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For Immediate Release, 5 September 2008
For More Information, Contact:
Karen Wiesneski
262-317-3292

Lisa Nelson and Art Sears Join R.A. Smith National’s Phoenix Office

BROOKFIELD, WIS.  – R.A.Smith National (formerly R.A. Smith & Associates and its National Survey & Engineering Division) — civil engineering, planning, surveying, landscape architecture, GIS, and 3D visualization consultants — has added Lisa Nelson as project manager and ArtSears as survey project manager.

Lisa Nelson has more than 10 years of civil engineering experience, including project management, design, construction observation and administration for numerous land development and municipal projects. Her project experience includes: large and small format retail, office and business parks, air-side and land-side aviation, wet utility infrastructure, roadway improvements, energy-related, and residential development. Her expertise is in project management, as well as site layout and design, which includes:  grading and drainage, retention/detention, sanitary sewer, water main, storm drain/sewer, stormwater management and erosion control.

Nelson was previously employed as a project manager with V3 Companies of Arizona (formerly Landmark Engineering, Inc.), Phoenix. She has a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Iowa. Nelson is a registered professional engineer in the state of Arizona.

Nelson is a member of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC), Valley Partnership and the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). She is also a founding member of the Eastern Iowa Chapter of Society of Women Engineers (SWE). Nelson lives in Phoenix, Az.

Art Sears has 30 years of experience in a broad base of surveying services for both the public and the private sectors in Arizona and the greater Phoenix metro area. Sears was previously employed as survey department manager with OTAK Inc., Tempe. He has served as an on-call consultant to the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) Right-of-Way Group and Utility and Railroad Group, as well as private consulting firms. His experience includes providing surveying services for highway and utility design, large scale mapping of waterways within Arizona for FEMA/FIRM Flood Plain, railroad corridor alignments, highway corridor alignments and residential and commercial developments.

Sears’ expertise includes all aspects of survey including cadastral and right-of-way boundary surveys, survey control by conventional and GPS methods, right-of-way plans, location and topographic surveys (by both photogrammetric and conventional methods), location and mapping of utilities, legal description preparation for the acquisition of new right-of-way, ALTA surveys, subdivision plats, condominium plats, legal descriptions and aerial mapping.

Sears is a registered land surveyor in the state of Arizona. Sears is a past president of the Central Chapter of the Arizona Professional Land Surveyors Association. He lives in Phoenix, Az.

About R.A. Smith National, Inc.
R.A. Smith National, Inc., www.rasmithnational.com, is a multi-disciplinary consulting engineering firm. It is one of Wisconsin’s largest civil engineering, planning, surveying, landscape architecture, geographic information system (GIS) and 3D visualization consulting firms with 217 total employees. The company is headquartered in Brookfield, Wis. with offices in Appleton, Oshkosh and Madison, Wis. and Tarentum (Pittsburgh), Pa. R.A. Smith National serves state and local government and the land development industry.

Established in 1978 as R.A. Smith & Associates, Inc., the firm acquired National Survey & Engineering in 1994. National Survey & Engineering, founded in 1929, operated as a division of R.A. Smith & Associates, Inc. until the R.A. Smith National brand was created in March 2008.

The company has been the recipient of several awards, the most recent of which include Milwaukee Magazine’s Best Employers to Work For in Southeastern Wisconsin in 2008, ranked No. 11 in the medium-size company category (101 to 499 employees). The firm previously was recognized for the same award in 2001, 2003 and 2005. The firm received The Business Journal’s Beyond the Paycheck award in 2003, 2004 and 2005 and its Top Milwaukee Workplaces 2007 award. Nationally, the firm was recognized by CE News’ Best Civil Engineering Firms to Work For, for the last four consecutive years, in 2007 ranked No. 7 among medium-sized civil engineering firms nationwide.

R.A. Smith National’s mission is to design with vision, deliver excellence, and provide the most responsive service to our clients. The company is driven by core values that include accountability, client satisfaction, innovation, positive work environment, ethics and integrity, and community and professional involvement.

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