Celebrating SAME Volunteers for 2021 National Volunteers Week!

For 100 years, SAME members have made a difference in their communities as volunteers—inspiring youth toward STEM careers, identifying and develop leaders, mentoring young professionals, and supporting veterans and their preparation for post service careers, while promoting resilience and helping identify and resolve local infrastructure challenges. Last year through more than 100 Posts worldwide, SAME members spent over 17,250 hours conducting STEM outreach, over 4,600 hours supporting veterans and wounded warriors, and over 11,500 hours of community service; gave nearly $140,000 to wounded veteran initiatives; and donated more than $650,000 to STEM programs.

During 2021 National Volunteers Week (April 18-24), we celebrate several members of the Society, who by donating their time and resources to give back where they work and live, are having a lasting impact on SAME’s efforts to help secure America’s future, together. We couldn’t do any of what we do without you!

Rich Stump, F.SAME

  • Facilitator, SBC Government Focus Group for 2020 SBC
  • Honolulu Post
  • RS&H

Rich served as facilitator of the Government Task Force for Virtual SBC, helping make it truly “Built by the Experts.” This task force ensured that SBC delivered value to our government participants and was an integral part of making matched networking as valuable as possible. During the 2019 Europe Engineer Conference, he facilitated an Industry-Government Engagement Workshop that helped participants address major issues in working internationally. Rich previously served as RVP of the Pacific Region and has been an integral member of the International Committee.

Sally Clark, CPSM

  • Leader, SBC 2020 Exhibitor Task Force, SAME Exhibitor Advisory Council, and Vice Chair, Small Business Community of Interest for Conferences
  • Mid-Maryland Post
  • AFG Group

Sally, an SAME Elected Director, contributed in many ways in 2020 but one of the major efforts was surrounding Virtual SBC. She established three of the task forces that were developed to ensure SBC remained relevant and delivered maximum value in a virtual environment. She led the Exhibitor Task Force, which led to the creation of the Exhibitor Advisory Council, a group of representatives from Sustaining Member companies with the goal of garnering year-round feedback on SAME’s exhibiting and sponsorship offerings. Additionally, Sally has moderated sessions at SBC, and is extremely active in the Mid-Maryland Post.

Sally Riker, F.SAME

  • Leader, SBC 2020 Attendee Task Force
  • Atlanta Post and Savannah Post
  • Lowe Engineers

Sally facilitated the Attendee Task Force for Virtual SBC, helping to ensure that going virtual would still deliver value and exceed expectations for its attendees. Thanks to her leadership, feedback and suggestions were used to make improvements to many elements of Virtual SBC that will be carried forward through the future.

Jeff Duguid

  • Vice Chair, Small Business Community of Interest for Education & Training
  • Space Coast Post
  • Tetra Tech

Jeff is always ready to pitch in on anything having to do with our conferences, webinars, and more. He has served on Call for Presentation review committees for numerous conferences, leading many of the track review groups. He can always be counted on to moderate sessions during conferences. He also served on different task forces for Virtual SBC this year and is the Vice Chair for the Small Business COI.

Col. C. Patrick Hogeboom IV, P.E., F.SAME, USA

  • Vice-chair, Leader Development Community of Interest Evaluation
  • Atlanta Post
  • Office of Economic Adjustment, Department of Defense

Patrick provided guidance to the Leader Development Community of Interest and Leader Development Program on evaluating the effectiveness of SAME’s leader development efforts. Patrick is the Scholarship POC for the Atlanta Post, participates in multiple COIs, and was once the Committee Chair for Streamer Reviews.

Angie Martinez, P.E., F.SAME

  • Vice-chair, Leader Development Community of Interest Marketing/Communications, and Leader Development Program Book Lead
  • Space Coast Post
  • Martinez Construction Services

Angie serves as the moderator for the annual Leader Development Program graduation and oversees the book component of the Leader Development Program curriculum. She is an active member of the Space Coast Post and recently became the RVP for the South Atlantic Region!

