TEAM MEMBER SPOTLIGHT: TED AUSTIN

TED AUSTIN

April 14, 2023 |

Ted grew up south of Albany, NY and graduated from RCS High School, where he then decided to attend Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, NY for several years. Due to some family/life circumstances, Ted ended up leaving RPI before he could graduate. He worked numerous jobs, such as food service, data processing, and warehousing, until he moved to Central Pennsylvania with his wife and three kids. It was at this point in his life that Ted knew he needed to do something different for himself. He started attending Penn College for Civil Engineering and graduated in 2002 at the age of 32, ready to support his family in a new way. After graduation, Ted went to work for HRG in Bartonsville, PA, where he was there for 8 years. During his time with HRG, he was a Project Engineer and EIT and left there as Transportation Project Manager and PE. Due to the Economic downturn, HRG closed the offices in the NEPA area, leaving Ted without a job.

After a long and difficult job search, Ted found a new sector within engineering at Shoener Environmental where he was the only engineer for the company and developed Wind and Solar sites. Ted worked there for 4 years before venturing out on his own to be an Independent Engineer. It was also during this time that Ted developed a way to process thermal imaging of bird and bat flight paths at wind farms. He did that and independent engineering for 4 years before taking a job at TRC. Ted was there for 5 months before starting at JHA in July of 2021. The large corporate environment was not the life that Ted was looking for and came to JHA due to the core values. People Matter Most really stuck out to Ted as he wanted a better work life balance so he could spend more time with his family. He knew coming here he would have a stable job, support of other engineers, opportunities for training/learning and so much more.

Ted has been married to his wife, Marybeth, for 32 years now. Together they have 3 children, Nikkole, 29, JT (James Theodore), 27 and Mathew, 25. Ted and his wife love to travel. They take the family and friends camping in the Adirondacks every year where they spend a lot of their time on the water canoeing or hiking in the High Peaks. When Ted has some free time, he loves to build things. He recently built the set and some props for the North Pocono High School Play that his daughter, Nikkole, and her husband designed and directed.