local builders and architects that is advocating to improve minimum foundation standards and reduce the number of structures that require foundation repair. At the national level, Dudley has been working with industry associations to improve construction documentation by addressing shortcomings in the current specifications process.

“I have had the opportunity to experience the construction industry from both the design and construction sides,” Dudley says. “This experience has taught me that regardless of the contractual relationships between the design and construction teams, none of us is working in a silo and our own success is inextricably linked to the performance of the team as a whole.”

Mark Epstein
Bridging the generation gap in construction
37, Senior Virtual Design & Construction Manager
Sundt Construction
San Antonio

After completing two concurrent master’s degrees in architecture and construction management at Washington University in St. Louis in December 2010, Epstein accepted his first position as a project engineer with a construction management firm. Within two years, he moved to an architecture role with Gensler in Austin. He spent three years there learning how to produce high-quality construction documents as an architect intern and eventually became a project manager.

Soon after, a friend and colleague introduced Epstein to Sundt Construction in San Antonio, where he now leads the firm’s BIM and VDC strategies. Epstein is advancing Sundt’s technology department with a full immersion of the Texas building group into BIM and VDC processes. The goal is to strengthen communication between the office and field, enhance design and fabrication and transform concept into reality.

Epstein often speaks about being sandwiched between a generation of “old construction guys” and “hyper-sensitive millennials.” He seeks to learn from and guide both generations into the VDC future of the industry.

His immediate goal is to connect with project engineers, often the youngest and least experienced people on a project, and help them understand the real-world implications of tasks that have been planned digitally.

He’s also connecting with youth through mentoring visits to the University of Texas at San Antonio and Texas A&M, where he encourages students to get more involved with the reality of building and the processes behind planning a building.

Epstein is part of the San Antonio Sundt Foundation Committee, helping to manage, collect and organize ways for Sundt employees in Texas to give back to the community. He participates in charity events and footraces of various distances that benefit local organizations, especially those that help disadvantaged children, women’s shelters, research initiatives, medical programs and veterans.

Kirk Fauri
Advancing the CEI industry in Texas
38, Vice President and Texas CEI Leader
RS&H
Houston

Fauri has spent his 15-year career in the construction engineering and inspection (CEI) industry working as the owner’s representative on major construction transportation projects. He provides contract management and oversight internally and at the project level.

Soon after earning a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Michigan Tech in 2003, he moved to Florida to work as a field inspector for RS&H. There he learned construction best practices from inspection professionals and contractors. After three years, he worked his way up from project engineer to resident engineer, then to his current position as vice president.

In 2012, Fauri relocated to Texas to launch a CEI group in a state where those services were typically performed by the owner, not a consulting engineer.

Fauri built RS&H’s CEI staff from just one individual in 2013 to 75 associates in 2018. He serves as the prime CEI consultant with TxDOT in 10 districts and four regional mobility authorities.

He was a prime CEI consultant to the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority on the $582-million 183S project in Austin and the $220-million IH-45 Gulf Freeway project in Houston-Galveston. Fauri also leads RS&H’s four regional CEI operations centers in Texas, which logged more $1 billion of ongoing construction projects in 2018 and a contract backlog that increased to $1.5 billion in 2019.

Fauri has served as the American Society of Highway Engineers’ Northeast Florida Public Outreach Committee chair for four years, where he helped to develop an elementary school math and science mentoring program at Ramona Elementary in Jacksonville, Fla.

At RS&H, Fauri was named Construction Management Project Manager of the Year in 2015. He also has won an ASHE Young Engineer Award.

Ashley Frosell
Dedication to leadership and service
36, Associate, Core Team Leader
CRB
Irving, Texas

After earning a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology in 2004, Frosell gained industry experience in both sales and HVAC system design before becoming a project manager and now the leader of the Dallas office design team for CRB.

She has participated in both industry and local leadership development programs, including Texas Society of Professional Engineers’ PE Leadership Institute as well as North Texas Commission’s Leadership North Texas. She has leveraged a variety of perspectives gained during these programs to assist with key decision-making as an emerging leader.

As part of CRB’s corporate service initiative, Frosell has participated in local Ronald McDonald House Charities meal-preparation events. Additionally, she is an active volunteer at the North Texas Food Bank and serves on the University of North Texas Biomedical Engineering Industrial Advisory Board.

Frosell regularly speaks at career days, where she tells attendees that engineering is a profession that doesn’t have to be intimidating and is accessible to a broad spectrum of people. As a woman in a leadership position, she seeks to demonstrate to other minority populations that success is possible.

