Bevlee Watford, associate dean for academic affairs at Virginia Tech’s College of Engineering, has become the first black woman to be president-elect of the American Society for Engineering Education. Her one-year term as president begins in June 2017. Watford, who also is director of the university’s Center for the Enhancement of Engineering Diversity, has boosted graduation and retention rates of underrepresented groups, says Virginia Tech. With 9,780 total undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in 2015-16, engineering is the university’s largest college.

Wagman Construction, York, Pa., has named Michael J. Konieczka executive vice president. He had been the Carolinas region business-unit leader for LeChase Construction and is a former manager for KBR Building Group, DPR Construction and Skanska USA Building Inc. Blake Evans has joined Mott McDonald as principal for its oil-and-gas consulting business in the western U.S., the firm said on June 28. Based in Pleasanton, Calif., since last November, he is formerly director of operations in San Ramon, Calif., for engineering firm Willbros, according to a Linked-In profile. 

Arcadis North America has elevated Kim Brown Wilmsen to senior vice president and chief information officer. She had been an IT vice president. Brown Wilmsen replaces Mark Endry, who has left the firm. She also is chair of the Colorado Technology Association’s Women in Technology network. 

Justin Kile is named founding dean of the school of engineering at Quinnipiac University, Hamden, Conn., which will offer B.S. degrees in civil, industrial, mechanical and software engineering, as well as computer science, beginning in the fall. Kile was associate dean of engineering since 2013 in Quinnipiac’s former combined business-and-engineering school. 

Alan F. Bombick, a noted urban designer and principal at Chicago-based Legat Architects Inc. who headed its commercial, mixed-use and higher-education practices, died on June 20 in Arlington Heights, Ill., at age 61. The cause was cancer, a firm spokesman confirms.
Joining Legat in 1992, Bombick led projects that include the Hyatt Place Chicago-South/University Medical Center and the Harper College Avanté Center and its campus master plan. “Alan’s tenacity and sophistication were instrumental in not only growing the firm’s commercial-corporate portfolio but also in building its reputation as a major Chicago design firm,” says Berry DeSimone, Legat COO. The firm ranks at No. 157 on Architectural Record’s list of the Top 300 architecture firms. Bombick was a 20-year member of the Arlington Heights Design Commission.