Deep Foundations Institute (DFI) Educational Trust, the charitable arm of DFI, has elected four new board members.
John M. Allen, P.E.
John M. Allen, P.E., foundation engineering manager, Master Builders Solutions, has more than 20 years of experience managing sales to mining, waste and energy industries related to geotechnical, containment and remediation projects as well as more than 10 years of geotechnical and geosynthetics laboratory testing experience. He is the team leader for National Science Foundation GEER Multi-Hazard Canterbury Earthquake Event Sequence.
Allen is an active member of several organizations including the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), 2nd Vice Chair for D35 Committee on Geosynthetics; International Geosynthetic Society, North American Chapter, President; International Society of Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ISSMGE); and the American Society of Civil Engineers Geo-Institute. He has delivered technical presentations and been a short course instructor at over 10 international events and is the invited peer reviewer for several publications. He earned his bachelor’s degree in environmental resources engineering from Humboldt State University, and his master’s degree in geotechnical engineering from The University of Texas at Austin.
Emma Migneault
Emma Migneault, channel account manager, Worldsensing, has over 12 years of business development, estimating and project management experience. Migneault has been dedicated to instrumentation projects for geotechnical and structural applications for the last 7 years. Projects she has worked on include monitoring of earth retention systems, rail monitoring, structural monitoring, load testing of foundational elements, ground improvement design validation, dewatering performance verification dam performance and tunnel alignment monitoring. In her current role, she works with Worldsensing channel partners, develops key market strategies and develops technical approaches for IoT connectivity for remote monitoring.
Migneault is active in industry organizations and is the chair of the DFI Women in Deep Foundations (WiDF) Committee and has been involved in committee initiatives including development of the Mentoring Pod program, and fundraising for the DFI Educational Trust events at the annual conference including the WiDF reception, the 5K Fun Run/Walk and the Hal Hunt Lecture. She holds a bachelor’s degree in geology and geological oceanography from the University of Rhode Island.
Shawna Munn, P.Eng.
Shawna Munn, P.Eng., is president of Enterra Engineering, which provides geostructural design services as an integrated team member on projects. She was previously with Isherwood Geostructural Engineers for 16 years. During that time, she was a senior engineer, project manager and team leader on some of Isherwood’s trickiest transit and waterfront projects, with a focus on complex excavation support systems.
She is a member of the DFI Women in Deep Foundations Committee, DFI Risk and Contracts Committee, ADSC/DFI Joint Micropile Committee Member, ADSC/DFI Anchored Earth Retention Committee and Ontario Society of Professional Engineers. She received a bachelor’s degree in geological engineering from Queens University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
Monica Prezzi, Ph.D.
Monica Prezzi, Ph.D. , is a professor of civil engineering at Purdue University and the co-director of the university’s Center for Offshore, Foundation, and Energy Engineering. She started her career working on several large construction projects, including power plants, metropolitan train stations and chemical plants. She was a postdoctoral fellow at University of California, Berkeley, and in 2000 joined Purdue University, where she is currently a full professor.
Prezzi holds an undergraduate degree in civil engineering and a master’s degree in engineering from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Brazil. She holds both a master’s degree and a Ph.D. degree in civil engineering from University of California, Berkeley. During her studies at Berkeley, she was the recipient of the Carlson-Polivka Ph.D. fellowship and a CAPES Ph.D. fellowship.