Daniel Mitchell

  • President, George Mason SAME Student Chapter
  • Northern Virginia Post
  • Volgenau School of Engineering, George Mason University

Daniel is one SAME’s student members. He helps provide strategic direction to the George Mason Student Chapter and serves as the bridge between the Northern Virginia Post and George Mason students.

Debra Crafter

  • Co-Chair, Diversity & Inclusion Working Group
  • Northern Virginia Post
  • LEO A DALY

Elaina Edwards

  • Co-Chair, Diversity & Inclusion Working Group
  • Washington DC Post, San Antonio Post, Mobile Post
  • WSP

Debra and Elaina are the team that started the Diversity & Inclusion Working Group in the fall of 2019 and have been instrumental in bringing the necessary awareness to diversity, equity, and inclusion at SAME. They helped develop a member survey, provided a report to the National Board of Direction based on their findings, and created paths forward for SAME to commit and cascade diversity, equity, and inclusion throughout the organization. The Diversity & Inclusion Working Group has grown from two to 20 in the past year, including one of the newest members, SAME Past President Buddy Barnes.

Christian Knutson, CEng, P.E., PgMP, F.SAME

  • Chair, International Community of Interest
  • United Kingdom Post, Kaiserslautern Post, Rhein-Main Post
  • Stanley Consultants

As the current Chair of the International COI, Chris has enhanced their monthly programming to include Master Classes, providing content that is not available elsewhere. Consequently, COI participation has doubled! In addition, Chris serves as an advisor to SAME’s new Post, the United Kingdom Post and supported their efforts to stand up a Post again at Lakenheath RAF. He ensured they had a solid membership base, officers lined up with succession plans, and initial programming to ensure continued success. He was inducted into the Academy of Fellows in 2020.

Col. Miro Kurka, P.E., PMP, F.SAME, USA (Ret.)

  • SAME TEXOMA RVP
  • Tulsa Post
  • Meade & Hunt

In addition to RVP duties, Miro has worked tirelessly on IGE issues for SAME. Most recently, in his dual role as a dedicated SAME and ACEC member, he has championed the issue of cost estimation. He has held several roundtables, moderated several sessions, and has written white papers on the subject. He was also very involved on the TORN Tiger Team as an industry representative. He is not afraid to get his hands dirty, and is an outstanding SAME Member.

Joe Corrigan, P.E.

  • Northern Virginia Post, Washington DC Post
  • Steptoe & Johnson LLP

Joe is a regular sight on the Hill and keeps SAME informed of what is going on behind closed doors. He has his finger on the pulse of Congress and works tirelessly to support our industry’s interests and our country’s national infrastructure. He is always willing to moderate a session and share his knowledge with COIs, Posts, and more. He participates in working groups (most recently the TORN Tiger Team) and has a balanced outlook toward industry and government engagement. He is not afraid to tell either side when they are being unreasonable. Joe is a West Point graduate and knew the Commandant personally because even in college, he was always shaking things up!

Col. Matt Altman, P.E., F.SAME, USAF

  • Chair, Key Leader Development Committee, and Appointed Board of Direction Director
  • Minot Post, Narraganset Bay Post, San Antonio Post
  • USAF – U.S. Naval War College

Matt has always been a very active member of SAME while in uniform and has held many positions, including the Young Professionals Chair. In his current role, he is working to strengthen SAME from within by demystifying the route to leadership positions in SAME. He has helped make changes to the nominating procedures for National Officers and Elected Directors. He has held webinars to explain SAME Board positions to our members, and he actively recruits leaders through other various SAME activities that he has somehow found the time for!

Mike Scarano, P.E., F.SAME

  • Secretary and Treasurer, New York City Post; STEM, Camp, Centennial and Leadership POC; Web Administrator
  • New York City Post
  • New Jersey Transit

Mike has been active in all aspects of the New York City Post. Specifically, his enthusiastic can-do attitude has been instrumental in providing annual sponsorships to worthy SAME Campers from the New York City Post. He is a volunteer you can always count on to be responsive and reliable!

