Award Year
Graduation Year
Department
Award Category
Biography
Over more than four decades, Brad Hermanson has dedicated himself to a wide variety of public and private environmental remediation projects throughout the Pacific Northwest and across the nation. He’s managed teams that ranged from a handful of people to staffs of more than 500, and he’s administered budgets ranging from a few thousand dollars to more than $6 million.
His accomplishments include waste site restoration, natural habitat improvement, and mitigating the impact of human activities. A personal highlight is the Reynolds Metals/Alcoa Superfund Site cleanup in Troutdale, Oregon, which earned the Environmental Protection Agency’s Phoenix Award as the top brownfield redevelopment project in 2011. Along the way, Hermanson earned an MBA from the University of Oregon.
As president of Hermanson Consulting Co. LLC, which focuses on environmental strategies, project and program management, and organizational and human development, he has served as a senior advisor to the Regulatory Strategy and Integration team for the Hanford Central Plateau Cleanup Co., which is leading the $10 billion contract for the next phase of assessing and cleaning up the decommissioned Hanford nuclear facility.
“I gauge my work not just by its impact on the environment, but also the degree to which I’ve improved the training and development of the engineers, technical experts, and project managers who will continue and expand the work I’m committed to,” he said.
To that end, Hermanson has developed and taught courses and led numerous workshops on topics that include project management and risk assessment, individual communication and decision making, and environmental assessment and remediation.
He credits the College of Engineering for helping him realize his ambitious career goals.
“Attending the College of Engineering was the best decision I could have made,” Hermanson said. “It allowed me to develop a strong technical base and problem-solving skills, plus it offered practical leadership experience that I carried forward into my career. The effort that I put into completing my chemical engineering degree, while also being very active in campus activities, taught me the value of discipline and hard work. From there, I set a personal standard for what I could achieve through commitment and perseverance.”