News

The 50K Coalition and Terracon Foundation Announce Partnership

$50,000 grant to support diverse engineers goal

ALEXANDRIA, Va. --  The 50K Coalition and the Terracon Foundation announce a partnership between the organizations, intended to advance the 50K Coalition’s goal of producing 50,000 diverse engineers annually by 2025. The partnership was established through a generous $50,000 National Partner Grant from the Terracon Foundation.

The Terracon Foundation encourages employees to submit grant requests each year for organizations focused on education and the built and natural environment. To date, the Terracon Foundation has granted more than $3 million to community organizations, universities, dependents of employees, and for disaster relief efforts.

“Terracon is honored to provide the 50K Coalition with a national partner grant,” said Laura Campa, P.E., chair of the Terracon Foundation and manager of the Baton Rouge, Louisiana, office. “Despite past considerable efforts, African Americans, Native Americans, and Hispanic Americans remain severely underrepresented among engineering degree recipients. Our entire society would benefit from greater equity, ensuring that all engineering minds can fully contribute their skills, creativity, and insight. The 50K Coalition is unique in that it offers a holistic, collective, and national approach that colleges and universities can employ to change the face of engineering in America.”

“The 50K Coalition is grateful for the Terracon Foundation’s support of our mission to produce 50,000 diverse engineers annually by 2025,” said Karl Reid, Ed.D., executive director of the National Society of Black Engineers, and co-founder of the 50K Coalition. “Through the generosity of the Terracon Foundation, we will be able to expand our network and identify and scale up efforts to dramatically increase the diversity of the engineer profession, leading to better solutions and ultimately, a better world.”

For more information about recent additional grants made by The Terracon Foundation, visit terracon.com/about/foundation/

The Terracon Foundation was established with a goal to reach out and become a real part of the lives of Terracon employees and the communities where they live and work. Terracon is an employee-owned engineering consulting firm with more than 5,000 employees providing environmental, facilities, geotechnical, and materials services from more than 150 offices with services in all 50 states. Terracon currently ranks 22nd on Engineering News-Record’s list of Top 500 Design Firms.

The 50K Coalition is a collaborative of more than 60 organizations focused on a bold national goal: to produce 50,000 diverse engineering graduates annually by 2025. The coalition was formed by the American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES), the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) and the Society of Women Engineers (SWE), the nation’s preeminent diversity engineering organizations, which collectively serve more than 85,000 pre-collegiate, collegiate, and professional members.

Terracon Enhances Mid-Atlantic Presence with GET Solutions, Inc. Acquisition

GET brings geotechnical, environmental, drilling, and certified lab testing capabilities

OLATHE, Kan. – Terracon is pleased to announce it has acquired GET Solutions, Inc. (GET). As their name represents, GET is a full-service geotechnical, environmental, and materials testing firm serving public- and private-sector clients throughout the mid-Atlantic region.

Headquartered in Virginia Beach, Virginia, GET also has office locations in Williamsburg, Virginia, and Elizabeth City and Jacksonville, North Carolina. GET’s services include in-house drilling capabilities and certified soils and concrete testing laboratories.

“GET has built a strong presence in Virginia and throughout the mid-Atlantic, based not only on technical expertise, but on a strong commitment to outstanding client service,” said Gayle Packer, Terracon president and CEO. “Adding GET as a part of Terracon increases our regional bench strength to continue providing nimble, responsive support for our clients’ projects.”

GET’s 95 employees will immediately become part of Terracon. The firm will continue to operate locally as GET Solutions, Inc., A Terracon Company, and the transition will be seamless for clients.

“GET Solutions has always been committed to providing the highest-quality services to our clients and career growth for our employees,” said Camille Kattan, P.E., GET president and CEO. “Joining with Terracon allows us to take these commitments to a new level, offering the same excellent service but with expanded access to Terracon’s national resources and employee career opportunities.”

The new acquisition is supported by Terracon’s existing offices in Virginia, North Carolina, the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area, and others. GET joins three other recent Terracon acquisitions in the mid-Atlantic: TAM Consultants Inc. of Williamsburg, Virginia, in 2021, Skelly and Loy of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in 2020, and GeoConcepts of Ashburn, Virginia, in 2017.

Terracon is an employee-owned consulting engineering firm with more than 5,000 employees providing environmental, facilities, geotechnical, and materials services from more than 150 offices with services available in all 50 states. Terracon currently ranks 22nd on Engineering News-Record’s list of the Top 500 Design Firms. For additional information about Terracon, visit terracon.com.

