by Sage Wesenberg, Biochemistry and Journalism 2019
Marine and Environmental Science graduate Emily Snead has used her unique and worldly Northeastern experience to guide her career path, and her hard work has earned her the Women Builders Council 2017 Next Generation of Women Builders Award.
Before graduating in December 2011 with a BS in Environmental Science with a geology concentration, Snead took full advantage of the experiential learning opportunities presented to her after transferring to Northeastern following her freshman year of college. She was drawn to Northeastern because she wanted to come back to her home city and build a foundation of great work experience to help her find a fulfilling career by the time she was ready to graduate, and the co-op program was a huge draw.
For her first co-op, Snead moved to the west coast for a change, working for the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. She conducted research with the Planetary Geosciences Team and used quantitative tools and high-resolution imaging to analyze potential landing sites for 2012 mission to Mars. Working alongside planetary geoscientists and astronomers, Snead learned how to assess 3D images of the foreign planet and prepared detailed hazard assessment maps using ArcGIS computer software. Snead’s landing hazard assessment of proposed rover landing sites on Mars was presented to a panel of fellow colleagues and NASA scientists at the end of the research program.
When preparing for her second co-op the next year, Snead wasn’t sure if the research path was the right one for her, so she moved to Vancouver, BC to work for ESSA Technologies, a small environmental consulting firm. They develop analytical tools to assist decision makers in achieving solutions to environmental problems throughout British Columbia. Using geospatial data gathered via remote sensing, where satellites gather data on areas like rivers or the habitat of an endangered species, Snead and her coworkers could assess what a particular environment was like without impacting any of it directly. Working at ESSA Technologies lit a flame of inspiration for Snead to follow the fast-paced, project-based consulting career path.
For her final co-op, Snead travelled back to California to work with NASA where she studied the atmosphere, storm systems, and seasonal variations of Jupiter and Saturn. But California and British Columbia were not enough to quench her thirst for travel. In between the co-op and class cycles, Snead studied on two Dialogues of Civilization. In 2009, she and a team of geologists travelled to Iceland. During the summer of 2011, before her last semester she ventured again to Europe for a cultural dialogue in Rome and Morocco.
Since graduation, Snead has been working in the environmental consulting industry in New York City. After five years of experience in this career, Snead now finds herself as a Senior Staff Scientist at Langan Engineering, an engineering and environmental consulting firm that works for clients such as developers, corporations, and energy companies. They have had their hand in the production and construction of a wide variety of projects around the world – everything from the Hudson Yards Project to the MetLife Stadium project to Ecological Risk Assessment in places like the Rockaway River in New Jersey. In her time at Langan, Snead used to perform a lot of field work – assessing soil contamination, investigating areas during site visits, and more. In her position now, Snead acts as a manager to engineers who work in the field daily to oversee active site remediation and to conduct environmental investigations. She writes many reports and proposals, and interacts with clients to give them guidelines to help them develop remedies to the contamination within their properties, which her engineers observe in progress.
“I’m working on projects that are known throughout the country and world, and it’s a huge honor to be a small piece of the puzzle,” Snead said.
Snead has very much enjoyed working at Langan. “My company is very involved in creating a positive work environment for women, because so often we are the minority in construction and engineering,” she said. Snead described the Women at Langan program that works to build corporate level culture in promoting women and helping them develop a satisfying career. Through this, they were able to nominate a select few of their employees for the Next Generation of Women Builders award, including Snead.
“I was invited to a big gala, to be honored with this award,” Snead said, “It was so cool to see how many types of careers are involved in the development industry throughout NYC. And it was so great to see so many senior women in these industries, it gives me hope that I’ll be there one day.”
Snead has recently started taking classes part time at New York University to work toward her Master’s in Environmental Science. While she is extremely happy that she chose to start working right out of graduation, this additional education will be directly applicable to her work now, and Langan is in full support of furthering her education.
But Snead’s Northeastern experience has stayed with her. There are many professors including Malcolm Hill, Cordula Robinson, Richard Taylor, Marty Ross, Geoff Davies, and many more who acted as important mentors during her undergraduate education, and she continues to stay in touch with them years later.
Professor Hill speaks very highly of Snead and her time here at Northeastern. “Emily is a classic example of the sort of student that Northeastern attracts. She settled into an area of study that seemed a good fit with her interests, followed a good path through the curriculum, and looked for ‘outside of the box’ opportunities to personalize her experiences to suit her own aspirations. She was part of a very tight-knit group on my second Iceland Dialogue, and seemed perfectly happy dealing with whatever Iceland sent our way. It’s good to see that Emily’s ‘can do’ abilities and attitude are being recognized by the people she works with!”
And now, she proudly works with and mentors several current Northeastern students working at Langan for their co-ops. They rotate through Langan’s various departments and Snead describes them as some of the most driven, professional, and accountable students she’s ever worked with.
“In the two years I’ve been working here, Langan has hired three of our co-op students out of graduation, I can tell Northeastern is still doing an awesome job with this program,” she said.
We wish Snead the best of luck as she continues to grow from her Northeastern experience, making a name for herself in the environmental consulting industry, and representing all of the great female engineers and scientists of her generation and the generations to come.