Frosell served as the lead design project manager for the Lonza Houston project in Pearland, Texas, which won a 2018 ENR Texas and Louisiana Best Projects award. She managed the complex project for 2.5 years while overseeing operations of the firm’s growing office in Dallas.

Cary Gallaway
Electrical engineer strongly committed to his team
36, Substation Engineering Manager
Burns & McDonnell
Houston

In his current role at Burns & McDonnell, Gallaway oversees a team delivering substation design projects. It’s the largest department across all regional offices at the firm and includes 63 employee-owners.

Gallaway previously served as project manager, working on a broad portfolio that includes design of controls, instrumentation and physical stations for high- and medium-voltage substations, grounding and lighting protection systems. Gallaway has worked on one of the firm’s most profitable EPC projects to date, a solar facility.

He earned his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Houston and is entering his third year as a member of the Industrial Advisory Board in the School of Engineering at the university.

In his current role, he developed a technical discussion forum that was adopted by multiple offices after its launch in Houston. Gallaway also played a key role in ensuring that no one from the Houston office was laid off during the oil and gas downturn, keeping an average of 15 employee-owners productive by using their time and talents on other operations.

Gallaway is a registered professional engineer in Texas and Louisiana and a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the Power and Energy Society. He remains involved with his alma mater, the University of Houston, supporting the IEEE’s student chapter on campus.

Justin Grissom
Bringing power and fostering STEM education
37, Section Manager
Burns & McDonnell’s OnSite Energy and Power Services
Fort Worth

Over the course of his 12-year career, Grissom’s project experience has spanned management, design and analysis of large district energy and power projects. His team, the OnSite Energy & Power Group, provides airports, military installations, universities, utilities and health care facilities nationwide with efficient, reliable and resilient power.

He has played a role in delivering more than $8 million worth of design projects and partnering with Burns & McDonnell clients to create utility systems geared toward the future.

To continue advancing his industry knowledge, he is pursuing a master’s degree in sustainability management and policy from Penn State University, which he anticipates completing in 2022. He earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Texas in Arlington in 2007.

Whether it is developing a greenfield site, retrofitting a facility or expanding existing energy capacity, Grissom helps clients reduce energy consumption, cut emissions of greenhouse gasses and operate efficient power systems. He also serves as a mentor to his four-person team of engineers.

Grissom is a registered professional engineer in Texas, Oklahoma and Kentucky, a certified energy manager with the Association of Energy Engineers and a LEED BD+C professional.

His community involvement revolves around a passion to advance young people’s skills in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) and encourage the next generation of STEM professionals. Grissom currently serves as an adviser and industry partner for the I.M. Terrell STEM Academy in Fort Worth.

Among the landmark projects in his current portfolio are the Oklahoma State University Utility Master Plan, Texas A&M San Antonio Utility Production Upgrades, Texas A&M West Cooling Tower Replacement and the New Parkland Hospital.

Preston Hodges
Prolific program founder
33, Vice President, Houston Division
McCarthy Building Cos.
Houston

Shortly after joining McCarthy in 2013, Hodges began developing the firm’s Specialized Solutions Group (SSG) and was instrumental in launching the program the same year. SSG focuses on health care, research and higher education renovations and expansions. Through the program, McCarthy’s Texas division has expanded its reputation within the health care market. Hodges helped build the SSG team from scratch—starting with one salaried employee and no revenue in 2013 to 20 salaried people, 10 hourly workers and more than 25 subcontractor partners today. It currently brings in more than $40 million a year in revenue.

Because of SSG’s success in Houston, Hodges is helping to launch the program in other McCarthy offices to pursue similar health care and research projects.

Some of the landmark projects Hodges has worked on include the Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Children and Women Southwest and the Baylor College of Medicine’s Neurosensory Laboratories.

Hodges also is one of the founding members and graduates of the inaugural class of the AGC Houston Leadership 2015 Program. He has a passion for community involvement and spends more than 100 hours a year volunteering with different organizations in Houston.

Soon after moving to the city in 2011, he became actively involved in numerous charities.

For the last six years, he has served as a Breeders Greeters committeeman and shift-captain volunteer for the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. Hodges also is a member on the Krewe of Cajuns and Cowboys, a nonprofit group that hosts annual events to raise money for Texas Children’s Hospital.

Additionally, he has volunteered for the ACE Mentor Program for the last seven years and was selected by McCarthy leadership to join the company’s Advanced Leadership Program, an honor reserved for just 25 individuals within the company nationwide.

Andrew D. Johnson
A passion for building teams for better energy
38, Oil & Gas Pipeline Practice Lead, Vice President
HDR
Austin

Johnson’s passion for engineering began as a child in Madison, S.D., while he played with LEGOs. He went on to study civil and environmental engineering at South Dakota State University while working as a seasonal construction inspector. He earned a master’s degree in geotechnical engineering and worked for two years as a construction-materials engineering and testing technician at Kleinfelder.

