Emerging Professional of the Year Award Submit a nomination for the 2024 EP of the Year! | 2023 KATIE HOWES AND CARLY NARLESKY |
|  Katie Howes has shown herself to be an exemplary emerging professional, team member, and early career staff leader, both inside her organization at Woodard & Curran and in FMA’s professional organization. Within FMA, Katie has served on the Emerging Professionals Committee for several years, taking on multiple leadership roles as Bay Area Representative, Membership Coordinator, and Vice Chair. As Vice Chair, Katie has shown her ability to lead and empower other committee leaders through many concurrent initiatives and programs. As a Young Professional Leader at Woodard & Curran, Katie has been a vocal advocate for 300+ young professionals across different disciplines and geographies throughout the company. She identified fundamental mentorship opportunities and improved consistency with the onboarding experience for junior staff to provide a stable foundation early in their careers. Katie is working to advance organizational enhancements and provide entry-level staff with appropriate resources and programs to support their learning and development throughout their careers. Both inside her organization at Woodard & Curran and in FMA’s professional organization, Katie’s unique ability to enrich emerging professionals’ careers has been recognized by many. | | | |  Carly Narlesky has been an active leader in the Emerging Professionals group for the last four years. She is a consistently positive force within the FMA Emerging Professionals and regularly contributes ideas during meetings. Carly leads by example and has been an integral part of the team. Through dedication and consistency, Carly continues to find ways to connect and contribute to this community through engineering and environmental outreach efforts. She has organized creek cleanups and Girl Scout outreach events and helped plan social events for the FMA Emerging Professionals to connect as communities have re-opened since the COVID-19 pandemic. Her innovative ideas have proven to inspire people to improve communities while also getting the word out about the floodplains we live in, and the flood risks we face. Additionally, Carly excels professionally with MBK Engineers and continues to take on more responsibility within the H&H modeling team. She mentors and coaches younger engineers and helps young professionals to find their path in floodplain management. Her dedication and understanding of dam operations in her daily work allows her to engage in a relatable way and creates a natural connection for more junior engineers to become inspired and motivated.
| | | 2022 - MADELINE BAKER | |
 Madeline Baker, Associate Project Manager, Larsen Wurzel & Associates, Inc. Madeline Baker helped establish the FMA Emerging Professionals Program and continues to work to build and grow this community. She has organized and hosted twice monthly lunch-and-learn webinars covering a wide variety of topics where more established professional share their experiences and insights with the Emerging Professional Committee. She participated in the Water Education Foundation Water Leaders Class of 2021 where she continued to inform other emerging professional from a broad array of backgrounds about the benefits and opportunities of participating in the FMA Emerging Professional community. Madeline is an outstanding mentor that is thoroughly engaged with the entire FMA community. She consistently demonstrates the unique combination of technical aptitude, interpersonal skill, critical thinking, and personal commitment necessary to develop into an impactful leader in FMA and the world of California water. Madeline is a Project Manager at Larson Wurzel, and Associates. She is an amazing representative of our FMA Emerging Professionals. She is a motivated and willing leader within the Emerging Professional community and has been instrumental in continuing to build this community through her mentorship. | | 2021 MORGAN O'BRIEN |
|  Morgan O’Brien, California Department of Water Resources Morgan O’Brien has provided tremendous leadership for the FMA Emerging Professionals Community, inspiring everyone around her and mentoring countless individuals. She has been essential in providing leadership opportunities for growth of emerging professionals. Morgan helped kickoff virtual webinars when the FMA Emerging Professionals meetings were transitioned into the virtual setting due to the worldwide COVID-19 crisis. She has provided continuity by spearheading regular talks for webinars and provides an example to those around her by thoroughly researching her topics. Megan created and continues to lead the Future Leaders of Water (FLoW) book club to further engage others and encourage growth. The FLoW book club focuses on leadership topics and most recently invited Craig Trombly, a Gallup Certified Strengths Coach, to share his experience with strength based leadership. Morgan has also contributed as a mentor by sharing her experience in floodplain management with local Girl Scouts and college students, and has participated in our FMA Emerging Professionals panel during the 2020 FMA Conference. She is an outstanding mentor that is thoroughly engaged with the FMA Emerging Professionals community. Morgan provides tremendous value and leadership and goes above and beyond to help others to succeed in their careers. | 2020 - MEGAN LEROY AND WENDY WANG
 Megan LeRoy, Kjeldsen, Sinnock and Neudeck Inc. and Wendy Wang, California Department of Water Resources This past year, Megan LeRoy (KSN) and Wendy Wang (DWR) have jointly spearheaded the FMA Emerging Professionals committee and have overseen its extensive growth in numbers and value to the FMA membership. Their extensive work with this committee has included hosting monthly lunch-and-learn sessions that increased to bimonthly or weekly webinars during the pandemic and actively engaging the FMA community in searching to link together mentors and emerging professionals in meaningful ways. The content of these lunchtime sessions has focused on career development, relationship building, compassion, appreciation, and community assistance. Members who have participated in the FMA Emerging Professional program report that the EP efforts are unlike any others in terms of both the impressive program and assortment of dedicated individuals who participate in the EP meetups. An active mentor reports “having personally given two lunchtime talks to the EP, participated in many of the meetings, and successfully encouraged and secured ongoing participation from 5 to 7 emerging flood management professionals from my company, I have seen firsthand how meaningful and impactful this group has become under the steadfast and strategic leadership of Megan and Wendy.” |
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