It’s time to announce the next class of top young professionals in the ENR regions, although for 2025, the results will be a little different. This is because ENR is revising its regions, consolidating them from 2025 onwards.
As the construction industry continues to evolve, the audience for ENR’s regional editions has also changed, with companies often working within wider geographic footprints and crossing over to work in neighboring regions. With this in mind, ENR’s Regional Editions, newsletters and website content are also evolving, and will be organized as follows:
Texas/Louisiana and Southeast will become ENR Texas and Southeast.
New York, New England and MidAtlantic will merge to form ENR East.
The ENR Midwest region will remain, expanding with the addition of North and South Dakota.
Additionally, the Mountain States and Southwest will join forces under the existing ENR Mountain States umbrella.
California and the Northwest will merge to form the ENR West region, adding Nevada, which was previously in the Southwest region.
However, much will remain the same, with each of the newly reformed regions continuing to publish six bi-monthly digital and print magazines, a bi-monthly newsletter and region-specific digital content published daily on the new regional websites within ‘ENR.com. .
In addition, ENR’s successful Best Projects Contests/Events and Best Business Rankings will continue to provide your company with the same level of opportunities to showcase your company’s outstanding work.
So, the following Top Young Professionals honorees make up the first class for the new Texas and Southeast ENR region, which covers Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina , South Carolina and Puerto Rico.
It was a packed field, with judges evaluating 129 entries to choose the region’s top 20 professionals under the age of 40. Judges did not score applications from people who worked at the same company or with whom they had a conflict of interest.
Each honoree will be featured in the first edition of ENR Texas & Southeast in February 2025, detailing their achievements and careers to date.
This year’s judges, all Best Young Professional honorees from the former ENR Southeast and ENR Texas & Louisiana regions, were: Shayla Bradshaw, Project Engineer, Thomas & Hutton; Preston Chan, Senior Transportation Engineer, HDR; Maria Escalona, project manager, JE Dunn; Gloria Ham, Principal Architect, Fluor; Geoff Kornegay, Associate Director of Populous; Hannah Leppla, Professional Engineer, Plummer Associates, Inc.; Aislinn Nagy, Senior Project Manager, Balfour Beatty; Mike Peters, Vice President/Division Manager of Brasfield & Gorrie; Kim Pierson, Director of Energy and Asset Management, Moseley Architects; Nipesh Pradhanaga, associate professor at Florida International University; Maria Yesenia Trejo, head of project controls, HDR; Christine Wood, vice president of Burns & McDonnell.
And our 2025 ENR Texas and Southeast Young Professionals are listed below in alphabetical order. Congratulations to the winners!
By Abubakar
Principal, Managing Director, Walter P. Moore, Atlanta
Jamie Bailey
Vice President, Customer Strategy, McCownGordon Construction, Plano, Texas
Amanda Barton
Associate/Project Designer, HKS, Coral Gables, Fla.
Alexandra Beletic
Project Field Engineer, Bechtel National Inc., Cape Canaveral, Fla.
Jenny Brown
Senior Traffic Engineer and Associate, Kimley-Horn and Associates Inc., Huntsville, Ala.
Neil Caudle
Operations Manager, Brasfield & Gorrie, Dallas
Melanie Cleavelin
Assistant Director of Operations – Richardson, Halff, Richardson, Texas
Caitlin Geisinger
Business Development Manager, Burns & McDonnell, Houston, Texas
Brent Hooks
Chief Administrative Office, Allworld Project Management, Memphis, Tenn.
Mateu Col
Global Practice Manager, Florida Region, Burns & McDonnell, Maitland, Fla.
Lauren Ladowski
Vice President, ARCO/Murray National Construction, Dallas
Ryan Mattie
Associate Vice President and Office Leader, Johnson, Mirmiran & Thompson Inc., Mt. Pleasant, SC
Ashlyn Morgan
Project Manager, Kimley-Horn, Dallas
Andrew Pierce
Vice President of Operations, Suffolk, Tampa, Fla.
Suleiman Rana
Douglas County Government General Manager, Douglasville, Ga.
Milad Razaee
Senior Structural Engineer, AECOM, New Orleans
Trevor Reed
Vice President – Director of Engineering, Volkert Inc., Rockwall, Texas
Jacob Roberts
Principal and Area Director, STV, Dallas
Ryan Schutt
Principal, Studio Design Leader, HKS, Dallas
William Wright
Senior Project Manager, Keller, Birmingham, Ala.
