Hispanic civil engineers build bridges
to a better world

Solving community problems involves working with people

Spanish fluency helps win community approval

By Jon Boroshok
Contributing Editor

As baby boomers leave the workforce, Hispanic civil engineers are filling the void. Enrique Gomez, CEO of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE, www.shpe.org), says that 8,000 of SHPE’s 9,400 members are students. And ten to eleven percent are majoring in civil or structural engineering.

Gomez sees civil engineering as a natural progression for first generation Hispanics entering college. “They’re attracted to this field because many have families and friends who are not only in construction, but are passionate about it,” he says. Of the 380,000 civil engineers in the U.S. today, six percent are Hispanic.

But there’s more to the equation than passion, says Lisa Jennings. Jennings is a recent graduate of George Washington University’s Graduate School of Education and Human Development; her research focused on high-performing college students from diverse backgrounds. “Studies have shown that students who are academically prepared to pursue degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines are committed to a broad vision for their careers. They want to make a lasting impact on their communities. They’re committed to becoming leaders and problem-solvers,” she says.

Jennings points to an article in the December 2006 issue of American Society for Engineering Education’s Prism. There Dr Zulma Toro-Ramos, dean of engineering at Wichita State University, notes that Hispanics would be more likely to consider engineering if they knew that many engineers work with communities and deal with people.

Jennings adds, “Young people can just turn on their televisions and see that the work of civil engineers is critical across the globe. Civil engineers are finding solutions to some of our greatest challenges, from the dwindling supply of safe drinking water in developing countries
to crumbling infrastructures throughout the U.S.” Jennings is currently the senior manager for diversity and pre-college outreach at the American Society of Civil Engineering (www.asce.org).

Bechtel supports community involvement
HR manager Susan McCullough says that Bechtel Corp (San Francisco, CA) is a global company with a strong local presence. Its Houston office is actively involved in the Society of Mexican American Engineers and Scientists (MAES). “We value the diverse backgrounds and breadth of experiences our people bring to the organization,” she says.

Bechtel is also an active member of SHPE’s Industrial PartnerSHPE Council and supports the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering (NACME).

Hispanics benefit from company networks
Shell Oil Company (Houston, TX) actively recruits engineers across a number of diverse audiences, including the Hispanic community. Shell is a corporate sponsor of SHPE, SWE, and NSBE and other diversity organizations.

Houston Brown, manager of graduate recruitment and university relations for the Americas, says that workforce diversity helps Shell better understand the needs of all stakeholders: customers, suppliers, partners and governments. “Embracing these differences gives Shell a business advantage and makes the company more competitive,” he says.

Shell’s commitment is reinforced through employee diversity networks like the Shell Hispanic Engineering Network (SHEN). “Our networks help employees grow personally and professionally,” says Brown.

Raytheon (Waltham, MA) also supports its diversity efforts through employee resource groups (ERGs). ERGs are recognized as strategic business partners in building and maintaining Raytheon’s diverse workforce. These groups offer a forum for diverse employees to build networks, form partnerships, develop business skills and share dialogue.

Raytheon’s Hispanic ERG is the Hispanic Organization for Leadership and Advancement (HOLA). It serves as a network for the Hispanic community across the company and offers its members valuable resources to further personal and professional development.

Van Ton-Quinlivan is director of workforce strategy and diversity at PG&E Corp (San Francisco, CA). “Our Hispanic Employees Association (HEA) provides a direct channel to the company’s leadership. Employees build an extended family through fellow employee association members,” she says.

HEA is an organization of employees committed to personal development, company success and community well being. Its emphasis is on leadership development, community service, youth achievement and appreciation for cultural diversity.

PG&E representatives serve on SHPE’s Industrial PartnerSHPE Council. “Many of our
Hispanic engineers were hired as a result of our work with this group,” Ton-Quinlivan says.
HEA members are encouraged to remain actively involved in SHPE throughout their careers with PG&E.

