awards including two Air Force Commendations Medals, an Air Force Achievement Medal, and selections as the Company Grade officer of the Year and the Air Mobility Command’s National Society of Professional Engineers “Federal Engineer of the Year Award” in 2008. Her civilian recognition includes the NAVFAC MARIANAS Engineer of the Year 2012 and the Pacific Air Forces’ Federal Engineer of the Year Award in 2015. Mages is an active member of the National Society of Professional Engineers and SAME. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from Colorado State University with a minor in Aerospace Studies and is a Professional Engineer (Colorado). SAME grew from our nation’s experiences in World War I, when more than eleven thousand civilian engineers were called to duty as the United States entered “The War to End All Wars.” Upon their return, many feared the collective knowledge and the cooperation between the public and private sectors that proved vital to combat success would be lost. Industry and military leaders vowed to capitalize on the technical lessons and camaraderie shared during their battlefield experiences. The Anchorage Post of SAME was established in 1943. Robert Eugene Kniefel Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE)
Kniefel
Bob Kniefel is a semi-retired forty-four year resident of Anchorage. He and his family all live in Anchorage: wife Claudia; son Scott and his wife Kathryn; and his daughter Darcy; along with eight grandchildren. Kniefel has been involved in civil engineering with a
transportation focus for the entire time working in both the public government and private consulting sectors. His background includes traffic engineering work in operations, design and safety, transit efforts serving as the Public Transportation Director for ten years, and transportation planning work serving as the Anchorage Metropolitan Area Transportation System Manager. When not working part-time for Kittelson and Associates, Inc. as a senior project engineer, Kniefel has enjoyed volunteering his famous cooking prowess providing the catering for the ITE Scholarship Wine and Beer Tasting and the Grandfamilies monthly respite brunch, along with lunch and dinner meals for the Anchorage Habitat for Humanity housing construction crews. At the request of the Municipality of Anchorage, Kniefel came out of semi-retirement for a six month period in 2015 to handle the Acting Anchorage Building Official duties. He worked to proceed with the implementation of the online building permit process improving communications and reducing permitting review times. When not involved in the above activities, Kniefel plays at creating fused glass items and enjoys world travel with Claudia and spoiling his eight grandchildren. ITE is a professional society of more than fifteen thousand transportation engineers, planners, and other professionals in some eighty countries. The Institute facilitates the application of technology and scientific principles to research, planning, functional design, implementation, operation, policy development and management for all modes of transportation. R Patrick Coullahan, PE, F.NSPE, F. SAME is the 2014 Alaska Engineer of the Year. He is retired from the US Army Corps of Engineers-Alaska District.
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February 2016 | Alaska Business Monthly
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