The American Concrete Institute (ACI) introduced its 2013-2014 president, vice president, and four board members during the ACI Spring 2013 Convention in Minneapolis, Minn. last month.
Anne M. Ellis was elected to serve as president of the Institute for 2013-2014.
Sharon L. Wood has been elected ACI vice president for a two-year term, and William E. Rushing, Jr. is now the Institute’s senior vice president, which is also a two-year term. Additionally, four members have been elected to serve on the ACI Board of Direction, each for three-year terms.
President
Anne M. Ellis, FACI, is Vice President, Government Initiatives, AECOM, Springfield, VA. She has 33 years of experience with the A/E/C industry supporting public- and private-sector clients, concrete industry collaboration and advancements, and the expansion of a global, publicly traded professional services firm. At AECOM, she manages business-critical initiatives and engages in policy, legislative, and regulatory issues affecting AECOM and the clients and markets the firm serves. Additionally, Ellis oversees the day-to-day operations of the AECOM Global Advisory Board and Government Services Advisory Council, comprised of prominent leaders, external to AECOM, who are recognized and highly accomplished in business, government, and geopolitical affairs. AECOM is a global provider of professional technical and management support services to a broad range of markets, including transportation, facilities, environmental, energy, water, and government.
Prior to joining AECOM, Ellis represented the concrete and cement industries as Regional Structural Engineer for the Portland Cement Association and as Applied Engineering Manager for the National Ready Mixed Concrete Association. Additionally, she has been involved with numerous structural engineering projects as a Design Engineer and then Project Manager with the engineering firms Dewberry; Martin, Cagley & Middlebrook; and Parsons Brinckerhoff Quade & Douglas, Inc.
In support of engineering education throughout her career, Ellis has taught a variety of courses, including concrete design to undergraduate students and continuing education classes to practicing engineers.
Ellis was named an ACI Fellow in 2008. She chairs the International Forum and the ACI Task Group on International Communication, and serves on the Task Group for Next Strategic Plan Review and ACI Committee 375, Performance-Based Design of Concrete Buildings for Wind Loads. Ellis has previously served on the ACI Board of Direction, the Board of the ACI Foundation, the Financial Advisory Committee, the International Advisory Committee, and the International Partnerships & Publications Committee. She is a past Chair of the Marketing Committee and the Board Task Group on Student E-Membership. She has served on many technical committees, including ACI Committees 330, Concrete Parking Lots and Site Paving; 551, Tilt-Up Concrete Construction; and C650, Tilt-Up Constructor Certification.
Working with ACI colleagues, Ellis helped institute free ACI student e-membership, facilitate ACI’s entry into social networking (Facebook), and establish the Collegiate Concrete Council and the Student and Young Professional Activities Committee. In support of sustainability, she served on the Board Advisory Committee for Sustainable Development and led the Task Group for the Strategic Development Council Concrete Sustainability Vision and Roadmap.
Ellis is a 2013 inductee into the Virginia Tech Academy of Engineering Excellence, an elite group that now consists of only 119 people out of its more than 60,000 living alumni. She is a 2007 inductee into the Virginia Tech Via Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Academy of Distinguished Alumni. She has completed terms on the Virginia Tech College of Engineering Advisory Board and the Civil and Environmental Engineering Advisory Board, including a term as Chair.
By appointment of the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, Ellis serves on the Environmental Technologies Trade Advisory Committee (ETTAC). ETTAC provides private-sector advice to 19 federal departments and agencies, with a primary focus on promoting the export of U.S. environmental goods and services.
Ellis is active in several business and professional organizations. She is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and served as ASCE National Concrete Canoe Competition judge in 2004, 2005, and 2012.
The author of numerous articles and coauthor of the “Concrete Design and Construction” section of the Standard Handbook for Civil Engineers, fifth edition, Ellis is a frequent speaker at universities, professional societies, and industry forums. She received her BS in civil engineering from Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, and has been a professional engineer in Virginia since 1984.
Vice President
Sharon L. Wood, FACI, is the Robert L. Parker Sr. Centennial Professor in Engineering and Chair of the Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX. An ACI member since 1983, she has previously served on the ACI Board of Direction and as Chair of the Technical Activities Committee and the Publications Committee. She is a current member of ACI Committees 318, Structural Concrete Building Code; 369, Seismic Repair and Rehabilitation; and the Financial Advisory Committee. Wood is Chair of Subcommittee 318-E, Shear and Torsion, and a member of Subcommittee 318-SC, Steering Committee, and the Committee 318 Task Group on Reinforcement. She was named a Fellow of ACI in 1994.
Wood has served on the faculty at the University of Texas (UT) since 1996, where she teaches classes on design and behavior of reinforced concrete structures, earthquake engineering, and engineering professionalism. Prior to joining UT, she served on the faculty in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, for 10 years.
Early in her career, Wood’s research focused on studying the seismic response of buildings. She has investigated building performance after earthquakes in Chile, California, and Turkey. She has also conducted static and dynamic tests of reinforced concrete frame and wall systems in the laboratory and investigated soil-foundation-structure interaction in the field. More recent research has focused on design and evaluation of reinforced and prestressed concrete bridges and development of passive sensors to detect the onset of corrosion in reinforced concrete structures.
Wood has received the Joe W. Kelly Award and the Henry L. Kennedy Award from ACI, the Alfred Nobel Award from the American Society of Civil Engineers, and the Arthur J. Boase Award from the Reinforced Concrete Research Council, and she was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2013. She was also honored by the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute with the Distinguished Lecture Award. She has served on federal advisory committees for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program, and the U.S. Geological Survey.
Wood received her BS in civil engineering from the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, and her MS and PhD from the University of Illinois. She is a licensed professional engineer in Texas.
