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President’s Message – March 2026

President’s Message – March 2026

Dear ASCE Houston,

I hope you guys enjoyed Engineer’s Week as much as I did. It was truly an honor to be selected by our Younger Member (YM) Committee as the ASCE Houston Young Engineer of the Year, and I’d like to congratulate Houston Engineer of the Year, Brian Manning, one last time. I enjoyed getting to celebrate this special time with you all during last week’s festivities.

Brian’s remarks during the YEOY Awards really resonated with me as he highlighted the importance of always saying “yes” to opportunities as they come your way, and prioritizing building connections in our industry. My leadership journey with ASCE started 8 years ago when I signed up to be our YM Community Service Chair, and I never knew how many doors my involvement with ASCE would open for me by simply staying involved and saying “yes” to opportunities. Over the years, ASCE has always been so much more than just a source of technical content for me, it’s given me a place to grow my network, share my passion with other leaders in our industry, and give back to our community. So to any students and other young engineers out there reading this - say yes to getting involved, I can promise you that you won’t regret it! If you’re looking for opportunities to get plugged into a leadership role, please reach out to myself or any of the board members to see if there’s a role that might be a good fit for you as we transition positions this coming fall.

Earlier this past month, during our February Branch meeting we had the pleasure of recognizing two local projects that received ASCE’s Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement (OCEA) Award - the City of Houston’s Northeast Transmission Line, and PortHouston’s Project 11 Ship Channel Expansion, along with one Outstanding Projects and Leaders (OPAL) Individual Award for design, awarded to Lawrence Griffis with Walter P. Moore in recognition for his outstanding contributions in structural engineering design. These awards are a national-level distinction and are awarded for exceptional civil engineering innovation and significant contributions to society. You can learn more about these awards HERE.

March is already shaping up to be a very busy month with several technical sessions and volunteer opportunities hosted by our Education Committee, Younger Member Committee, and several of our institutes which you can learn more about in this newsletter. I especially want to highlight our Younger Member Committee’s Volleyball Fundraiser Tournament coming up on March 11th - I encourage you all to gather some coworkers and sign up for some friendly competition for a good cause. All proceeds from the tournament go directly to supporting our high school and university student scholarship funds. Speaking of scholarships - applications are open on our website HERE! Please be sure to share this opportunity with students, interns, and family members that are eligible!

Our next Branch Meeting will be held on Tuesday, March 17, from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at The Ballroom at Tanglewood. Our keynote speaker will be Leilany Thielen, P.E., Deputy Director of the Capital Projects & Infrastructure Division of Harris County Toll Road Authority (HCTRA). Our Transportation and Development Institute (T&DI) will also be hosting a technical session before the lunch entitled “Would You Bet Your Capital Plan on AI Models? A Technical Evaluation for Municipal Engineering” presented by the City of Sugar Land. I look forward to seeing you all there!

As always, please reach out to me anytime if you’d like to discuss suggestions to improve our programming or inquire about ways to get involved.

Sincerely,

Anna Chamberlain, PE, CFM, ENV SP

President

[email protected]