With two degrees under his belt, Johnson furthered his career at Fugro. Within 10 years, he rose from being a graduate engineer to director of power delivery and midstream infrastructure. He worked on large municipal and private infrastructure projects, both domestically and abroad. As he collaborated more with private clients, he found a passion for providing value through integrating technology, developing client-specific solutions and accelerating project delivery. He carved a niche in his field and has earned lifelong clients.

Johnson has acquired eight professional engineering licenses as well as his PMP certification and general management certificate from the University of Texas at Austin.

In his current position at HDR, he has been instrumental in growing the firm’s oil and gas pipeline practice from $3 million in 2015 to more than $15 million in 2018. In the past three years, he has nearly tripled the size of his team.

His vast portfolio includes multibillion-dollar projects such as the China National Petroleum Corp. pipeline and the Saddlehorn pipeline in the U.S. Johnson is currently leading a team to complete the Black Hills Energy Natural Bridge pipeline—a 36-mile, 12-in.-dia, high-pressure gas transmission pipeline in Wyoming.

Heeding his mentors’ advice, Johnson continues to pay his professional success forward. He is a mentor in an internal career-development program and authored a white paper on strategy for HDR’s oil and gas pipelines work, including best practices for recruiting new employees.

Steven Knowles
Dual degrees bring broader industry view
34, Senior Project Manager
Layton Construction Co. LLC
San Antonio

Earning two degrees, one in architectural technologies and the other in construction management, from Brigham Young University in 2008 has given Knowles a well-rounded perspective on the construction industry.

Although he has spent most of his career managing projects for contractors, he also worked for an architectural firm reviewing submittals, RFIs and drafting minor changes to designs.

Over the last 12 years, Knowles has managed projects up to $50 million and contributed to others as large as $160 million.

In his current role, he leads a team of 12 employees and manages close to $50 million in work, overseeing up to 200 subcontractor employees on different jobsites.

Additionally, he has served on various internal committees that provide vital feedback from direct users on software and processes and helps shape the future of the company.

He has been directly involved in testing new software for pull planning and document control.

When time allows, Knowles pursues certifications such as construction documents technologist through the Construction Specifications Institute.

He is currently the design manager and senior project manager on the $50-million Methodist Stone Oak Hospital in San Antonio, the scope of which includes a vertical expansion, renovation and parking garage.

Over the last nine years, Knowles has served as an assistant Scout master, varsity Scout assistant coach and a Cub Scout den leader with the Boy Scouts of America.

Nicole Balli Little
Elevating and empowering women in construction
40, Senior Project Manager
Turner Construction Co.
Dallas

Little graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and a minor in architecture and mechanical engineering in 2000. After completing an internship with Turner Construction in Boston, she fell in love with the construction industry and decided to attend graduate school.

A native Texan, she chose the University of Texas’ construction management program, graduating in December 2001, and subsequently accepted a position with Turner Construction in the Houston office.

Over the past 17 years, Little has worked as a field engineer, assistant superintendent, cost engineer, project engineer and project manager, all to enhance her experience of the entire building process.

In addition to working with project teams, Little has a passion for training and mentoring, with a special focus on elevating women and working mothers in an industry that has not traditionally been woman focused. She leads the Turner Dallas Training Group and revamped its training curriculum to further career growth for all Turner employees.

As one of the most seasoned women in operations in Dallas, she mentors seven Dallas employees, advising them on career paths and serves as an unofficial mentor to many of the firm’s young women to help them manage their work-life balance.

Over the years, she has volunteered with numerous programs, including SMU Visioneering, Goodwill Industries of Dallas, Regional Hispanic Contractors Association, Dallas Hearts & Hammers, United Way and the North Texas Food Bank.

Among her accolades: the Magnolia Award from TEXO and from the regional chapter of the Hispanic Contractors Association, the Luna Award, which celebrates the achievements of women in the AEC industry.

Jacob Loeske
Engineer excels in association leadership
39, Client Service Manager
Stanley Consultants
Baton Rouge

After graduating from Louisiana State University with an environmental engineering degree, Loeske joined a Baton Rouge-based engineering firm to design water resources and transportation projects and manage survey crews. He was 27 when Buchart Horn recruited him as a lead engineer. Two years later, he was promoted to regional operations manager, and in another two years, he had increased staff numbers from four to 12, boosting profits by 150%.

