Photo (R to L): Ryan King, ACEC-SK Chair presents the 2023 Future Leaders Award to Carolyn Wright, P.Eng.

The 2023 Association of Consulting Engineering Companies - Saskatchewan (ACEC-SK) Future Leaders Award recipient is Carolyn Wright, P.Eng.

Born and raised in Saskatoon, Carolyn’s early years shaped her into a compassionate and driven individual with an unwavering passion for helping others. Throughout her journey, she discovered that consulting engineering was the key to creating impactful change and providing communities with tangible benefits through engineering projects.

Carolyn was an amazingly energetic, curious, and passionate child. She played soccer from a young age and eventually played in an elite provincial soccer league as a young teenager. She was one of St. Joseph’s High School’s most accomplished multi-sport athletes and was a valued member of her high school soccer, cross-country, golf, basketball, badminton, and wrestling teams.

Growing up, Carolyn was very close with her father and grandfather, who are both Civil Engineers. While seeing her father and grandfather own and operate Catterall & Wright (C&W), a Saskatoon-based municipal engineering firm, her initial path did not lead her to engineering. She worked part-time throughout high school during her summers as a rod person, known as a “Roddy”, for C&W’s surveyors, assisting in the field staking out sewer & water, sidewalks and streets and holding the rod for level and total station surveys.

After she graduated from St. Joseph’s in Saskatoon, she pursued and attained a biochemistry degree in 2009. After completing her biochemistry degree and prior to starting her studies in engineering, Carolyn travelled to South America for six months. She studied Spanish at language schools in Santiago, Chile and Buenos Aires, Argentina. She has visited 10 countries in South America and numerous other travels to Europe, Central America, and Asia. Eventually, her road shifted, and she enrolled in the College of Engineering at the U of S, convocating with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering in 2015.

Carolyn is truly good-natured – All of these strengths come together to form a person who is warm-hearted and approachable, with an altruistic spirit and a friendly disposition. In addition to Carolyn performing her job at an extraordinary level, she goes above and beyond for the clients she works with to ensure their voices are heard and taken into consideration. Those clients and communities that have had the opportunity to see Carolyn Wright in action will know how impressive of an engineer and collaborator she is. Carolyn is practical, reliable, and our clients trust her; her reputation precedes her. Because of these values, she possesses there are many repeat clients and many new clients. Carolyn provides project management, design and construction services for many clients.

Her experience on numerous municipal job sites provided a solid foundation for her future engineering career, having surveyed, and inspected for projects in and around Saskatoon. Carolyn started full-time as a project engineer with C&W in 2015. Since then, she has gained experience in design, project management and contract administration of projects within the municipal engineering field. Her areas of practice include pavement assessment and design, site grading design, storm sewer system and drainage design, erosion & sediment control review, and asset management planning. She completed the Construction Contract Administration Course sanctioned by Construction Specification Canada and is in the process of becoming a Certified Construction Contract Administrator (CCCA). She received her Professional Engineering designation from APEGS in early 2023. She continues to grow and develop her skills as an engineer, leader and supervisor, providing mentorship and training to new staff.

She currently serves as the Chair of the Careers In Consulting (CiC) Committee for ACEC-SK. Carolyn was instrumental in helping develop the Leadership Certification Program that the CiC rolled out in 2022.

Her volunteerism includes:

• College of Engineering Second Year design projects
• College of Engineering ‘Discover Engineering’ program for Girls in Gr 6-12
• (Physical Activity for Active Living) PAAL Program, an activity program for individuals with physical or intellectual disabilities
• Commercial Real Estate Women (CREW) Sask
• Female Engineers Architects and Technologists (FEAT)
• Saskatoon Wrestling Club - PUPS Wrestling program
• Committee member and volunteer for Reconciliation Saskatoon’s Business Engagement Group

Carolyn has always had a passion for helping people. Consulting Engineering gave her a way to create impactful change and provide benefits to communities through engineering projects. She is an outstanding Engineer who is hardworking, dedicated, and supportive of all others. Carolyn has proved herself and gone above and beyond in everything she does. She is able to successfully complete multiple tasks with favourable results. She is emerging as one of the future leaders of the company.

Carolyn has worked tirelessly to become an accomplished, experienced engineer and is an emerging leader in the consulting engineering industry. She has a deep knowledge of her craft and a passion for helping people. She has demonstrated exceptional qualities to become an influential leader in consulting engineering. We have no doubt she will use the opportunity to network and learn from like-minded individuals within the industry and become a stronger voice and advocate for engineering.

She is an outstanding woman with exceptional leadership skills, remarkably humble, hardworking, and has a wonderful work ethic.