On February 3, CMA staff members Brad Wilson, Alex Farfan, James Carr, Adam Stone, Freeman Bass, Frankie Wilson, Thy Duong and Thy’s husband participated in the Northeast Florida Chapter of the Florida Engineering Society’s 8th Annual Race for Relevance at the Autobahn Indoor Speedway! The Race for Relevance is a fundraising event created to help support the future of the engineering profession by encouraging our youth to engage in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). All the funds raised from the event go towards the Chapter’s scholarship fund.

CMA staff members Jose L. Acosta, P.E., F.ASCE, Executive Vice President, Mike Bell, P.E., Principal Engineer and Brad Wilson, P.E., Office Leader/Principal Engineer/Highway Dept. Lead attended the 8^th Annual Northeast Florida Construction Career Days Clay Shoot on January 27 at Jacksonville Clay Target Sports.  CMA served as a silver sponsor for the event that also includes a career fair on March 1-3. The program is designed to introduce high school students to the wide range of career opportunities available to them in the construction industry in a hands-on environment. For more information, please visit https://www.nflccd.com/Default.aspx

Principal Engineer- Fort Lauderdale Office Leader Safiya Brea, P.E., LEED AP and Executive Vice President Jose L. Acosta, P.E., F.ASCE attended the Leadership Florida Gold Coast Member and Recruiting Reception on January 20 at the Museum of Discovery and Science in Fort Lauderdale. Gold Coast members and interested applicants for Leadership Florida’s upcoming Cornerstone, Connect & Education Programs were among the attendees. https://www.leadershipflorida.org/

CMA Senior Landscape Architect Tanya McCormick, PLA, AICP attended LPBC (Leadership Palm Beach County) Focus Class of 2022.  The three-day course concluded January 25 and was held at multiple locations throughout the County.  Photos include fellow Focus class participants as well as speakers. The course was centered around leadership and the people and systems in Palm Beach County.  It was a great networking event and participants got to take part in various speaker panels.  Tanya’s favorite panels and speakers were the History of Palm Beach County by Harvey Oyer, Public Safety and Law Enforcement by Sheriff Ric Bradshaw and the Agriculture panel by multiple farmers from the Glades community. https://www.leadershippbc.org/focus

Principal Engineer/Miami Office Leader Greg Mendez, P.E., Director of Water and Sewer/Principal Engineer Dan Davila, P.E., Project Engineer Justin Tagle, P.E. and Project Engineer Teresa Lewis, P.E. attended the University of Florida’s Engineering School of Sustainable Infrastructure & Environment ESSIE Evening with Industry job, internship and networking event on January 25. This biannual fair matches potential civil, coastal or environmental engineers for internship and employment opportunities with potential employers. #UF #EngineeringLife #ESSIE

CMA Principal Engineer Michael Albert, P.E. and Senior Engineer David Cowan, Jr., P.E., ENV SP are participating in the 2022 Florida Engineering Leadership Institute (FELI). Part of their class projects is to raise money and construct beds for their chosen charity organization Sleep in Heavenly Peace.   Each session focuses on a different aspect of leadership, ranging from development of personal leadership skills to team building, through interactive sessions and first-hand accounts from experts in their respective fields. The program runs from November 2021 to August 2022.  For more information, please visit https://www.fleng.org/general/custom.asp?page=FELI

CMA staff members Jose L. Acosta, P.E., F.ASCE, Michael Albert, P.E., Robert Best, P.E., David Cowan, Jr., P.E., ENV SP, Shahin Hekmat, P.E., Patrick Kaimrajh, P.E., Nick Karpathy, E.I., ENV SP, Teresa Lewis, P.E., and Peter Moore, P.E., F.ASCE, FACEC attended the FES/ACEC of Florida Professional Engineer Legislative Days in Tallahassee.  The event was held on January 12 and 13 where we met several senators and representatives from various parts of Florida. CMA representatives also attended an event at the Old Capitol and sponsored the FES Big Bend Chapter’s Reception on January 12. https://www.fleng.org/

CMA is proud to recap our participation in community service events from 2021 and we look forward to how we can help our communities more in 2022! Our projects include:

• FTA Trail Maintenance with Florida Trail Association, staff helped to maintain trails as they hiked at Jonathan Dickinson State Park and came up with ideas for future trails development
• Walk for a Cure – Virtual 5K, CMA donated $500 to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation
• United Way Day of Caring, staff decorated and wrapped shoeboxes that were filled with toiletry items to donate
• Pompano Beach Cleanup Day, staff collected 7 bags of garbage
• Relay For Life, staff raised $1,042 for the American Cancer Society
• Habitat for Humanity, prepared infrastructure at new Habitat Houses and CMA President participated in Habitat for Humanity of Broward CEO Build
• Food Drive for Feeding South Florida, company-wide collection and staff donated a total of 185 pounds of food and $440 for those in need
• Food Drive for the ASCE East Central Branch Younger Member Forum Food Drive, staff donated a total of 563 pounds of food for those in need to Second Harvest Food Bank
• Adopt-a-Family of the Palm Beaches, staff collected gifts for the holiday season and donated to a selected family in need

Happy New Year from CMA!

To help celebrate a great year and look forward to 2022, holiday dinner parties were held for each CMA office during December. Our Orlando office celebrated at The Ravenous Pig – Gastropub in Winter Park on December 9; our Miami office holiday party was held on December 11, graciously hosted at Casa Mendez in Palmetto Bay; our Fort Lauderdale staff celebrated at the Boatyard in Fort Lauderdale on December 10; our Jacksonville office party was held on December 16 at Town Hall in Jacksonville and our West Palm Beach office celebrated at The Canopy in West Palm Beach on December 17. CMA wishes all a very happy holiday season!