He joined Stanley Consultants in 2015, and shortly after his promotion to client service manager in 2017, he helped the firm win the $75-million LaDOTD I-12 Widening Project in Louisiana, along with a $30-million roundabout corridor project shortly thereafter. These wins came on the heels of multiple high-profile Louisiana design projects that Loeske managed, including the $45-million Hooper Road Pump Stations Project.

Loeske is involved with the Louisiana Engineering Society (LES) Baton Rouge Chapter, having served in every office in the 300-member organization, most recently as president and past president. He served as the Young Member Chair on the state board when he was younger. Since then, he has remained active on various committees, including the transportation committee.

His newest industry challenge is working with the national American Public Works Association to revive the organization’s North Shore Branch, which dissolved after Hurricane Katrina. Currently serving as secretary/treasurer, Loeske’s strategy of attracting younger members to invigorate the branch is working, and membership has grown to 60.

In 2013 and 2015, Loeske was named Young Engineer of the Year by Louisiana Engineering Society Baton Rouge Chapter, and in 2015, he was named the Young Engineer of the Year for the Louisiana Engineering Society statewide.

Michael Oswald
Ambitious leader creates diverse opportunities
38, Chief Operating Officer
Hill & Wilkinson General Contractors
Richardson, Texas

Oswald obtained a residential builders license after graduating from high school and continued to work as a laborer in residential construction throughout his undergrad education at Northern Michigan University. He earned a bachelor’s degree in construction management in 2003 and went on to join Hill & Wilkinson in 2004 as a project engineer.

His solid performance led to rapid promotions—project manager, senior project manager, group manager, executive vice president and, most recently, chief operating officer—all in less than 15 years. He became the firm’s COO before his 35th birthday. Oswald also holds general contracting licenses in California, Arkansas, Louisiana, Arizona and Utah.

Oswald has remained closely involved with his alma mater, NMU, where he created a scholarship program for construction students, was appointed chair of NMU’s Construction Management Professional Advisory Committee and most recently joined the NMU Alumni Board.

He is now creating personal development plans for every employee to provide a rigorous review process that focuses on employee needs and manager expectations. As an advocate for diversity in the workplace, Oswald also has been a driving force in Hill & Wilkinson’s commitment to increase diversity at all levels within the company and its subsidiaries. He hired and sponsored nearly a dozen professionals while they pursued their H1B visas and started a Women in Construction forum, which dovetailed with the TEXO AGC Women in Construction. Now, more than two dozen female employees are actively engaged with the program.

He developed construction divisions that have since become separate companies, some managed by women and minorities. He has been the catalyst to move more than 90% of Hill & Wilkinson’s existing customer volume into negotiated contracts.

Away from the office, Oswald serves on the TEXO and TEXO Foundation boards and helps high schools, community colleges and vocational schools in the Dallas-Fort Worth area with curriculum development. He serves as a liaison between schools and the Construction Education Foundation and works to educate young adults about how to get into the construction industry.

Andrew Packer
A career focused on health care, manufacturing and sustainability
30, Project Manager
Gilbane Building Co.
San Antonio

Packer began working for Gilbane after graduating in 2010 from Villanova University with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering.

He started in the firm’s Philadelphia office working on the Einstein Medical Center Montgomery (EMCM), which earned LEED-NC Silver and was the first new hospital to be built in southeastern Pennsylvania in more than a decade. From there, he worked on a $110-million project for Ocean Spray Cranberries in Upper Macungie Township, Pa.—the project won the Regional Iver Johnson Builder of the Year award for Gilbane in 2014. While leading both the EMCM and Ocean Spray jobs to completion, Packer earned a master’s degree in sustainable engineering from Villanova.

For the last four years, he has worked on expansions for Constellation Brands at two project sites in Mexico—Ciudad Obregon and Nava.

While earning his master’s degree, Packer worked with all of Gilbane’s projects across the region to track waste and help maintain a companywide goal of a minimum total diversion rate of 75%.

In 2012 he was selected to be part of a committee tasked with overhauling Gilbane’s management trainee program. Then he worked with a group to launch Gilbane’s initiative into lean construction and helped implement lean principles on projects throughout Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

Packer holds several key industry certifications, including LEED AP BD+C, OSHA 30, fire inspector and an engineer-in-training certificate.

He is a member of American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) and is currently pursuing his professional engineer’s license.

Additionally, Packer has taken process piping courses with the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) to broaden his expertise on manufacturing projects.

Despite his busy workload, Packer volunteers with the ACE Mentor program and Special Olympics and works with his alma mater, Villanova University, on several causes.

Additional charitable efforts include his service as a volunteer firefighter and emergency medical technician, a role Packer has performed for the last 10 years with Radnor Fire Co. He is also an EMS lieutenant and an ambulance committee member.

