McMillen Jacobs Underground Division is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2020 peer-nominated James Wilton, Vision, and Integrity Awards.
2020 James Wilton Award: Shannon Goff
Shannon Goff, Lead Associate, is currently providing technical support for several projects around the Australia/New Zealand Region, including the tunnel segmental lining design for Auckland’s NZ$1.2B Central Interceptor Project. In her 13 years at McMillen Jacobs, she has worked on multiple signature detailed design projects throughout the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. In 2019, Shannon received the “Hynds Paper of the Year” award (along with coauthors Stephen Grace and Nigel Kay) for the paper “Developing a Corrosion Strategy to Protect New Zealand’s Largest Wastewater Asset,” presented at the Water New Zealand Conference. Shannon is a licensed Professional Engineer in Washington and California, and a Chartered Professional Engineer in New Zealand.
The James Wilton Award honors the memory of James Wilton, former Principal and President of Jacobs Associates. The award recognizes McMillen Jacobs employees’ commitment to quality and excellence and provides an opportunity to acknowledge their innovations, implemented into either a McMillen Jacobs project or business operations. An individual receiving this award shares the traits that made Jim an “engineer’s engineer”: innovative, hardworking, practical, and meticulous. Shannon exemplifies these characteristics in her day-to day-work for McMillen Jacobs and on every project in which she is involved.
2020 Vision Award: Eric Westergren
Eric Westergren is a Senior Associate and Design Technology Group Practice Lead based out of McMillen Jacobs’ Cleveland office. He has over 29 years of experience in the construction of heavy civil projects, as well as vertical building projects, with an emphasis in Building Information Modeling (BIM) and Critical Path Method (CPM) Scheduling/project controls. In 2020, Eric led the formation of the company’s Design Technology Group, whose mission is to “facilitate McMillen Jacobs Associates’ advancement through the implementation of technology while differentiating ourselves within the industry.” He has also been a key team member on notable projects such as the Atlanta Plane Train Tunnel Extension and Cleveland’s Shoreline Storage Tunnel.
The Vision Award honors employees who demonstrate creativity and adaptation in their work, exemplified by an “out-of-the-box” approach ultimately shared company-wide as an example of best practice. These individuals increase quality in a project, a process, or operations; have an understanding of what works and what doesn’t; are sought out and valued by others for input and advice to help solve complex problems; and encourage others to want to do more. From implementing a new company practice group (see article on page 6) to adding value on projects through design technology, Eric is well deserving of the 2020 Vision Award.
2020 Integrity Award: Susie See
With over 38 years of accounting experience, Susie See is a Project Controls Manager based in McMillen Jacobs’ San Francisco office, overseeing project-related accounting issues and questions, billing, and timecards. An expert in McMillen Jacobs’ Vision accounting platform, Susie is an exceptional resource to project teams on project financial status, job costs, and assisting pursuit teams in developing cost proposals. She is especially patient and generous with her time in explaining accounting and project financial performance concepts to staff in need of help. Susie earned her BS in Industrial Design and Management from the Mapua Institute of Technology in the Philippines and has been with the firm for 12 years.
The Integrity Award honors an employee who exemplifies quality, attitude, principle, conduct, and team spirit. Such an individual is self-motivated to complete work on schedule and deliver high-quality products; consistently displays behavior that shows a good code of conduct; maintains a high level of fairness and represents the company, clients, and projects in a professional manner both during and outside of work hours; and works well with fellow employees. Susie is well deserving of this award as she brings the highest level of integrity with her responsiveness and her eagerness to assist her colleagues. ■