
I am one of the newer members of the staff here in the Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) department, having been with the team for just shy of one year. One of the key aspects that attracted me to CEE was the longevity of the team's current members. This unique quality served not only as a testament to job satisfaction and happiness but also as an opportunity to learn from colleagues with a deep understanding of the department and school.
Coming from corporate finance, the world of academia was all new to me. There were a few learning curves, and I am incredibly grateful to the team at CEE, as well as the wider School of Engineering, for welcoming me and providing the tools and resources I needed to settle in.
As a member of the Finance team, much of my time is spent working with numbers and spreadsheets. However, one of the aspects I enjoy most about my job is translating those numbers into guidance and insights for my colleagues. This also gives me the opportunity to learn more about the important and impactful research happening in our department. It never gets boring to walk around our labs or research centers and see what our engineers are working on—whether it's replicating conditions on Mars and the Moon or identifying wastewater-borne bacteria.
One thing I’m particularly looking forward to this year is participating in the Commencement Ceremony. I wasn’t able to attend last year, so it will be wonderful to celebrate the achievements of our students as well as all of the effort staff put into creating this special day.