#Eweek2025 Spotlight | Haley Madland
Knows engineering magic is in the details.
For National Engineers Week 2025, we’re sharing stories from Cushing Terrell’s engineering talent to learn more about how they chose their profession and what makes them tick.
Who (or what) inspired you to be an engineer?
I’ve the boiler plate response of, “I’ve always liked math and science, and figured engineering would be a good fit,” and that was pretty much all I knew heading into college — and that there are so many different fields within engineering! I definitely didn’t know from the start that structural engineering would be my career. I was really involved with the Concrete Canoe Team (a civil engineering club) at Oregon State University during my time there, and I absolutely loved it. Planning out the project, constructing the canoe, working in a team to get everything done, and eventually racing our creation against other schools — it was a blast, and definitely pushed me toward civil engineering. Once I’d made that call, I just realized I enjoyed the upper level classes focused on structural engineering best, and the rest is history!
What is your area of expertise and why did you choose it?
I don’t know if I can necessarily say I’ve an area of expertise yet, but I’ve gotten the opportunity to work on quite a few different types of projects. My main focuses thus far have been on residential building design and temporary bracing design for mass timber elements during construction. I like the attention to detail with residential design, as the buildings are super different every time. I think this has pushed me every time to learn something new and become a better engineer. The temporary bracing jobs are really interesting — a super niche area of focus and with a typically faster pace and the turnaround is exciting!
What is one of your favorite projects and why?
One of the coolest projects I’ve worked on was on the Duke School Innovation Center in North Carolina. We didn’t do the full building design, just the timber design, and part of it was designing glulam Tudor arches. I was relatively new at the time, and definitely had not done Tudor arch design before. I reviewed AITC (American Institute of Timber Construction) design examples and built out an Excel sheet to step through the full design. It was a big task, especially as fresh as I was, and it was one of the most satisfying projects to complete. Also, it was super neat to see a photo of them getting constructed.
A photo of the Tudor arches Haley designed being constructed for the Duke School Innovation Center in North Carolina.
What are your defining characteristics as a person?
I’d say some defining characteristics are a laid-back personality, pretty goofy attitude, and an appreciation of office pranks 😊 (ideally the pranker, not the prankee).
What piece of advice would you give a young person interested in becoming an engineer?
Give it a test run — internships are a great way to scope out different career paths. There are SO many different fields within engineering — I know I felt overwhelmed when trying to choose in college. Having a few internships during college was incredibly helpful in deciding what career paths were for me, and (almost more importantly) which really weren’t.
Haley at a Glance
- Structural Engineer in Training
- Living in Portland, Oregon
- Defining characteristics: Laid back, goofy, and a prankster
- Interests: Anything outdoors — skiing, camping, kayaking; cooking new recipes; and painting
Haley kayaking on the Willamette River in Oregon.
