Grad Profile: Brooke Wittman, E’25

Photos provided by Brooke Wittman.

Brooke Wittman is not the traditional engineering student, and she is ok with that. Growing up in the Kansas City area after moving from Texas in 2012. Her early education blended homeschooling and private school, a background that made the transition to college unfamiliar and, at times, uncertain.

“Being a homeschooler, your grades aren’t super valid in the world of universities,” Wittman said. “It was an odd problem.”

Unsure how universities would evaluate her academic record, Wittman began her higher education at Johnson County Community College, a decision that proved pivotal. At JCCC, she discovered both confidence and momentum.

“That was when I realized I might have been a bit overprepared for college,” she said. “But I really started to enjoy myself and enjoy learning.”

She completed an associate degree in science and liberal arts, excelling in physics and calculus, and solidified a plan she had formed years earlier: to become a civil engineer. Wittman credits that early clarity to her father, a civil engineer who now works as an engineering manager at Black & Veatch.

“He’s been the biggest inspiration for my life, even where I am now,” she said. “I still look up to him as one of those guiding figures in my life.”

From an early age, she admired not only his profession but also his passion.

“Any time he talks about science, or the weather, or physics, or his work, he just comes alive,” she said.

After transferring to KU, Wittman initially commuted daily, a limitation that made campus involvement difficult. However, that changed when she moved to Lawrence during her second year and began to immerse herself in the department, joining tutoring efforts and the Steel Bridge team.

“That was probably one of the most defining moments of my academic career, where I felt like I was finally a student,” Wittman said. She traveled with the team to Nebraska earlier this year and worked on both calculations and construction. “You’re standing there holding this 300- to 400-pound bridge just hoping and praying it doesn’t slip and hit the floor. It was the time of my life.”

Wittman graduated earlier this month and will begin her career as a structural engineer in the Wastewater Design department at Black & Veatch in February. She previously interned at Black & Veatch for two years. While her father works at the firm, she was intentional about forging her own path.

“I was very strict in making sure he didn’t have any influence in my hiring,” she said.

Her long-term goals extend beyond technical design. Wittman hopes to move into engineering management and potentially project management, driven by her interest in interdisciplinary collaboration.

“I enjoyed all of my classes,” she said. “I wanted to understand how they all work together and bring in the business side of it.”

This passion started early, working with supervisors during her internship to help improve internal communication within the firm’s engineering program.

“It’s been successful so far,” she said. “I’ve found that this may be something I could grow into.”

In the classroom, Wittman found inspiration in faculty who bridged theory and practice. She credits Dr. Josh Roundy for reshaping her perspective on water resources.

“You could tell he was excited about it, and I think that made other people excited about it,” she said. “He really brought in the cultural and environmental aspect of water resources.”

Wittman’s advice to incoming students, especially those on nontraditional paths, reflects her own experience.

“It’s ok to not look like the standard model of students,” she said. “You really end up finding success in being yourself and being confident and doing the thing you love.”

As she looks ahead, Wittman hopes to one day contribute to the large-scale structural projects, including Black & Veatch’s floating liquefied natural gas facilities, a project that is not for the weak of heart.

“There’s so much nuance to it that we just have to figure out firsthand,” she said. “It’s the craziest thing ever and I would absolutely love to do it.”

This is not the first time Wittman’s excitement about difficult projects has pushed her to succeed. Nothing is impossible as long as she puts her mind to it.

“I find that the bigger the challenge, the more motivated I am to do it,” she said. “The more someone tells me I can’t do something or that it’s impossible to do, the more determined I am to do it.”