TECHNICAL ACTIVITIES MARY ELLEN BRUCE LARGE, P.E., D.GE, DIRECTOR OF TECHNICAL ACTIVITIES Technical Activities Update DFI WiDF-ASCE Dinner Meeting DFI established the Women in Deep Foundations (WiDF) Committee in early 2015 to encourage women and men to be advocates for retaining women in the deep foundations industry. The goal of the committee is to foster success and interest for professional women working in all aspects of deep foundations by promoting networking events, supporting outreach act ivi t ies and bui lding mentoring relationships. We firmly believe that these expansion and diversification efforts will advance the state of practice and reverse the reality of women leaving the industry — a lamentable loss to the profession, innovation and diversity in engineering, including the cost to a company’s bottom line. DFI’s WiDF Committee and the ASCE Pittsburgh Geotechnical Section teamed up to present the third annual joint ASCE- DFI dinner meeting on Thursday, March 23, 2017, at the Engineering Society of Western Pennsylvania. Nancy Watt, a writer, trainer, speaker and graduate of Second City Comedy Improv Conser- vatory in Toronto, lectured on gender communication using the tools and techniques of improv. She delivered a dynamic and active presentation on evidence-based, scientific literature about communication; the neurology and brain wave activity of what it means to be understood. She explored the cost of poor communication skills to an engineering organization, gender differences in communication and the value of noticing those differences. Of the more than 60 attendees, the majority were women, which was a notable first for the Pittsburgh section. Watt led the attendees in active improv exercises that had the entire group interacting, laughing and role playing ... out of the norm for a traditional engi- neering technical presentation. Sarah Missenda of USACE and ASCE Pittsburgh Section V.P., Nancy Watt, Brian Heinzl, president of ASCE Pittsburgh Section, and Helen Robinson of GEI Consultants and DFI WiDF Committee Chair Some attendees’ comments include: • “This was real ly di fferent and interesting and not a typical technical association meeting. The speaker was very knowledgeable about the topic of communication in the technical workplace, particularly between men and women. She expressed and highlighted these differences in a fun and associative way. One of the better meetings I have been to in a long time.” • “By making everyone get up and move around, it promoted full participation from the group. Much more so than just sitting and passively listening. We should all be required to take an improv class as part of our technical curriculum.” Many thanks to the group of local WiDF members who participated and assisted in organizing this event, including Dr. Fatma Ciloglu and Abeera Batool of GAI Consul- tants; Sarah Ramp, Nina Carney and Miranda Slomkowski of Menard; Cathy Bazan Arias of DiGioia Gray Associates; Stephanie Chechak of Gannett Fleming; and Sarah Missenda of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). Anyone interested in joining our active and engaging WiDF Committee should contact Mary Ellen Bruce Large at [email protected]. Pittsburgh Representatives (left to right) Greg Rumbaugh and Brian Heinzl of ASCE Pittsburgh Section, Mary Ellen Bruce Large and Tom Richards, DFI Trustee DEEP FOUNDATIONS • MAY/JUNE 2017 • 121
