Dr. Norma Jean Mattei Appointed to State Licensing Board

May 4, 2007 — Dr. Norma Jean Mattei, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering has been appointed by Gov. Kathleen Blanco to the board responsible for licensing all engineers and surveyors in Louisiana.

Mattei, who teaches structural analysis design courses, is the first woman to be named to the Louisiana Professional Engineering and Land Surveying board, known as LAPELS, in its more than 100 years.

“I will focus my term on the LAPELS board on promoting the importance of licensure of all engineers, regardless of engineering specialty or type of employment – consultant, public agency or private industry,” Mattei said.

As a governor of the American Society of Civil Engineers Region 5, Mattei serves as secretary. She is also on the executive committee of the ASCE New Orleans’ Branch SEI/Structures Committee and the national Committee on Diversity and Women in Civil Engineering.

In 2005, Mattei led the National Science Foundation in its sixth workshop series on the advancement of technical and intellectual exchange among Ph.D.-level engineering professionals from underrepresented groups, including women. She has also served as a primary resource to ASCE’s Communications Department on several media relations activities, including an interview with National Public Radio’s Morning Edition on post-Hurricane Katrina conditions.

“Dr. Mattei is one of our outstanding faculty members and she is very well respected by her students, her peers, and our engineering community,” said UNO College of Engineering Dean Russell Trahan. “Her work in fostering engineering ethics through her lectures throughout the state has brought her recognition as a leader in the engineering profession. The nomination of Dr. Mattei was supported by the Louisiana Council of Academic Deans, and she will surely represent the academic community very well on the board.”

Mattei’s research areas of interest include diversity in engineering and engineering education, engineering ethics, residual stress management using laser interferometry, mitigation of repetitively flooded structures in southeast Louisiana, and experimental testing of large parts. A lot of her mitigation work is with the interdisciplinary UNO Center for Hazards Assessment, Resources and Technology known as UNO CHART.

“Norma Jean has been a faculty associate with CHART almost since its inception six years ago,” said Dr. Shirley Laska, UNO professor of sociology and CHART director.  “She not only provides excellent applied research skills for the relevant flood mitigation projects, but she also attracts outstanding civil and environmental engineering graduate students to the work.  Norma Jean has so many former students placed in engineering-related agencies and private companies that we are able to obtain the needed data and information for our projects with ease.  Just ask Norma Jean to contact her former students!  She is great.”