MFA Celebrates National Engineers Week

Did you feel that magic in the air this morning? That special feeling that comes only one week a year in late February? The magic of National Engineers Week aka EWeek? It couldn’t have only been me that felt it…right? Either way, read on for a bit of the magic of EWeek.

The engineering profession is well-represented (there’s 26 of us!) at MFA. From the office to the field, my colleagues work hard to provide the best possible solutions to our clients while embodying our company values and holding dear our engineering ethics. In other words, they get work done and they get it done well. National Engineers Week is a 68-year-old “holiday” founded by the National Society of Professional Engineers to ensure a diverse and well-educated future engineering workforce by increasing understanding of and interest in engineering and technology careers. MFA wholeheartedly believes in the EWeek mission year-round for engineers and disciplines beyond.

To celebrate EWeek, we are profiling an MFA engineer each day. Our first featured engineer? Eek…me! Read on and then come back every day this week to learn about another MFA engineer.

In what states are you licensed?

Washington and Oregon.

How long have you been a PE?

9 years.

How long have you been with MFA?

Almost 14 years.

Does anything memorable stand out from taking your PE test? Do you have any tips for studying?

I remember booking a hotel room in Eugene the night before to be closer to the exam location—it was a fitful night of sleep next to some partiers next door. As for tips, just keep studying and remember you get a much-deserved break from studying when you’re done. I don’t remember the exam itself, but I remember the bliss of walking out the exam room knowing that I didn’t have to study either until I got a letter saying I failed or ever again. Thankfully, it was the latter!

What has been one of the most memorable projects you have worked on, and why?

I have had the fortune of working with my colleagues on an exciting project in Bend for OSU-Cascades, where our client is reclaiming a landfill to expand their campus. I love this project for its creativity, its tie-in to education, and the fact that we can help take this unusable brownfield and turn it into a community asset.

What does being an engineer mean to you?

It means seeking and applying knowledge from any and all sources to solve problems. Both the seeking and applying are equally thrilling. At MFA, it means interfacing with so many wonderful individuals in various disciplines to combine our various technical skills to solve even harder problems than engineering alone could solve.