Carrie Rollman
Passion for educational construction
30, Senior Associate
Brailsford & Dunlavey
Austin

While in high school, Rollman lived in a rural community in Paraguay and helped a local school plan an addition. Her mission was to empower community members and students to plan the addition themselves so they could see what goes into such a project. That early experience led her to pursue a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and a master’s degree in engineering management, both from George Washington University.

She began her career as an intern at Brailsford & Dunlavey (B&D) and advanced quickly, becoming a practice group leader. When B&D expanded into the Southwest with the opening of the Austin office, Rollman was asked to help build the firm’s growing regional portfolio, and she now leads the Austin office.

Rollman is one of the youngest regional leaders at B&D. Her recent focus has been on P3 advisory and campus planning for higher-education clients. She also has helped younger B&D professionals through the firm’s mentorship program.

Throughout her career, Rollman has contributed to multiple stages of projects, from strategic concept planning to full-scale program management on K-12 schools, student housing, campus recreation and student centers, athletic facilities, mixed-use campus-edge developments, academic research and laboratory facilities and roads and infrastructure projects. She also has been involved in the implementation of more than $500 million of developed projects.

Rollman believes that peer-to-peer mentorship and industry involvement is essential to professional growth, and she participates in numerous higher education and K12 industry associations.

Blake Roussel
Airport and airfield design expert
38, Transportation Department Manager
Stanley Consultants
Baton Rouge

After graduating from Louisiana State University in 2003 with a degree in civil engineering, Roussel went to work for the Louisiana Dept. of Transportation and Development (LaDOTD), quickly becoming a specialist in pavement design. Over the next five years, he assisted in construction monitoring of pile-driving operations using the Pile Driver Analyzer, cutting-edge technology at the time.

Then in 2008, after earning his professional engineer’s license and joining Stanley Consultants, Roussel’s career turned toward aviation. His first projects with the firm were runway and taxiway improvements at Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport.

His growing aviation design skills attracted the attention of the firm’s federal group, which put him to work designing projects in Abu Dhabi and Qatar.

Roussel is now one of the firm’s foremost experts in airport and airfield design and recently was named the civil design lead on one package of a $30-million military base project in the United Arab Emirates.

In addition to his increasing project-management responsibilities, Roussel also serves as transportation department manager of the firm’s Baton Rouge office, overseeing a growing staff on airport, highway and coastal projects.

In October, he finished his term as branch president of the ASCE Baton Rouge. He initially joined the organization’s student chapter to learn more about civil engineering. Over the past five years, he has served ASCE in a variety of different roles. As vice president, he procured a state public affairs grant to promote a local gas sales tax and created a digital-billboard campaign to raise public awareness for improving infrastructure.

Away from the office, Roussel dedicates time to volunteering at St. Aloysius Church; Heritage Ranch, a local organization that helps families in crisis; and has coached basketball at his former middle school for more than 15 years.

Silky Wong
Prolific academic creating long-lasting industry impact
36, Lead Civil/Structural Engineer – Technical Expertise and Support
The Dow Chemical Co.
Houston

In May 2018, Wong earned a PhD in systems and engineering management from Texas Tech University. She completed the degree while working full time at Fluor as the global subject matter expert in wind loads on nonbuilding structures.

She previously earned a bachelor’s degree in civil and environmental engineering from the University of Texas Austin, and a master’s degree in structural engineering from the University of California Berkeley.

At the end of 2018, she joined Dow Chemical Co. in Houston, but early in her career, she worked as a design engineer on the Linac Coherent Light Source project at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory at Stanford, the world’s first hard X-ray, free-electron laser. She helped achieve a nearly 20% reduction in the facility’s structural-engineering costs.

Wong is an active member of three American Society of Civil Engineers’ committees, and during her tenure at Fluor, helped develop the company’s design guidelines and documents on wind-load calculations and vibratory equipment supports, which are now used on projects around the world.

She has authored more than 50 industry papers in her career and worked on numerous landmark projects, including the $37-billion Tengizchevroil Future Growth Project and Wellhead Pressure Management Project in Kazakhstan.

Wong is passionate about sharing her knowledge. She mentors other engineers and in 2014 served as the Houston chair of Fluor’s Professional Publications and Presentations Program.

Wong is LEED AP BD+C certified and a licensed civil engineer in California and Texas, a licensed structural engineer in Illinois and Texas, and a chartered civil engineer in the U.K.

Her community involvement grows from her personal life. Wong has early onset osteoporosis and seeks to raise awareness in the community as a peer educator on behalf of American Bone Health.