Engineers Week Spotlight: Naomi James-Snead Hits the Ground Sprinting

Naomi James-Snead, structural engineer, is representing Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command (NAVFAC) Washington for Engineers Week. She serves at the Naval Research and Development Establishment (NR&DE) Support Office located at Naval Support Activity Annapolis.

James-Snead has served with NAVFAC Washington for just one year but has made an incredible impact in that short time. She came from the Army Installation Management Command without possessing any NAVFAC experience. Within three weeks of starting her new position, she began teleworking full time due to the COVID-19 pandemic. She had to come up to speed with NAVFAC policies and processes mostly on her own and has spent considerable time self-learning in order to produce deliverables and manage projects. Additionally, as a collateral duty, she provided project management assistance to the Contracts Optimization team initiative.

“[At NAVFAC Washington], I get to work on interesting and unique capital improvement projects. These projects I would not have been exposed to otherwise.”

Originally from St. Lucia, James-Snead graduated from Morgan State University with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and later from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute with a master’s degree, also in civil engineering.

“I always loved mathematics and science. I was also fascinated by the built environment. Engineering was a perfect way to blend these two interests. A career in engineering should be considered because the work we do has far reaching impact. Our work facilitates the improvement and maintenance of standards of living. Our work is also important in protecting public safety. Furthermore, it is fun!”