RESTON, Va.- The American Society of Civil Engineers(ASCE) members elected Maria Lehman, P.E, F.ASCE, ENV SP as president of the Society for the 2022-2023 term, after a month-long election that closed June 1. Lehman is currently ASCE's National Treasurer, serves on the Society's Industry Leaders Council, and is a member of the ASCE's Committee on America's Infrastructure(CAI), which is responsible for preparing the quadrennial Infrastructure Report Card. She is also GHD Inc.'s Infrastructure Market Leader for the United States. Lehman was the former vice president for critical infrastructure for Parsons, COO and executive director of the New York State Thruway Authority and Commissioner of Public Works for Erie County, NY. She has 40 years of technical and leadership experience between the private and public sectors, serving on more than 700 projects ranging from $10,000 to $3.9 billion in size.
The Society president serves as the chief representative and spokesperson for the Society, working with ASCE's executive director. The president chairs the Board of Direction and the Executive Committee and assists in educating and motivating members and potential members by promoting Society principles, policies, and goals. The president's term is for one year.
"It's an honor to represent ASCE and the civil engineering profession as the Society president, and I look forward to the challenge," said Lehman. "I've made a lifelong commitment to ASCE and been involved in a lot of things over a lot of time. So I feel I have an interesting voice to add - to be able to right some of the wrongs in the profession right now and really set us up to be the leaders that we're meant to be."
Lehman has been actively involved in ASCE leadership roles for nearly 40 years, when she co-founded the Northeast Region Younger Members Council in 1983. She served as Buffalo Section president in 1990 and was a delegate to the New York State and District 1 Councils. Lehman has won ASCE's President's Medal, the Edmund Friedman Young Engineer Award, University of Buffalo's School of Engineering Alumna of the Year, New York Governor's Award for Excellence in Business, and the New York State Society of Professional Engineers Engineering Manager of the Year.
Lehman earned her Bachelor of Science in civil engineering at the State University of New York at Buffalo. She is also a licensed professional engineer in several states. She will be inducted as president-elect at the Annual Business Meeting this October during the virtual ASCE 2021 Convention.
ABOUT THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF CIVIL ENGINEERS
Founded in 1852, the American Society of Civil Engineers represents more than 150,000 civil engineers worldwide and is America's oldest national engineering society. ASCE works to raise awareness of the need to maintain and modernize the nation's infrastructure using sustainable and resilient practices, advocates for increasing and optimizing investment in infrastructure, and improve engineering knowledge and competency. For more information, visit www.asce.org or www.infrastructurereportcard.org and follow us on Twitter, @ASCETweets and @ASCEGovRel.