{"id":20072,"date":"2025-08-19T12:17:49","date_gmt":"2025-08-19T16:17:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/?p=20072"},"modified":"2025-08-20T07:22:30","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T11:22:30","slug":"people-spotlight-meet-kimberly-heenan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/people-spotlight-meet-kimberly-heenan\/","title":{"rendered":"People Spotlight: Meet Kimberly Heenan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Our People Spotlight<\/em> series<\/a> gives you an inside look at our technical experts around the world. This week, we are highlighting an Associate Vice President, Civil Works Department Manager from our U.S. West Water team and providing an insight into their inspiration and work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader in our Civil Works department, Kimberly Heenan brings a unique blend of technical expertise, strategic vision, and deep personal commitment to infrastructure resilience. With more than 19 years of experience and over $2.5 billion in constructed projects, she has led the inspection, assessment, design and construction of levees, floodwalls, dams, floodgates and stormwater pump stations across the U.S.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kimberly\u2019s portfolio spans more than 275 miles of levee systems and 35 dams, supporting agencies such as the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), United States International Boundary and Water Commission (USIBWC), and USACE Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC). Under her leadership, our civil works team has grown into a nationally connected group equipped to take on the country\u2019s most complex water infrastructure challenges. Whether managing risk assessments, engineering solutions for flood protection, or guiding large-scale alternatives analyses, Kimberly is driven by one goal: protecting communities and helping them thrive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Tell us about what inspired you to join the industry.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hurricane Katrina occurred while I was in college, and when I saw the devastation, I felt a deep calling to do something. I wanted to help fix the levees and to be part of the recovery. I remember students from Louisiana State University, Tulane University, and other universities relocating to Texas A&M, where I was attending. Their experiences really stayed with me \u2014 I just kept thinking, what can I do?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the time, I was still finding my footing and building confidence in my ability to be an engineer. Then, during a career day event, I handed my resume to a representative from AECOM. They passed it along, and shortly after, I received a call about a junior Geotechnical Engineer position \u2014 working on the levees in New Orleans that had been devastated by Hurricane Katrina. It felt like a sign. Even though I was nervous about moving to the big city, I accepted the offer and committed fully to the opportunity. I worked long hours, asked questions, and soaked up knowledge from teammates who loved to teach. It was a chance to contribute to something deeply meaningful \u2014 something that had personally impacted me \u2014 and that experience became the turning point that truly anchored me in this field and shaped the trajectory of my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\n Hurricane Katrina occurred while I was in college, and when I saw the devastation, I felt a deep calling to do something. I wanted to help fix the levees and to be part of the recovery. <\/p>\n

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What is your favorite AECOM project that you\u2019ve worked on and why? <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Obviously, the New Orleans levee project will always mean a lot to me. But another that stands out is the Freeport Levee Coastal Storm Risk Management (CSRM) project. Unfortunately, the client\u2019s funding limitations meant we couldn\u2019t finish the project, but it gave us the space to build something special at AECOM \u2014 a civil works group that can operate from anywhere in the country and work with anyone. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the course of the work we were able to complete, we grew from a team of just six people to about 20. And it wasn\u2019t just our group working on the project. At one point, there were over 100 people across AECOM contributing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The project raised our team\u2019s visibility and gave us this incredible experience with the Galveston Corps of Engineers District<\/a>. The Gulf Coast region is facing significant challenges from rising sea levels, aging infrastructure, and increasingly severe storm events. The experience positioned us to contribute meaningfully to future critical resilience work still needed across this part of the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And honestly, I just loved the team. The people on that project made it a favorite, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\n The project raised our team\u2019s visibility and gave us this incredible experience with the Galveston Corps of Engineers District. The Gulf Coast region is facing significant challenges from rising sea levels, aging infrastructure, and increasingly severe storm events. The experience positioned us to contribute meaningfully to future critical resilience work still needed across this part of the country. <\/p>\n

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How has the growth of AECOM\u2019s civil works team prepared us to meet the infrastructure resilience challenges of communities?  <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For me, it means having a team I can rely on to help design these incredible levee systems that protect people and communities, so they never have to go through something like Hurricane Katrina again. Building a civil works team that can do this work, and do it well, has always been deeply meaningful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many of these flood risk projects are happening in communities that have historically been underserved. It\u2019s not just about protecting property. It\u2019s about protecting lives, bringing peace of mind, and in many cases, helping families financially by lowering flood insurance costs. Everyone deserves that kind of security, no matter where they live.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re at a critical moment in the U.S. Much of the nation\u2019s infrastructure, including levees, floodwalls, and protection systems, was designed to last about 50 years. That time has passed. I knew we had to grow our civil works team because I knew these projects were coming. These systems either start to fail, or they get updated. Too often, people only pay attention after a catastrophic failure, but we shouldn\u2019t have to wait for that to happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me, this work is about making sure we don\u2019t wait \u2014 that we\u2019re ready. When we bring new people onto the team, we look for those who are driven by purpose, who genuinely want to make a difference in people\u2019s lives. That\u2019s what it\u2019s all about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\n Much of the nation\u2019s infrastructure, including levees, floodwalls, and protection systems, was designed to last about 50 years. That time has passed. I knew we had to grow our civil works team because I knew these projects were coming. <\/p>\n

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Share a piece of career advice.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

My dad coached women\u2019s basketball, and he used to say something that stuck with me: \u201cIt doesn\u2019t have to be perfect.\u201d He noticed that many players would hesitate, waiting for the perfect moment to take a shot and by then, the opportunity was gone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He taught me there are only three outcomes: you miss and the other team gets the rebound, you miss and your team gets the rebound and you get to try again, or you make it. Two out of three isn\u2019t bad. I\u2019ve carried that with me throughout my career. When I\u2019m facing a challenge, I remind myself not to wait for perfect. Just take the shot and keep moving forward.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a leader in our Civil Works department, Kimberly Heenan brings a unique blend of technical expertise, strategic vision, and deep personal commitment to infrastructure resilience. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1058,"featured_media":20073,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[172,255,4586,197,83,171],"tags":[6570,6458,6007,203,87,108],"yst_prominent_words":[359,3630,367,706,647,530,452],"class_list":["post-20072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-environment","category-infrastructure","category-innovation","category-resilience","category-sustainability-and-resiliency","category-water","tag-disaster-resilience","tag-flood-resilience","tag-people-spotlight","tag-resilience","tag-sustainability","tag-water"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1058"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20072"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20072\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20124,"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20072\/revisions\/20124"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20072"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=20072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}