Sharlie Huffman

Sharlie Huffman received the Legacy Premier’s Award in 2016 and was inducted into the Hall of Excellence the same year. During her 35-year career, Sharlie moved from being an engineer in training to bridge design engineer to enhancing her education at mid-life (all while raising kids on her own) to focus on seismic engineering related to bridges. She has reached the highest possible technical engineering level, as a senior bridge seismic and structural health monitoring engineer.

Throughout her career, Sharlie continuously expanded her professional knowledge. She instituted new systems to measure and respond to seismic activity, contributed to the career growth and learnings of others and was a solid advocate for the engineering profession and a strong representative for the Province of British Columbia.

In her role as bridge seismic engineer, Sharlie co-authored papers and gave presentations to conferences, technical societies and engineering groups, as well as at public forums. Her standards for performance-based seismic design of bridges have now been adopted by the Canadian Highway Bridge Design Code.

Sharlie’s work helps ensure safe passage for travelers and enables the movement of goods and services, which contributes to the current and future economic and social stability of the province. You might even be familiar with the bridges Sharlie has designed, including the 500 metre-long Yellowhead Bridge over the Fraser River at Prince George and the Newman and Magnesia bridges on the Sea-to-Sky Highway.     

Well-known and respected throughout the field and by ministry employees, she established many partnerships and cross-discipline collaborations. Sharlie is an inspiration to those she encounters and she makes a lasting impression on them. This includes engineers in B.C., Canada and other parts of the world, her BC Public Service colleagues and university graduates she mentored who are well into successful engineering careers.

Her exceptional contributions to our infrastructure and the field of bridge seismic engineering are a lasting legacy to British Columbians.