Section 10 - Engineer of the Year
Janine R. Wood Parks

Janine R. Wood Parks, P.E, M.ASCE has been a member of NYSATE since 1984. She has served on the Section 10 Board for 18 of her 26 years of membership. The missing years account for the time she spent working for private firms, during which time she maintained her membership and involvement on various committees. She served on the State Board of Directors for 10 years from 1989 to 1998; and served as Vice President for 2 years.

Janine began her Engineering Career after Graduating in 1982 from Manhattan College with a Bachelor of Engineering in Civil Engineering. Her career of 28 years so far, has taken an unusual path for a long time NYSATE Member…...she has worked as a Civil Engineer for a variety of employers: NY Telephone ( 1982-1984), NYSDOT (1984-1998), Lockwood Kessler and Bartlett, Inc. (1998-2002), Dunne Engineering Associates (2002-2005) and finally back home to NYSDOT (2005 to date).

Janine began her DOT career in a Hwy Design Squad and then moved on to the Structures Unit after one year. There she stayed and contributed to the inspection, evaluation and rehabilitation of the Regions bridges for the next 13 years. Janine left State service to experience a wider variety of civil engineering work, with the hope of one day returning to DOT. During her years as a private sector engineer, Janine had the fortunate opportunity to work on a variety of engineering projects, very few of which involved bridges or State work. It was the perfect variety of new experience that she had envisioned. She returned to Region 10 NYSDOT to work in the Regional Transportation Maintenance Office. In 2006 she moved over to Highway Maintenance Residency 05 (Melville) as an Assistant Resident Engineer, and then to Bridge Maintenance in 2007 as an Assistant Regional Bridge Maintenance Engineer. In her current position, Janine is a CE2 and responsible for project and program management and assisting in the daily operations of bridge maintenance activities.

Another example of Janine's extraordinary innate talents is her proclivity to educate and nurture everything in her life. Clearly, her focus has been to train, educate and promote engineering to her coworkers, future engineers and industry peers. A few of the more impressive NYSATE engineering education programs that Janine either helped launch or was a very active participant in include the Safe Streets Exhibit held at the Nassau Coliseum, the media's darling Bridge Building Contest conducted at the State Office Building, numerous lunchtime and post-work speaker programs, the respectful and handsomely landscaped Memorial Garden, and the expansion of Long Island's Adopt-a-Highway and establishment of the Adopt a Spot programs to address the growing litter problem while reducing the use of state resources. Whether Janine takes a leadership role such as chair of the Section 10 Engineer of the Year Committee, or the 1992 NYSATE Annual Conference or a supportive role on committees such as the Walkable-Bikeable Communities Conference in 1998, Scholarship committee, company picnics, and election committee, reliability has been Janine's hallmark.