Wendy Lopez has been selected as the recipient of ENR Texas & Louisiana’s sixth annual Legacy Award.
This program was added to our annual awards line up in order to recognize industry veterans with many years of experience and long lists of contributions to their profession and community. In choosing this year’s recipients, ENR’s editors weighed several criteria, including each nominee’s history of innovation, outstanding career highlights and an engagement within the industry and the surrounding community.
Lopez has more than 36 years of outstanding management and technical experience and currently serves as AECOM’s Central Region Transportation Business Line Leader, managing more than 1,000 employees across 22 states.
Formerly as CEO of Wendy Lopez and Associates and LopezGarcia Group, she grew the company from a one-person engineering consulting firm to a multi-disciplinary engineering and environmental services company with 200 employees in less than 20 years. Under her leadership, the firm worked on several high-caliber projects including the MEP design services for the Dallas Cowboys stadium, program management services for D/FW Airport and engineering design services for U.S. 290 in Houston. She later sold the company to URS Corp. which was later acquired by AECOM.
Lopez has led AECOM in its efforts to secure the environmental clearance for the planned high-speed rail project between Dallas and Houston. She also led the charge for AECOM’s work on the City of Dallas Resilience Plan, working to help Dallas become a “Brilliant City.” In addition, Lopez has led design services for some of Dallas/Fort Worth’s top infrastructure projects, including the Dallas Horseshoe, SH360/IH30 Interchange and North Tarrant Express.
Her leadership status and career accomplishments were recently recognized by her alma mater, The University of Louisiana at Lafayette, where she was just selected for the alumni hall of fame. Additionally, her dedication to the industry and her leadership capabilities resulted in her election to the esteemed American Society of Civil Engineers Grade of Fellow in 2016.
Beyond the workplace, Lopez also serves on numerous national and local boards and committees. She’s the Dallas Regional Chamber Infrastructure Task Force Chair, which creates transportation, water and energy policies to benefit the region, and was recently appointed to serve as president of the International Women’s Forum (IWF) Dallas chapter.
Among her many other activities, Lopez is also leading the City of Dallas’ first Comprehensive Environmental and Climate Action Plan, with the goal of helping Dallas reduce energy use, become more environmentally friendly and mitigate the effects of climate change. Her team is also involved in high speed transportation and several smart infrastructure projects, which will use big data to efficiently operate and manage urban systems of the future.
Join us in honoring Lopez at ENR Texas & Louisiana’s 2019 Best Projects luncheon in Houston on October 29. Also, look for an in-depth profile highlighting her career and achievements that will be included in the February 17/24, 2020 issue of ENR Texas & Louisiana.
