It is with great honor and gratitude that I thank you for allowing me to serve as the 2022-23 Structural Engineering Institute's President. Working with the SEI members, the SEI Board of Governors, and the SEI Staff this year has been rewarding, and together the Institute has made significant progress on many fronts this past year. 

SEI Reorganization

The reorganization of SEI has been studied by the SEI Board for the past three years and this year was the culmination of developing the reorganized structure of SEI. This has take a monumental effort by the SEI Leadership and Board Members over the past year, and we are waiting for the final piece, which is approval of these concepts by the ASCE Board of Direction to start the implementation process. 

The overall goals of the reorganization include: 

  • Increased collaboration and knowledge-sharing throughout SEI by moving from the current five Division structure to a two Community structure.
  • Reorganization of SEI Board of Governors from a representative board to a strategic board for long-term operational efficiency.
  • Become a more nimble, responsive organization to meet industry and member needs as the pace of change in our industry accelerates. 
  • Focus the efforts and resources of SEI to establish and meet SEI priorities to advance the profession. 
  • Increase leadership opportunities and pathways to leadership for the rising starts in our profession. 

SEI's Reorganization comes down to this: better communication and collaboration so that SEI can best address the priorities of the Institute and better serve the structural engineering profession. 

Industry Advancements

SEI continues to lead the development of the manuals of practice and design standards that are used by the structural engineering profession. During this past year ASCE/SEI 7-22 Minimum Design Loads and Associated Criteria for Buildings and Other Structures, ASCE/SEI 59-22 Blast Protection of Buildings, ASCE/SEI 76-23 Standard for Mitigation of Disproportionate Collapse Potential in Buildings and Other Structures were recently released and with the updated ASCE/SEI 41 Seismic Evaluation and Retrofit of Existing Buildings set to come out this fall. 

To keep our standards up to date with the latest knowledge, over the past year, SEI sent members to investigate the building damage caused by the Turkey earthquakes and the damage caused by the storm surge in Hurricane Ian on the Florida coast. The observations and conclusions from these investigations will be utilized in further editions of our design standards. 

SEI also has take the lead in bringing together academic and industry leaders for the development and understanding of how we can estimate the effects of climate change into the design requirements needed by our industry and how we can increase the resilience of our communities to these environmental hazards. 

These efforts took many volunteers dedicating their time and expertise!

SEI Staff

As president, I want to sincerely thank SEI staff for all their support for the Institute and the membership in general. Our staff is comprised of dedicated individuals who work tirelessly to advance our profession. 

During this past year Laura Champion and Debbie Smith left the organization and we wish them well in their future endeavors. Jennifer Goupil took the position as the Managing Director again (she previously held the position), and we are grateful for her enthusiasm and dedication to the profession. Suzanne Fisher, Lawan McFerren, Bianca Augustin, and Brittany Boyce continue to serve the profession and we are indebted to them for their support during this tremendously stressful year supporting the reorganization efforts. As you interact with these individuals, please express your gratitude for all they do. 

In closing

I want to thank the Institute again for this opportunity to serve as president, and I look forward to the incoming leadership of Dr. Jerome (Jerry) Hajjar, P.E. 

Donald R. Scott, P.E., S.E., F.SEI, F.ASCE