ASCE Plot Points Podcast

Colette Easter is not a native Kentuckian. But she’s lived and worked there a long time now, and she cares about the state.
An engineer with the Metropolitan Sewer District in Louisville, she played a huge leadership role in the 2019 ASCE state infrastructure report card for Kentucky. So when floods tore through parts of Eastern Kentucky this summer, it spoke to Easter both professionally and personally.
In episode 129 of ASCE Plot Points, Easter talks about the work she’s doing in Louisville to ensure water resilience for her county, and why that resilience so often starts with public awareness.

Sarah McEwen has worked as a water resources engineer in Jackson, Mississippi, for nearly a decade.
Shawn Miller, entering his senior year as a civil engineering student at Jackson State University, has called the city home his entire life.
In episode 128 of ASCE Plot Points, the two ASCE leaders share stories from the recent water crisis as the city seeks a pathway toward resilience.

Stu Walesh is an ASCE distinguished member; a longtime civil engineer specializing in water with experience in the public sector, the private sector, and academia.
Through it all, he's approached every day as a chance to learn something new.
In episode 127 of ASCE Plot Points, Walesh talks about how he developed that growth mindset and how it helps create positive disruption.
 

Every career journey has stops along the way. And for many people, those are just called jobs.
But for the lucky among us, those stops along the way eventually add up to a destination job.
But for Melissa Hilsabeck, EIT, A.M.ASCE, she’s found that destination job very early in her career.
She’s a capital projects coordinator in the construction management division for the Port of Long Beach.
On episode 126 of the ASCE Plot Points podcast, Hilsabeck talks about her career journey and the many exciting projects happening at the port.

These days it takes a lot of different people with a lot of different skills to make civil engineering happen.
It really comes down to teamwork and technology.
On episode 125 of the ASCE Plot Points podcast, Bentley Ruggles, a senior project manager for Dewberry, talks about how virtual reality technology is changing the way projects get done. 

Efficiency is essential these days.
There isn’t enough time or money for anything less.
And efficiency is borne of innovation.
The Office of Public Transportation in Alabama is one such innovation – a partnership between the state department of transportation and the University of Alabama in Huntsville with the simple goal of improving transit for the citizens of Alabama.
In episode 124 of ASCE Plot Points, two Alabama Office of Public Transporation leaders, Mehrnaz Doustmohammadi and Michael Anderson, discuss the collaboration and if the model could be a good fit in other parts of the country.

Joel Figueroa-Vallines, P.E., F.ASCE, is a structural and forensic engineer and president of SEP+A Engineering Consulting, headquartered in Orlando.
He left home to drive south for Surfside, Florida, last summer in the aftermath of the tragic collapse of the Champlain Towers South condominium. He wound up staying for three weeks, helping where he could.
In episode 123 of ASCE Plot Points, Figueroa-Vallines reflects on the tragedy a year later and how he’s seen it change the industry.

Big-picture thinking, long-term planning - they seem to be at a premium these days.But not in Reno, Nevada.Not when it comes to clean water.Danny Rotter is an engineering manager for the Truckee Meadows Water Authority in Reno, and he works as part of a team that is using scenario planning and detailed data analysis to ensure the region's clean water future all the way out to the year 2100.On episode 122 of the ASCE Plot Points, Rotter talks about how that process works and why it's so important. 
 

Civil engineering careers can take many shapes.
You can work for a giant firm. You can work for a smaller firm.
But what about those medium-sized firms?
On episode 121 of the ASCE Plot Points, Sam Potts, a transportation engineer in Los Angeles, California, details the benefits of working for a medium-sized firm.

Society members recently voted Marsia Geldert Murphey as the ASCE 2023 president-elect.
Clearly, her accomplishments and vision for the organization spoke volumes.
But what many members might not know is that six years ago, Geldert-Murphey wasn’t running for ASCE office; she was just hoping to get out of bed, after an accident left her in a coma.
In episode 120 of the ASCE Plot Points podcast, Geldert-Murphey reflects on how that accident changed her life and her journey into ASCE leadership.