Maria Lehman is GHD’s Infrastructure Market Leader for the United States since May 2020. Maria was the former Vice President for Critical Infrastructure for Parsons, COO and Acting Executive Director of the New York State Thruway Authority, and Commissioner of Public Works for Erie County, NY. She has 40 years of diverse, increasingly responsible, multi-disciplinary technical and leadership experience, both in the private and public sectors and in traditional and alternative delivery. She received her BS in Civil Engineering at the State University of New York at Buffalo, Magna Cum Laude, and is a licensed Professional Engineer in several states.
She has served as Principal-in-Charge, Project Executive, Program and Project Manager, and Project Engineer on more than 700 projects which required everything from scoping, planning, environmental studies, preparation of plans, specifications, and estimates, construction management and operations and maintenance; ranging in size from $10,000 to $3.9 billion. Her strength has been in the area of complex element coordination; well-developed project communications, government and community relations, including innovative finance and grants; and fast-track implementation on complex projects. She has successfully led alternative delivery projects such as Design Build, Best Value, and Public-Private Partnerships.