| Paula Welly is the 2024 Young Leader Award Winner and will serve on the Board as an honorary, non-voting member for 2025. Paula is a bright and ambitious Public Works professional who serves as Business Development Manager at PACE Engineers, Inc. Paula joined the APWA community in 2022 and within a few short months she stepped up to become the new Chair of the Emerging Professionals Committee in January 2023. Over the past year Paula has enhanced and grown the EP Committee with her enthusiasm and innovative approach to monthly committee meetings. One of the first things Paula did after becoming Chair of the EP Committee was to poll committee members to find out what they would find valuable to spend time on during meetings, besides event and activity planning. From the feedback she received, Paula incorporated a fun ice-breaker question to open each meeting and reserved the last 30 minutes of each meeting to discuss a topic and share ideas/ experiences related to professional development, career challenges, leadership, etc. The value these innovations have added to the EP Committee monthly meetings are evidenced by the connections/ culture being created and the insightful discussions that result. Paula was also instrumental in the organization and facilitation of a number of great networking and educational opportunities for the APWA community including, a trail project bike tour, fish passage project construction tour, a joint happy hour in collaboration with ASCE and AWWA, and planning the APWA 2024 Spring Conference Emerging Professionals Session Track of six sessions. It has been exciting and motivating to see how Paula has encouraged and supported the growth of the EP committee and her peers within APWA. Paula started and leads the Young Professionals group at PACE as well. This group has helped to foster an environment of professional growth and opportunity for junior staff to thrive in the company. In just three years, she has moved up the ladder from Business Development Coordinator at PACE to Business Development Manager and she led the company through a full rebranding campaign in 2022. Her excitement and passion for leadership and connecting with others is contagious and inspiring. It is clear that she will continue to thrive as a leader in her career and within the APWA Washington Chapter. |
