In 200, seven new members were inducted into the Academy of Distinguished Alumni and three alumni were recognized as Outstanding Young Alumni.
John J. Angle, class of 1991
John Angle received his B.S in Civil Engineering from Virginia Tech in 1991. He currently serves as the Senior Vice President of Operations; COO at W.M. Jordan Company, Inc. He is also a board member of the Corporate Advisory Committee for the Myers-Lawson School of Construction at Virginia Tech and a board member of the Corporate Advisor Committee at Thomas Nelson Community College. Angle served as the Senior Project Manager that helped build the Beamer-Lawson Indoor Practice Facility on Virginia Tech’s campus.
Courtney A. Beamon, class of 1995, 1996
Courtney A. Beamon received a B.S. and M.S. in civil engineering from Virginia Tech in 1995 and 1996. She is the President of Delta Airport Consultants, Inc. Prior to her current role, she served in many other roles at Delta Airport Consultants, including Chief Financial Officer, Director of Marketing, and Project Manager. She is also on the steering committee for the American Association of Airport Executives Corporate Committee.
Brad Coffey, class of 1990
Brad Coffey received his M.S. in environmental engineering from Virginia Tech in 1990 after earning a B.S. and M.S. in mechanical engineering from Virginia Tech. He is the Group Manager for Water Resource Management at the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. Prior to that, he also served at the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California as the Assistant Chief of Operations, Water Purification Engineer, and Process Engineer.
Govindan Kannan, class of 1999
Govindan Kannan received his Ph.D. in civil engineering from Virginia Tech in 1999. He is the Senior Vice President for Mack Trucks, Inc. in the Volvo Group. He was a member of the Virginia Tech civil and environmental engineering alumni board and has served as an independent peer reviewer for American Society of Civil Engineers journals. In addition, Kannan has authored over 15 peer-reviewed journal and conference papers in the field of equipment costs, productivity, data mining, and project scheduling.
Andrew Kissell, class of 1978
Andrew Kissell earned his B.S. in civil engineering from Virginia Tech in 1978. He currently serves as the Senior Associate at AECOM. Prior to that, Kissell was the Environmental Director at Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Mid Atlantic and Commander in Chief for U.S. Naval Forces Europe. He received the Superior Civilian Service Award for developing and implementing environmental compliance standards for all U.S. military installations throughout Europe.
Vernon R. Schaefer, class of 1987
Vernon R. Schaefer earned his Ph.D. in civil engineering from Virginia Tech in 1987. He is the James M. Hoover Chair in Geotechnical Engineering for the Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering at Iowa State University. He has been a Professor at Iowa State University since 2003. Prior to that, he served as the Head of the civil and environmental engineering department at South Dakota State University. Schaefer was part of the team that helped to develop GeoTechTools, a web-based information and guidance system for geoconstruction technologies.
Allen L. Sehn, class of 1990
Allen L. Sehn received his Ph.D. in civil engineering form Virginia Tech in 1990. He is the Chief Engineer at Keller North American, Inc. He has also served in roles such as Senior Vice President of Engineering at Keller Foundations and Senior Vice President of Engineering at Hayward Baker, Inc. He has also served as an instructor for civil engineering courses at Virginia Tech and Akron University. Sehn serves on the ASCE Soil Improvement Committee and is a member of many professional societies in geotechnical engineering.
Oustanding Young Alumni
William N. Collins, class of 2006, 2010, 2014
William N. Collins is a three time alumnus of Virginia Tech. He currently serves as the Chair’s Council Assistant Professor in Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering at the University of Kansas. Prior to that, he was a Research Engineer at the Robert L. and Terry L. Bowen Laboratory for Large-Scale Civil Engineering Research at Purdue University. He has received many professional accomplishments such as the American Institute of Steel Construction Early Career Faculty Award and multiple Miller Scholar awards from Kansas University.
Jeremy S. Guest, class of 2007
Jeremy S. Guest received his M.S. in civil engineering from Virginia Tech in 2007. He is an associate professor for the department of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He also is an editorial board member for Environmental Science: Water Research and Technology; a Royal Society of Chemistry Journal and the North American Representative for the Resource Recovery from Water Cluster for the International Water Association.
Lashun K. Massey, class of 2011
Lashun K. Massey earned her Ph.D. in civil engineering from Virginia Tech in 2011. She is the founder of Lashun King Environmental Group, PLLC and also serves as the Program Manager for Research at the University of Texas at Dallas. Previously, she was the STEM Center Director and Associate Professor of Engineering at Philander Smith College. She has served on the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Survey, the National Science Foundation Review Panel, and EPA Star Graduate Fellowship Reviewer. She is presently a reviewer for the ASCE Journal of Environmental Engineering.