Congratulations to Ashley Evans on her selection for a six-month detail as a Levee Safety Endowed Chair. The position is with the Headquarters Dam and Levee Safety Branch in Washington D.C.
Her main job will be to help launch the National State Levee Safety Program, which aims to assist states in initiating or enhancing a state levee safety program.
“The program is intended to provide states with a foundation for levee safety guidelines, including recommended authorities, administrative regulations, policies, and guidance to improve consistency across state programs,” Evans explained.
Topics of interest include development of The National Levee Safety Guidelines document, which will serve as best practices guidelines for all levee owners and managers, or risk management and public safety officials.
The program will also encourage the adoption of the guidelines to provide organization and governance of levees within a state and consider the overlap between levee risk management and floodplain management activities.
Evans is looking forward to learning more about the policy and program management side of levee safety and helping to launch a new national program for flood risk management.
“I have been interested in Hydraulics and Hydrology since college, but I enjoy how the Corps has helped me apply those engineering principles to flood risk management projects that help Memphis District constituents,” she said. “I have experience contributing to the Levee Safety Program through flood risk management projects such as levee breach modeling, culvert replacements, seepage studies, levee slide repairs, infrastructure inspections, and contributing hydrologic loading percentages to the Levee Safety Tool.”
Evans went to The University of Memphis and has a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering. At the Memphis District, she is a Hydraulic Engineer in Hydraulic Design section within the Hydraulics and Hydrology Branch and has been for the last six years.