Outreach Director for Earthquake Engineering Research Center Named New Face of Civil Engineering

Reston, Va. – The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) today announced that 30-year-old Heidi Faison of Oakland, Calif., has been named a New Face of Civil Engineering. Heidi is the outreach director for the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center.  An integral part of ASCE’s 2011 National Engineers’ Week (Feb. 20-26) initiatives, the New Faces program promotes the achievements of young civil engineers by highlighting their contributions to and impact on society.

Heidi trained as a structural engineer, but has found her niche doing outreach for the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center at the University of California, Berkeley. The center studies the effects of earthquakes on buildings, bridges, and lifeline systems such as utilities, and develops new methods and systems to ensure that they perform safely during earthquakes. In this role she uses her engineering training to disseminate research results to various audiences. She sees it as her mission to bridge the gap between academia and engineering practice so that engineers in the field are able to put the most recent research to use.

Heidi also coordinates the undergraduate internship program for the center and she runs an outreach program for students in grades k-12 to teach them about how engineering is affected by earthquakes. In her spare time, Heidi works with the local chapter of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute, trying to influence change in her own community. She is on the board of the World Housing Encyclopedia which is dedicated to providing guidance to developing countries as they build structures in seismically active areas.

Heidi has a bachelor’s degree in architectural engineering from California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, and she is a registered professional engineer in California.

Each year, ASCE names ten New Faces of Civil Engineering, some of whom are also submitted to the New Faces of Engineering program run by the Engineers Week Foundation. This inclusive national program includes representatives from the civil, mechanical, electrical, chemical, industrial and manufacturing engineering professions. Selected New Faces profiles are featured in a USA Today ad during Engineers Week and are profiled on the National Engineers Week website at www.eweek.org, as well as at www.discoverengineering.org.

Founded in 1852, the American Society of Civil Engineers represents more than 140,000 civil engineers worldwide and is America’s oldest national engineering society. For more information, visit www.asce.org.