WSP’s Marie-Elsie Dowell Elected President of Florida Engineering Society
MIAMI, FL — Marie-Elsie Dowell, a senior technical manager for WSP, a leading engineering and professional services consultancy, has been elected president of the Miami chapter of the Florida Engineering Society (FES).
As president, Dowell leads one the largest FES chapters in Florida, with close to 300 members. As treasurer and president-elect, Dowell has had an active role in the chapter and served as mentor in the Future City Competition, a national project-based learning program where students in sixth, seventh, and eighth grades imagine, research, design, and build cities of the future.
After working on iconic projects such as PortMiami Tunnel, Marie-Elsie is now making it her mission to improve transit in the region, she is currently managing two multimillion-dollar projects as part of the Strategic Miami Area Rapid Transit (SMART) Plan, creating the necessary environmental documentation to seek federal funding. The projects evaluate feasibility, applicability, and impacts of various transit modes from bus rapid transit to heavy rail transit.
Dowell has empowered the next generation of engineers by creating the Roadmap to Success and Career Fair, now in its third year. The program focuses on teaching the elements that contribute to a successful career in engineering from developing a personal brand to mentoring, and prominent executives from local agencies share insights on their success. Dowell also developed a mentor-protégé program while serving as chair of the local Women’s Transportation Seminar (WTS). The program matched women transportation professionals with others, and provided specific topics for discussion over an eight-month period.
Dowell is a registered professional engineer and graduated from Florida International University with bachelor’s degree in civil engineering. She started her career working on traffic engineering projects in South Florida and has been with WSP for 26 years. She has worked on several major transportation projects in the South Florida area, including traffic simulation for the Miami Intermodal Center, the Central Boulevard Expansion project at Miami International Airport, and the Fort Lauderdale Airport-Seaport Connector. Dowell also managed development of the first transportation master plan for the Territory of the United States Virgin Islands.
Dowell is a member of various professional organizations including the Institute of Transportation Engineers and the Conference of Minority Transportation Officials. She also takes the time to expose elementary school students to engineering through Kids and the Power of Work, a program of the Dade County School Board.
About WSP USA
WSP USA is the U.S. operating company of one of the world’s leading engineering and professional services firms—WSP. Dedicated to serving local communities, we are engineers, planners, technical experts, strategic advisors and construction management professionals. WSP USA designs lasting solutions in the buildings, transportation, energy, water and environment sectors. With more than 7,000 people in 100 offices across the U.S., we partner with our clients to help communities prosper. wsp.com
