Mr. Andrew King is Engineering Manager for Jennmar Civil and is licensed as both a Professional Engineer and Structural Engineer. He has 19 years of structural engineering experience, including 13 years specializing in support-of-excavation design. His work encompasses temporary and permanent solutions for excavations of varying shapes, sizes, and depths using rolled steel beams, liner plates, and various forms of lagging. His broader experience includes above- and below-ground steel, wood, and concrete structures. He has contributed to hundreds of projects, primarily throughout North and Central America, with additional work in South America, Europe, and Australia.

Victor Romero has over 35 years of underground design and construction experience in the rail transit, highway, water supply, and wastewater sectors. He joined Delve Underground in 1991, holding leadership roles in design, construction management, and business development before becoming president and CEO. He has served as project manager and project director on numerous large underground projects, with expertise in shaft design, trenchless methods, tunnel support and lining, and tunnel boring machine excavation. He is an industry-recognized expert for the Sequential Excavation Method. 

Victor holds an MS in geotechnical engineering from the University of California at Berkeley and a BS in geological engineering from the Colorado School of Mines. He is a registered Professional Engineer in 15 states, a Certified Engineering Geologist in California, and a Chartered Professional Engineer in New Zealand.

Melissa Russell is the Executive Director and CEO of the Society for Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration (SME), where she leads the organization’s strategic direction, operations, and global member engagement initiatives. With more than 30 years of experience in nonprofit association management, Russell has built a reputation for driving organizational growth, financial sustainability, and innovation across technical and scientific professional societies.

Before joining SME in 2025, she served as Executive Director of the IEEE Computer Society, overseeing one of the world’s largest technical professional communities with more than 55,000 members in 150 countries. Earlier in her career, she held senior leadership positions at the Optical Society (OPTICA), where she played a key role in expanding conferences, publications, industry partnerships, and educational programs.

Russell holds a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism with a specialization in Advertising from The Ohio State University. She is recognized for her collaborative leadership style and her commitment to advancing professional development, innovation, and sustainability within technical and industrial communities.

Leon “Lonnie” Jacobs has more than 40 years of heavy civil and underground construction experience in the New York metropolitan area. He began his underground construction career in 1982 as a co-op student with the joint venture of McLean-Grove, Grow Tunneling, and Kiewit, later holding several engineering roles on the New York City Third Water Tunnel after graduation. In 1988, he joined Perini as a project engineer on numerous transit and wastewater projects throughout the New York City region before moving to Frontier-Kemper in 1995. In January 2024, Leon joined Halmar International as Executive Vice President.

Over the past four decades, Leon has helped construct many major projects, including the 138th Street and 145th Street Bridges between Riverside Drive and the North River Water Pollution Control Plant over the Henry Hudson Parkway; New York City Department of Environmental Protection Water Tunnel Shaft 26B; the 26 Ward Water Pollution Control Plant Pilot Program; the New Croton Aqueduct Rehabilitation Project; the TBTA Queens Midtown Tunnel Rehabilitation Project; the NJ Transit Hudson-Bergen Light Rail Weehawken Tunnel/Bergenline Avenue Station Project; MTA East Side Access Manhattan North Structures; and the Cleaning and Inspection of City Tunnel No. 3, Stage 2, in Queens and Brooklyn.

Leon’s responsibilities have spanned nearly every aspect of heavy construction, including project management, engineering, design, scheduling, cash flow, insurance, safety, accounts payable and receivable, payroll, estimating, budgeting, risk management, quality control, change order negotiation, equipment customization and design, value engineering, claims, depositions, human resources, and strategic planning. He has also testified in court and before Dispute Resolution Boards and arbitrators.

In addition to his project experience, Leon has served in leadership roles with several industry associations and presented at numerous conferences. He currently serves as Chair of the Underground Construction Association, President of the General Contractors Association of New York, and Vice Chair of The Moles Award Committee. He has also served on the George Fox Conference Committee since 2007, including as chairman in 2008, 2009, 2015, and 2016; as Vice Chair of the 2016 World Tunneling Conference; and on the North American Tunnel Conference planning committee for the 2012, 2014, 2016, and 2018 conferences. Leon also chaired the 2018 UCA North American Tunnel Conference.

Leon earned a Bachelor of Science, cum laude, in Civil Engineering from Northeastern University in Boston in 1985 and a Master of Science in Construction Management from Brooklyn Polytechnic University in 1988. He is a licensed Professional Engineer in New York, New Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia, and is also a Board-Certified Safety Professional. Leon is a member of The Moles, Chi Epsilon Civil Engineering Honor Society, the Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration’s Underground Construction Association, the New York State Society of Professional Engineers, and the American Society of Safety Professionals. He was recently named a Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers.

Colin Lawrence is a world-renowned tunnel engineer within the industry.  He has more than 40 years of tunnel experience including some of the world’s most challenging tunnel projects and has been involved in all aspects of underground project implementing from planning, design, and project management through to construction management and project completion.  His tunnel experience encompasses all types of tunnel projects in a variety of markets such as transportation, water, wastewater, oil, and mining projects in a variety of very challenging ground conditions in soil, rock, and mixed face conditions, in subaqueous, seismic, and mountainous environments.

Over the last 25 years he has been very active in supporting the tunnel industry with past participation on UCA board and currently ending his tenure in June this year on the RETC executive committee. He has also served on the organizing committees for NAT, Cutting Edge, and George Fox tunnel conferences. He was also fortunate to participate on the organizing committee for ITA's World Tunnel Congress when it was held in San Francisco in 2016.  

