Marlee Walton, a senior lecturer in the Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering (CCEE) at Iowa State University, recently received the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Iowa Section Outstanding Civil Engineer Award.
Walton was recognized primarily for her leadership as ASCE Iowa Section president from 2008 to 2009. In this role she developed a strategic plan as well as updated the group’s constitution and bylaws. Her approach was aimed at ASCE Iowa Section member outreach, particularly enhancing communication among Iowa’s 950 ASCE members. Membership partners engineering instructors, practicing engineers and corporate leadership throughout the state of Iowa.
She joined the ASCE Iowa Section in 1999 as treasurer. She progressed through several leadership roles, four of which were elected. Walton’s last role was past president, which she served from 2009 to 2010. She advanced leadership roles because she recognized impacts of leadership. “I determined ways I could enhance ASCE Iowa Section’s effectiveness,” Walton said. “ASCE Iowa Section has allowed me to collaborate with Iowa engineering firms, other Iowa universities and other Iowa colleges to recognize and promote industry-academic partnerships.”
Walton also is vice chair of the Iowa Engineering and Land Surveying Examining Board. In this role she encourages engineering students, including her Iowa State civil engineering surveying students, to sign up for the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) Exam. The FE exam is suited for graduating engineering students who prepare for professional licensure, which is formally tested in the Professional Engineering (PE) exam after several years of engineering practice. The National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES), independent of Iowa’s engineering examining board, produces the PE exam. Walton serves as a member on the Fundamentals of Surveying Exam Committee, Nominations Committee, and the Advisory Committee for Council Activities of NCEES.
Walton has been a CCEE senior lecturer since 2000, where she teaches land surveying and has represented the department in several statewide and national engineering organizations. She earned her bachelor’s degree in surveying and master’s degree in civil engineering at Iowa State.
The ASCE Iowa Section Outstanding Civil Engineer Award recognizes a professional who has contributed substantially to the status of the engineering profession. This is accomplished by 1) establishing a reputation for professional service with exemplary professional conduct in a specific outstanding instance, 2) proof of significant and lasting achievement in improving employment conditions under which civil engineers serve in public and private practice, 3) proof of significant contribution toward improving the professional aspects of civil engineering education, and 4) proof of professional guidance of qualified young people who seek civil engineering as a career and professional development of young civil engineers in the formative stage of their career.