June 2019
In this issue…
In Appreciation to Betsy Dulin, P.E., 2018-19 President and Introducing FY 20 Officers
Meet VSPE President Rick Tyler, P.E.
VSPE’s Scholarship Programs a Huge Success!
2019-2020 Board of Directors Initiatives and Call for Interested Board Members
Northern Virginia Chapter Member Selected as NSPE Fellow
Complete the Engineering Team with NICET Certification
Don’t Miss…
In Appreciation to Betsy Dulin, P.E., 2018-19 President and Introducing FY 20 Officers
Our Fiscal Year 2019 President, Betsy Dulin, announced to the Board of Directors in early May that she has begun working for the Federal Government and had to step down. Betsy was instrumental in getting VSPE into social media with Linked-In and Twitter accounts, working closely with a recent graduate of Old Dominion University, Abigail Cox. Betsy also engaged with ACEC/Va to coordinate the 2019 Virginia Engineers Conference. Under Betsy’s leadership, three (3) new Board of Directors members joined the team: Peter Skaredoff, Michael Lo Presti and Georg Dahl. We’ll miss Betsy’s leadership and style and wish her and her family the very best.
Click Here to view the FY 2020 Slate of officers for VSPE, the VSPE Educational Fund and VEPAC.
Meet VSPE President Rick Tyler, P.E.
Richard (Rick) Tyler, P.E. serves as the Chief Engineer and Capital Improvements (CI) Business Line Manager at Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) Atlantic located in Norfolk, Virginia. NAVFAC Atlantic manages the planning, design, construction, contingency engineering, real estate, environmental and public works support for U.S. Navy shore facilities throughout the continental United States, Caribbean, Europe, Africa, and Southwest Asia.
Rick is responsible for professional engineering community management and development/implementation of engineering concepts, practices, programs and advanced technologies for improvement of design and construction activities. He is the senior technical advisor for the NAVFAC Atlantic command and the final technical authority with respect to engineering matters.
Previously, Rick served as the Facility Energy Criteria Manager at NAVFAC’s Engineering Criteria and Program Office responsible for translating federal energy mandates into design and construction criteria to deliver and maintain quality, sustainable facilities for the Department of Navy. Additionally, he managed the development of facilities criteria with regard to cybersecurity of facility-related control systems.
Rick has spent the better part of his career with NAVFAC, joining the Atlantic Division (LANTDIV) in 1996 as an electrical design engineer. In the Electrical Engineering Branch at LANTDIV, he performed electrical designs for numerous projects at MCAS New River, MCS Camp Lejeune, MCAS Cherry Point, NAS Keflavik (Iceland), NS Rota (Spain), and many naval facilities in the Hampton Roads area. In 2002, Rick accepted an electrical engineering position at Engineering Field Activity, Mediterranean (EFAMED) in Naples, Italy.
He returned to NAVFAC Atlantic in 2004 and served as a lead electrical engineer for five years until 2009 when he moved back to NAVFAC Europe Africa Southwest Asia (EURAFSWA) in Naples, Italy for a second tour. At NAVFAC EURAFSWA, Rick was dual-hatted as both the Capital Improvements Design Product Line Coordinator and the MILCON Program Manager. In 2012, Rick returned to NAVFAC Atlantic as the Facility Energy and Cybersecurity Criteria Manager in the NAVFAC Engineering Criteria and Programs Office.
A native of Virginia, Rick received a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Old Dominion University in 1992 and a Master of Business Administration from the College of William and Mary 2008. He is registered as a Professional Engineer in the Commonwealth of Virginia, a member of the Acquisition Professional Community and is a graduate of NAVFAC’s Leadership Development Program (Level III).
In 2009, Rick was named the NAVFAC Atlantic Engineer of the Year. He has also received numerous other personal citations, awards, and letters of appreciation.
Rick currently resides in Newport News, VA with his wife Shannon. Together, they are the proud parents of one son and two daughters and are active in their community and church.
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VSPE’s Scholarship Programs a Huge Success!
About 5 years ago, VSPE initiated an EIT / PE Scholarship program that reimbursed PE’s and EIT’s for the fee to take the exam through an application process. The process garnered only two (2) recipients. Last summer, the VSPE Board approved a more streamlined process using our web site, whereby the scholarship recipients could be approved for reimbursement after becoming NSPE members. Since most EIT’s were students, they could enjoy free membership as student members. The VSPE Board awarded over $20,000 in scholarships to over 100 recipients. Our student membership of VSPE grew by this amount as well! We had donations in the VSPE Educational Fund from these programs that contributed.
The Educational Fund Scholarship Program, managed by Richard “Dick” Bidwell, the VSPE Educational Fund Scholarship in Memory of Anthony R. “Tony” Buscemi, PE, and the VSPE Educational Fund Scholarship in Memory of Jack Liedl, PE. In going through our archives, we found that VSPE is part of the Wall of Honor at Old Dominion University through a Tidewater Chapter Endowed Academic Scholarship.
