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DFI Educational Trust elects new members, awards scholarships

News | January 29, 2025 | By:

John M. Allen, P.E.

Deep Foundations Institute (DFI) Educational Trust, the charitable arm of DFI, has elected four new board members.

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 seven 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. She 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., 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.

Monica Prezzi, Ph.D.

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.

DFI Educational Trust awards scholarships from four funds

DFI recently awarded scholarships from the Menard Carnegie Mellon University ScholarshipStanley Merjan City College of New York (CCNY) Civil Engineering Scholarship FundGeorge J. Tamaro Manhattan University Civil Engineering Scholarship Fund and William F. Loftus Memorial Scholarship Fund.

Manhattan University students and their advisors. Left to right: Emanuel Lala, Mark Markic, Caitlan Haiduk, Alexandra Castellano, Anirban De (advisor), Meddi Omdivar (advisor), Annas Alokush, Konstantine Mendrinos, Brady Flood and Samuel Guzman.

Two students from Carnegie Mellon University College of Engineering received scholarships this fall: Dalton Harmon, an undergraduate student, and Beatrice Wu, a graduate student.

Three Grove School of Engineering students each received $5,000 awards from the Stanley Merjan City College of New York Civil Engineering Scholarship Fund. The fund was established in 2010 and is named for the late Stanley Merjan, an inspiration and mentor to young engineers throughout the construction industry, and a graduate of City College of New York. The recipients, all senior civil engineering students, were Liberty Abordo, Mame Diarra Diokhane and Patryk Kwiatkowski.

Two seniors from Manhattan University each received $2,500 awards from the William F. Loftus Memorial Scholarship Fund, recently established in memory of Bill Loftus, a DFI founder and the only DFI president to serve twice. The recipients were Alexandra Castellano and Mark Markic.

Six Manhattan University students each received $2,500 awards from the George J. Tamaro Manhattan University Civil Engineering Scholarship Fund. The scholarship is named for George J. Tamaro, a member of the first class of DFI Legends award winners and a graduate of Manhattan University. The recipients, all junior or senior civil engineering students, were Annas Alokush, Brady Flood, Samuel Guzman, Caitlin Haiduk, Emanuel Lala and Konstantine Mendrinos.

The Manhattan University students were recognized at the trust’s Annual Gala in New York in November.

The DFI Educational Trust manages 22 scholarship programs funded by endowments, donations and fundraising events. Since 2006, the trust has awarded $2.2 million in scholarships to more than 550 students studying at colleges and universities across the U.S. and Canada.

Learn more about DFI here.

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