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Thursday, November 19, 2020 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM Eastern Time Elizabeth Velez | Chair, New York Building Congress “Social Responsibility – Economic Empowerment” Use our Voices to Advocate Directly in the Industry; High Level Economic Look at 2021/2022 Elizabeth Velez is an outspoken advocate for diversity and inclusion, and a sought after speaker on construction and infrastructure, leadership and mentoring. She is the President of the Velez Organization, a 50-year-old family owned and managed construction services firm - creating schools, hospitals and parks throughout New York. She is a Trustee of Boricua College; an accredited private institution serving students through three campuses in NY. She is the Chair of the New York Building Congress – notably the first Latina in its 99-year history. She serves on the advisory boards of numerous NYC and NYS agencies, industry non-profits, and groups supporting mentorship and scholarships for youth. She is a Board Member of Catholic Charities NY, the NYC Police Foundation, the Women’s Builders Council, Columbia University’s Center for Buildings, Infrastructure & Public Space, ACE-Mentor NY and Youthbridge. She serves as a Commissioner on the NYC Advisory Commission on Property Tax Reform, and following the COVID-19 pandemic, serves as Advisory Board Member for the NYS Forward Re-Opening Advisory Board, and on NYC Real Estate & Construction Sector Advisory Council. Following Hurricane Maria’s disastrous landfall, Elizabeth was appointed to Governor Cuomo’s NY Stands with Puerto Rico Recovery & Rebuilding Committee, and she has spearheaded numerous workforce and economic development programs – including a satellite corporate office in Ponce Puerto Rico. On the international front, Ms. Velez is Co-Chair of Iran 180 – an organization that advocates for human rights. She was recognized as a “Manhattan Power 100” from City & State. She is a contributor to media outlets such as MSNBC, Matter of Fact TV with Soledad O’Brien, Fox News Latino, The Daily News, The Wall Street Journal, El Diario La Prensa, Hispanic Business, ENR, City & State, Commercial Observer and Crain’s New York Business. Elizabeth holds a Master of Business Administration from Hofstra University. Her greatest joys in life stem from embracing culture, family, and her son, David. 1 Guest Speaker – Dr. Feniosky Pena-Mora Edwin Howard Armstrong Professor | Columbia University Former Commissioner, NY DDC Feniosky Peña-Mora is the Edwin Howard Armstrong Professor of Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics, Professor of Earth and Environmental Engineering, and Professor of Computer Science at Columbia University. He also directs the Center for Buildings, Infrastructure and Public Space at Columbia. From 2014 to 2017, he was on a public service leave serving in Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration in the role of Commissioner of New York City’s Department of Design and Construction (DDC). Prior to his public service leave at DDC, he was the Dean of the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and Morris A. and Alma Schapiro Professor of Engineering at Columbia University. He has also served as Associate Provost and the Edward William and Jane Marr Gutgsell Endowed Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the Gilbert W. Winslow Career Development Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Prof. Peña-Mora is the author or co-author of more than 220 scholarly publications. He holds six patents and one provisional patent. He is the recipient of multiple awards, including the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), National Science Foundation CAREER Award, Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize of the American Society of Civil Engineers, the ASCE Computing in Civil Engineering Award, and the ASCE Construction Management Award. He is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Buildings (CIOB) as well as elected member of the Dominican Republic Academy of Sciences, and the United States National Academy of Construction. He earned his Master of Science and Doctor of Science degrees in Civil Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Panelist – Lucky Nagarajan | General Manager-Engineering and Business Development, Giken America and Chair, DFI Women in Deep Foundations Committee As General Manager-Engineering and Business Development for Giken America, Lucky Nagarajan is an integral part of the Giken Team managing challenging, extraordinary projects in United States, Canada, and South America. Prior to joining Giken America, Lucky built over 15 years of experience as a geotechnical engineer/project manager as well as onsite engineer and learned design of shallow foundations to deep foundations to support residential and commercial structures. Her professional journey continued as a specialty project manager after Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. In this role, she was able to experience rich local culture as well as learn about levees which are important to safeguard cities from natural disasters. Next stage in her career was to get involved in wind/solar and oil and gas industry 2 which took her around the country. This taught her to identify challenges while designing foundations in varied geological stratigraphy, work with diverse teams from different parts of the country and at the same time learn different cultures. With design and engineering experience and with a little hesitation, Lucky decided to explore steel industry as a Business Development Specialist and moved to northeast. In this role, she was able to learn about steel manufacturing and establish strong relationship with consulting engineers, contractors and government agencies and gain experience on steel foundations for different applications. Ms. Nagarajan was appointed chair of DFI’s Women in Deep Foundations Committee in June 2020 and co-founded the Metro NYC WiDF Chapter. She believes in DFI and WiDF committee vision and mission and, through the committee, with other local engineers, has been actively organizing industry events in Metro NYC to focus on leadership, mentoring, management, soft skill training etc. She has also been a panelist of the ASHE Spring Seminar panel discussion on “Design Challenges in Urban Environment Today” and has been a judge at the Future City Competition. Lucky strongly believes it is very important for every engineer to give back to the community to help the industry grow and support fellow engineers. To give back to her original roots, she has also been involved in DFI India Chapter initiatives. As a part of India Chapter, she has recently launched WiDF India group and has been encouraging fellow women engineers to come together to discuss industry related issues and support each other. December 2020* 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM Eastern Time Ashley Shirer, Ph.D., P.E. | Geotechnical Engineer, DiGioia Gray “Not Being Afraid to Help Others” Ashley is a senior geotechnical engineer for DiGioia Gray, whom has over ten years of experience designing foundations and evaluating subsurface conditions. Her research includes ancient earthwork construction, forensic geotechnical analysis, and more recently, deep foundation design for the power delivery market. Additionally, she has experience in soil isotope analysis, micromorphology, geophysical survey techniques and traditional subsurface sampling. She is a technical expert and instructor for the Foundation Analysis and Design software, FAD Tools. Dr. Shirer holds a bachelor’s degree in both Anthropology and Civil Engineering from North Carolina State University, a master’s degree in archaeology from Arizona State University, and a Doctorate in Civil Engineering from Arizona State University from the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment. Her dissertation focused on developing a correlation between pressuremeter modulus and geophysical shear wave velocity measurements for the design of laterally loaded deep foundations. She is a Registered Professional Engineer in Arizona. *Date TBA 3 .