Principal | Utilities Lead
Civil Engineer
During a career fair in high school, a chemical engineer from a local coal mine in Gillette, Wyoming, came to speak about her experience, and I decided that was what I wanted to do. I was fortunate to get internships between semesters in college that gave me an idea of what I’d be doing after graduation. I’ve always enjoyed math and science, and I feel blessed to have a career I really enjoy.
I enjoy solving problems. Most of my design experience has been water- and sewer-related. In Alaska, protecting these utilities from freezing is a challenge. Early in my career I got to travel to several remote villages along the Yukon and see how the people lived on very little water because of the difficulties associated with the cold. I worked to come up with feasible alternatives for these communities to improve their sanitary conditions. Many of those systems were actually constructed, and I feel like I was part of making the homes of the people I’d met a better place.
I enjoy my job because the people I get to work with are some of the brightest I’ve ever met. There is a collaboration of ideas and respect for everyone’s point of view. An example of one of our collaborative projects is the Long Range Discrimination Radar (LRDR) project for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Missile Defense Agency. This is a multi-discipline project that requires coordination with several design firms. It requires design of arctic utilities (water, sewer, and storm drain), for which PDC has vast experience.