Virginia Tech Honors Anne Ellis for Career Achievements

McLean resident Anne Ellis is a 2013 inductee into Virginia Tech’s College of Engineering Academy of Engineering Excellence, joining an elite group of 119 individuals out of more than 60,000 living engineering alumni.

The Academy of Engineering Excellence was founded in 1999 by F. William Stephenson, past dean of the college of engineering, and the College’s Advisory Board. The inductees are engineering graduates of Virginia Tech who have made continuous and admirable engineering or leadership contributions during their careers. This year marked the 14th anniversary of the first induction.

Born in Salisbury, Md., to a salesman and a secretary, Ellis was one of four siblings, all of whom were the first generation in her family to attend college, according to a news release from the college. For 16 straight years, her hard-working parents provided for one or more of their children to attend college at Virginia Tech, Virginia Military Institute, Longwood College or American University.

At first, Ellis thought she would become a teacher. But at 16, Ellis was captivated by the vision of a church group advisor and with the help of another friend who promoted the engineering program, Ellis and her family made the trip to Virginia Tech, according to the college.

“We arrived on a beautiful spring day, drove around the Drill Field, and it was a done deal,” Ellis said in a prepared statement. “I came from a rural, small town, and Virginia Tech was the right match for me.”

She found the university to be challenging and in her junior year, Ellis moved into the civil engineering discipline.

After graduating from Virginia Tech, Ellis took a position at a structural engineering firm in the Washington area. But 18 months later, the economy took a downturn, and Ellis was laid off. Soon after, Martin, Cagley & Middlebrook hired her as a project engineer on flagship building projects.

Additional exciting projects followed when she joined Dewberry & Davis (now Dewberry) as a project manager. Ellis’ portfolio of projects included casinos, hospitals, and many high-rise buildings. One of her achievements, The Trump Marina, originally designed for the Hilton is now the Golden Nugget in Atlantic City.

During the 1990s, she spent time at Total Training Technology as a contract instructor, which allowed her to spend more time with her three young children. But in 1996, she returned the workforce full-time, representing National Ready Concrete Association’s nonprofit interests in the area of standards and codes. Later, she would take on the same duties for Portland Cement Association.

It was in 2001 that fellow CEE alumnus Dennis Kamber, also a member of the academy, convinced her to join Earth Tech, part of Tyco International, as a program director. When the parent company imploded in 2002, Ellis was assigned to manage some of the fallout, and worked on Capitol Hill. Earth Tech was acquired by AECOM in 2008, and subsequently her career continued to soar.

Currently, Ellis is vice president for AECOM, a global provider of professional technical and management support services, and the current president of the American Concrete Institute, the first female professional engineer to hold this leadership position.

Serving as the vice president for Americas and Government, the Maryland native is responsible for two of AECOM’s advisory councils, and in the past the Virginia Tech advisory boards for the college, the CEE department, and the Alexandria Research Institute.

Ellis and her husband, Marc Lubin, live in McLean  She has three children: Jake and Olivia are Virginia Tech Hokies, and Julie graduated from Hunter College in New York City.  Her blended family includes Marc’s children: Alexander, Emily, Caroline and her husband, Alan.