Vadnais Heights resident earns national engineering award

NEWS RELEASE

Aug. 1, 2018

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

ST. PAUL, Minn. –The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Headquarters in Washington, D.C., recently selected Vadnais Heights, Minn., resident and St. Paul District employee Kent Hokens as the recipient of the inaugural U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Structural Engineer of the Year Award.

The award recognizes an exemplary structural engineer’s contributions to the Corps’ mission to deliver vital public and military engineering services. Hokens received this award for his instrumental role in developing Corps design guidance and criteria for high-impact and technically challenging civil works projects, including the Fargo-Moorhead Metro Flood Risk Management Project and New Orleans Hurricane and Storm Risk Reduction System, as well as his outstanding leadership mentoring less experienced engineers and collaborating with other agencies and architectural and engineering partners. “Kent’s 30-plus years’ experience as an engineer with the Corps has been an invaluable asset,” said Mike Dahlquist, structural section chief and Hokens’ supervisor.

Hokens joined the Corps’ Omaha District as a structural engineer in 1985 and transferred to the St. Paul District in 1987, where he’s worked ever since. He is a licensed professional engineer in the state of Minnesota and serves as a regional technical specialist for the Mississippi Valley Division and a senior‐level engineer in the structural section of the St. Paul District. “I am honored and humbled to have been recognized for my efforts,” said Hokens.

The nearly 600 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District, employees working at more than 40 sites in five upper-Midwest states serve the American public in the areas of environmental enhancement, navigation, flood damage reduction, water and wetlands regulation, recreation sites and disaster response. Through the St. Paul District Fiscal Year 2016 $78 million budget, nearly 1,250 non-Corps jobs were added to the regional economy as well as $120 million to the national economy. For more information, see www.mvp.usace.army.mil.

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