DFI Announces New Board of Trustee Members
November 30, 2023, Hawthorne, N.J.:
DFI’s membership voted to elect two new members to the DFI Board of Trustees. Their terms begin on January 1, 2024. Members also re-elected four trustees for new 3-year terms.
The newly elected trustees are Silas Nichols, P.E., Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA’s) Office of Infrastructure, and Kathryn Petek, Ph.D., P.E., Shannon & Wilson.
Nichols is the principal geotechnical engineer for the FHWA’s Office of Infrastructure responsible for providing leadership and direction for the FHWA National Geotechnical Team through policy support, technical developments and coordination with industry and professional groups. He is internationally recognized for accomplishments related to design and construction, risk in project delivery and quality assurance in foundation construction. Nichols is a certified instructor and master trainer for the National Highway Institute (NHI) and teaches classes part-time at the University of Delaware. He has a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Syracuse University, and a master’s degree in geotechnical engineering from Tuft’s University.
Petek is a senior associate geotechnical engineer at Shannon & Wilson with over 18 years of experience in design, construction and research. She has led numerous transportation infrastructure projects that include design and construction of bridges and approach structures. Petek served as principal investigator for the recently completed FHWA research study on bearing resistance of large diameter open-end piles and has unique expertise related to design, construction and load testing of large diameter deep foundations. She is a member of the DFI Driven Pile, Drilled Shaft and Women in Deep Foundations committees and was the co-technical program chair for the 2023 DFI Annual Conference on Deep Foundations. She earned a bachelor’s degree in civil and environmental engineering from the University of Michigan, and master’s and doctorate degrees in civil and environmental engineering from the University of Washington.
The four trustees who were re-elected to serve another term are: John Anderson, Specrete-IP; Allen Cadden, P.E., BC.GE, Schnabel Engineering; Lucky Nagarajan, Geocomp; and Kwabena Ofori-Awuah, P.E., BC.GE, ENV SP, Koforia.
