2017 Hall of Fame Inductees

Mark Christoffels is Chief Executive Officer/Chief Engineer of the Alameda Corridor-East (ACE) Construction Authority, where he is responsible for implementing the $1.7 billion ACE program of rail-roadway grade separations and at-grade crossing safety and mobility improvements in the San Gabriel Valley of eastern Los Angeles County. Due to its successful implementation, the Alameda Corridor-East Construction Authority program has been cited as a national model for addressing the impacts of nationally and regionally significant freight rail traffic on local communities.

Mr. Christoffels has been a practicing civil engineer in local government for more than 30 years and prior to his current position was the City Engineer and Public Works Director for several cities in both Los Angeles County and Orange County including a ten-year tenure with the City of Long Beach. Mr. Christoffels received his Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering from UC Irvine in 1983, and a Masters in Business Administration from Pepperdine University in 1985. He is both a registered Civil Engineer and Land Surveyor in the State of California.

Cynthia Guidry is the Deputy Executive Director over the Planning and Development Group for Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA). In this position, she manages a dynamic team of professionals and technical staff to plan, define, and deliver LAWA’s multi-billion dollar Capital Improvement Program (CIP), and manages improvement projects that support the operation of our airports. Her staff also oversees LAWA’s Signage, Wayfinding and Graphic Arts program, and LAWA’s innovative Public Art and Exhibition program.

Guidry joined LAWA in August 2001 and during her tenure has held a number of positions. She previously led the Capital Programming, Planning and Engineering Group, including Environmental and Land Use Planning, Central Utilities Plant, and Facilities and Technical Services Division, in several accomplishments that she credits to her outstanding staff and determination to improve all LAWA airports. Her team has been responsible for planning the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) Landside Access Modernization Program (LAMP) for the Automated People Mover (APM), Consolidated Rent-A-Car Center (ConRAC) and Intermodal Transportation Facilities.

Guidry, who has a Professional Engineer license from the State of California, has over 25 years of planning, engineering, and professional experience working with the City of Los Angeles. She serves on the Board of Directors for both the Los Angeles Chapter of Women’s Transportation Seminar (WTS) and the LAX Coastal Chamber of Commerce.

Guidry holds a Master of Business Administration degree from Pepperdine University and a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering from the University of California at Irvine.

Dr. Hamid Moradkhani, director of remote sensing and water resources lab is a professor of civil and environmental engineering, fellow of the institute for sustainable solutions and recipient of the faculty research excellence award at Portland State University. He is a world class expert with over 25 years of experience and significant contributions on tackling the grand challenges faced by water resources planners, stakeholders and emergency managers here and around the world: how to be sure there is enough water to meet demands and protect the livelihood and properties against extreme events as populations swell and weather patterns shift due to climate variability and change.

He is a highly cited author of over 130 papers and book chapters, and pioneer in particle filtering data assimilation, cyber innovation and uncertainty quantification methods currently used extensively in engineering, earth system science and many other disciplines internationally. He earned the distinction of Diplomat of Water Resources Engineering recognized and designated by the American Academy of Water Resources Engineers for his extensive contribution to the design and operation of large scale water resources systems. He is also a fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers and a fellow of the Environmental and Water Resources Institute. He has chaired several technical committees, panels and conferences and workshop, served on several advisory panels on drought, flood, climate change and water policy issues including National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration drought task force and international advisory panel of FloodNet of Canada. Dr. Moradkhani has been on the editorial boards of several high stature journals including Water Resources Research of American Geophysical Union, Elsevier Journal of Hydrology and ASCE Journal of Hydrologic Engineering among others.

Mr. Christopher Schott is retired after a 35-year career in the semiconductor business and has worked as an engineer doing failure analysis and yield improvement. He has held management positions for design and test engineering, and ultimately ran business units at IDT Inc. accounting for about $400M in sales, which was half the company's sales at the time.

Mr. Schott is married with two sons, ages 30 and 27, and has resided in Monterey County for the last 31 years. He is enjoying retirement and still using his engineering training for activities such as fly-fishing, as well as tutoring his youngest son and his girlfriend in Physics, which he has enjoyed tremendously.

Mr. Schott earned his B.S. in Electrical Engineering in 1973 at UC Irvine.

Joan Wada is a Technical Fellow at the Boeing Company, where she has had an extensive engineering career in the defense industry, authoring 17 awarded patents of Next Generation Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) instruments. Her focus is on developing new innovative technologies, integrating and implementing strategies for new business growth, and enhancing customer relationships. She has made significant system architectural improvements to Submarine Acoustic Detection on the P-8A Anti-Submarine Warfare program, Guidance and Control on the Minuteman III Missile program, and a wide range of programs encompassing missiles, satellites and ground command and control stations.

Joan initially joined Rockwell International (now Boeing) to work on test equipment upgrades for the Peacekeeper Missile. She has since worked in various capacities ranging from hardware designer to software developer. During this time, she held positions with increasing levels of responsibility and won several awards for her technical achievements, including recognition as the Asian American Engineer of the Year in 2007 by the Chinese Institute of Engineering.

Joan earned a BS in Electrical Engineering from UC Irvine and a MBA from California State University San Bernardino. She is a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Joan enjoys mentoring others, and is involved with many mentoring activities at local Universities, high schools and at Boeing.