“It’s an interesting moment, the first time you realize that you’re not the ‘new kid’ anymore – the new kids are now looking to you for advice,” said Ellen Hall, who enjoys the opportunity to provide informal training and mentoring for young engineers at Hazen and Sawyer. Ellen began her career as an assistant engineer in the Fairfax, Virginia, office of the national engineering firm just weeks after receiving her M.S. in environmental engineering at Virginia Tech in 1996. She since has risen to the role of senior principal engineer with the firm.



“Soon after she was hired at Hazen and Sawyer, her office manager and principal engineer called me asking, ‘Do you have another Ellen coming through graduate school that you can send to me?Õ said Dr. Andrea Dietrich, Ms. Hall’s teacher and advisor during her graduate studies.



Ellen’s career at Virginia Tech foreshadowed her success as a professional engineer. As an undergraduate in the Via Department, she received a four-year scholarship as a University Distinguished Scholar, and also the Gilbert and Lucille Seay Memorial and NSPE Education Foundation-VPI&SU scholarships. A Dean’s List student all four years, she interned as a civil engineering aide at the Tennessee Valley Authority and was a National Science Foundation summer research fellow at Northwestern University.



As a student, Ellen managed to find time to pursue her musical interests, singing with the University Concert Choir and the Blacksburg Master Chorale. “I still rank our 1994 performance of Mahler’s Second Symphony with the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra, the Roanoke Valley Choral Society and several other college choirs as my favorite concert experience,” she recalled.



After graduating summa cum laude in 1994, Ellen began her M.S. program, working as a GTA for the department and then as a GRA with the Occoquan Watershed Monitoring Laboratory. She received a Waste Policy Institute Fellowship in 1995 and once again graduated with honors.



In addition to Andrea Dietrich – “kind, insightful, an excellent advisor and valued friend” – Ellen cites Dr. Robert Hoehn as a decisive influence in her career focus. “He’s truly one of the great lecturers in the field. His undergraduate water/wastewater design course confirmed my plans to specialize in water/wastewater engineering.”



During her seven years with Hazen and Sawyer, Ellen has worked on a number of water supply and wastewater treatment projects, providing technical leadership in the areas of hydraulics and water quality. She currently serves as project manager for several study and design projects.



She also has been a leader in the Virginia Section of the American Water Works Association (AWWA). In 1997 she began a three-year term as editor of the section’s quarterly newsletter. “Ellen jumped right in,” said Dr. Dietrich. “Her articles were requested for reprinting by other state sections and her most successful article, ‘A Brief History of Drinking Water,’ was also published by the national AWWA in the 25th anniversary issue.” Currently, Ellen is the Virginia Section’s webmaster and serves on the editorial advisory board of Opflow, AWWA’s national monthly publication.



Ellen has been recruited into several Virginia Section AWWA committee positions and, in 2000, became one of the youngest –and one of the first female – trustees ever elected to the association’ s board. “Her leadership role in the Virginia Section has helped maintain its role as one of the best sections in the nation,” Dr. Dietrich said.



“I encourage the young engineers in my office and the students I meet to become more involved in their professional societies,” said Ellen. “I’ve been fortunate that my firm is very supportive of professional society activities. I wish more firms were – it’ s a small investment in comparison with the benefits, for employers, employees and the future of the profession.”



Ellen continues her efforts on behalf of Virginia Tech and its engineering students, working to develop potential internship and permanent employment opportunities for Via Department undergraduates at Hazen and Sawyer.



She also visits campus for homecoming each year with her husband, Carl Crown, a 1992 Virginia Tech mechanical engineering graduate and former Marching Virginian, who is now a systems engineer with BAE Systems. Ellen has continued her choral singing, for the past few years with the George Mason University Symphonic Chorus and currently with the Springfield Chorale. Highlights so far, she says, have been performances of Rachmaninoff’s “The Bells” at the National Cathedral, and of the Faur. Requiem with guest conductor Leonard Slatkin, director of the National Symphony Orchestra.