It's #EngineersWeek and we celebrate our members who are professional engineers. We are spotlighting the accomplishments, thoughts, and motivations of a few of those members who inspire us - including Kate Bondy, PE, PTOE.

As a graduate of Arizona State University with a degree in Civil Engineering, Kate went on to work as a Traffic Engineer. As she progressed in her career, she became a Project Manager, focusing on traffic tasks and small projects. Today she is a Project Manager for both Arizona and New Mexico, exceling in her career, and acting as a wonderful mentor and role model to many engineers in the transportation industry.

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What do you consider an important aspect to being an engineer?

When speaking with Kate, it was obvious how much her family means to her. She mentioned how important maintaining a work-life balance is, and how difficult it can be, especially while advancing in her career. She said, “When I was younger, I remember someone asking me what my five-year plan was and I said oh, I’d love to become a manager for this department, or I’d love to do this and that. They would say okay, that’s perfect and I thought, okay well wait a minute, I want to get married and I want to have kids.” Kate said that maintaining work-life balance is probably one of the hardest things about being an engineer, but she has been able to do it so far. She even mentioned that COVID has helped achieve that balance more so now than ever because she can be at home with her kids while working.

What do you like best about your job?

“To see a direct impact on both the safety and economic viability of our community is really rewarding to me.” Kate talked about how tangible civil engineering is and how being in the transportation industry we can make a true difference, and visibly see the outcome. Kate mentioned how she will point out different projects and improvements she has directly worked on in her community to her two kids. She says, “I love being able to be like, “Look! Mom helped to do that.”

What is your favorite project that you’ve worked on?

Kate’s favorite project was SR179 in Sedona, AZ. She said, “when the project started, there were barely any roundabouts in Arizona, and ADOT had never done context sensitive design at the time. They had actually designed a four-lane roadway for SR179, and the community freaked out about it.” Reflecting back on it, Kate said, “as a young engineer it was really impactful to see a true context sensitive design. We were able to go to the community and say, “what do you want to see here?” and the community were the ones that said, “we want roundabouts.”” The SR179 Sedona project stood out to her because it was one of the first projects where she saw from the very beginning to being built out.

What has been the most challenging feat you’ve faced in your career?

When asking Kate to talk about a challenge she has faced as an engineer, she mentioned public speaking. She said, “I am very comfortable talking about things I know, but I am not very comfortable making up stuff. It’s the questions. One of the most challenging things for me is being confident with myself. It’s not the speaking in front of people but being confident that I know enough to speak on their question.” Kate said that keeping confidence in herself no matter what is something she strives for. By staying confident, she has proven to be very successful as both an engineer and a project manager and reminds herself daily that it is okay to not have all the answers.

How was transitioning from Engineer to Project Manager?

For Kate, the transition was quite smooth due to her nature and personality. If you’ve ever taken the colors test, you will know what she means when she says, “I am not a green person. I am blue and gold, which is more organized and a warm personality.” Kate has been able to use these strengths in many ways as she transitioned into management, and even prior as an engineer. She said, “my strength as an engineer is being able to look at things holistically. I can QC something very high level for one of my traffic engineers. Not even go into the details, I can just tell you if it is wrong or right just by the basic answer because I have a real holistic outlook.” Kate said one of her biggest pieces of advice to engineers looking to get into multi-disciplinary project manager roles, is to try and understand other disciplines at a high level. That is how you gain confidence to be a PM for the entire project. She said, “you don’t have to know the nuts and bolts.” Kate had strong mentors. She was never afraid to ask them questions or ask for more resources. She said, “I’d see a project manager that I wanted to work with, and I’d go up to him or her and be like “hey, can you talk to me for a minute? I really want to learn from you.”” Although she admitted that was not always easy or successful the first time, it was surely a pivotal aspect to her success. She said, “that’s what you have to do. That’s how I got where I am.”

 

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If you weren’t an engineer, what would you be?

“A teacher! I love working with children and when I was young, I always wanted to be a teacher.” When Kate was in school, she excelled in math and because of that, many of her peers and mentors encouraged engineering.

What is your favorite restaurant in the Phoenix metro?

Los Dos Molinos - “They have the best margaritas ever and really good food.”

What is the next place on your travel bucket list?

“New York! I would love to take my children, be able to show them different things, and see a Broadway play.”

Thank you, Kate, for being so generous with your time, providing us with awesome insight on the life of an engineer. We appreciate your commitment to WTS and hope to continue as a support for you as you are exceling in the transportation industry.