Engineering Prof. Rumanda Young receives Society of American Military Engineers national medal
The Society of American Military Engineers has presented Professor Rumanda Young of SMU's Civil and Environmental Engineering Department with its national Wheeler Medal.
The Society of American Military Engineers has presented Professor Rumanda Young of SMU's Civil and Environmental Engineering Department with its national Wheeler Medal.
 Rumanda Young |
Young teaches in SMU's Master of Sustainability Program, including environmental policies, sustainable methods and renewable technologies. In addition, she mentors students in master's level courses. She is also an energy sustainment planner with the Fort Worth District Corps of Engineers.
Maj. Gen. Todd T. Semonite, Department of the Army deputy chief of engineers, presented the medal to Young Wednesday at the society's meeting in Orlando, Fla.
First awarded in 1955, the medal recognizes outstanding contributions by U.S. Army personnel to military engineering in design, construction, administration, research or development. It is named for Lt. Gen. Raymond A. Wheeler, U.S. Army, who served under Adm. Lord Louis Mountbatten as deputy supreme allied commander of the South East Asia Command in World War II. He became chief of engineers for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers one month after representing the United States at the Japanese surrender in 1945.
Young is chief of the Master Planning Section of the district's Regional Planning and Environmental Center. She was nominated for successfully using a collaborative, enterprise approach across U.S. Army Corps of Engineer divisions to develop new planning and other assessment projects that support the Army, Air Force and Marines.
"The outstanding work and research that garnered Dr. Young the coveted Wheeler Medal will continue to impact and move the Army and overall Department of Defense energy sustainment mission forward," said Fort Worth District commander, Col. Charles Klinge.
Dual-hatted as the regional energy program manager, Young led the effort that landed a coveted $1.22 million Department of Defense Environmental Security Technology Certification Program grant late last year to develop a new analytic tool to help cut energy consumption at military installations worldwide.
She teamed with Fort Hood, Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam and the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center, Construction Engineering Research Laboratory in Champaign, Illinois. This work supports the Corps' goal of helping the Army and the nation achieve energy security and sustainability goals - reducing energy dependence, increasing energy efficiency and adopting renewable and alternative energy sources.
She also secured planning work for the Defense Logistics Agency starting with 32 domestic and 38 overseas tenant sites using a decentralized execution model drawing on resources Corps-wide. She was instrumental in standing up planning and program management support for the U.S. Marine Corps Forces Reserves for energy, site planning, capital improvement, asset management and assessment for facilities nationwide.
Young joined the Fort Worth District in 2005. She holds a bachelor's degree in landscape architecture from the University of Arkansas and both a master's degree in city and regional planning and a doctorate in environmental planning and public policy from the University of Texas at Arlington.