Art E. Favre has pledged $1.2 million to establish an endowed chair for the benefit of the Department of Construction Management and Industrial Engineering (CMIE) at LSU in the College of Engineering. Once matched with state funds of $800,000, the chair will total $2 million.

The Art E. Favre Industrial Construction Chair will enhance educational quality and research in the field of industrial construction management. Favre’s leadership gift represents the largest commitment to the department from an individual. Favre is a 1972 LSU graduate in construction – the inaugural graduating class.

Owner and president of Performance Contractors Inc. of Baton Rouge, La., Favre founded the industrial services company, which specializes in construction, maintenance and pipe fabrication and serves refineries, petrochemical, chemical and power industries.

Support for LSU CMIE, like that shown by Favre, helps the College of Engineering move closer to its Forever LSU Campaign goal of attaining $100 million in support for the college by the end of the year 2010.

Alabama

Jacqui Overbey Hart

Goodwyn, Mills and Cawood Inc. recently announced that Jacqui Overbey Hart has been promoted to design operations director for the firm’s Birmingham architectural department.

Hart recently gained LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Accredited Professional designation in accordance with the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), distinguishing her as a professional with the knowledge and skills to successfully steward the national LEED certification process for developing high performance, sustainable buildings.

An award-winning interior designer and architect with more than 14 years experience, Hart earned three bachelor’s degrees from Auburn University in architecture, environmental design, and interior design.

Based in Montgomery, Goodwyn, Mills and Cawood offices are also in Birmingham, Mobile and Huntsville, Ala.; in Crestview, Fla.; Greenville, S.C.; and, Nashville.

Louisiana

The New Orleans-based architecture firm Eskew+Dumez+Ripple has named two new associate directors, Chief Financial Officer Jenifer Navard and architect Kurt Hagstette.

Jenifer Navard

Hagstette

Eskew+Dumez+Ripple is a design-driven studio based in New Orleans that produces diverse projects in architecture and planning by blending a signature collaborative process with professional talent, creative thinking and emerging technologies.

Sizeler Thompson Brown Architects recently announced several new hires and promotions.

Stacey E. Boldt has joined as an interior designer. She is manager and project designer for the new courtrooms in Orleans Parish Criminal Court.

Boldt has extensive experience in project design and management of national and international academic, corporate, hospitality, historic preservation and adaptive re-use projects. During the past 20 years, she has worked with architecture firms in St. Louis, San Francisco and New Orleans. She has also taught design studio classes at the University of New Orleans.

A graduate of Louisiana State University with a bachelor’s degree in interior architecture, Boldt earned her NCIDQ license in 1993. In 2005 she received her master’s degree of fine arts in studio painting from UNO.

Robert Bennett has joined the firm as a senior architect. He is currently project manager for the NASA/UNO Research Facility project at the NASA Michoud Center and the East Jefferson Public Library in Metairie.

Bennett has extensive experience in design and construction management of municipal, recreation and leisure, hospitality and commercial architectural projects in Louisiana. He has worked for the City of New Orleans, several architectural firms in New Orleans and Lafayette, as well as for two corporate firms in Florida. Bennett is also the former owner of Bennett & Associates, a Lafayette architectural firm.

A graduate of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette with a bachelor’s degree in architecture, he became a licensed architect in 1978.

Charles Anthony Bodree Jr. has joined Sizeler Thompson Brown Architects as job captain. He is currently job captain on the NASA/UNO Administrative Research Facility.

Bodree has 14 years of experience in the concept, CAB design, coordination and management of municipal, education, hospitality and commercial architectural projects in Massachusetts, Ohio, Florida, Texas, Alabama and Mississippi.

He has worked for the SMB Architecture in Pensacola, Fla., and in Boston for both HHTB Architecture where he worked on the Boston Convention Center project, and Tappe Associates Architects.

He is also the former owner of CAB, a custom design-build firm in Pensacola.

A graduate of Auburn University with a bachelor’s degree in architecture, he expects to receive his AIA license in June.

Julia Stefanski has joined as an interior design intern. She is currently working on the new Lakeshore Library, St. Charles Courthouse - Administrative Suite, and the Department of Transportation and Development/Regional Planning Commission Center at West End Boulevard in Metairie, La.

She has experience in healthcare design and previously worked as a designer for Lawrence Group Architects in St. Louis, Mo.

Stefanski is a 2005 graduate of the University of Missouri with a bachelor’s degree in human environmental sciences: architectural studies, with a major in interior design. She is currently working toward her National Council for Interior Design Qualification (NCIDQ) and expects to earn her certification in April 2009.

Lisa Kay Gilkison has joined the firm as specifications writer.