Cristina Dos Santos: reducing highway fatalitites at Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise
As a traffic services specialist at Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise (Orlando, FL), which manages a major Florida highway, Cristina Dos Santos investigates serious traffic accidents to find out why they happened. She analyzes the pavement, embankments, medians, traffic signs and more, looking for patterns between a specific accident and others in the vicinity. “My job is literally on the road,” she says.

Most of the turnpike’s workforce is employed by private contractors. Dos Santos is an employee of PBS&J (Miami, FL), a design and engineering consulting firm. PBS&J has
served Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise as general consultant since 1988, providing
infrastructure planning, engineering, construction management, architecture and program management services.

Dos Santos is assigned to the turnpike traffic operations office in Orlando, a department responsible for managing 460 miles of limited-access toll roads throughout the state. Based
on its analysis, the department reports on ways to improve safety. On the department’s recommendation, a median guardrail was installed to avoid crossovers and head-on collisions. “Fatalities have dropped as a result of our efforts,” she says.

Every day is different for Dos Santos. Her work involves plan reviews, disposition reports, customer service and safety assessments. She’s part of a team that is reviewing amendments to a manual of uniform traffic devices and also serves on the hurricane strike team.

Dos Santos was born in Porto Alegre, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul (RS), Brazil, grew up in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, and moved to the U.S. when she was fifteen. In her office are people from India, Colombia, Puerto Rico, China and Ethiopia. She is trilingual in English, Portuguese and Spanish, but she uses mostly English on the job.

She earned her 2005 BSCE from the University of Central Florida (Orlando, FL) and stayed there for her 2007 MSCE in transportation studies. As a student she did extensive academic research on proposed solutions to Florida’s I-4 corridor congestion.

Civil engineering was an early career choice for Dos Santos. When Dos Santos’ pregnant mom attended her brother’s graduation as a civil engineer, she wanted her soon-to-be-born “son” to be just like him. “Even though I turned out to be a girl, I grew up knowing I was going to be a civil engineer,” Dos Santos says with a smile.

In high school Dos Santos investigated other engineering fields, but stayed with her original choice because civil engineering is geared toward helping people. “Humanity will always
need a place to live, water to drink, safer and more efficient ways of transportation and more,” she says.

Dos Santos has set her sights on getting her PE license and another masters or maybe even
a PhD. She’s an active member of SHPE.

Bechtel’s Guillermo Gonzalez is expanding a Gulf Coast refinery
Guillermo Gonzalez is a civil/structural engineer at the Houston, TX office
of Bechtel. He designs steel and concrete structures to support pipe and equipment in petrochemical facilities. “I’m currently working on a major refinery expansion project in the Gulf Coast,” he says.

Bechtel provides engineering, construction and project management services worldwide. Since its 1898 founding, the company has worked on more than 22,000 projects in 140 countries.

Gonzalez earned his 2004 BSCE from the University of Texas-El Paso and his 2006 MS in structural engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. Originally a math major, he switched to civil engineering because his friends’ coursework looked more interesting. “I always liked tall buildings and bridges as a kid,” he adds.

A tip from a friend led Gonzalez to Bechtel. He sought out the Bechtel booth at a career fair and landed a job at the company’s Houston office.

Gonzalez’s parents are originally from Mexico. His family speaks Spanish at home. He has yet to use his Spanish on the job, but expects he may be able to do so in the future. “Bechtel’s a global company,” he notes.

Gonzalez plans to become a licensed PE. “I have a responsibility to my Hispanic heritage to do well,” he says.

His duties now include training other engineers. He has fond memories of his first project. “I was surrounded by a group of fine engineers that helped make the transition from school a pleasant and smooth experience,” he recalls. “Now it’s my turn to show the way.”

Heidi Yeb designs towers for Raytheon’s radar systems
Heidi Yeb is a civil engineer at the Burlington, MA site of Raytheon (Waltham, MA). She’s assigned to the digital airport surveillance radar program, a turnkey project to replace air traffic control radar systems at over 200 Federal Aviation Administration and Department of Defense sites.

