Why did you choose your profession?
I love solving challenging open-ended problems. Visiting the field to collect information and returning to design underground structures from the office provides a great variety of these.
Why did you decide to join Mott MacDonald?
I wanted to move back to Western Canada and work in tunnel engineering. Mott MacDonald is one of North America’s leading tunnel designers, so after I met the team in Vancouver the choice was simple.
What is your favorite part of working for us?
The talented people I get to work with on a daily basis and the positive, hard-working culture.
How have you been supported during your career development?
Over the six years I have spent at Mott MacDonald, the company has invested significantly in my career development. They have provided funding to help me complete graduate-level university courses, attend conferences, and attend both internal and external training seminars — all to enhance my technical skill set and to aid in my professional development.
What inspires you about your work?
Going underground and seeing the results of planning and design always inspires me. I get the same excited feeling of a child going to Disneyland every time I get to go underground. It’s amazing what hard work and innovation can design and build.
How would you describe your role and responsibilities to friends or family?
I figure out how to safely put a hole underground and get it to stay there with minimal impact to the environment and surrounding area.
What groups / clubs are you involved with?
I’ve involved with the Young Professionals of the Association of Consulting Engineering Companies British Columbia (ACEC-BC) and with Scientists and Innovators in Schools, Ms. Infinity eMentoring, Tunnel Association of Canada Young Professionals, Toastmasters, and Mott MacDonald’s Early Career Professionals group.
What is the most memorable project you’ve worked on?
That was a geological field exploration program in northern British Columbia near Terrace. We would plan traverses in the evening, get dropped off at the top of the mountain in the morning and picked up at the base at night. I used new field mapping software to collect data, which I later used to complete the preliminary tunnel design.
What is a random fact about you?
I was once commissioned to do a painting of a grain elevator which now hangs in a school in Japan.