The Eric H “Rick” Bartsch PE Exam Fund received donations and awarded scholarships to PE’s working for the Virginia Department of Health, to encourage licensure among our state Office of Drinking Water staff, and we’ll be reactivating this scholarship program with help from Dixon Tucker, a long-standing member and champion of this sector of PE’s.
Many of our readers know about the Educational Fund’s robust Mathcounts program, and the chapter events and donors are now listed on our web site, in addition to all of the recipients and donors of the above programs. Members have donated to the Virginia Engineers Political Action Committee (VEPAC) and to VSPE, and we have honored those donors, as well as members who donate to various programs during their NSPE dues renewal.
The Board has listed reinstitution of this program a Top Priority for Fiscal year 2020. We need to replenish the scholarship fund in order to accomplish this and keep this dream alive.
2019-2020 Board of Directors Initiatives and Call for Interested Board Members
During their regular meeting of May 13th, the Board adopted the following major initiatives for FY 20:
- Engage the membership across the state by moving the quarterly board meetings to different locations, and engaging our EIT Scholarship recipients in those geographic areas to attend
- Seek experienced PE’s to fill three (3) vacant Board of Director positions
- Reinstitute the EIT / PE Scholarship program by focused fund raising efforts to replenish the $20,000 awards given to recipients – VSPE’s website lists Scholarship recipients and donors
- Focus efforts to reinstitute donations and scholarships through these programs:
- VSPE Educational Fund Scholarship in Memory of Anthony R. “Tony” Buscemi, PE
- VSPE Educational Fund Scholarship in Memory of Jack Liedl, PE
- Eric H “Rick” Bartsch PE Exam Fund
- Reach out to former NSPE members who dropped membership due to retirement to encourage them to join under the Retired status and rely on their years of expertise to help lead on the Board of Directors, become Mathcounts volunteers, and overall engagement of these folks as active members of VSPE.
- Reach out to the 12,000 licensed PE’s who reside in Virginia to become active members of VSPE.
- Reach out to our Dropped members with our accomplishments and initiatives to determine ways we can meet their needs to become active members.
Northern Virginia Chapter Member Selected as NSPE Fellow
The Northern Virginia Engineers Chapter is pleased to announce that Dr. Phillip Melville, P.E., PhD, has been selected by the NSPE Board of Directors for the Fellow Membership Grade.
Dr. Melville’s involvement in VSPE and NSPE spans half of a century, and his dedication to the profession of engineering is inspirational. Beginning from his time as a high-school student in Paris in the early 1940s, Dr. Melville was interested in becoming an engineer. His escape from the Nazi-sympathizing Vichy regime, from Paris, to Marseilles, to the Azores, Bermuda, Staten Island, and on to Albuquerque was possible because his uncle convinced the president of University of New Mexico that his nephew would be an outstanding engineering student. He immediately began the process to become a US citizen. His career following his undergraduate and master’s degree was dedicated to improving infrastructure in his adopted country, starting at the Virginia Highway Department (now VDOT), then the US Army Corps of Engineers designing airfields at the height of the Cold War. He then worked for the Federal Aviation Administration, designing new airports and runways to accommodate jumbo jets. Dr. Melville worked as a civil servant at the state and federal levels of the United States for the majority of his career.
Dr. Melville’s dedication to the profession is exemplified by his commitment to NSPE and ASCE. Dr. Melville was the President of VSPE in 1980 and was a director of NSPE in the late 1970s and early 1980s. He was instrumental in the 75th anniversary of NSPE’s founding and was the driving force behind the commissioning of The Spirit of Engineering, composed by Richard Bales. Dr. Melville also received special mention in the forward of ASCE’s National Capital Section’s centennial celebration book, Engineering the Nation’s Capital.
Please join the Northern Virginia Chapter, the VSPE Board, and the NSPE Board in congratulating Dr. Melville in this overdue recognition.
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Complete the Engineering Team with NICET Certification
In the late 1950s, as the US came to rely more heavily on machines and automation, technically skilled workers who could support the work of engineers were in high demand. In 1961, NSPE rose to the challenge by forming an organization to certify technicians and technologists.
But even though technicians have been an integral part of the engineering team and NSPE since then, that organization—the National Institute for Certification in Engineering Technologies—is not always understood by PEs. A well-attended, NSPE-sponsored webinar on May 29 provided the full picture.
During the webinar, “Quality and Safety Through a Qualified Engineering Team,” NICET Communications Director Chip Hollis detailed the institute’s operations and the technician’s role on the team. NICET was founded to recognize the qualifications of technicians. Its focus, Hollis explained, helps ensure a qualified engineering workforce, certifying both engineering technicians and technologists in areas such as construction materials testing, transportation construction inspection, electrical power, fire protection, and security systems.
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- Exemptions to Engineering Licensure Laws. NSPE has updated this report, with information current as of May 2019. It is free for members.
- Take Action on Licensure Exemption Bills. It’s imperative that lawmakers hear from their professional engineering constituents who support bills in the US House and Senate targeting licensure exemptions in public utility pipeline work.
- PECON at a Glance. Take a look at the lineup of activities and educational sessions taking place at the 2019 Professional Engineers Conference in Kansas City.