Yeb works on tower construction for Raytheon Technical Services. “I’m not involved with Raytheon’s actual radar itself,” she explains. She designs and develops facility and antenna site layouts. Her tasks include construction drawings and specifications, cost and quantity estimates, and geotechnical, structural or civil analysis.

She coordinates engineers, prepares bid construction packages and reviews contractor submittals. “I manage all phases of construction and oversee the on-site resident construction engineer,” she says.

Originally from Santa Domingo in the Dominican Republic, Yeb completed high school in Massachusetts. Her career choice was influenced by her father, also a civil engineer. She earned her 2007 BS in civil and environmental engineering at the University of
Massachusetts-Lowell.

Yeb is back at UMass for a masters in business administration, which she hopes to complete
by late 2009. “I’ll work on my PE license next,” she says.

Jason Sandoval of AECOM Transportation works on Chicago’s infrastructure
Jason Sandoval is a design engineer at AECOM Transportation (Chicago, IL), a division of AECOM (Los Angeles, CA). AECOM is a global provider of professional technical and management support services in the transportation, facilities, environmental and energy industries.

Working with Chicago’s Department of Transportation, Sandoval was heavily involved with the rebuilding of the Dan Ryan Expressway and the South Lake Shore Drive reconstruction. He rated the capacity of bridges, checked for structural adequacy and recommended repairs based on the level of deterioration. “I like having a direct impact on the city’s infrastructure and making it safe for the public,” he says.

Sandoval now works with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliance program to make Chicago accessible to individuals with disabilities. He prepares constructability options for the city and is responsible for coordinating, training and tracking contractors in the installation of ADA accessibility routes. “I use complex geometry and innovative solutions to deal with existing conditions and accommodate ADA ramps,” he notes.

Sandoval was attracted to civil engineering at an early age. He heard many interesting
stories from an aunt and uncle with engineering degrees. “I was also fascinated with bridges,” he adds.

He received a 2000 BSCE from University of Illinois at Chicago and a 2004 MS in structural engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology (Chicago, IL).

Originally from California, Sandoval lived most of his life in Guatemala. He learned English
at sixteen when he came to the U.S. for his final year of high school.

Being bilingual has been very helpful. “I did a public forum Q&A session in Spanish that helped win acceptance from the community for one of our proposed projects,” he states proudly.

Kriselda Cuellar designs buildings at Opus Architects & Engineers, Inc
Kriselda Cuellar is a structural engineer for Opus Architects & Engineers, Inc (Minnetonka, MN). Opus A&E, a member of the Opus Group, is a full-service architectural and engineering firm that provides design solutions for business, industrial and institutional users.

Cuellar joined the company after completing her 2002 BSCE and 2004 MSCE at Michigan Technological University (Houghton, MI). Her job involves designing buildings and overseeing the overall construction. “I work on projects like the five-story NOAA headquarters in Maryland,” she says.

She’s a second-generation American of Mexican descent. “I don’t get to use my Spanish much in Minnesota,” she says with a smile.

Cuellar had originally thought of becoming a chemical engineer, but was turned on to civil engineering by a professor. One of her proudest career moments was passing her PE exam.

Her current goal is to become a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Accredited Professional (LEED AP). More than 43,000 people have earned this credential since the program was launched in 2001. Certification is granted by the U.S. Green Building Council (www.usgbc.org) to professionals who have demonstrated a thorough understanding of “green” building practices and principles.

USGBC is a Washington, DC-based nonprofit organization committed to expanding sustainable building practices. It’s composed of more than 15,000 organizations from across the building industry working to advance structures that are environmentally responsible, profitable, and healthy places to live and work.

“Sustainable buildings save energy and money,” Cuellar says.

Patrick Gonzalez works in land development for Kimley-Horn
Patrick Gonzalez works as a civil analyst for Kimley-Horn and Associates,
a multi-disciplinary consulting firm headquartered in Raleigh, NC. “All engineering employees hold this title until they’ve earned PE certification,” Gonzalez says.

