2003 Alumni News

Sonia Maassel Jacobsen Elected ASAE Trustee

Sonia Maassel Jacobsen (BS 1978) has been elected to a two-year term as an at-large member for the ASAE board of trustees.

Sonia is a hydraulic engineer with the Minnesota Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in St. Paul who is recognized nationally as an expert in wetland hydrology. She is secretary-treasurer of the ASAE Minnesota section and also serves on the engineering licensure-related Minnesota Board of Architecture, Engineering, Land Surveying, Landscape Architecture, Geoscience and Interior Design.

As part of her job, Sonia has written technical releases on lakeshore and streambank erosion control; watershed studies; national NRCS training materials on computer software, wetland hydrology, and lateral effect; flood insurance studies; floodplain management studies; and standards for NRCS. Sonia has worked with flood recovery efforts in Minnesota, overseeing the Emergency Watershed Protection (EWP) Program for NRCS. These experiences led to a trip to Nicaragua to assess damages after Hurricane Mitch devastated that country in October 1998.