Carol Haddock
Director
Houston Public Works
Panelist: From Potential to Progress—New Legislation Creates Opportunities for Construction Professionals
Carol Ellinger Haddock is director of Houston Public Works, the largest American Public Works Association accredited agency in the nation. Carol leads nearly 4,200 employees in transforming the culture and operations of the Department, which has an annual operating budget of $2.7 billion and an annual capital budget of over a billion dollars.
Carol has been at the City for nearly eighteen years and was promoted to director in 2017. She has led the organization through a cultural transformation by providing resilience training for all employees. Streamlining operations and equipping employees with new skill sets, has allowed the Department to move forward from Winter Storm Uri, COVID-19, and Hurricane Harvey. Houston Public Works has set records for treatment of drinking water in a day, reduced environmental impacts in both the wastewater and stormwater systems, maintain a next-business-day pothole repair program 99% of the time and supported more than $6 billion in development. Carol worked with City leaders to sign a historic consent decree with the federal government to upgrade Houston’s wastewater system. The Northeast Water Purification Plant expansion is currently the largest progressive design-build project of its kind in the U.S. The goal of the project is to increase surface water usage while reducing the Houston region’s dependence on groundwater.
Carol is a licensed Professional Engineer in the State of Texas with a Civil Engineering Bachelor’s degree from Rice University and has a Master’s degree in Public Administration from the University of Houston. Prior to joining Houston Public Works, Carol worked in private consulting, for the Harris County Flood Control District, and as a Congressional Fellow for the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.