Engineering with Empathy

Описание: Civil engineers are overworked, underpaid, and undervalued — but Erin Robinson is proving it doesn’t have to stay that way.

Named one of ASCE’s 2025 New Faces of Civil Engineering, Erin joins Dr. Dennis Truax to unpack the real issues no one wants to talk about:
➡️ Pay gaps and broken loyalty in engineering firms
➡️ Why mentorship is failing young professionals
➡️ How community-first design changes everything
➡️ The massive skills gap between school and practice
➡️ Why soft skills aren't soft — they’re survival tools

She’s a stormwater engineer with real talk and a bigger mission: to make civil infrastructure more human — and to call out the systems that aren’t working.

Whether you're early in your career or already managing teams, this episode pulls no punches.

00:00 – Real talk: Why empathy isn’t optional in civil engineering
01:35 – Erin’s journey: From intern to remote engineer at Arcadis
04:00 – Moving to Vermont & discovering a broken mentoring model
06:50 – Vermont’s challenge: All young engineers, no veterans
10:45 – Rebuilding the ASCE section from scratch
13:00 – Where are the senior engineers — and why aren’t they showing up?
15:15 – The case for reverse mentoring (and how to do it)
17:35 – Mentoring in 4 directions: The model that actually works
21:00 – Pay gaps and professional loyalty: Erin speaks plainly
25:15 – Why the next generation doesn’t care about your title
28:30 – Empathy isn’t fluff — it’s the foundation of ethical design
31:45 – Community design, listening, and showing up where it counts
33:20 – You don’t work for a company — you work for your career
36:00 – What needs to change in civil infrastructure
38:00 – Erin’s closing thoughts: Stay rooted, stay useful
38:52 – Outro


🎧 Watch or listen — then send it to someone who’s ready to lead.