M. Janet Everett

Born and raised in upstate New York as the daughter of the town engineer, Everett was brought up admiring her father's ability to move projects forward in the midst of technical, economic, social and political constraints. Her passion was fueled by her acceptance to Purdue's School of Civil Engineering at a time when very few women became civil engineers. She interned during the summers for the Broome County Department of Public Works. She completed her degrees with a focus on transportation.

Her first full-time job took her to Evanston, Ill., where she started at Barton, Aschman & Associates. As a rookie, she was fortunate to be mentored by excellent engineers and worked on various transportation and traffic engineering assignments. After five years she moved to Harland Bartholomew & Associates in Memphis, Tenn., where she was involved in travel demand modeling and long-range transportation plan development.

In 1987 Everett joined URS Corporation to lead major transportation design and project development projects. She was recruited by the company's director of surface transportation and traveled throughout the U.S. providing creative solutions to transportation problems. She moved to Orlando, Fla., to lead URS' surface transportation practice in 1996 and was promoted to a vice president of the firm. She led the efforts to complete the largest project development and environment (PD&E) study in the state — preparation of an environmental impact statement for 43 miles of Interstate 4 through central Florida.

Everett is an innovative engineer for transportation systems providing the critical infrastructure components necessary to sustain continuing growth in Florida. She has worked with other civil engineers to develop the Systems Access Modification Report (SAMR) for interstate highway interchange justification and modifications, which is critical to meet the schedules of major transportation improvements, and the Federal Highway Administration is using this process as an example for other states. She also worked with the Florida Department of Transportation and the Federal Transit Administration to implement SunRail, a 61-mile commuter rail service in central Florida.

Married to her husband, Larry, for more than 28 years, Everett cherishes their daughter, Stephanie, who is carrying on the family's civil engineering career path. Stephanie has received a BSE (2010) from Duke University and an MSCE in transportation (2012) from Purdue. She is working on her PhD in civil engineering at Purdue.