Donald Carpenter, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Lawrence Technological University, has been named the 2017 Educational Professional of the Year by the Michigan Water Environment Association.

The MWEA makes the award each year to recognize an individual for their efforts in promoting activities and professionalism in water resource education.

Carpenter received the award as part of the 2017 MWEA Annual Conference, held recently at Boyne Mountain Resort in Boyne Falls.

Carpenter was nominated for the award by Warren-based Hamlett Engineering Sales Co., or HESCO, an environmental technology provider in the municipal water, wastewater, industrial instrumentation and process optimization industries.

“We have worked with Don for many years, and he has continually demonstrated great regard for both education, and the water profession,” said Glenn Hummel, HESCO vice president. “Over that time we have had the pleasure of working with professionals that were once his students, and through them we always see examples of how his passion for applying engineering to develop solutions for environmental challenges has been successfully passed on to them.”

Carpenter joined LTU as an adjunct faculty member in 2000 and became an assistant professor in 2001, associate professor in 2007, and professor in 2013. He is the founding director of LTU’s Great Lakes Stormwater Management Institute and has also been instrumental in LTU’s efforts to add entrepreneurship and design thinking to the engineering curriculum. In 2014, the Kern Family Foundation named him their national Most Outstanding Faculty Member, recognizing his efforts to bring innovative team-based problem solving into the engineering curriculum to promote the entrepreneurial mindset. He has also worked on several projects to improve recreational harbors on the Great Lakes, making them environmentally and economically sustainable, and has led projects to promote “green infrastructure” like permeable pavement and rain-collecting gardens that use natural processes to treat water runoff.

In 2009, Carpenter earned both the Registered Professional Engineer (PE) and Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Accredited Professional (LEED-AP) designations.

In 2013, he was elected to serve as a Governor for Cranbrook Institute of Science and a Director for the non-profit organization Pure Oakland Water. Carpenter is also an active committee leader for the ASCE Environmental and Water Resources Institute and a member of the SEMCOG Clean Water Partners, MDEQ Green Infrastructure Committee, and Rouge River Advisory Council.

Carpenter earned a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from Purdue University in 1993, a Master of Science in Civil Engineering from Oregon State University in 1996, and a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from the University of Michigan in 2001.