Henry Dulaney, P.E., F.SAME

  • President, Vicksburg Post, and Camp Director, SAME Army Engineering & Construction Camp
  • Vicksburg Post
  • USACE

Henry is the Director of the SAME Army Engineering & Construction Camp. He has run the very popular and competitive camp for decades, soliciting sponsorships and offering the camp experience to hundreds of kids, both national and local, at a minimal cost. Through the camp program, he has promoted military engineering to generations of potential STEM students.

Col. Joe Manous, Jr, P.E., Ph.D., F.SAME, USA (Ret.)

  • Chair, Resilience Community of Interest
  • Northern Virginia Post
  • USACE

Joe has been an extremely active member of SAME for over 40 years, serving in numerous positions including Post President for the Northern Virginia Post and Chair for two different COIs. During his time as Chair for the Resilience COI, he has provided outstanding leadership to the resilience community, steering committee, and SAME members. He activity recruits SMEs to strengthen the core team and provides constant value to the engineering profession.

Michelle Sipe

  • Chair, Energy Community of Interest
  • Philadelphia Post, Huntsville Post, Panama City Post
  • Lutron Electronics Co., Inc.

As a new member to SAME in 2014, Michelle started as the Young Professional Liaison to the Energy and Sustainability COI, quickly moving up to the Vice Chair. Currently, Michelle is the Chair of the Energy and Sustainability COI. She has also embraced the virtual environment and engaged in remote Posts such as volunteering as the Resilience Director for the SAME Panama City Post and attending Philadelphia Post and Huntsville Post meetings virtually this past year.

Albert Romano

  • Incoming Chair, Resilience Community of Interest
  • Phoenix Post, Northern Virginia Post
  • ATCS, PLC

Albert has been involved with SAME for more than a decade. While in Phoenix, Albert supported the Phoenix Post as a liaison to the national resilience committee. He had previously been the first private sector Chair of The Infrastructure Security Partnership (TISP), the predecessor organization to the Resilience COI. After his tenure as Chair, Albert continued his involvement by serving on TISP subcommittees and the Resilience COI. He is currently serving as the IGE and Technical Advisory Group lead for the Resilience COI and is the incoming Chair. Additionally, Albert has served as moderator for sessions at the annual JETC and SBC, and has volunteered his time to review Resilience Streamer submissions as well as abstract submittals for the Resilience track at JETC.

Lt. Col. David Foster, USA (Ret.)

  • Co-Chair, Geospatial Working Group
  • Philadelphia Post, New Jersey Post
  • 372 Consulting, LLC

David participated in the establishment of the SAME Geospatial Working Group in 2017 with the goal of expanding awareness and leveraging of foundational data and the analytical capabilities offered by geospatial engineers. Highlights of the working group thus far include the 2019 JETC GeoWERX Demonstration, and SAME partnership with the United States Geospatial-Intelligence Foundation.

Beth Harris, F.SAME, F.SMPS, CPSM

  • Board Member, Atlanta Post
  • Atlanta Post
  • Versar

Beth is a recently invested Fellow fulfilling her commitment to mentor the young professionals in her Post to host a spectacular IGE event. Beth has spoken at numerous SAME conferences and serves as one of our crossover members with SMPS (a Strategic Partner of SAME) where she has served on their Board of Direction. She has been an active member of SAME for many years and is always looking for the next place to volunteer.

As stated in the 2025 SAME Strategic Plan, the vision of our Society is to serve our nation as the foremost integrator for leadership development and technical collaboration within the A/E/C profession. The most important word in that vision statement is serve; for a century, SAME has been about service: to our profession, to our nation, and to our local communities.

The Society of American Military Engineers is celebrating 100 years of service to the nation in dedication to national defense. This week, and every week, we celebrate all those volunteers who have given their time and energy over the last century to help SAME deliver value and carry out its mission of fostering industry government engagement to strengthen national security. SAME couldn’t do it without all of you!