March/April 2024 - 9

Executive Director
Theresa Engler | tengler@dfi.org
Nicole Robinson | mageditor@dfi.org
Executive Editor
Managing Editor/Advertising Manager
Karol Paltsios | magads@dfi.org
Graphic Design
Faye Klein
DFI Executive Committee
President
Gianfranco Di Cicco
Vice President
James O. Johnson
Treasurer
J. Erik Loehr, Ph.D., P.E.
Secretary
Lori A. Simpson, P.E., G.E.
Past President
Michael H. Wysockey, Ph.D., P.E.
Other Trustees
John A. Anderson
Paul Axtell, P.E., BC.GE
Allen Cadden, P.E., BC.GE
Peter Faust, Dipl.-Ing.
Conrad W. Felice, Ph.D., P.E.
Franz-Werner Gerressen, Dipl.-Ing.
Anne Lemnitzer, Ph.D., P.E.
Dan MacLean, P.Eng.
Lucky Nagarajan
Morgan NeSmith, P.E.
Silas Nichols, P.E.
Kwabena Ofori-Awuah, P.E., BC.GE, ENV SP
David Paul, P.E.
Howard A. Perko, Ph.D., P.E.
Kathryn Petek, Ph.D.,P.E.
Martin G. Taube, P.E., P.G.
Editorial Board 2022-2025
Vanessa Bateman, P.G., P.E., BC.GE
Jonathan Bennett, P.E., BC.GE
John Deeken, P.E., M. ASCE
Aaron Gallant, Ph.D.
William Ryan
THERESA ENGLER
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Connecting & Constructing the Future
In February, DFI once again hosted the annual Winter Planning Meeting (WPM),
this time in beautiful, Aventura, Florida, which neighbors the more well-known
city of Miami. The WPM is the place for DFI leadership and staff to come together for
three days of brainstorming sessions, board meetings, collaboration among
leadership groups, and time to network and get to know each other during
recreational activities. It is also where DFI strategizes and plans for its continued
growth and development.
DFI communities were represented by their chairs and a dedicated, open forum
session was purposely scheduled. This allowed new chairs to pick the brains of
existing chairs and board members on lessons learned. All relayed their recent
committee accomplishments and challenges. They talked about how to run
effective meetings, how to engage committee members and how trustee liaisons
can better support the committees' initiatives. Collaboration with other DFI
committees and cross-collaboration with committees in other associations that
have similar interests were also
points of discussion. Based on the
feedback, it was decided that DFI
would put together a more
comprehensive onboarding
process for new committee chairs
and hold a workshop specifically
for DFI leaders next year.
Other sessions at the WPM
By addressing bigger concepts
and reaching out to potential
partnering associations with
expertise on those concepts
for our conferences, we will
likely attract new people to
our activities which may
transition to new companies
becoming members.
DFI
®
Deep Foundations
The Magazine of the Deep Foundations
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were dedicated to discussing the
three key areas the Executive
Committee identified during its
strategy session in November
2023. We broke out into three
groups focusing on: how to attract
industry professionals that are
not DFI members to our activities
and to convert them to DFI corporate members, tackling global challenges through
themed conferences (bi-annual summits), and bringing people to and retaining
them in our industry. All three of these are certainly interconnected. By addressing
bigger concepts and reaching out to potential partnering associations with
expertise on those concepts for our conferences, we will likely attract new people
to our activities which may transition to new companies becoming members. And
by helping our members interact with potential future employees - not just
students studying civil engineering but also those that don't even know our
industry exists and the unique opportunities a career in deep foundations, ground
improvement and tunneling offers - we will likely have new disciplines involved
in DFI activities.
DEEP FOUNDATIONS * MAR/APR 2024 * 9
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR UPDATE
March/April 2024

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of March/April 2024
