ERICA CARTER

Captaining Pennsylvania State University’s women’s swimming and diving team, Erica Carter learned valuable lessons from the “grueling, grinding sport” that have benefited her career at Kimley-Horn.

“Swimming taught me tremendous time management skills, a really strong work ethic and how to achieve goals as a team,” says Carter.

In 24 years, Carter has assumed various leadership roles while helping Kimley-Horn expand into new industries, namely water and wastewater utilities, and build up its natural gas business in Virginia. Carter became the first woman regional leader at Kimley-Horn, and her work leading the Virginia Beach office landed her among Engineering News-Record’s Top 20 Under 40 in the mid-Atlantic list for 2013. She’s also been a driving force behind Lasting Impact for Tomorrow (LIFT), Kimley-Horn’s initiative to recruit, develop and retain women in engineering.

Carter came to Kimley-Horn after completing a master’s degree in environmental engineering, and she reminisces fondly about her early days at work in Raleigh, North Carolina, where she met other recent engineering grads and found a support system of mentors — people who remain part of her personal and professional networks to this day. Better yet, Carter found she could fulfill her career passions without sacrificing a healthy work-life balance, something she’s valued while raising her twin sons, now 13 and “very active.” 

When recruiting, Carter highlights these sorts of attributes — especially to young women — because her goal is that any new hire will stay until they retire. “There are places that exist where you can have it all.”

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