Complex, time-sensitive assignments are nothing new to Col. Estee S. Pinchasin. In August 2021, just weeks after becoming the 69th commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Baltimore District, she led an expedited effort to identify, lease and outfit suitable properties in the Washington, D.C., area to temporarily house and process thousands of incoming Afghan evacuees, a critical first step toward their eventual resettlement in communities across the country.
Just over two years later, when a disabled container vessel struck the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore in the early morning hours of March 26, 2024, causing the main span to collapse, Pinchasin’s leadership would again prove critical as she became a member of a multi-agency unified command tasked with coordinating the emergency response.
