Engineering assistant professor wins educator award
A construction management organization has selected Sharareh (Sherri) Kermanshachi, assistant professor of civil engineering at The University of Texas at Arlington, as the Mark Hasso Educator of the Year.
The Construction Management Association of America (CMAA) Educator of the Year Award emphasizes excellence in teaching and celebrates a full-time educator for outstanding professional accomplishments and a commitment to construction management education.
Kermanshachi, who joined UT Arlington in fall 2016, is an expert in construction engineering and management, resilient and interdependent infrastructures, project performance optimization and probabilistic risk analysis.
Ali Abolmaali, chair of the UT Arlington Civil Engineering Department, said Kermanshachi exemplifies what college professors should strive for.
“She excels in the classroom. Her students love her classes,” Abolmaali said. “She truly helps students connect with the real world of construction engineering and management, and they are able to reap learning benefits off of her research projects. She helps the world of civil engineering in the classroom and the research laboratory.”
Kermanshachi, who also directs the Resilient Infrastructure and Sustainable Environment lab at UTA, said she was honored by the award.
“It’s a recognition of the work I’ve done thus far, but there is so much more to do,” she said.
CMAA’s award program recognizes excellence in construction management practice and honors companies and individuals each year based on merit. A panel of judges reviews each nomination carefully and chooses the best candidate in each category.
CMAA is dedicated to improving the nation’s infrastructure by advancing professional construction and program management worldwide. Its membership comprises public and private organizations, owners, and individual practitioners. CMAA provides professional development, certification, advocacy and business opportunities to its members and the entire construction management industry.
Kermanshachi has received other awards in recent years, including the following:
* In 2020, she received the Women in Technology Award from the Dallas Business Journal.
* In 2019, Kermanshachi was selected as a 2019 Rising Star in Civil + Structural Engineering. The Rising Stars in Civil + Structural Engineering list recognizes 20 professionals, ages 40 or younger and working in the United States, who have shown exceptional technical capability, leadership ability, teaching, research and public service.
* In 2018, she won the Design-Build Institute of America (DBIA) Distinguished Leadership Award in the faculty category.
* Kermanshachi was also the only academic recipient of the 2017 Texas and Louisiana Engineering News Record Top 20 Under 40 Award and was invited to serve as the judge for the 2017 and 2018 ENR Best Projects.
She has conducted several national- and state-level research projects that were awarded by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; U.S. Department of Labor; Federal Transit Administration; Texas Department of Transportation; U.S. Department of Transportation; Transportation Cooperative Research Program; National Cooperative Highway Research Program; Louisiana Department of Transportation; Construction Industry Institute; city of Arlington; Engineering Information Foundation; and city of Fort Worth.
She has published more than 100 books, journal articles, conference papers and research reports and served as a panel member on multiple research projects funded by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Kermanshachi also has received several other prestigious national and regional awards, including the American Society of Civil Engineers, or ASCE, Professional Service Award; ASCE Excellence in Civil Engineering Education Fellowship; Utility Engineering & Surveying Institute Fellowship; ASCE Outstanding Reviewer; Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award; Open Educational Resources Research Fellowship; DBIA Owner Scholarship and the Graduate Climate Award.