It’s time to announce the next class of Top Young Professionals in ENR’s regions, though for 2025, the results will look a little different. That’s because ENR is overhauling its regions, consolidating them starting in 2025.
As the construction industry continues to evolve, the audience for ENR’s Regional Editions has also shifted, with firms often working within broader geographic footprints and crossing over to work in neighboring regions. With that in mind, ENR’s Regional Editions, newsletters and website content are evolving as well, and will be arranged as follows:
Texas/Louisiana and Southeast will become ENR Texas and Southeast.
New York, New England and MidAtlantic will be merged to form ENR East.
The ENR Midwest region will remain, expanding with the addition of North and South Dakota.
Also, the Mountain States and Southwest will join forces under the existing umbrella ENR Mountain States.
California and Northwest will be merged to form the ENR West region, adding Nevada, which was previously in the Southwest region.
Much will remain the same, though, with each of the newly re-formed regions continuing to publish six bi-monthly print and digital magazines, a twice monthly newsletter and regional-specific digital content posted daily to the new regional websites within ENR.com.
In addition, ENR’s successful Best Projects competition/events and top firm rankings will continue to provide your firm with the same level of opportunity to showcase your firm’s outstanding work.
So the following Top Young Professionals honorees make up the first class for the new ENR Texas and Southeast region, covering Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Puerto Rico.
It was a crowded field, with judges evaluating 129 entries to choose the top 20 professionals in the region under the age of 40. Judges did not score applications from individuals working at the same firm or with which they had any conflicts of interest.
Each awardee will be featured in the first edition of ENR Texas & Southeast in February 2025, detailing their successes and careers so far.
This year’s judges, all past Top Young Professionals honorees from the former ENR Southeast and ENR Texas & Louisiana regions, were: Shayla Bradshaw, project engineer, Thomas & Hutton; Preston Chan, senior transportation engineer, HDR; Maria Escalona, project manager, JE Dunn; Gloria Ham, lead architect, Fluor; Geoff Kornegay, associate principal, Populous; Hannah Leppla, professional engineer, Plummer Associates, Inc.; Aislinn Nagy, senior project manager, Balfour Beatty; Mike Peters, vice president/division manager, Brasfield & Gorrie; Kim Pierson, director of energy and asset management, Moseley Architects; Nipesh Pradhanaga, associate professor, Florida International University; Maria Yesenia Trejo, project controls lead, HDR; Christine Wood, vice president, Burns & McDonnell.
And our 2025 ENR Texas & Southeast Top Young Professionals are listed below in alphabetical order. Congratulations to the winners!
Nila Abubakar — Principal, Managing Director, Walter P Moore, Atlanta
Jamie Bailey — Vice President, Client Strategy, McCownGordon Construction, Plano, Texas
Amanda Barton — Associate/Project Designer, HKS, Coral Gables, Fla.
Alexandra Beletic — Project Field Engineer, Bechtel National Inc., Cape Canaveral, Fla.
Jenny Brown — Senior Traffic Engineer and Associate, Kimley-Horn and Associates Inc., Huntsville, Ala.
Neil Caudle — Operations Manager, Brasfield & Gorrie, Dallas
Melanie Cleavelin — Deputy Operations Manager- Richardson, Halff, Richardson, Texas
Caitlin Geisinger — Business Development Manager, Burns & McDonnell, Houston, Texas
Brent Hooks — Chief Administrative Office, Allworld Project Management, Memphis, Tenn.
Matthew Kapusta — Global Practice Manager, Florida Region, Burns & McDonnell, Maitland, Fla.
Lauren Ladowski — Vice President, ARCO/Murray National Construction, Dallas
Ryan Mattie — Associate Vice President and Office Leader, Johnson, Mirmiran & Thompson Inc., Mt. Pleasant, S.C.
Ashlyn Morgan — Project Manager, Kimley-Horn, Dallas
Andrew Pierce — Vice President, Operations, Suffolk, Tampa, Fla.
Suleman Rana — Managing Director, Douglas County Government, Douglasville, Ga.
Milad Razaee — Senior Structural Engineer, AECOM, New Orleans
Trevor Reed — Vice President – Director of Engineering, Volkert Inc., Rockwall, Texas
Jacob Roberts — Principal and Area Manager, STV, Dallas
Ryan Schutt — Office Director, HKS, Dallas
William Wright — Senior Project Manager, Keller, Birmingham, Ala.
