From a young age, Col. Eric R. Swenson found himself drawn to construction and earthmoving equipment,“so much so that as a child I once lost my parents on a family bike ride after stopping to watch the Army Corps of Engineers dredging operations in Ocean City, N.J.,” Swenson says.
Launching an environmental justice case in Syracuse, N.Y. in 2018, Lanessa Owens-Chaplin looked beyond her lawsuit against the $2.3-billion plan to replace the aging Interstate 81 viaduct bisecting a historically Black neighborhood.
René Morkos is a second-generation civil engineer who has worked on underwater pipeline construction, automation engineering on a $350-million gas refinery expansion project in Abu Dhabi and as a project manager in Afghanistan.
Abigail Ross Hopper, the outgoing president and CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association, has been the face and voice of the influential clean power advocacy group since she took the top role in 2017, and widely credited for the sector’s huge growth over nearly a decade.
As the sustainability movement took hold in construction a quarter-century ago, concrete maker Louis P. Grasso Jr. was nudged by its leaders to gain a competitive edge by producing a pozzolan made from locally sourced recycled glass to reduce cement’s carbon content.
Leading the successful revival of Pittsburgh International Airport with novel technology initiatives, above-and-beyond community and construction engagement, and a new terminal that is the center of a $1.7B modernization
Christina Cassotis was born into aviation, with a father who served as a Marine fighter pilot flying Douglas A4s in Vietnam and then came home to fly for Pan Am Airlines.