Education: B.S. Civil Engineering, Texas A&M University, M.A. Teaching, National-Louis University
Job Overview: I work in water distribution planning and modeling most of the time. Recently I’ve started getting more integrated into some water treatment design work which has been a lot of fun.
How I ended up at MWH: I attended Chicago’s E-Week Open House in February 2011 when I was nearing the end of my teaching career. After a bit of a roundabout journey, I ended up in our G&I group here in Chicago.
What is on my desk right now: I’ve got some field testing/pressure monitoring equipment, a conference schedule, lots of notes and figures for two projects that are about to wrap up…and a pair of boots I need to mail back to Zappos ASAP.
Free time activities: I do a lot with the MWH Young Professionals Group both in Chicago and at a national level. I love camping, hiking, biking – all of the outdoors things! During the summer months I try to spend at least one weekend a month in the woods somewhere. I do a lot of work with my church as well.
Best career advice I’ve ever received: A job you don’t like is just as valuable as a job you love. If you don’t like it, then it helps you narrow down your career path to things that you do enjoy.
There was a time that I was very nervous about looking for jobs because I didn’t want to end up in the wrong job, but that advice gave me permission to try something different even if I wasn’t sure about it. As a result, I’ve crossed a few things off my potential career options list, and I’ve ended up in a job that I really enjoy. Within the context of MWH, that advice helps me to be more willing to make myself available to try different things and work on different types of projects.
Experiences at MWH: I have worked with some really great project managers and technical leads who will answer questions when I’m struggling to grasp something and have literally just pulled up a chair to my desk to work through things if I can’t figure something out. I appreciate when they challenge me and ask me to run with things and figure it out on my own before they tell me how they would approach a problem.
