Every year, Engineering News-Record (ENR) recognizes young industry professionals, all under 40, who represent the best-of-the-best in their careers, by exhibiting qualities of leadership, career progress and community involvement.

From sustainable smart energy programs and transportation visualization to major capitalization projects for water utilities and authorities, AECOM delivering professional services that highlight technical excellence and improve the quality of life for communities across the United States.

As industry professionals, AECOM understands that complex challenges require innovative technical skills to develop creative solutions that will make the world a better place in the years to come. The company is proud to see the following young professionals recognized for picking up the firm’s mantel of excellence.

In that spirit of excellence, AECOM is excited to introduce some of its ENR national and regional top young professionals.

Specialising in large-scale water supply planning projects

Courtney O'Neill is a Deputy Water Resources Market Sector Leader, Water based in Seattle, Washington. She is a water resources engineer who specializes in large-scale water supply planning projects. As Americas’ practice lead for watershed resilience planning, she is building a new cross-disciplinary group that will bring together the firm’s experience in climate change, resiliency and water master planning in order to identify holistic solutions to AECOM's clients’ problems. She also helps coordinate a team of national experts in her role as deputy market sector leader for Water Resources.

Managing water and wastewater infrastructure projects

Valetta Saldanha is a Deputy Project Manager, Water based in Houston, Texas. A deputy project manager on water and wastewater infrastructure projects, Valetta assists municipal utilities, including cities, counties, river authorities and municipal utility districts, and industrial clients, in building, maintaining and improving water and wastewater treatment plants as well as related facilities. Valetta helps clients identify and develop the scope of improvements from preliminary engineering, design, permitting to construction and closeout. She oversees all aspects of projects from technical to project management including cost estimating, interdisciplinary and subconsultant coordination.

Managing a major wastewater program

Vi Lam is a Project Manager, Water based in San Francisco, California. As the consultant deputy technical program manager for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC)’s $7 billion wastewater capital program, Vi has put her training in wastewater process design, air quality assessments, energy audits, project management, operations and business development to good use. She led development of the SFPUC Wastewater Enterprise’s capital improvement planning framework which measured service levels, identified needs and applied a metric-driven approach to capital investments. She also spearheaded development of a three-dimensional receiving water quality model used in capital planning and regulatory discussions.

Managing major innovative contracting and delivery projects

Denila Deliallisi is a Civil Engineer and Project Manager, Transportation based in Baltimore, Maryland. She has extensive experience in managing multiple major innovative contracting and alternative delivery projects for transportation projects, including design-build and construction manager at risk. She is an avid user of newer technologies and project management tools which maximize the use of talent on project teams. Denila helped expand the firm’s use of such project management tools as SharePoint and ProCore. Her dedication to advancing new technologies has proven invaluable with the advent and resulting challenges of virtual team collaboration.

Experience in planning, design and transportation analysis

Jennie McCracken is an Associate Vice President, Traffic/Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Department Manager, Transportation based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. As manager of AECOM’s Traffic/ITS department in the greater Pennsylvania region, Jennie’s experience encompasses planning, design and transportation analysis as well as ITS related projects. Her department has grown by more than 20 percent over the past 3 years; the result of an ITS Design national center of excellence that supports design-build projects throughout North America. Jennie is currently the traffic discipline lead for the Pittsburgh Bus Rapid Transit project which recently earned a $100-million grant from the Federal Transit Administration.

Implementing smart city and resilience initiatives 

Katrina Lewis is a Senior Consultant, Energy based in Chicago, Illinois. A member of the firm’s smart energy team, Katrina leads, researches and implements smart city and resilience initiatives around the United States. Her work focuses on strategic planning for municipal and utility resilience, sustainability and smart city strategies, developing metrics to provide a quantifiable foundation for sustainable development; quantifying community-level benefits of sustainable initiatives including microgrids, green infrastructure and electric vehicle fleet conversion; and, creating triple bottom line prioritization and optimization models for municipal-level decision-making.

Acting as the primary legal point of contact

Lauren Catoe is an Assistant General Counsel, AECOM Hunt based in Tampa, Florida. Lauren is the primary legal point of contact for AECOM Hunt’s West Division, which includes regional and branch offices in Dallas, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Presently, she is overseeing projects such as the Los Angeles Sports and Entertainment District at Hollywood Park, which includes construction of the new National Football League  stadium for the Los Angeles Rams and the Los Angeles Chargers, as well as  the Terminal 3 Modernization Project at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.  

Overseeing AECOM's technical resource specialist team

Erika Grace is a Project Manager, Environment, based in Greenville, South Carolina. A project manager and supervisor of nine professional scientists, Erika manages all aspects of the company’s technical resource specialist team. She is an integral part of the firm’s environmental impact assessment and permitting team, primarily as project coordinator and task manager of National Environmental Policy Act projects. Erika previously supported a National Science Foundation grant to study oxygen and temperature interactions on nudibranch egg masses in the Ross Sea, Antarctica, spending two months living and working at McMurdo Station, Antarctica.

Selected for a mentorship programme for women in transportation 

Ellie Volosin is a Traffic Engineer in Transportation based in Phoenix, Arizona. Ellie is one of the company’s leaders in VISSIM modeling. She was selected for the Jane Morris Mentorship Program for Women in Transportation, which hones leadership skills of women in the industry as well as the Eno Leadership Development Conference for Emerging Professionals, which focuses on transportation policy and practice. A deputy project manager, Ellie oversees traffic engineers and modelers of varying levels. She initiated and leads bi-monthly virtual traffic modeler meetings for the company’s central region.

Join AECOM as a young professional and work on exciting projects

When you join a company that’s pioneering the future, your opportunities are unlimited.

By connecting the largest network of professional expertise in the industry, AECOM is finding new approaches and better answers to the toughest challenges. And the company wants you to be a part of it.

Search for an exciting career opportunity with AECOM.

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