Terracon Receives 2020 EBJ Business Achievement Awards

Environmental Business Journal Recognizes Environmental Industry Firms for 2020 Performance and Innovation

San Diego, Calif. (February 2021) — Environmental Business Journal® (EBJ), a business research publication that has provided strategic business intelligence to the environmental industry since 1988, has honored Terracon with a 2020 EBJ Business Achievement Award for several major projects.

“2020 was certainly an exceptional year for our society, the economy, and the environmental industry,” said Grant Ferrier, president of Environmental Business International Inc. (EBI Inc.), and editor of Environmental Business Journal. “That’s why we added two major categories to the EBJ Awards: COVID Resilience that recognizes companies that adapted to work-at-home, travel, field services and other restrictions, as well as rapidly changing client needs; and COVID Response that recognizes companies that developed or accelerated new business initiatives, innovations and entire business units to support the environmental, health, and safety needs of their diverse client sectors.”

The EBJ Business Achievement Awards customarily recognize business performance in conventional metrics such as revenue growth, mergers and acquisitions, exceptional projects, technology development and deployment in the field, and advances in information and digital technology, and these categories were well represented in 2020.

Terracon was recognized for:

• Business Achievement: Mergers & Acquisitions, Kristi Tahmasiyan, SHR-SCP, director of mergers and acquisitions;
• COVID Response: Workplace Reentry, John Sallman, P.G., assistant director of environmental services;
• Information Technology: Stage1, Dana Wagner, CHMM, national manager of environmental due diligence services; and
• Project Merit: Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Magnetometer Survey, Jim Major, P.G., investigation/remediation group leader.

“Terracon congratulates all of the 2020 award recipients and is proud to be recognized by EBJ for the excellent work our own employee-owners are providing to our communities and clients,” said Lori Cathcart, assistant director of environmental services. “Despite the challenges we all experienced this past year, our team of environmental professionals continued to innovate and provide creative solutions to meet our clients’ most demanding needs.”

2020 was also a unique year in that it represented what EBJ determined was the 50^th anniversary of the environmental industry as a collection of 13 increasingly integrated segments in a $401 billion industry in the United States. Historical relics show active waste-management practices in Native American communities, and water and wastewater systems date back to pre-Roman history, but the environmental industry as we know it dates back to the foundation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and many of the companies that make up the Environmental Consulting & Engineering segment, in 1970.

The year 2020 was the 50^th anniversary of the EPA, and the institution of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the President’s Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), and other environmental protection initiatives at state and federal levels that endure today. The year 1970 also represents the foundation of a number of companies that still flourish today, and EBJ recognized many of these companies in 50-Year Recognition awards for companies founded in 1970 or thereabouts.

The 2020 EBJ awards were presented at a virtual ceremony Feb. 11 and 12, 2021. EBJ Business Achievement Awards are customarily presented in person at EBJ’s annual Environmental Industry Summit. The event was postponed from its usual mid-March date and held online in September 2020, followed by the recent awards ceremony. The expectation is for resumption of in-person events starting with Environmental Industry Summit XIX Sept. 22-24, 2021.

About EBJ

Environmental Business Journal provides strategic information and market forecasts for executives involved in 13 business segments, including environmental testing, water & wastewater, air pollution control, environmental consulting & engineering, hazardous waste, remediation, instrumentation, pollution control equipment, waste management, resource recovery, and solid waste management.

About Terracon

Terracon is an employee-owned engineering consulting firm with more than 5,000 employees providing environmental, facilities, geotechnical, and materials services from more than 150 offices with services available in all 50 states. Terracon ranks 22nd on Engineering News-Record’s 2020 list of Top 500 Design Firms.

Liz Smith Named Geo-Institute Cross-USA Lecturer

First Woman to Receive This Honor

The Geo-Institute (G-I) of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) is pleased to announce that Liz Smith, P.E., G.E., D.GE, M.ASCE, has been named its Cross-USA Lecturer for 2020-21. Smith is a Senior Principal and National Transportation Program Manager at Terracon Consultants, Inc.

The Cross-USA Lecture Tour

The Cross-USA Lecture Tour is a program that, each year, brings a distinguished geoprofessional to speak at local G-I Chapters and Graduate Student Organizations. Lecturers are nominated by their professional peers and fellow G-I members, and are selected on criteria that include speaking skill, professional achievement, and prestige in the geoprofessional community. Smith is the tenth Cross-USA Lecturer; the first Lecture Tour was in 2011-12. She is the first woman to be chosen as a Lecturer.

