PEER’s Outreach Director, Heidi Faison, Named New Face of Civil Engineering by ASCE

PEER is pleased to announce that the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) has named Heidi Faison, the PEER Outreach Director, a New Face of Civil Engineering. 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 headquartered at the University of California, Berkeley. 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. For more information about Faison’s award or to view her youtube interview, visit: http://www.asce.org/Content.aspx?id=12884904831

What is the New Faces of Engineering Program?
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. For more information, visit: http://www.asce.org