Outstanding Contributions: SEH's Fall AOE Recipients

Kristin Petersen, Planner
Transportation Planning

The Act: Kristin plays a key role in SEH’s community engagement efforts. Her leadership and skill in organizing multiple events and coordinating staff are commendable. Recently, Kristin demonstrated her expertise through her involvement in a local city’s reconstruction project, which aims to revitalize segments of seven streets within an award-winning arts district.

Kristin led major engagement events for the project, including a community design workshop, an open house, and two web surveys. These events significantly advanced the project’s profile and design while strengthening community relationships.

Her meticulous planning and execution of the community design workshop led to innovative solutions driven by community input. Kristin helped cover every logistical detail and facilitated a collaborative environment encouraging active participation. She also navigated the challenges of the subsequent open house and neighborhood meetings, facilitating discussions around design constraints. By collaborating with the design team, Kristin helped deliver complex messages, seek common ground, and champion community needs based on survey data and public feedback.

Kristin’s efforts resulted in well-attended events that fostered meaningful interactions, even during difficult conversations. The project team has expressed appreciation for the structure, organization, and community response, highlighting the relationship-building efforts that contributed to the success of these meetings.

Kristin's dedication to meaningful engagement, organizational skills, and ability to manage complex messaging and projects make her a standout contributor to SEH’s community engagement efforts.

Carolina Rodriguez, Architectural Designer
Architecture

The Act: In preparation for a community outreach meeting to present the early concept design for a new project, our client requested that SEH provide a Spanish translation for the public meeting. The request came on the morning of the meeting, leaving minimal reaction time. Carolina immediately offered her assistance, demonstrating her dedication and quick thinking. We should recognize the effort she put into preparing for the meeting.

Live language translation, the real-time conversion of spoken language from one language to another, is a professional career that takes years of practice to master. Carolina did not hesitate in her preparation, quickly training on the technology to better understand the meeting platform options. She performed numerous dry run performances to ensure her understanding of the presenters’ topics for the presentation. Carolina successfully saved the meeting, despite her initial nervousness, and demonstrated SEH's commitment to our clients with her fearless nature.

In another instance, we learned just hours before a community meeting for a public project that we needed a Spanish translator. Carolina stepped up beyond her role as a designer to provide translation services, proving to be a tremendous help during a stressful deadline.

Carolina's exceptional contribution to SEH’s community outreach efforts highlights her dedication, adaptability, and willingness to go above and beyond to ensure successful outcomes. Her quick thinking and commitment to excellence make her an asset to our team.

The Act:  The ProjectWise Project Administration team demonstrated exceptional commitment, volunteering their time to advance SEH’s project management excellence. Despite their demanding schedules, these professionals contribute significant time in the early mornings and late evenings, especially during peak construction season, embodying SEH’s core values of dedication and teamwork. 

Their achievements include:

• Crisis management and technical agility: Swiftly resolved the Bentley permissions crisis, reinforcing SEH’s reliability and technical excellence.
• ProjectWise upgrade: Executed a critical upgrade, enhancing organizational accessibility, collaboration, and project efficiency.
• Project setup: Improved accessibility and setup for 17 projects, including successful onboarding.
• Training: Led workshops to foster collaboration and continuous improvement, refining project setup forms based on feedback.

Supporting 17 live projects and 247 active users in ProjectWise, this team of committed volunteers has profoundly enhanced SEH’s project management framework, streamlined processes, bolstered collaboration, and driven SEH’s productivity and success.

*Professional Licensure:
Craig Burgess is a registered professional engineer in CO and TX.
Jon Hultgren is a registered professional engineer in IA, NC, and SD.