This feature is in our weekly Monday Morning Report newsletter, which showcases our highest-level members. Leaders You Should Know highlights community leaders who are making a notable impact in the Nashville region.
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Tell us about yourself.
I am a civil engineer and lead HDR’s Nashville transportation services. I spearhead and support projects and initiatives within Metro Nashville, specializing in multi-disciplinary transportation projects, particularly complete streets, but inclusive of all modes of transportation infrastructure.
Tell us about your business/industry.
HDR is a 100% employee-owned professional services firm. Founded over a century ago to bring infrastructure to a changing world, we are a global company specializing in architecture, engineering, environmental, and construction services. HDR’s Nashville offices deliver innovative planning, design, engineering, construction, environmental, program management, and strategic communication services.
Some of our most notable local projects include program management for the development of the East Bank, management and delivery of many TDOT Traditional and Alternative Delivery Projects, restoration of the historic 8th Avenue Reservoir, and support of Nashville’s Choose How You Move program.
What should we know about you?
I was born and raised in Omaha, Nebraska, and my parents were teachers. A few weeks before my 10th birthday, my mother was seriously injured in a car crash. A teen driver ran a red light, causing a right-angle crash that left my mom with permanent head injuries, speech aphasia, and paralysis of her right side. My mom continues to teach me lessons in happiness, gratitude, grit, and determination every day.
After earning my civil engineering degree from Vanderbilt University, I became a licensed professional engineer and certified transportation planner. I built my career in Nashville, focusing on traffic engineering, safety, and multimodal transportation design. That family tragedy deepens my commitment to safety and serves as a daily reminder in my work to improve mobility and livability through safer, well-designed multimodal transportation infrastructure. As a senior project manager and the Nashville Program Lead at HDR, I’m passionate about delivering impactful, community-centered projects.
How did you get to your current position?
My path began at Vanderbilt University, where I discovered civil engineering and a passion for improving transportation safety and mobility. As an intern with RPM Transportation Consultants, I gained experience in traffic engineering and working at a small business. I expanded my expertise by joining larger firms (PBS&J and later Parsons Brinckerhoff), learning the full project delivery process from planning and environmental phases to design and construction. That experience, and a desire to lead impactful transportation projects here in Nashville, brought me to HDR.
What value do you see in Chamber involvement?
I value Chamber involvement as an opportunity to collaborate with Nashville’s leaders and business community to tackle our city’s transportation challenges and growing pains. It’s a way to make connections with public partners like NDOT, WeGo, BNA, TDOT, and GNRC, and the private industry, consultants, contractors, and developers.
Smarter growth in Nashville involves an all-of-the-above approach, combining strategies and the design of public transportation infrastructure with better private development and land uses. Great All-Access Corridors aren’t just due to the travel lanes, bicycle lanes, transit, landscaping, and sidewalks, but also all the businesses, housing, and private development along complete streets. Through networking and relationship-building with our infrastructure partners, the Chamber fosters teamwork, collaboration, and innovation. I value these partnerships and the team effort required by multiple agencies, contractors, and private developers to enhance safety, mobility, and livability throughout our growing city.
What has been a career highlight for you?
Every project I help deliver that improves public safety and our quality of life is a career highlight. Some of my favorite projects include the TDOT design-build project to widen I-440 and the Korean Veterans Boulevard (KVB) extension and roundabout. These projects are most memorable for their significance and importance to transportation and mobility in Nashville.
The collaborative teamwork involving private contractors, developers, and public agencies (including TDOT, NDOT, MWS, and NES) was extremely rewarding. For example, the KVB complete street project required an accelerated schedule due to the adjacent construction of the Music City Center.
As project manager, I led weekly meetings with critical stakeholders to keep the design, right-of-way acquisition, and utility coordination on schedule so that the roadway could be open to traffic in time for the grand opening of Nashville’s new convention center.
How do you stay engaged in the community?
I came to Nashville 30 years ago for school and was drawn to establish my career and family here because of the small-town feel and opportunities of a major, growing city. Nashville blends a welcoming community-driven culture with thriving music, business, and tech scenes.
I am currently engaged in the community largely through family activities. My wife is involved in the Third Coast Comedy community as an improviser and instructor. Our two daughters attend Sylvan Park Elementary School, and we volunteer in our school community. Our girls are in the Nashville Aquatic Club, Nashville Ballet, Girl Scouts, and Westminster Presbyterian Church Children’s Choir, so they keep us busy in those communities.
In my professional community, I’ve served in leadership roles as President of the Nashville Branch of the American Society of Civil Engineers. I’m also a Walk Bike Nashville member and active in the Tennessee Chapter of the American Planning Association, the Tennessee Sections of the American Society of Highway Engineers, and the Institute of Transportation Engineers.
What are key trends in your industry?
It’s an exciting time to be in the transportation industry. Key trends I see are ongoing technological innovations and increased funding.
Roadway and civil infrastructure projects are developed in 3D using drones, lidar, and Model-Centric Design. Contractors use 3D models for automated machine guidance in construction for increased quality and reduced costs. Advancements in autonomous vehicles could provide cost-saving solutions and improve safety and traffic operations. The use of AI, smartphones, and the integration of multimodal transportation into a single mobility service accessible on demand, like ride-share apps, could provide greater efficiency in transport and payments through a single platform. Advanced Air Mobility and drones could improve last-mile delivery efficiency, especially for the e-commerce market.
State, federal, and local legislation, such as the IMPROVE Act, the Transportation Modernization Act, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), and Nashville’s Choose How You Move Transportation Improvement Program, provide new revenue sources needed for transportation infrastructure to address Nashville’s growth, congestion, and mobility needs. The job market remains strong for civil engineers, transportation planners, roadway designers, and traffic engineers.
What are you currently reading?
“Cradle to Cradle – Remaking the Way We Make Things” by William McDonough and Michael Braungart. It’s a book on environmental consciousness, eco-effectiveness, and challenging the traditional “reduce, reuse, recycle” mantra. It looks at how we view life-cycle analysis and how everything becomes a nutrient for a future cycle. It’s been on my nightstand for a very long time, and I picked it back up while thinking about Nashville’s options for our solid waste and the future of Middle Point Landfill in Rutherford County.