With nearly 2,300 staff in more than sixty offices, the company offers services in a wide range of disciplines from CE and landscape architecture
to aviation and forensics.

Gonzalez is based in Kimley-Horn’s Vero Beach, FL office. He works in land development, the branch of engineering that supports retail, commercial, residential, institutional and industrial development of property. He’s in the company’s twenty-month Land Development University program for new engineers. “We receive in-depth training in design, permitting and business,” he says.

Gonzalez is currently working on retail and commercial projects like shopping centers. Much of his work involves coordinating the permitting process. “It’s my job to create designs that work and can win permitting agency approval,” he says.

Gonzalez received his 2007 BS in civil and electrical engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta, GA), but he started out in aerospace. “I wasn’t enjoying the classes and civil engineering seemed a better fit,” he says.

A campus information session yielded a summer internship at Kimley-Horn’s Fort Lauderdale, FL office. He was responsible for grading a large commercial site, which involved communicating with local agencies to ensure that project approval was on schedule. “I got to hone my AutoCAD skills,” he notes.

Gonzalez says he’s still using the skills and relationships sharpened on that internship. “It’s amazing how much you learn here in your first year on the job,” he says.

Rosa Barajas works on safety at PG&E
Rosa Barajas is a gas operations engineer in Cupertino, CA for Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E, San Francisco, CA). She monitors the capacity and ensures the reliability and safety of the company’s gas distribution systems. “I’m responsible for maintaining service to our customers,” she says.

Barajas is heavily involved with safety compliance. Projects must meet federal requirements as well as PG&E standards.

She’s a 2002 University of California-Berkeley graduate with a BS in civil and environmental engineering. A five-week program at Cal Tech convinced her she’d made the right career choice. “I helped build a bridge as part of a civil engineering project,” she says.

Barajas started her career in a training program at PG&E. Through various rotations, she learned that every division has its own issues in terms of growth, capacity and clearings. “During my senior rotation I got to serve in local leadership as a supervising engineer,” she states proudly.

Being the only civil engineer on her team means a lot of discussion before reaching agreement on how to proceed with a project. But Barajas likes the challenge and enjoys being part of a diverse team.

She’s fluent in both English and Spanish and jokes that most colleagues struggle to pronounce her last name correctly. “With a little coaching they eventually learn to roll their Rs,” she says.

Shell’s Alberto Bellina reduces power outages
Civil engineering projects require other skills too. Alberto Bellina provides electrical engineering support to civil engineers in the power division of the Shell Deer Park Refining Company (Deer Park, TX).

His job is to ensure proper operation of the electrical equipment supporting the refinery and tank farms. “We help stop power from being knocked out by flooding,” he says.

Bellina is responsible for the drainage systems on 1,500 acres. His tasks include examining the viability of pumps and determining if it makes sense to install underground cable and wiring.
“I don’t work in a dull office environment,” he says with a smile.

Bellina successfully automated a motor-operated valve to direct the flow within a pipeline. He likens it to a four-way traffic stop. The valve was needed quickly and he worked around the clock to meet the deadline. “My solution saved the company quite a bit of time and money,”
he states proudly.

He earned a 2003 BS in computer engineering technology from the University of Houston and
a 2006 BSEE from Prairie View A&M University (Prairie View, TX). An invitation to attend “Shell recruitment day,” one of the company’s entry points for new grads, led to his current position.

Bellina was born in Chicago, IL, the son of Peruvian parents. He attended high school in Argentina when his father was transferred there by his oilfield services employer. He’s trilingual in English, Spanish, and French, and uses Spanish extensively on the job when speaking with contractors.

His work keeps Bellina on his toes. He says he’s treated with a lot of respect by his Shell colleagues even though he’s relatively new to the team.

D/C

Jon Boroshok is a freelance writer in Groton, MA.

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