She has seven years experience in specifications writing and consulting with architectural and specification consulting firms in Florida and Michigan. She most recently was a construction specification consultant at LKG Specs in Shalimar, Fla.

Gilkison has a bachelor’s degree in architecture and a master’s degree in architecture with a minor in business and practice from Lawrence Technical University in Southfield, Mich. She has been a member of the Construction Specification Institute (CSI) since 2002 and received her Construction Documents Technology (CDT) Certificate in 2005.

Gilkison is currently working towards her AIA designation.

Joseph J. Cavallo has been hired as construction administrator.

He has 25 years experience in construction management and construction administration on healthcare, laboratories and commercial projects. Cavallo is a member of the Construction Specification Institute and received his Construction Documents Technology Certificate in 1996.

He is currently working towards his Certified Construction Contract Administrator designation through the CSI.

Cavallo is a former instructor for CSI’s Certified Construction Specifier (CCS) program. He is a graduate of Mohawk Community College in Utica. N.Y., with a degree in construction management.

Richard J. Tyler

Jones Walker , a New Orleans law firm, recently announced that partner Richard J. Tyler has been elected to serve a three-year term on the Governing Committee of the American Bar Association’s Forum on the Construction Industry.

The election was held at the Forum’s annual meeting, which was held in New Orleans in mid-April.

With more than 6,000 members representing all segments of the industry, the Forum is the largest organization of construction lawyers in the U.S. and abroad.

Prior to his election to the Governing Committee, Tyler served as a member and then chair of the Forum’s Division 3 (Design) Steering Committee. He also served as co-chair of the Forum’s 2005 Fall Meeting in Toronto, and has participated as a panelist and moderator at numerous Forum and other construction industry meetings, including programs on the 2007 American Institute of Architects (AIA) Documents and the ConsensusDocs.

Tyler is a contributing author to the Forum’s recently published textbook on construction law, which was designed to meet the need for a comprehensive textbook for use in law schools.

Tyler is a partner in Jones Walker’s New Orleans office and serves as chair of the firm’s construction practice. He is a member of the firm’s Business & Commercial Litigation and Real Estate, Construction & Project Development Practice Groups. Tyler is a 1981 graduate of the Georgetown University Law Center and a 1978 graduate of Georgetown University.

Mississippi

Harry Lee James has been named the new executive director for the Mississippi Concrete Industries Association, headquartered in Jackson, Miss.

James, a registered professional engineer and surveyor with more than 30 years of experience in transportation and engineering, previously served as chief engineer/deputy executive directory for the Mississippi Department of Transportation (MDOT).

He previously served as state bridge engineer for MDOT and has experience in both construction and consulting engineering.

In 2004, James was recognized as a Distinguished Fellow of the Mississippi State University (MSU) Bagley College of Engineering. In 2005 he was named “Engineer of the Year” by the Mississippi Engineering Society. He is a graduate of MSU, where he majored in civil engineering.

James is an elder of the First Presbyterian Church of Canton, Miss., and chairs the board of directors of the First Presbyterian Kindergarten. He resides in Madison County (Canton) with his wife Cynthia and their two daughters, Elizabeth and Lauren.

MCIA, organized in 1957, is a non-profit trade association representing the concrete industry in Mississippi. Member companies are engaged in the concrete, aggregate, cement and related industries that do business in Mississippi.

Tennessee

Skanska USA Building Inc. announced recently the promotion of Craig Eckert to vice president. Eckert is based out of the company’s Nashville office and has worked for Skanska for more than four years.

Craig Eckert

Deborah King

With 15 years of commercial healthcare construction experience, Eckert is currently overseeing a $150 million tower addition project at Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton, Ohio. Other projects he has overseen include the Atrium Medical Center in Franklin, Ohio; Aventura Hospital and Medical Center in Aventura, Fla.; and Flagler Hospital in St. Augustine, Fla.

Eckert earned a bachelor’s degree in building construction management from Purdue University. He recently became a LEED Accredited Professional. He also has an American Society for Healthcare Engineering (ASHE) Healthcare Contractor’s Certification and is OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) trained.

Skanska also announced the appointment of Deborah King as its Human Resources Service Manager in charge of HR operations in Tennessee and Texas.

King joins Skanska from First Medical Management, where she was the human resources manager. King will be based in Skanska’s Nashville office.

A Tennessee native, King received a bachelor’s degree in business administration degree from Middle Tennessee State University and has worked in human resources for more than 14 years.

In addition, Skanska announced that nine of its Nashville office employees have become LEED Accredited Professionals, bringing the total number in the construction company’s Nashville office to 13.