Local G-I groups compete each year for the honor of hosting the Lecturer. The groups that will be chosen to host Ms. Smith will be announced later this year. She will work with each group to select the topic of her lecture.

“I think lots of G-I Chapters will be excited to host and hear from Ms. Smith,” says Jeremy Varner, P.E., M.ASCE, chair of the Local Involvement Committee and member of the Selection Committee. “When we were evaluating the nominees, Ms. Smith stood out because of her depth and breadth of experience. We wanted a national-quality speaker who could have something to share with any and all G-I Chapters. Also, she has been successfully competing as a practitioner for more than 35 years. The previous lecturers have been full-time or at least part time from academia, and we wanted to offer a different perspective on our diverse industry. The Cross-Country Lecture Series is a wonderful way for G-I Chapters to bring in top-quality speakers and content while remaining within their budget constraints.”

“The last five Cross-USA lecturers include George Filz, Andrew Whittle, Paul Mayne, Robert Bachus, and now Liz Smith,” says G-I President James G. Collin, Ph.D., P.E., D.GE., F. ASCE. “The G-I is very pleased that Liz has agreed to be our 2020-2021 lecturer and knows that she will provide excellent lectures to the chapters lucky enough to host her.”

Liz Smith: a Geoprofessional Expert and Leader

Liz Smith, P.E., G.E., D.GE, M.ASCE is a senior principal and national transportation program manager at Terracon Consultants, Inc. With more than 35 years’ experience, she has developed significant expertise in geotechnical engineering for design-build transportation projects and slope and retaining wall failure evaluations and remediation. She has been involved in several other areas of transportation geotechnical engineering, including consulting for design-build teams to resolve geotechnical problems on complex projects; owner oversight; and evaluation and repair of foundation, slope, and retaining wall failures. She has successfully managed several complex geotechnical design-build projects with geotechnical fees up to $12 million and construction costs up to $2 billion.

Smith’s most recent design-build projects include Oak Hill Parkway, Austin, Texas; SH130 Forensic Studies, Austin, Texas; Transform 66 -Outside the Beltway Project, Segment 3, Fairfax County, Virginia; Loop 375 Border Highway, El Paso, Texas; US 183 South (Bergstrom Expressway) in Austin, Texas; and I-35E Managed Lanes Project in Dallas and Denton Counties, Texas. She has been geotechnical lead on major proposals and projects in locations across the U.S., including Hawaii, Washington, California, Arizona, New Mexico, Minnesota, Missouri, Texas, and Virginia.

She has authored papers and given presentations at numerous professional and technical meetings.

Smith is an active member of the following organizations:

• American Society of Civil Engineers
• Geo-Institute of ASCE
• Geo-Institute of ASCE - Deep Foundations Technical Committee
• Design-Build Institute of America (DBIA)
• Deep Foundations Institute (DFI) and its Drilled Shafts Committee and Women in Deep Foundations Committee
• Transportation Research Board (TRB) Committees: Project Delivery Methods, AFH15; Foundations of Bridges and Other Structures, AFS30
• Virginia Tech, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) Alumni Advisory Board, Past Chair
• Virginia Tech, CEE Academy of Distinguished Alumni
• WTS, Past President, Heart of Texas/Austin Chapter

Smith is a Hokie from Virginia Tech with her bachelor of science and master of science in civil (geotechnical) engineering. She and her husband Jack have been married 36 years and have three adult sons, two daughters-in-law, and two grand-dogs. Liz and Jack are happy empty nesters and live in Round Rock, Texas.

About the Geo-Institute

The Geo-Institute is a professional association of geotechnical engineers, geologists, and other geoprofessionals, with over 11,000 members in the United States and around the world. It is a specialty institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers, created in 1996. For more information about the Geo-Institute, please visit www.geoinstitute.org or email geo-institute@asce.org.

ABOUT TERRACON

Terracon is an employee-owned engineering consulting firm with more than 5,000 employees providing environmental, facilities, geotechnical, and materials services from more than 150 offices with services available in all 50 states. Terracon ranks 22nd on Engineering News-Record’s 2020 list of Top 500 Design Firms.

New Senior Principals and Principals Announced

Terracon is pleased to announce the promotion of 18 individuals from Principal to Senior Principal and appointment of 34 individuals to Principal. Terracon’s Principals Program provides recognition, rewards, and opportunities for employees who have distinguished themselves through their strong leadership and contribution to the continued success of the company. Please join us in congratulating the new Senior Principals and Principals.

