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The mission of United Way is to unite people and resources to build a stronger community and address complex challenges on a worldwide scale. For numerous years, Walter P Moore has been a prominent participant in United Way. Walter P Moore’s involvement with United Way symbolizes our responsibility to the community. As we go above and beyond for our clients, we must also do the same for the community we live in. Walter P Moore understands the value of community and the part we play in making all of our communities better. United Way provides a national platform to help.
The core mission of Genesys Works is to enable under privileged high school students to enter and thrive in a corporate environment by providing them the knowledge and work experience required to succeed as a professional. With this knowledge and continuous guidance from the Genesys Works staff, they define their long-term goals and set plans to pursue them.
Walter P Moore has been hiring Genesys Works high school seniors since fall of 2011. Ray Messer and Charlie Penland have supported our company involvement with this organization and encouraged our industry partners to hire interns.
Isaac Leal / Traffic engineer intern / Senior at Alief Taylor High School
Isaac first heard of Genesys Works in his junior year at Alief Taylor High School. He joined the program in an effort to gain a hands-on experience as an intern in a professional environment. Before the students are given internships with various companies, Genesys stages three different interviews. In these interviews, the students are asked about their current studies, areas of interest and how they plan to pursue their future careers. For many students, this was the first interview process that they had ever been through.
Over 80 students from different Houston high schools applied to be interviewed by Genesys in hopes of earning a spot in the program. After he passed the interview stage, Isaac was one of 20 select students that were chosen to enroll into the 8-week summer training program. The training program is designed to give the students the confidence and necessary technical skills to be an effective team member at a company. After the training period, the students were given a performance grade between 1-5. Thankfully, for Isaac, he passed with flying colors and was given a highly recommended score of 5. Genesys then placed him at Walter P Moore to serve as an engineering intern until this August.
“It was nerve wracking for me, a high school student whose friends work in fast food restaurants, to navigate the corporate world as a brand new intern. But I have a great supervisor and co-workers at Walter P Moore who have helped me along the way. Walter P Moore works together in everything and helps one another in a time of need.”
The Lifecycle Building Center (LBC) is a new nonprofit organization that salvages and collects used building materials to resell and donate to both the public and other nonprofits. The LBC's proceeds are reinvested back into the community through green building education, job training programs and a community center. The mission of the LBC is to make the reuse of built environment materials increasingly efficient and sustainable.
Kelly Roberts
Kelly Roberts, a Senior Engineer with our Atlanta office, currently serves on the LBC Board of Directors. She has successfully managed the LBC's social media, marketing campaigns and fundraising opportunities.
Walter P Moore’s passion for stewardship has allowed Kelly to actively involve herself in an organization that reflects our values of sustainability, social conscience and team work.
Nepal experienced its worst disaster in more than 80 years on April 25, 2015 — a magnitude 7.8 earthquake with an epicenter in Gorkha (approximately 50 miles NW of Kathmandu), and then a magnitude 7.3 aftershock on May 12, with an epicenter near Kodari (approximately 50 miles NE of Kathmandu).
These combined earthquakes killed more than 8,800 people, injured 23,000, and caused untold amounts of damage to houses, businesses, and historic sites.
Shortly thereafter, Walter P Moore’s Laura Whitehurst, a Structural Engineer in our San Francisco office, volunteered and was accepted to provide early response to assess houses, commercial buildings, and light industrial buildings in the country. This effort was sponsored by a coalition of non-governmental organizations called Nepal Earthquake Rapid Response.
Once Laura returned from Nepal, she gave a companywide presentation about her experiences as a structural engineer in a third world country. Laura’s efforts reflect how, as a company, we are habituated to making things happen across a wide spectrum.
Laura Whitehurst, P.E., S.E. / Senior Associate
Based in our San Francisco office, Laura is a structural engineer whose work includes design with steel, concrete, wood, and masonry. Specializing in seismic design, she has a passion for seismic safety of buildings and has been deployed to Napa, California and Kathmandu, Nepal to assess buildings in the wake of major earthquakes.
The ACE Mentor Program is a collaborative, national effort to bring the multifaceted construction industry, educational institutions, and local community together to expose high school students to the world of architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC).
In this after school mentoring program, student teams work directly with professionals from the AEC industry to design hypothetical projects, tour local construction sites, and visit AEC offices. The program runs from October to April and meets at a member’s location.
From our Houston office, Erin Kueht, Structural Senior Project Manager, currently serves on the board along with our HR Manager, Cindy Moss.
Our Houston, Los Angeles, Austin, Dallas and Las Vegas offices have consistently volunteered their time and resources to the organization. Several times a month they host groups of ACE students to shadow the engineers during the work day.
Numerous members of our staff volunteer to stay after hours to encourage students and provide them the tools they need as each student explores their career options. These efforts reflect the importance that Walter P Moore places on mentoring future professionals and promoting the AEC industry.
