Donohue & Associates and the City of Appleton collaborated on an award-winning biogas system design at the Appleton Wastewater Treatment Plant. The project received a 2022 ACEC WI Best of State Engineering Excellence Award and is eligible for the state’s Grand Conceptor Award to be announced in April 2022.
Donohue & Associates and the City of Joliet, Illinois received a 2022 ACEC IL Engineering Excellence Special Achievement Award for phosphorus removal and other innovative enhancements to the Eastside Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP). This project addressed new regulatory requirements and outdated facilities, resulting in a modern plant producing a high quality effluent, an improved working environment, and enhanced community relations.
*Tell me about yourself, your schooling, career path.* I grew up in Baraboo, Wis. and received both my bachelor’s and master’s degrees in civil and environmental engineering from UW-Madison. While in college, I decided I wanted to focus on wastewater treatment after my bachelor’s; this led me to pursue my master’s degree, including a research assistant position for the Kenosha wastewater treatment facility studying odor control systems. After graduation, I worked at EarthTech for 15 years doing wastewater design and later moved to Donohue. In my time with Donohue so far, I am still very wastewater focused, where I manage studies, planning reports, and design projects.
*Tell me about yourself, your schooling, career path.* I’m from Albuquerque, New Mexico and I studied at the University of New Mexico and received a bachelor’s in civil engineering. While in my sophomore year of college, I started an internship with a consulting firm and continued my internship until I graduated. After graduating, I received a full-time position there as a civil engineer. I moved to Chicago four years ago and accepted my position with Donohue as a civil engineer working on site design and improvements for wastewater treatment facilities, drinking water, sewer and storm water projects.
*Tell me about yourself, your schooling, career path.* I went to college at Michigan Tech and received a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and a master’s degree in structural engineering. Starting out, I was a construction engineer in the heavy oil and gas industries for another company in Green Bay, Wis. I had an opportunity to move to the structural engineering group in Sheboygan and have been at Donohue since 2014. In 2016, I was looking to move back to Michigan to be closer to family and helped Donohue open a new office in Grand Rapids, where I have been located ever since. Since moving here, I am focused on project management and business development along with structural engineering.
*Tell me about yourself, your schooling, career path.* I graduated from UW-Platteville with a bachelor’s degree in environmental engineering and civil engineering with an environmental emphasis. During college, I worked as a co-op for Donohue and became a full-time employee after graduation; I’ve been here 18 years. When I started, I generally was helping other process-mechanical engineers with their designs on projects. As got more experience, I became more independent and started working on my own process-mechanical designs and eventually started doing project management as well. For the most part, I work on municipal wastewater treatment plant projects, but I have also worked on industrial wastewater treatment plants, municipal water treatment plants, and collection system lift stations. Internally at Donohue, I am part of the hydraulics committee (performing quality reviews of hydraulic calculations) and the cost estimating committee, and have become a senior level process-mechanical engineer and project manager.
*Tell me about yourself, your schooling, career path.* I grew up in the Twin Cities (Richfield, Minnesota) and attended Illinois Institute of Technology where I received a degree in electrical engineering, specializing in power distribution. During my last semester of college, I interviewed at Donohue and started working there immediately after graduating. I’ve been here 16 years, working in a variety of different positions. Starting out, my primary responsibility was CAD drafting before quickly transitioning into electrical design assistance. I then became a lead electrical engineer while advancing into project management and eventually regional office management.
February 3rd marked the 25th anniversary of Donohue’s modest beginning back in 1997. We have grown from seven staff in one office to 120 staff in 11 offices in six Midwestern states. Donohue is now the No. 16th ranked wastewater engineering firm in the U.S. and has received over 40 engineering excellence awards.
The City of Elkhart, Indiana, officially broke ground earlier this month on new wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) capacity upgrades. The upgrades, designed by Donohue & Associates, incorporate the latest technology to increase peak flow capacity from 40 million gallons per day (mgd) to a sustained flow rate of 60 mgd as required by the City’s federal Consent Decree (CD) for combined sewer overflow.
We extend our warmest wishes to you for a healthy and joyful 2022. In the spirit of giving, Donohue & Associates is grateful to be able to continue our tradition of contributing to nonprofit organizations that provide locally sustainable drinking water, sanitation, and health education programs to communities around the world through support: Water for People, Global Water Stewardship, and Wisconsin Water for the World.