New Senior Principals

• John E. Agee, P.E., Regional Manager, Nashville
• Peter E. Falletta, P.E., DFW Regional Materials Manager, Dallas-Fort Worth Metro
• Ryan W. Feist, P.E., Assistant Service Line Director, Geotechnical, Colorado Springs
• Gary K. Howalt, Department Manager, Environmental, Jacksonville, Florida
• Stephanie P. Isenhour-Price, Director, Human Resources Operations, Olathe, Kansas
• Guy L. Johnson, Office Manager, Cedar Rapids
• Michael T. Jordan, P.G., Office Manager, Raleigh
• Jesse M. Kocher, P.E., Office Manager, Round Rock/Austin
• Bradley A. Levich, P.E., Office Manager/National Account Manager, Lincoln
• Matthew R. McElvogue, P.E., Building Enclosure Services Director, Winter Park, Florida
• Jeffrey A. Miller, P.E., LEED AP, CBCP, EBCP, Senior Engineer, Facilities, Houston
• Abu S. (Mo) Mohammad Nasim, Ph.D., P.E., National Director, Geodesign, Washington DC Metro North
• Aaron J. Muck, P.E., Assistant Service Line Director, Geotechnical, Cincinnati
• Brett A. Pope, P.E., Manager, Regional Services, Texas Division (Austin)
• George A. Tannoury, Ph.D., P.E., Office Manager, Wichita
• Kenneth M. Valder, P.E., Regional Manager, Pacific Northwest Region
• Matthew Y. Wheaton, L.G., P.E., Department Manager, Environmental, Seattle
• David J. Wolfgram, P.E., Office Manager, Minneapolis and St. Paul

New Principals

• Jesse H. Aguilar, P.E., Department Manager, Facilities, San Antonio-FAC
• Charles M. (Mike) Basha, Department Manager, Materials, Charleston, S.C.
• Michaela T. Brewster, CPG, Group Manager, Environmental, Omaha
• Christopher R. Briggs, P.E., Department Manager, Geotechnical, Charlotte
• Daniel J. De Battista, P.E., G.E., Office Manager, Las Vegas
• Terry H. (Heath) Defoor, P.E., PMP, Office Manager, Seattle-Lynnwood
• Zack L. (Lem) Dial, P.E., Office Manager, New Orleans
• Ronda M. Freeman, Director, Procurement and Payables, Olathe, Kansas
• Robert A. Garrison, Department Manager, Environmental, Dallas-Fort Worth Metro
• Christopher S. Handley, P.E., Department Manager, Geotechnical, Little Rock
• Alicia M. Hill, P.E., Senior National Account Manager, Manchester, New Hampshire
• Timothy A. Hohlt, Department Manager, Materials, Manchester, New Hampshire
• Byron C. (Casey) Jones, Department Manager, Facilities, Dallas
• Travis J. Kassebaum, P.E., Department Manager, Geotechnical, St. Louis
• Mingu Kim, Ph.D., P.E., Manager, Regional Services, Jacksonville, Florida
• Mathew O. Knutson, Department Manager, Environmental, Minneapolis
• Emily L. Kosmalski, E.P., Group Manager, Environmental, Atlanta
• Daniel B. Mahrt, P.E., Department Manager, Geotechnical, Minneapolis and St. Paul
• Paul J. (Jared) Mechetti, P.E., Sector Leader - Mission Critical & Digital Infrastructure, Sacramento
• Anjula Mittal, PMP, Manager, Applications, Olathe
• Vu T. Nguyen, EI, RRC, RWC, BECxP, CxA+BE, Senior Project Manager, Facilities, Charlotte
• Scott R. Parker, Department Manager, Environmental, Seattle
• Cheryl C. Pedraza, P.E., Department Manager, Geotechnical, Fort Worth
• David C. Reynolds, P.E., Department Manager, Environmental, Minneapolis
• Robyn R. Sargent, CHMM, Office Manager/Department Engineer, Environmental, Billings
• Philip T. Schiele, P.G., Department Manager, Materials, Omaha
• Ann M. Scott, Ph.D., RPA, Manager, Environmental Planning Group, Austin
• Joseph E. Starr, P.E., Client Development Manager, Raleigh
• Gregory J. Taddicken, P.E., Office Manager, Boise
• Benjamin W. Taylor, P.E., P.G., Regional Manager, Louisville
• Josiah D. (Sy) Winkelman, P.E., Department Manager, Materials, Salt Lake City