March 2026: Young Professional Dam Safety Training and Capacity Building in Ethiopia Webinar

Registration Closed

This webinar will discuss building capacity and experience for Young Professionals (YP) in civil engineering professions and more specifically within dam safety tends to occur through hands-on experience with experienced senior professionals. In certain parts of the Nile Basin, experienced senior dam safety officials have many duties and lack time to train YPs who would be interested in building capacity to support a growing dams industry. USSD sponsored four YPs to attend a dam safety training in Ethiopia during the first week of March 2025 to build capacity and strengthen relationships with global partners. From March 4-8, 2025, the Eastern Nile Technical Regional Office (ENTRO) hosted a weeklong dam safety training for YPs in Koysha, Ethiopia. ENTRO coordinated with the International Commission on Large Dams (ICOLD) and its partners, including USSD, to facilitate the weeklong training for YPs at the active construction site on the Omo River. The focus of the training was the use of instrumentation at dams and Roller Compacted Concrete (RCC) construction quality control and quality assurance. Instructors consisted of ICOLD members with broad experience in dam safety with a Ph.D. in a relevant engineering field. Participants of the training event received four days of classroom instruction with corresponding site visits to observe relevant construction or materials testing components of the dam construction project germane to the classroom instruction.The classroom instruction included discussion about instrumentation design and installation, data collection, data analysis, case histories, an overview of RCC construction methods, and quality control methods for RCC construction. Site visits included opportunities to observe active construction of the Koysha RCC dam, materials testing in the onsite laboratory facilities, inspection of field-testing locations and installed instruments. Selection of individuals to attend by USSD and ENTRO was contingent on sharing with other YPs in USSD, which is the objective of this paper and presentation.

Anna Ristuccia

Geological Engineer

HDR

Anna Ristuccia is a geological engineer with about 10 years of experience. She graduated from the Colorado School of Mines and works as an engineer in HDR’s Denver Water Business Group, primarily supporting the Geotechnical Engineering Section within the Dams, Levees, & Civil Works Business Class. Anna enjoys working on a wide range of civil, geological, and geotechnical challenges, including subsurface characterization, interpretation of lab data, geohazard evaluation, slope stability analysis, risk assessments and analyses, and geotechnical design considerations for dams and tunnels.

Brittany Kendrick

Senior Regional Project Engineer Manager

Black & Veatch

Brittany Kendrick, P.E., is a Civil Engineer whose ten years of experience include leading SSHO duties and levee inspections for more than 20 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers projects, managing construction at Lake Okeechobee, and reviewing major coastal resilience systems such as Sabine to Galveston Bay. Proficient in both earthen and roller‑compacted concrete dams, she excels in hazard recognition and translating technical risk into practical, community‑oriented solutions. Her broader engineering practice spans water infrastructure, environmental resources, and climate technology—including co‑founding Hydronomy and deploying water systems in underserved global communities. Driven by systems thinking, Brittany views water and energy as deeply human resources, using engineering as a tool to advance resilience, equity, and environmental stewardship. She recently enhanced her instrumentation and controls expertise through international site tours of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam and Kyosha Hydropower Dam.

Nate Jorgensen

Civil Engineer

GEI Consultants

Nathan Jorgensen is a civil engineer with about 12 years of experience in dam safety and water infrastructure. He graduated from the Colorado School of Mines and now works with GEI Consultants, Inc. where he helps evaluate and design dam systems. Nate is eager to learn more about the complex field of dam safety engineering and is passionate about sharing his expertise with others. The ENTRO training opportunity in Ethiopia provided an excellent opportunity to learn new skills and share with other YPs.