We’re thrilled to share that Lisa Brothers, PE, ENV SP, LEED AP BD+C, Nitsch’s President & CEO, has been honored with the 2024 Distinguished Service Award by the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC). This prestigious recognition, presented at the ACEC Fall Conference in New Orleans, acknowledges Lisa’s outstanding service and dedication to ACEC.
The Distinguished Service Award is given to individuals who have shown exemplary service to ACEC, with nominations coming from the organization’s past chairs and presidents. Candidates are evaluated by a special subcommittee of recent ACEC leaders.
In her acceptance speech, Lisa expressed her gratitude and passion for the industry, then highlighted two key challenges she’s committed to driving change on: increasing the representation of underrepresented groups in senior leadership and addressing pay equity in the engineering and land surveying fields. More specifically, she said:
I’m honored to be recognized by the past chairs for this Distinguished Service Award highlighting my commitment and service to ACEC and the volunteer work that I am passionate about and enjoy doing!
I have had the ability to be engaged in many community and industry activities because we have an amazing Nitsch Team supporting all that I do and TOGETHER we have built an amazing company. We all know that no one achieves success alone. I love our industry and have enjoyed being involved in ACEC for over 30 years – being allowed to participate as a younger engineer really helped develop my leadership skills. I encourage everyone here to reach down and expose the next generation to ACEC. I have learned a lot and have made friends for life.
Those that know me know that I always use any platform I am given to highlight industry challenges that I am passionate about such as these two challenges.
First is bringing in more underrepresented people to the engineering and land surveying industry. As you all know, we don’t have enough engineers and land surveyors to do all the work that our industry has. There are lots of things we need to do but one piece that I am passionate about is we need to understand the correlation between having underrepresented people in senior leadership and on our boards with attracting and keeping them in our industry. It’s important for the underrepresented to see themselves in leadership.
If you don’t have any underrepresented people on your boards or in senior leadership – I challenge you to reflect why?
Second is pay equity. There continues to be wage gaps in compensation. Confirm your company’s compensation policy is equal pay for equal work for everyone, but especially for underrepresented employees. We are making small progress in base pay equity…but studies have shown that underrepresented employees tend to get smaller bonuses. So when you combine total pay – the wage gap widens. Please consider conducting a compensation audit to see how your company is doing and make the necessary equity adjustments.
As our speaker, Dr. Hakeem Oluseyi, noted during his remarks yesterday, we all get a lot of help along the way. I have had so many people support me during my career that I can’t mention them all but I would like to thank a few of them.
In this room, I would like to thank Robin Greenleaf, past chair, for nominating me and Abbie Goodman, ACEC/MA Executive Director. Both of you have provided unwavering support to me over many many years!
I also have to thank my family for always supporting all that I do. I am fortunate to have an amazing husband, Tom, who has always supported my career and was an equal partner raising our two children while both of us worked full-time.
My children, Ryan and Colleen, are amazing adults who make me proud to be their mother each and every day!
Thank you again for this honor.
We couldn’t be prouder of Lisa’s achievement and her continued commitment to making our industry better for everyone. Congratulations, Lisa!
