SWE Officer Profiles

Central Florida SWE Officers

President: Barika Poole

Barika Poole is a water resources project manager with CDM, where she has worked for 5 years. She has worked within Central Florida and New England on surface water and groundwater projects consisting of stormwater master planning, conveyance and capacity modeling, NPDES permitting and compliance, groundwater remediation and aquifer storage and recovery design and construction. She earned her Bachelors of Science degree in Environmental Engineering in 2001, and her Masters of Engineering degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering in 2002, both from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In addition to SWE, she is a member of ASCE, FES, NSPE and NSBE, which she has held the offices of Secretary, Vice President, and currently Treasurer. She became a member of SWE in 2004 and has served the section for the past 3 years as Meeting Coordinator, Finance Committee Chair, and Treasurer. Ms. Poole would like the opportunity to serve the Central Florida Section as President because she believes that she can bring a fresh outlook to engage the membership and foster relationships with other professional societies within Central Florida.

Vice President: Kathleen Ruvarac

Kathi J. Ruvarac, PE is a civil engineer with Wilbur Smith Associates. She specializes in roadway and structural design for transportation projects. Kathi has been a member of the SWE Central Florida Section since 2005. She strongly supports SWE’s initiative of advancing girls and young women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) related careers. She believes in giving back to the community, which has helped her to succeed. She feels that participating in outreach activities helps strengthen the local presence of women in the engineering community and this will facilitate the trail for other women. Kathi would like to help further SWE’s initiatives in our section as Vice President. As a past and current member of the Central Florida SWE Executive Board, Kathi can provide leadership and continuity to the section’s operations as Vice President. Kathi has served as Outreach Chair for FY07 and FY08 and served as Awards Chair for FY06.

Kathi has participated in Discover!, the Sally Ride Science Festival, FES Mathcounts, Expanding your Horizons, the Region D Conference, SECME, ASCE Engineer for a Day, and the Florida Educator’s Engineering Conference. Kathi is also involved in ASCE as a Special Project Chair and in Chi Epsilon.

Secretary: Lori Duda

Lori earned her bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in March 1998, where she attended on a scholarship for softball. Her first job after graduation was with Norfolk Southern Corporation, where she designed rail alignments. In 2001, she decided to switch things up and changed her specialty from rail to aviation where she worked at both HNTB and PBS&J. This past year, she decided to make a change again and switched her focus to Land Development. She currently works at Kimley-Horn and Associates where she serves as Project Manager. She is a member of both SWE and ASCE.

Her contributions to SWE include serving as the Membership Chair in 2005 and as the Secretary this past year. In her free time, she enjoys playing softball and volleyball and spending time with friends and family. She is also currently working on getting an MBA from the University of Florida.

Treasurer: Tracey Whaley

Tracey A. Whaley, P.E., F.P.E. is employed by Hanson Professional Services, Inc. as a Senior Associate, Lead Mechanical Engineer with expertise in mechanical and fire protection systems for buildings. Hanson is a full service Architecture and Engineering firm. Tracey is a Lead Mechanical Engineer and project manager for the Orlando office. Tracey also serves as the co-chair of an internal technical discipline group for the company’s mechanical engineers. Tracey has been involved with SWE since 1999 when she helped plan a SWE National Conference right in her backyard, Denver, CO. This experience made a great impression and impact on Tracey who then became more involved with the Rocky Mountain Section. As a member of the Rocky Mountain Section, Tracey served as the Membership Chair for several years, the Section President for FY05, and Section Representative for FY06. When she relocated to Florida in 2006, she immediately became involved with the Central Florida Section and has been the Event Coordinator for Discover! for the last 2 years. Tracey wants to continue her involvement with SWE in the Central Florida Section and would be honored to serve as the Treasurer.

Section Representative: Annmarie Connor

Annmarie is a System Design Engineer with United Space Alliance. She received both her Bachelors and Masters Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Central Florida. She has been an active member of SWE since 2000, holding various leadership roles, as a student and a professional. While at the UCF, she was the Student Section President for two years and the Chair of the 2001 Region D Conference, among other roles. As a professional member of the Central Florida Section, she coordinated all the SWE National Section Awards for 3 consecutive years. Since she discovered that competitions and awards are her passion in SWE, she was named the SWE National Chair of the Awards & Recognition Committee for FY06 and FY07, and is applying to continue as Chair in FY08 and FY09. In this exciting role, she is responsible for the SWE Individual Awards, Emerging Leader Awards, New Faces of Engineering Recognition Program, Section Awards and also the Collegiate Competitions. As Section Rep, Annmarie looks forward to being the contact between the SWE Board of Directors and our Section. She has support from her company to attend the SWE National Convention in Nashville, TN this October to attend the COR meeting. She eagerly wants to provide the link between our professional section and National SWE's goals and objectives.