CPEWC - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Member of Enola Sportsmen 's Club
Fawn R. Cassel, PE Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission Contract Management Services Manager has been selected by the Central Pennsylvania Engineers Week Council to receive the 2024 John H. McCormick Educational Outreach Award. Fawn currently holds a Director-at-Large position with the Women Transportation Seminar (WTS), Central PA Chapter, and is a member of the American Society of Highway Engineers (ASHE) - Harrisburg Section and serves on many committees representing the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (PTC).
Fawn was born on August 15, 1975, to Harold and Linda Blough. A lifetime resident of central Pennsylvania she was raised in West Hanover Township and graduated from Central Dauphin in 1993. In high school, she was a member of the National Honor Society, marching, concert, and jazz band, and played softball. Following high school, she attended the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown (UPJ) and graduated with a BS in Civil Engineering Technology in December 1997. While at UPJ, Fawn worked as a math tutor providing out-of-class tutoring services to students. During the summer months, she worked with the Department of Education on the Summer Food Service program and with Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) as a summer intern in construction. Fawn has nearly 26 years of experience in the industry and is a licensed professional Civil Engineer. Fawn and her husband, Rob currently reside in Landisburg, Perry County.
Fawn started her engineering career with Dewberry (formerly known as Goodkind & O'Dea), a civil engineering service company in Carlisle, PA, primarily working on PennDOT projects. From 2002 until 2009, she worked with various private firms in Land Development. In February 2009, she went back to working on public sector jobs with SAI Consulting Engineers where she reviewed HOP permits for PennDOT District 8-0, E&S and NPDES permitting, H&H analysis and prepared PS&E packages for many PennDOT projects.
In August of 2016, Fawn began her career with the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission as an Engineer Project Manager in the Contract Management Unit. Her responsibilities included reviewing plans, specifications, and cost estimates for projects prior to advertising for bid. She was nominated to participate in the first Emerging Leaders Academy at the PTC. As her career continued to grow, she began serving on many committees within the PTC and representing the PTC on various committees outside the organization on workforce development. In November 2020, she was promoted to Contract Management Services Manager where she is responsible for the PTC's letting schedule, specification updates, review of plans, specifications and cost estimates prior to advertisement and overseeing the procurement process for all the construction contracts across the system. Her team has delivered the first two sections of the Mon-Fayette Expansion project in Allegheny County, fiber optic installation projects and open road tolling projects across the state. In 2022, she led her team to deliver over $1.2 billion dollars in construction contracts.
In 2018, Fawn joined WTS Central PA Chapter and volunteered her time on the Transportation You (TYOU) committee. She joined the TYOU committee because it provided a platform to encourage and educate middle and high school young ladies to learn the importance of working in the transportation industry and the opportunities that were available to them. In 2019, she accepted the role of TYOU co-chair and had the opportunity to work directly with the STEM Club at Steelton Highspire High School. In 2020, a time of worldly change, rather than let the program go dormant, Fawn along with the TYOU committee developed and enacted a virtual STEM club. The idea was to continue to reach out to students even during the pandemic and continue the basis of a STEM education for them. In November of 2021, TYOU committee also successfully implemented a virtual STEM Day event. In November 2022 as the lead co-chair for TYOU, Fawn developed a full day, interactive STEAM Day program that was attended by over 70 young ladies from various school districts in Central Pennsylvania. The success of that program continued, and in 2023, over 140 young female students representing 16 school Districts in Central PA participated.
Outside of her professional life Fawn is an active member of Enola Sportsmen's Club where she is involved with the children's activities such as fishing derby, youth day, and various holiday parties. She enjoys spending time with her husband snowmobiling, hunting, and antiquing.
Job Titles:
- Member of Committee
- Member Photos Left to Right Top to Bottom
Jeffrey G. Bergsten, PE has been selected by the Central Pennsylvania Engineers Week Council to receive the 2024 Engineer of the Year Award. Jeff is a current member of the Institute of Transportation Engineers - Mid-Atlantic Section (MASITE) and has served on many varying professional society committees including CPEWC of which he served as Chair in 2013.
Jeff was born on March 14, 1970 to Gordon and Martha Bergsten. Jeff's family moved to Carlisle, PA in 1984 and he graduated from Carlisle High School in 1988. Following high school, he attended Columbia University in New York City where he earned his B.S. in Civil Engineering with an Environmental Engineering emphasis. While at Columbia, Jeff joined the school Club Volleyball Team and competed against other College Club teams. During the summer months, he had multiple internships with PennDOT District 8-0 in their Maintenance and Construction units. After college, Jeff landed his first job as a consultant with Johnson, Mirmiran, and Thompson (JMT), performing traffic engineering analyses using Transyt-7F and assisting with hand drafting highway cross-sections for PennDOT. He still remembers having to sign up for computer time on one of the office's 3 desktop computers to conduct the traffic engineering analyses, as the demand for computers to complete engineering tasks was minimal at that time. Jeff has just over 30 years of experience in the industry and is a licensed professional Civil Engineer. Jeff and his wife, Sherri currently reside in Carlisle and are the proud parents of two boys, Anders, 23 and Sean, 20.
After working at JMT, Jeff and Sherri were married in 1994, and Jeff followed his wife to Princeton, NJ where she was enrolled in a Molecular Biology Ph.D. program. There he worked for Schoor DePalma, in Manalapan, NJ as a Traffic Engineer performing Traffic Impact Studies. While at Schoor DePalma, he worked for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey as a Call-In consultant and reported to the World Trade Center for the first few months and then reported directly to Newark Airport while they were undergoing their 4-year, $4-Billion Redevelopment. After the birth of their first son, Sherri and Jeff decided to move back home to Carlisle, and have resided there ever since. Jeff worked for Orth-Rodgers, AECOM, Bushart-Horn, and spent the last 15 years working for Michael Baker International where he was a Vice President and was a Director for their Technical Services Group that included disciplines from Traffic Engineering/ITS, Environmental, Site/Civil, and Transformational Technology. Jeff recently accepted a position working for Carlisle Borough as their Assistant Borough Engineer reporting to the Director of Public Works. He felt strongly he was at a point in his career where he wanted to give back to his community where he has lived for 25 years. In addition to tackling all new kinds of engineering problems and projects outside the realm of transportation, he very much values his 12 min. walk to work that has him pass his parent's home.
Outside of his professional life Jeff has always been involved and active in his community. He served on the Carlisle Zoning Hearing Board from 2001-2014 and was Board Chair for 10 years. He also participated as a performer in Cantate Carlisle for 6 years, and served on their Board for 6 years. More recently he has served on Carlisle's Climate Action Committee where he pitched the idea of the Pomfret Street Garage as being a multi-modal transportation hub, and now that Garage has 2 EV charging stations and they are working on providing covered bicycle parking.