His proudest industry achievement was as an editor and contributing author to the UCA book, "History of Tunneling in the United States."

David Dorfman is a 1995 graduate of Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston MA with Bachelor Science in Building Construction Technology. He has 30 years’ experience working for contractors in tunnels and underground construction in New York City area. David's tunneling career started as an intern on the Boston Big Dig program. Since then, he has worked on numerous sections of the NYC Water Tunnel, LIRR East Side Access tunnels, NYC 2nd Ave Subway, and New Jersey Transit Hudson Bergan Light rail tunnels serving as General Superintendent and Construction Manager. David’s experience includes tunnel and shaft construction, drill and blast excavation, TBM hard rock excavation, road header excavation, raise bore excavation, frozen shaft excavation, shaft and tunnel concrete, shotcrete initial support and final lining, rock mass grouting, tunnel rehabilitation, subway station fit out, and mechanical work for water supply systems. 

David has been involved within the UCA throughout his career. He has been a member of SME since 2011 and has served as session chair for RETC and NAT numerous times. He is a current member of the George Fox Executive Committee and is currently chair of the committee. David is also a member of the Moles.

Jon Hurt, PE, is a Principal working in Arup’s Tunnel Practice in the Americas. He has a wide range of experience in the management, design and construction of major tunneling projects. Jon’s experience includes underground construction projects on five continents including High Speed 1 in London, New York’s Second Avenue Subway and Lake Mead Intake No. 3. Jon graduated from the University of Cambridge with a degree in Engineering.

Lauro Lacerda is presently the North American Civil Engineering Business Development & Key Account Manager for SNF Holdings Inc. SNF is the world leader in water-based polymers that are extensively used in many industries, including tunneling and deep foundation. He is a PE and received B.Sc & M.Sc degrees in mining engineering and has had civil engineering training and experience. Lauro spent 20+ years working underground as geotechnical engineer and in mine management roles for large mining companies such as Hecla and Barrick. In the past 20 years he worked for Master Builders, Traylor Brothers, and the Normet Group. He joined SNF two years ago. He was the chairman of the “ITA-UCA Working Group 12 – Spray Concrete Use” from 2012-2026 and is currently the chair of “Working Group 15 – Underground and Environment.”

Steffen Dubé is President and General Manager of Herrenknecht USA & Canada, leading the company’s operations, business strategy, and growth across North America. With more than 20 years of experience in the tunnelling industry, he has held leadership roles spanning field service, project management, business development, and executive management in Germany, the United States, and Canada. Since joining Herrenknecht in 2002, he has contributed to numerous major underground infrastructure projects and the advancement of tunnelling technologies. Dubé is actively involved in the industry as an Executive Committee Member of the SME Underground Construction Association, an Individual Member of The Moles, and a Corporate Member of The Beavers.

Everett Litton, P.E. is a Vice President and Senior Technical Principal at WSP within the firm’s Geotechnical & Tunneling National Business Line in St. Louis, Missouri. Everett has over 19 years of experience in the underground construction industry, involving assessment, design, and construction of tunneling projects. He is a registered Professional Engineer and holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in civil engineering from the Missouri University of Science & Technology in Rolla, Missouri. His experience includes assessment, design, and construction management for a variety of tunneling and trenchless technology projects internationally and throughout North America.

Matthew Crow is a Deputy Executive Officer at Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority. For the last decade at LA Metro, Matthew has been involved with development and implementation of underground rail transit projects, including planning, engineering and project management. Matthew started his civil engineering career with a consulting engineers in the UK working on the planning design and construction of projects for natural gas, sewers, highways, electricity cables and rail transit and then moved to the USA performing construction management of stormwater and sewer tunnels, including the ECIS Mega Sewer Tunnel in Los Angeles. Matthew is keen to promote the benefits of tunneling for transportation and utilities as well as its limitations and serves on the Cal State University LA Dean of Engineering’s Advisory Board.

Melanie leads operations with a view to the future. She aims to evolve member services and products to better meet the needs of the industry and drive revenue for the Society. She supports the UCA Division and Structure & Governance Committee. With over 25 years of association management experience, Melanie enjoys connecting strategy with tangible outcomes for members.

Shane Yanagisawa has over 43 years of construction and design experience with 30+ years in the tunnel industry as a Project Director, Project Manager and Engineer. He is experienced in all phases of tunnel excavation including soft ground and hard rock TBMs, Earth Pressure Balance (EPB), slurry shield TBM, raise bores, drill & blast excavation, SEM & NATM. Experienced with tunnel concrete including tunnel lining systems, precast lining systems, segmental liner systems, design of concrete mixes, and design of specialty grouts. Design experience includes specialty equipment and mining formwork.

Jonathan Klug is Vice-President of David R. Klug and Associates, Inc., the company provides international and national manufacturer representative services to the underground heavy civil and mine construction industries. Mr. Klug has over 15 years of industry involvement in many of the major tunnel programs constructed in the United States and Canada over this timeframe. He is involved in many UCA roles and activities, including the UCA Executive Committee, committees for the WTC 2016 and NAT conferences and contributions to the History of Tunneling in the United States book. Mr. Klug also compiles and prepares the Klug Tunnel Forecast which he distributes for free to the industry.