Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards has appointed Eric Kalivoda secretary of the state Dept. of Transportation and Development. Formerly department deputy secretary, he succeeds Shawn Wilson, who retired March 4 and has announced he will run for governor as a Democratic candidate in the November state election. Kalivoda also was agency assistant secretary of planning and multimodal commerce.

Christine Wood has been promoted to vice president at Burns & McDonnell. She leads the design-construction firm’s Dallas-Fort Worth-based global facilities practice, which executes projects in mission critical, aerospace, industrial and energy sectors in 20 countries, says the firm. Wood was named in 2016 to ENR’s Top 20 under 40 list for the Texas & Louisiana region. The employee-owned firm reported revenue of $7 billion last year, up from $4.8 billion in 2021.

Mark Ingram has joined HNTB Corp. as a vice president and project director in Houston, focused on the transportation sector. He was vice president and national traffic practice lead at Alliance Transportation Group Inc. Scott Gorenc has joined the firm’s architecture national practice as senior design principal for aviation, based in Dallas. He is former studio design director at Corgan and was senior designer at Gensler.

Black & Veatch has named Deepa Poduval, a senior vice president in Houston who also leads the global advisory practice, as company sustainability leader. An 18-year firm veteran, she will advance its sustainability efforts in alignment with recent United Nations protocols. Poduval also is executive sponsor for the firm’s employee resource group for women and was recognized by Women We Admire as one of Houston’s 2023 top 50 women leaders.

Hunter, a Houston-based design firm and contractor specializing in blast resistant buildings, has elevated Scott Turner to executive vice president. A 17-year company veteran, he had been vice president of operations. The firm also promoted Nathan Conrad to vice president of operations, from director. He joined Hunter in 2011. Justin Barrington has been elevated to senior vice president of engineering and project support. He is a 10-year firm veteran.

Fort Worth-based engineer Freese and Nichols Inc. has opened an office in Lafayette, La., naming Whitney Broussard to lead its team of coastal experts. A specialist in applying geospatial technologies to coastal and water resource issues, he is a former coastal research scientist at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette who supported the state’s first coastal master plan with new mapping and modelling methods. Also in that office are Blake Simon, a coastal ecologist who will provide GIS and drone-related services, and John Oliver, who will provide landscape architecture services focused on design and coastal resilience.

Darian Reams recently joined Adolfson & Peterson Construction, Dallas, as director of mission critical services, overseeing such projects as data centers and other essential facilities. He had been project director at JE Dunn Construction.

Rice University, Houston, has named Lane Martin director of its new Advanced Materials Institute and Welch Professor of Materials Science and Nanoengineering in the George R. Brown School of Engineering, effective July 1. He now is the Chancellor’s Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of California-Berkeley and chairs its materials science and engineering department. Rice says the new institute will keep it “at the forefront of high-impact research related to energy transition, advanced materials and future computing.”

Contractor Primoris Services Corp. has named Colt Moedl as president of its utilities business segment based in Dallas. Formerly president of Power Delivery Inc., he has overseen large-scale U.S. power delivery and energy infrastructure projects and held previous leadership roles at Quanta Services and HDR. The firm also elevated Chad Haxton to chief information officer. He joined the firm in 2019 as senior vice president of information technology.

The National Center for Construction Education and Research, a not-for-profit group that develops standardized curriculum and assessments for craft professionals, named Scott Marshall board chair. He is senior group director of Americas people operations for contractor Worley in Houston. Stephen Toups, president and CEO of Turner Industries in Baton Rouge, La., becomes past chair. Shannon P. Craig, BASF vice president of technical expertise in Geismar, La., is named a new board member.

LPA Design Studios has hired D. Alex John Jr. as associate principal and design director of its Dallas commercial studio. Previously, he was vice president and senior designer at HKS Architects. John also is a board member of The Real Estate Council, the city’s commercial real estate industry association.

Drew Hardin has joined Parkhill, an engineer-architect, as senior vice president of community development and growth. Based in Austin, Texas, he had been vice president at Freese and Nichols Inc., leading business development for its Central Texas division and also was vice president and a director at Lockwood, Andrews & Newman.

WSP USA has hired Joseph Black as senior vice president and lead for its rail operations and service planning team based in Austin. He was senior program manager for rail operations and integration at Jacobs and also vice president and U.S. Western region practice leader at Network Rail Consulting.