Brian Robertson, P.E., LEED AP

Principal

BG Buildingworks

In this episode, Brian Robertson gives an inside look at what it is like to serve on a state board of professional licensure in the United States. He has been a licensed professional engineer in Colorado since 1999 and is a past chair of the Colorado State Board of Licensure for Architects, Professional Engineers, and Professional Land Surveyors. He is a principal at BG Buildingworks, where he oversees the Fort Collins office and the electrical and lighting teams for the company. Robertson also serves as President-Elect for NCEES and will take over as president in August 2021.

Trent Keenan, P.L.S., WRS, CFedS

President and Founder of Diamondback Land Surveying, LLC 

Land surveying is one of the first professionally licensed professions in the United States. On this episode, Trent Keenan will discuss why fewer people are entering the surveying profession and what he and others are doing to help reverse the trend. Keenan also discusses his surveying journey, including his path to licensure and why it’s important. Keenan’s surveying career spans over 25 years and he is the president and founder of Diamondback Land Surveying and founder and moderator of Mentoring Mondays for the Land Surveying Profession.  

For more on Mentoring Mondays for the Land Surveying Profession, visit http://www.mentoringmondays.xyz/

As a 30-year professional licensed surveyor, it’s important for Karie Colburn, P.L.S., to help other females in the profession keep pushing ahead. In this episode, Colburn shares her surveying story, including what it’s like to be a female business owner, why it was important to her to become professionally licensed, and her advice to other females working in the surveying profession. Colburn is a professionally licensed land surveyor in Georgia and holds a Bachelor of Science in Land Surveying from Purdue University. Colburn owns her own surveying business, GeoTerra USA, LLC and is certified as a female business enterprise with the city of Roswell, Georgia, and with Fulton County. She has over 30 years of experience in surveying, including boundary, ALTA, topographic, route, GIS data collection, construction layout, and as-built surveys. Her background ranges from field data collection to survey computations to project and business management. Colburn is also active in the Surveying and Mapping Society of Georgia (SAMSOG) and is currently serving as the Etowah chapter representative to the state SAMSOG board and the public relations committee chairperson.

In this episode, Tim Miller, NCEES Chief Officer of Examinations, explains how the engineering and surveying exams are created and scored and also provides important computer-based testing updates. This is the second episode in a two-part series about exams. In the first episode, Tim discussed the pandemic and its impact on the professional engineering and surveying exams as well as what NCEES is doing to try and help make the testing experience as seamless and transparent as possible. 

In this episode, Tim Miller, NCEES Chief Officer of Examinations, discusses the pandemic and its impact on the professional engineering and surveying exams as well as what NCEES is doing to try and help make the testing experience as seamless and transparent as possible. This is part one of a two-part series with Tim. The second part will be released in the coming weeks and will focus on the how the engineering and surveying exams are created and scored as well as important computer based testing updates.  To learn more, go to: https://ncees.org.

Surveying offers many career opportunities. In this episode, Anna Rios, R.P.L.S., discusses the impact surveyors have on the public, what it’s like to be a female surveyor, her path to licensure, and the value of licensure. Rios earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from LeTourneau University. Inspired by working with the first female professional surveyor in Texas, she continued her education at Austin Community College, earning a certificate of geomatics/land surveying. In addition to working as a project manager, Rios serves as an adjunct professor at Austin Community College. She also holds many leadership roles within state and national surveying committees, actively promote surveying, and supports education in the profession.

Business performance is driven by collaboration and engagement by all members of a team and diverse teams provide more innovation. In this episode, Kevin Edwards, P.E, MBB, and the Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer at Bechtel discusses the importance of diversifying the engineering workforce in the future and why professional licensure was an important goal for him. Kevin earned a master of engineering in environmental engineering from the Stevens Institute of Technology and a bachelor of science in industrial engineering from Rutgers University.