Friends and colleagues-

It is with mixed emotions that I must announce our long-serving Executive Administrator, Debbie LoCicero, will be retiring at the end of January.  Debbie has been with us for over 16 years and she will be greatly missed. While we all want to wish Debbie the best in her well-deserved retirement, it is also hard to imagine the Sierra Chapter without her. She has been running our day-to-day operations for so long I am not sure what we will do without her.  I have always appreciated her honest feedback regardless of the issue. She has worked tirelessly behind the scenes to make our events successful and has been the driving force behind this newsletter. To many of you, she was the first smiling face you encountered when attending our membership meetings. Her kindness, commitment, and sense of humor will be missed by all.  For me, it has been a great honor to work with her over this past term. I feel extremely fortunate that I will be the last Chapter President to work with her. Debbie has graciously agreed to support us as needed moving forward in order to make this a smooth transition. Please join me in thanking Debbie for her many years of service to our Chapter and help her celebrate her new position as a retiree.

I am also pleased to announce that Stephanie Crary has accepted the position as our new Executive Administrator. Stephanie is an experienced marketing and communications professional and has spent the past decade supporting the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry. Formerly with member firm Gannett Fleming, in addition to her new role with our chapter, Stephanie recently joined NCE as a Business Development Lead.

I am excited about her energy and fresh ideas. Please join me and the rest of the Board of Directors in welcoming Stephanie to our Chapter.

By Erik Fanselau, President

Please plan to attend our Past President’s Dinner Meeting on Wednesday, February 21^st  when we will recognize and honor our amazing Past Presidents (a complete list is below) and award the 2023 Tim Fleming Memorial Scholarships. Yes, we gave out two $5,000 scholarships again this year! The scholarship, now in its 13^th year, is dedicated to the memory of one of our most accomplished and well liked Past Presidents, Tim Fleming, who passed away unexpectedly in 2010. This year’s winners are Mason Koyama from UOP and Emma Docto from Sac State. They will be attending the dinner meeting to be recognized and receive their scholarship checks.

The meeting will also include guest speaker TJ Chen, Deputy Director of Airport Planning and Development for Sacramento County Department of Airports, who will be there to talk about Sacramento International Airport’s $1.3 Billion Expansion Project. In addition, Gene Bougdanos, our current ACEC-CA President and Vice President with HDR in Southern California, will give us an update on what is happening at the State and National level with ACEC.

If you attended this event in the past you know that we have many special guests representing the rich history of our Chapter. This is a meeting you will not want to miss as we award the latest Tim Fleming Memorial Scholarships and mingle with the people that created our Chapter’s tradition of excellence.

By: Marco Palilla, Past President

As we close out 2023 and welcome in 2024, I decided to pause and take a moment to reflect on this past year as well as look towards the future.  As an industry, we are fortunate that we finished yet another strong year in infrastructure investment and private and commercial development. Most of us are old enough to have experienced the last economic downturn as professionals. While we can expect another downturn eventually, most indicators forecast another strong year for the consulting community.  Another positive indicator is that most firms that I have spoken to are struggling to fill open positions. This next year will certainly bring new challenges along with some uncertainty with the elections, but I am confident that the state of our industry is strong and has a bright outlook. I hope all of you will have prosperous and successful 2024.

By Erik Fanselau, President

Assembly member Josh Hoover represents the people of the 7th District. Josh earned a bachelor’s degree in political science and public policy from UCLA and a master’s degree in public administration from USC.

Prior to his election to the Assembly, Josh served as a school board member in the Folsom Cordova Unified School District (FCUSD). Josh is a passionate advocate for California families. He serves as the Vice Chair of the Assembly Committee on Jobs, Economic Development, and the Economy where he works to support small businesses and bring great jobs to our region. He is also Vice Chair of the Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials committee as well as a member of the Education, Natural Resources, and Joint Legislative Audit committees.

Assembly Member Josh Hoover will discuss what is going on at California’s Capitol and Sacramento area legislative issues of today.

By Marco Palilla, Director

On November 15, the Sierra Chapter was pleased to welcome Maria Lehman as our guest speaker at our membership dinner.  Maria is the ASCE national past-president and currently serves as Infrastructure Market Leader for GHD. Maria has held leadership roles in both the private sector and government including Commissioner of Public Works for Erie County (NY) and Acting Executive Director of the New York State Thruway Authority.  Maria gave us an exciting presentation of the civil engineering market today and glimpses of where our industry is headed. ASCE’s 2024 priorities include Climate/Hazard Mitigation, Cybersecurity, Energy grid, Transportation, Water Infrastructure, Water Resources, and Workforce and education. Current federal legislation of interest to our members include the National Dam Safety Program Reauthorization Act, Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization Act, and the fiscal year 2024 appropriations. ASCE and ACEC have also been collaborating at the national level to raise awareness for infrastructure needs.  This includes participating in programs such as the Engineering and Public Works Roadshow that has been held in multiple locations nationwide to highlight successful public infrastructure projects. Of special concern from Maria’s talk was the projected deficit for civil engineers in the next generation.

ASCE has a new initiative called Future World Vision that includes reimagining Cities of the Future by taking a non-traditional approach to development in order to take a more sustainable path. It was fascinating to hear from someone that has a more national look of our industry.

Another highlight from our meeting was the robotics demonstration provided by Citrus Circuits from Davis. Citrus Circuits is also a group that your Chapter annually supports. This is group of high school students that design, build, and compete each year with a different robot.  This year’s challenge was to design a robot that could pick up objects such as a traffic cone. It was amazing to the robot in action. We were all impressed by the demonstration which was followed by a slide presentation from the group.  I am sure I speak for many of those in attendance when I say that seeing such passion in young people with engineering focused projects gives me even more hope for our future professionals.

By Erik Fanselau, President