Berkeley CEE extends its heartfelt appreciation to outgoing chair Professor Mark Stacey and a warm welcome to incoming chair Professor Joan Walker!
In Stacey’s five years at the helm, he helped students, staff, and faculty navigate the unprecedented challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and the UAW strike. During his tenure, the department hired ten new faculty members, established the CEE Beavers Teaching Fellows program, and actively advanced efforts to foster a more inclusive department culture. Of particular note is the launch of (CEE)², a first-of-its-kind program dedicated towards advancing community engagement within research, teaching, and service across CEE. To top it off, Stacey introduced a spring carnival that has become an annual tradition for the CEE community.
Walker steps in following an impressive record of leadership contributions, including Vice Chair of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging in our department; Co-Director of the Center of Global Metropolitan Studies; Acting Director for the Institute of Transportation Studies; and chair of the Travel Demand Committee for the Transportation Research Board of the National Academies. She is the recipient of several awards, including an NSF Faculty Early Career Development Award, an NSF Presidential Early Career Award for Scientist and Engineering (PECASE), the Zephyr Leadership Award, and the Institute of Transportation Studies Faculty of the Year Award. Joan is a proud alum of our program (BS CE ’91), and in her time as an undergraduate was the president of the Society of Women Engineers, a two-time National Champion Concrete Canoe paddler, and awarded the top undergraduate award given by our College of Engineering (the Bechtel Achievement Award).
“This department has been instrumental to my development first as an undergraduate student and then as a faculty member. I’m excited and honored to pay it forward,” says Walker. In her time as chair, she looks to strengthen our undergraduate and graduate degree programs; enrich the departmental culture by championing a diverse and inclusive community; and ensuring that we remain at the forefront of innovation in civil and environmental engineering research and education.