Cheryl Burwell, P.E., a design engineer at Skilling Ward Magnusson Barkshire, Inc. in Seattle, Washington, was dispatched within an hour of the Nisqually earthquake in Washington in February 2001. Burwell inspected damaged buildings, ultimately assessing more than 15 properties.

Burwell has worked on several Seattle area projects including gravity and steel design on the Seattle Justice Center, pre- and post-implosion monitoring on the Kingdome Implosion, and historic renovation of the Harborview Medical Center addition. Burwell is actively involved in various Skilling committees charged with developing new design guidelines and recommendations, such as the Steel, Earthquake, and Building Preservation Expert Groups. She also serves as co-facilitator of Skilling’s Design Engineer Forum, an in-house discussion group for younger engineers.

Chad Fischer, Ph.D., an engineer at Engineering Systems, Inc. in Aurora, Illinois, responds to structural engineering emergencies anywhere in the country at a moment’s notice.

As a civil engineer, Fischer has been called to emergencies ranging from assessing the safety of a building following a fire to determining a repair scheme for a tornado-ravaged structure to investigating structural damage from an explosion. Because of his experience with structural emergencies, within 48 hours of the World Trade Center terrorist attack, Fischer was requested to be part of a three man engineering team from Illinois. He worked alongside contractors and firemen at Ground Zero to ensure demolition safety, monitor the stability of debris piles, and assess the safety of surrounding structures.

Pierre Kwan, an engineer at HDR in Bellevue, Washington, has extensive experience in both potable water and wastewater treatment technologies and is an expert in arsenic-removal.

Kwan has created an innovative ion exchange process for the removal of emerging water contaminants. He has also analyzed and helped design wastewater and drinking-water facilities and treatment processes throughout the U.S. and participated in arsenic removal, corrosion studies, and landfill construction projects. 

Rashod Johnson, Director of Engineering for the Mason Contractors Association of America in Schaumburg, Illinois, sits on various national Codes and Standards Committees working for the best interest of contractors.

Working in conjunction with the American Society of Testing and Materials Johnson is in the finishing stages of the first ever Masonry Workmanship Standard. He is currently assisting the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in the development and revision of various construction safety standards. Johnson instructs masonry testing and masonry wall bracing seminars to contractors nationwide. He is also completing the first ever Masonry Wall Bracing Handbook to assist contractors. 

Christine Warren, an engineer at CH2M Hill in Tempe, Arizona, uses computer simulation programs to determine if proposed designs for transportation projects will operate safely and efficiently.

Warren has provided traffic modeling on projects in six states. Her efforts predict traffic flow and identify bottlenecks, inefficiencies, and safety concerns. On a major corridor study of Interstate 25 in Pueblo, Colorado, she helped develop a more cost-effective and accurate traffic simulation process. The computer simulations helped determine the best corridor alternatives and gained stakeholder consensus for the improvements. The project will modernize an outdated, 42-year-old highway network, improving mobility for thousands of residents. Recently, she modeled traffic for an interchange project in Reno, Nevada, that will improve access to a major retail center. The much-needed project had stalled, but Warren’s computer modeling showed that the new interchange was the right solution — and the preliminary design got the green light. 

Kara Ejlali, an engineer at the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) in Chattanooga, Tennessee, is responsible for inspecting the 90 concrete and embankment structures across the Tennessee Valley. 

The only female Dam Safety Inspector in TVA, Ejlali is a member of the Rope Access Team, TVA Emergency Action Plan Team, and is Team Lead for the Western Section of the Tennessee Valley on the Interagency Security Assessment Team in cooperation with the Corps of Engineers. She takes the lead on general inspections, providing direction to engineering aides, contractors and site personnel. Ejlali is required to judge independently whether a potentially dangerous structural condition exists that may jeopardize the safety of the public. 

Nichole Baker, an engineer at Psomas in Sacramento, California, is a member of the Sacramento Water Resources Team.

Baker took the lead in developing a construction package for upgrading the Point Sur Lighthouse State Historic Park potable water drinking system in order to make it safe for consumption. Recently, the California Department of Parks and Recreation obtained land along the Carmel River where levees had been built and historic wetlands filled for farming operations. Baker has been instrumental in coordinating and providing design in this high profile project to remove the project’s levee and re-create the historic wetland and lagoon. The project has required her to coordinate a large and diverse group of environmentalists, engineers, and public agencies. 

Wendy Gottshall, P.E., an engineer at Michael Baker Jr., Inc. in Princeton, New Jersey, is experienced in maintaining the longest bridges in the world and in designing new ones. 

Gottshall was an integral member of the Route 21 Design Team that designed the largest bridge replacement project ever undertaken by the New Jersey Department of Transportation. She was also a team member in the recent bridge deck rehabilitation of the Commodore Barry Bridge, the longest cantilever truss in the United States, that connects Pennsylvania to New Jersey across the Delaware River. In research, Wendy contributed greatly to bridge engineering with her papers entitled “Numerical Load Rating of Reinforced Concrete Compression Members as Exemplified by Connecticut Arch Bridges,” and “Competence or Collapse,” both of which she presented and published at numerous conferences. Wendy traveled to India for a “vacation” to assist in the design of a living and working space for a group of about forty potters in Punganor, India.

Aaron White, P.E., an engineer at Walter P. Moore and Associates, Inc. in Tampa, Florida, has worked on the structural design of several large and complex public facilities.

White has worked on the design of the Orange County Convention Center, the Puerto Rico Convention Center, and the Arizona Cardinal’s new football stadium. White’s expertise is the design of large, complex long span steel roofs that are part of each of these projects. Over the last three years White worked on the design for the largest building in the history of New England, the Boston Convention and Exhibition Standard. The high roof of this project covers over 500,000 square feet and weighs over 5,000 tons. No two trusses in this roof have the same geometry. White was the structural designer of this roof.