Alumni Profile: Ali Lawson, E'17
From blueprints to building reality, Ali Lawson, E’17, has done her part in shaping the spaces where communities connect and thrive in her hometown of Kansas City and the places she’ll always be connected to, like Lawrence.
“I like to work on any project where I can see the impact it has on the community,” said Lawson.
In her almost eight years as a project engineer with construction company JE Dunn, Lawson has taken part in several projects such as a hotel in Crown Center, a courthouse in Johnson County and a library in Kansas City.
“The library project is probably one of my favorites because it’s one of the most public projects I’ve worked on,” she said. “So, I can go back and see the patrons of the library actually enjoying the space.”
Lawson hails from Andover, Kansas, but knew the second she stepped onto KU’s campus, it was a place she could call home. She joined the CEAE Department as an architectural engineering student in the fall of 2013 and connected instantly with the community.
“It was an easy choice,” Lawson said. “It’s obvious that the people at KU love KU. It’s just a vibe.”
Lawson entered the architectural engineering program as a SELF Fellow. Throughout her four years, Lawson and the other Fellows were leaders in the School of Engineering helping coordinate events like the High School Design Competition and the Flapjacks for Philanthropy before their switch to the SELF Community Service Project.
Lawson is still deeply connected to the friends she made within the SELF program, and she credits those connections to the support of the CEAE Department.
“The program introduced me to some of my very best friends in the CEAE Department and the School in general,” said Lawson. “It gives you so much more than just professional development.”
Upon her graduation in the spring of 2017, Lawson joined JE Dunn after a successful internship in the summer of her junior year. Her role as a project manager centers on managing the coordination between clients, design teams and subcontractors.
“Our role is to try and help the owner and design team’s vision come to life – to take something 2D and make it 3D,” said Lawson. “We manage the schedule so that we’re hitting the deadlines the owner needs for the facility and managing the budget.”
Lawson is well versed in making hard deadlines and keeping meticulous records of her projects thanks to professors like recently retired Professor Bob Lyon, who was known for pushing his classes to be better with strict deadlines and specific formatting.
“For a college student, you’re thinking that it’s a lot of specific requirements and it’s not like your other classes,” recalled Lawson with a smile. “But I think it’s indicative of real life.”
Now, nearly eight years into her career, Lawson offers some words of advice to students just considering their future.
“I remember early on, a professor told my class that you go to engineering school to learn how to learn,” she said. “I didn’t get it at the moment, but now it makes a lot of sense because you never stop learning.”
As she embarks on her next big project with the Judicial and Law Enforcement Center in Lawrence, Lawson looks forward to the learning opportunities of the addition and renovation and whatever project may come next. Whether managing a courthouse, law enforcement center or a library, Lawson’s work demonstrates a commitment to building spaces that bring people together and make a lasting impact.