March/April 2018

Communities: Government
Forest Service Exec Touts Federal Engineering Careers

The keynote speaker for NSPE’s 2018 Federal Engineer of the Year Award ceremony, Emilee Blount, P.E., oversees a broad portfolio as director of engineering, technology, and geospatial services for the US Forest Service. She is responsible for infrastructure supporting 193 million acres of forest and grasslands, including roads, bridges, administrative and research facilities, communication towers, and dams. She also manages the agency’s fleet, physical security vulnerability assessments, sustainable operations, remote sensing, aerial imagery and cartography, and technology transfer.

In a previous position at the Department of Defense’s Washington Headquarters Services, Blount supported the construction of the Pentagon Memorial after September 11. She says being part of that project still gives her goosebumps and calls her role “quite an honor and significantly humbling.”

Blount spoke about her current work and opportunities for PEs in the federal government for the NSPE Speaks podcast. An edited version of her comments follows.

PEs at the Forest Service

What we [at the Forest Service] do is utilized by the public or on our landscapes for an average of 50 years, in some cases much longer. The need to ensure the reliability, sustainability, safety, access to meet the needs of the public as well as our own agency is critical. The decisions professional engineers make in designs, programming, training, and budgeting touch the public and impact them for a long time.

Federal Employment

My son was born and I was working probably 12- to 15-hour days at the time in the private sector. I wanted to have a more stable work environment where I wasn’t traveling quite as much and working quite those hours. So, it was the security and stability of federal government that drew me.

My father [worked as an engineer] in the federal sector. And he kept telling me, “You’ve got to check this out.” And at the time it was like, “No, Dad, I don’t want to go to the federal side. I’m really enjoying the private sector.” When my son was about two or three, I said, “I think I would like to look into this.”

And I’ve been with the federal government ever since, and I just can’t speak highly enough about the opportunities—the ability to take on challenging work and work abroad. I had the opportunity to work in Germany for over six months on environmental deployment guides.

It is phenomenal the level of training, and the value that is placed on training and furthering your education. I was able to go and get my master’s degree as well. These things are valued in the private sector, but probably not at the same level as cost, quality, and schedule.

There are so many career paths within federal government. Coming out of college, [it] was one of the last things I thought of. I don’t know why that was. The level of expertise, the challenges that engineers in federal government are faced with, not just budget constraints and time constraints but really cool projects, really substantial projects not just in the US but across the world.

Mentoring

Reach out and find a mentor within engineering and federal government. And I would welcome that from any of you. I enjoy being a mentor to others and helping crack the code of getting into federal government. We’ve got significant numbers of retirees right now, and we truly need the skillsets of young engineers, all engineers, and it’s an amazing place to work. I would welcome mentoring you and helping you, and I know my counterparts would as well.

We have a substantial number of engineers and engineering technicians across the Forest Service. We really encourage professional engineers. We have an Engineer of the Year ceremony ourselves within the Forest Service and we recognize each year how many people get their professional certifications.

So, I know there are a lot of mentors within our agency, and I’m sure there are in others that would love to talk with you.

Contact Blount at [email protected].