Pro Spotlight: Steve VanHaren

Welcome to Civil Engineer Wire, a newsletter devoted to civil, structural, and architectural engineers in a time of great change. If this post was forwarded to you and you like what you see, click below or head over to civilengineerwire.com to subscribe. Let’s dive in.

Pro Spotlight: Steve VanHaren

Meet today’s pro.

Steve VanHaren is a Principal Engineer for Water Resources at WSP Canada. We asked him to tell us about himself, both professionally and personally.

• I’ve been in this or a similar role for 26 years with experience in Canada, including the far north, the United States, and Northern Africa. I have been involved in award-winning projects as well as progressive projects that reframe our relationship with surface water. These have included drainage, stormwater management, rainfall reuse, low impact development, Green Streets, and various approaches that allow us to use rainwater as a resource.

• I’m an avid skier and enjoy winter sports immensely. I also have a hobby of building low-level computer systems from spare and old parts to do various things like running a 3D printer or holding my digital pictures. It’s very rewarding and keeps my mind sharp.

• If I were to name a hero, I admire the courage of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. They realized that the situation they were in was not going to change and decided to make a change for themselves. They got the assistance they needed to continue supporting charitable and philanthropic causes, despite the negative press and influences that seem determined to watch them fail. I take a lot of inspiration from their example of courage.

What is the most exciting thing you’re working on today?

• I am challenging myself to develop a new tool for landowners to

  realize their risk from newly developing sources of flooding that most are unaware of, such as pluvial flooding. This tool is intended to evaluate all sources of flood risk via a digital twin process and goes far beyond flood maps to ensure that flood defenses, including optimized flood indemnification, are available where needed.

What is the biggest challenge you’re facing today in your role?

• In my experience, lack of information and intentional misinformation are the biggest challenges to improving our collective experiences. The future is growing more complicated every day, while the tools we have available are growing more sophisticated and complex. If we can harness our collective ability to develop and utilize them in an informed and forward-thinking manner, our ability to rise to whatever challenges may come, such as climate change, are unlimited.

What is one piece of advice you would give to a younger, less experienced version of yourself?

• Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good. Your work is valuable and needed, regardless of the level you are working at. Take ownership of ‘your thing’, whatever that is and work it until no one can surpass you. This approach leads those with the right frame of mind to excel in areas that are under appreciated but absolutely necessary to deal with unexpected challenges we will all face.

🎁 Want to win a YETI M12 soft backpack cooler?

Forward any of our issues to other civil and architectural engineers in your network and ask them to subscribe. Starting in February, we’ll include a running leaderboard in each issue and send a new YETI M12 cooler to the reader who’s referred the most subscribers at the end of the year.

Dive in & Connect

For your benefit, we have a dedicated slack channel for Civil Engineer Wire subscribers to connect, share insights, and support one another on their journeys to make an impact in the world of civil and architectural engineering. If you’d like to join, simply click the subscribe link below and we’ll send you an invite. Or, feel free to send us a note at [email protected]; we’d love to connect.

Until next time; happy goal crushing.