Monica Kent-Thern has been named Engineer of the Year for 2016 by the Texas Society of Professional Engineers (TSPE) Dallas Chapter. As a Vice President with Huitt-Zollars, she specializes in high profile multi-disciplined federal programs, and has almost 20 years of experience in engineering and large-scale project management.
Winners of this significant award are selected based on the following criteria:
- Education level
- Licenses earned
- Current position
- Significant engineering achievements
- Professional and technical activities, including time spent furthering engineering as a profession
- Community service and support of activities outside of engineering
As a highly involved member of the TSPE Dallas Chapter for the past eight years, Monica currently serves as President-Elect, and has participated in many TSPE events, specifically with the Engineers Week committee and the MATHCOUNTS Program. She particularly enjoys fostering the development of future engineers; she has presented at several Garland elementary and middle schools about the challenges of designing and building engineering projects.
In 2006, Monica served as the Integration Project Manager on the $4.8 billion, seven-yearFort Bliss Expansion Program, assisting the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in what she believes was a "once in a lifetime" opportunity to give back to our troops, while delivering one of the fastest paced and most successful programs ever executed by the federal government. She considers it an honor to have been part of Team Bliss.
Proudly following in her mother's footsteps, Monica is a third-generation engineer. According to her and her husband Tony, also an engineer, their five-year old daughter, Zea, is a budding architect and looks to be continuing the family tradition!