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Professor Adjo Amekudzi-Kennedy’s research, teaching and professional activities focus on civil infrastructure decision making to promote sustainable development. She studies complex real-world systems and develops infrastructure decision support systems to promote sustainable development. Kennedy earned a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering (Structures) from Stanford University in 1994, a Master of Science in Civil Engineering (Transportation) from Florida International University in 1996; a Master of Science in Civil Infrastructure Systems in 1997, and a Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering (Infrastructure Systems) from Carnegie Mellon University in 1999. She directs the Infrastructure Research Group (www.irg.ce.gatech.edu) at Georgia Tech, a group whose vision is to develop thought leaders in engineering and policy development for sustainable development. The IRG focuses on the study, development and application of systems method to manage civil infrastructure as assets for sustainable development. Kennedy has developed undergraduate and graduate courses in Systems Engineering, Transportation Asset Management, and Sustainable Development Planning and Evaluation, published extensively on these subjects, and serves on several professional boards and expert panels including the Board on Infrastructure and the Constructed Environment (BICE, U.S. National Research Council) and the International Panel for Climate Change (IPCC, United Nations). She is coauthor of the college textbook Systems Engineering with Economics, Probability and Statistics, J. Ross Publishing, 2012. She serves on the editorial boards for the International Journal of Sustainable Transportation and Transportation in Developing Economies. Kennedy is the founding chair of the Committee on Sustainability and the Environment of the American Society of Civil Engineers’ Transportation and Development Institute. She serves on the advisory board of the Integrated Network for Social Sustainability (INSS) and is a member Research Coordination Network (RCN) on Megacities and Sustainability, both sponsored by the National Science Foundation. Kennedy also serves as Associate Chair for Global Engineering Leadership and Research Development at the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Georgia Tech, with responsibilities for managing and expanding the School’s global education, research and outreach programs and impact. Kennedy and her students have been the recipient of several prestigious awards including the 2009 Recent Alumnus Award given by Carnegie Mellon University to recognize outstanding alumni, and the 2014 Charley V. Wootan Award given by the Transportation Board (National Academies) to recognize the best paper in transportation policy and organization. In her leisure time, Kennedy enjoys spending time with her family, playing the piano and painting.

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Reginald DesRoches is the Karen and John Huff School Chair and Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. As School Chair, he provides leadership to a top-ranked program with 100 faculty and staff and 1,100 students. His primary research interests are in design of resilient infrastructure systems under extreme loads. He has published more than 250 articles in the general area of resilience and seismic risk assessment.

Dr. DesRoches has served as the key technical leader in the United States’ response to the Haiti earthquake and led a team of 28 engineers, architects, city planners, and social scientists to study the impact of the earthquake. He has also participated in numerous congressional briefings to underscore the critical role that university research must play in addressing the country’s infrastructure crisis and resilience to natural hazards. Dr. DesRoches has served as thesis advisor to 29 Doctoral and 17 Master’s thesis students.

Dr. DesRoches has served as Chair of the ASCE Seismic Effects Committee (2006-2010), Chair of the executive committee of the Technical Council on Lifeline Earthquake Engineering (2010), and Board of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI). He is currently a member of the executive committee of the National Academy of Sciences Roundtable on Risk, Resilience, and Extreme Events, a member of National Science Foundation (NSF) Engineering Directorate Advisory Committee, and is a member of the National Academies Board on Army Science and Technology (BAST). Dr. DesRoches has received numerous awards, including the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) in 2002 — the highest honor bestowed upon scientists and engineers in the early stages of their careers. Most recently, he was a recipient of the 2007 ASCE Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize, the 2015 ASCE Charles Martin Duke Lifeline Earthquake Engineering Award, the Georgia Tech Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Advisor Award (2010), and the Georgia Tech ANAK Award (2008). The ANAK award is the highest honor the undergraduate student body can bestow on a Georgia Tech faculty member.

Dr. DesRoches earned his Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering in 1990, a Master of Science in Civil Engineering in 1992, and a Ph.D. in Structural Engineering in 1998 — all from the University of California, Berkeley. He was inducted into Berkeley’s Academy of Distinguished Alumni from Civil and Environmental Engineering in 2015.

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Susan E. Burns, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE is the Georgia Power Distinguished Professor and Associate Chair for Undergraduate Programs in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Dr. Burns earned a Bachelor Degree in Civil Engineering B.C.E. (1990), M.S. Civil Engineering (geotechnical) (1996), M.S. Environmental Engineering (1996), and Ph.D. in Civil Engineering (1997), all from Georgia Tech. Prior to joining the faculty at Georgia Tech in 2004, she was a member of the faculty at the University of Virginia for over seven years.

Dr. Burns' research focuses on applications in geoenvironmental engineering, with particular emphasis on the productive reuse of waste materials including dredged sediments, fly ash, and biomass fly ash, treatment of highway stormwater runoff using engineered materials, erosion control of soils on highway rights-of-way, interfacial behavior of organic- and inorganic-coated soils, the transport and behavior of microbubbles in otherwise saturated porous media, and the hydraulic conductivity and consolidation properties of fine-grained soils using seismic piezocone penetration testing (SPCPT).

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Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, College of Engineering

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Janille Smith-Colin is a PhD student in Civil and Environmental Engineering (Transportation Systems Engineering) with a minor focus in the School of Public Policy. She is a member of the Infrastructure Research Group (IRG) directed by Dr. Adjo Amekudzi-Kennedy, a group whose vision is to develop thought leaders in engineering and policy for sustainable development. Her research focuses on the study, development, and application of methods that promote sustainable transportation systems. Her most recent work has focused on the development of evidence-based methodologies for transportation asset management, the advancement of theories around transportation systems health, and the exploration of partnering strategies for improved project delivery outcomes. Smith-Colin has provided research support to the Global Engineering Leadership Development Minor, and has served as a one-on-one coach and grand challenges facilitator for the Leadership and Education Development (LEAD) program for the past 3 years. In fall 2016, she will serve as an instructor for the leadership development sections of the GT 1000 first year seminar. Smith-Colin is a two-time recipient of the Dwight David Eisenhower Transportation Fellowship, and was honored with the 2014 WTS/CH2M Hill Partnership Scholarship. She and her colleagues were awarded the 2014 Charley V. Wootan Award given by the Transportation Research Board (National Academies) to recognize the best paper in transportation policy and organization. Smith-Colin earned a Master of Science in Civil Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2006, and a Bachelor of Arts from Lafayette College in 2003.

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Dr. Wes Wynens is the Director of the Leadership Education and Development Program for Student Affairs and serves as an adjunct professor in the School of Public Policy at Georgia Tech. Dr. Wynens has more than twenty years of experience in applied leadership development, coaching, and leadership education. His interests are in adaptive leadership and the effects of challenge and loss on leadership capacity. From 2004 to 2010, he was director of State Leadership Development Programs for the Carl Vinson Institute, where he founded the Georgia Leadership Institute and the Executive Leadership Program. He has been a consultant to Deloitte, Coca-Cola, BellSouth, NORTEL, and the Army Corp of Engineers. His professional affiliations include Pi Alpha Alpha, the OD Network, and the International Leadership Association. Dr. Wynens holds a Ph.D. in Public Administration from the University of Georgia with an emphasis on organization and team development.

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