MMA CHAMP-TURNED-HUMANITARIAN JUSTIN WREN ON WINNING THE BIGGEST FIGHT OF HIS LIFE
“What meaningful impact would you make if you only knew you could?”
MMA fighter and author Justin Wren posed the question to Convention attendees during his lively presentation. Through a series of events both tragic and triumphant, Wren found himself on a journey of self-discovery that would lead him to what has become his life’s work.
The total number of entries in the annual ACEC/ PAC Spring Sweepstakes was 2,201. ACEC/PAC raised $61,556.96 in contributions between Sunday and Wednesday of the Convention. In addition, ACEC/PAC raised $22,000 for the Rep. Ron Estes (R-KS) campaign fundraiser.
The winners of this year’s PAC Spring Sweepstakes: Michael Smith of ACEC Utah in Sandy, Utah, won the $10,000 Grand Prize. Matthew Stacey of Wade Trim in Detroit won $7,500. Russ Romine of ACEC-KY in Frankfort, Kentucky; Taylor Wright of Atkins in Atlanta; and Michael Carragher of VHB in Watertown, Massachusetts, each won $5,000. Travis Todd of Thomas & Hutton in Nashville, Tennessee; Coriann Salas of WGI in Deerfield Beach, Florida; and Heidi Gordon of ACEC Colorado in Denver each won $2,500.
The following 10 individuals each won $1,000: Greg Haggerty of Dibble in Phoenix; Cameron McGown of HNTB in Leawood, Kansas; Jim Longest of Egis in Indianapolis; Keith London of Kennedy/Jenks Consultants in Murrieta, California; Rick Brownlow of Jacobs in Atlanta; Jim Hoffman of Summer Consultants in McLean, Virginia; Dave DeLizza of Pennoni in Philadelphia; Stephanie Christensen of EMCS in Wausau, Wisconsin; Paul Yarossi of HNTB in Kensington, New Hampshire; and Jerry Payonk of Clark Dietz in Champaign, Illinois.
A target of bullying as a child, Wren credits his parents for helping him find his passion in wrestling. He noted a side benefit to pursuing the sport: “Wrestlers don’t get bullied.”
Wren would become a champion wrestler in high school and went to an Olympic training center right after graduation. A freak injury in 2005 ended his Olympic dreams and ultimately set him on a path of drugs and despair that culminated in a failed suicide attempt in a hotel in Mexico. Wren woke up from that suicide attempt shocked that he was still alive. At that moment, he said, what he called a “whisper in [his] soul” told him to get in the water. As Wren knelt in the ocean, with the waves rolling over him, he began to fight his way back. “Something changed,” he said. “I watched the most majestic sunrise of my life, and in that moment, I decided to get clean.”
As he began what he called “the bonus round of life,” Wren was determined to find what he wanted to do. After a life of fighting against people during his MMA career, Wren decided it was time to fight for people. A vision of himself in a rainforest, serving as the voice of the voiceless, led him to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). When he saw a young boy die of a preventable waterborne illness, Wren began his mission to solve the water crisis.
After researching how to drill wells on YouTube and Google but not finding any success with those methods, Wren sought the counsel of an engineer. The engineer determined what Wren had been doing wrong and pointed him in the right direction. Using this tweaked technique, fresh water began to flow. This would be the first time the people in the village in the DRC had ever seen safe water. “It was like Mother Earth was rewarding us for our efforts,” Wren said.
TECHNOLOGY, WORKFORCE COMMITTEES RUN FULL SPEED AHEAD
With emerging technologies and the ongoing workforce challenge both high on attendees’ lists of concerns, these sessions were an invaluable check-in on the progress the Council has made.
More than two dozen Convention-goers were on hand for the Technology Committee meeting, which was led by Committee Chair Raj Arora of Jensen Hughes and Committee Liaison Thomas Grogan. Arora level-set the meeting by reiterating the purpose of the committee: to raise awareness of the business impact of technology on ACEC member firms and advance the engineering industry, and to ensure that no firm is left behind. “We’re not here to tell anyone what to do,” said Arora. “The whole point is just to educate membership so they can make the best business decisions for their companies.”
June 2024 marked the one-year anniversary of the committee. Since its launch, the committee has held numerous education sessions. The committee also has conducted a number of listening sessions. From those sessions, two common themes have emerged. The first is that there is no onesize-fits-all solution on technology. What is needed—and why it is needed—varies significantly by firm size and focus. The second common theme is that workforce development is paramount. The engineering industry needs workers who know technology and change management experts who can lead firms into adopting that technology. Said Arora: “It all comes back to talent.”
The Workforce Committee meeting came on the heels of the Council’s first Workforce Summit, held in April at ACEC’s Washington, D.C., headquarters. Moderated by ACEC Workforce Development Director Patrick Brady, the committee members shared their respective views on attracting the industry’s new and future workforce, as well as retaining and developing the current workforce, and discussed issues of public policy that impact hiring and recruitment.
From these three buckets emerged a shared priority: that engineers need to tell their story. That recurring theme was repeated during the committee meeting. Said Committee Co-Vice Chair Susan Osterberg: “We need to show the difference [engineers] make in this world, and that there is purpose in what [we] do.”
Committee Chair Rodney Chester asserted that rethinking outdated college curricula needs to be a priority, namely around math requirements. Math phobia is real, and the engineering industry needs to make clear that one doesn’t need A Beautiful Mind-level math skills to be an engineer.
One takeaway from the Workforce Summit was the need for a toolkit for Member Organizations to use for their own grassroots workforce initiatives. The toolkit is slated for completion in the near future.