Professional engineer Shawna Munn, P.Eng., started her own company, Enterra Engineering, in 2024, 16 years after beginning her career as an intern with Isherwood Geostructural Engineers.
Munn remains the president of Enterra Engineering, but has shifted focus to the role of design manager, major projects civil east, with Aecon Group Inc., as of April. Piling Canada invited Munn to talk about her career, the role of women in engineering and the industry overall.
How long have you worked in the deep foundations and geostructural engineering field?
Shawna Munn (SM): I started working in geostructural engineering consulting as a summer student intern in 2008 and 2009, and joined the industry full time in 2010. I went to university at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont., and was drawn to the practicality of my first-year geology course and the practical assignments, like roadbuilding, and fell in love with rocks. I joined geological engineering in my second year of university and joined Isherwood Geostructural Engineering as a summer student after my second year.
How did working at Isherwood lead you to where you are now?
SM: Isherwood was an amazing place to learn and grow as a young engineer. Immediately out of school, I was thrown into major projects like the Union Station revitalization project, where I was both project manager and designer for low headroom micropile shoring for essentially a full city block inside of one of North America’s business transit hubs supporting live rail. The challenges continued from there through various major infrastructure projects and milestone private sector projects. I was surrounded by a supportive team and mentors who made that possible.
Who are some of the mentors and influences in your career?
SM: They say you stand on the shoulders of giants and that is true for me. Having the opportunity to learn and be mentored by Brian Isherwood, Nadir Ansari, Alan Macnab, Chandru Hira, Ed Kolakowski, Peter Sheffield and Bill Lardner, who pushed me to write my first paper, – these people are all legends. Isherwood was a special microcosm of talent distilled in both the mentors and my colleagues. That was special to experience. Outside of Isherwood, having strong female industry influences and friends like Mary Ellen Large, Helen Robinson, Peggy Hagerty and Lucky Nagarajan saved me from moments where the imposter syndrome wanted to take over. They are always advocating for women in our industry.
How did the start of Enterra Engineering come to be?
SM: After leaving Isherwood in summer 2024, I started Enterra Engineering to interact as a consultant outside the Isherwood umbrella and see what options the industry could hold for me rather than jumping into a new company. I was fortunate to work with some great consulting firms during this time, and I learned a lot through the process of starting the company and navigating those waters.
You mentioned that you want to solve real-world problems. Can you elaborate?
SM: From the start of my career, I have been drawn to making a difference, starting right at Union Station through various major transit projects, which all make a real difference in people’s lives. I also had the opportunity to work closely with contractors to see the meaningful difference that designs that thoughtfully consider constructability make on any construction project – something that I have taken with me throughout my career.
What are some of the most significant changes you’ve seen in the industry?
SM: That is an interesting question. In many ways, I was schooled on the “old school” way of doing things, with pencil and paper, hand sketches, back of the napkin calculations and developing your gut feeling – something I still like to gravitate to today. On the positive side, the evolution of 3D and 4D modelling is amazing to see, and the value it can provide on projects is immense. One of the reasons I was drawn to working with Aecon Group as a design manager in their major projects civil east group was not only to be involved in solving more real-world problems, but to learn from and collaborate with the power within their integrated digital delivery group.
On the other hand, I have seen the way many rely on design using programs or analysis tools before really knowing what the real answer should be, and this becomes more challenging the more complex analysis software becomes. The problem with many analysis tools is you can really tweak them to give a variety of answers, and I like to say if you can’t design it on paper first and don’t know roughly what the right answer should be, you have no business putting it into a program.
And, of course, the rise of online work. The flexibility is wonderful for many people, including myself. But I feel like hyper-remote work can lead to less context within a working team or project team since many take meetings with cameras off and it’s mentally hard to process a conversation the same way. Studies suggest that body language accounts for more than 50 per cent of the meaning conveyed in communication, so what happens when that is entirely missing?
Are you still a member of the Deep Foundations Institute (DFI)’s Women in Deep Foundations (WiDF) committee?
SM: Yes, definitely. I credit much of the courage I had to take certain steps within my career to the WiDF group. I also serve as a trustee on the board of the DFI Educational Trust (DFI EdTrust), the charitable arm of DFI, which provides scholarships to civil engineering students pursuing careers in deep foundations. Currently, I am working to expand its reach in Canada, where only one scholarship fund exists. Our board is considering establishing a Canadian counterpart to better connect Canadian donors and companies with potential employees. In advance of our mid-June board meeting, I am engaging Canadian companies to gauge interest in becoming founding donors so we can research further the feasibility of this idea.
“I like to say if you can’t design it on paper first and don’t know roughly what the right answer should be, you have no business putting it into a program.”
Shawna Munn, P.Eng.
Since 2006, the Trust has awarded nearly $2.4 million in scholarships and grants to more than 600 individuals. Its fundraisers not only generate financial support, but also raise awareness and engagement from the public. With contributions from volunteers, DFI donations – through donation of its staff time and other resources – directly fund scholarships, grants and other services to individuals in our industry. DFI EdTrust’s work continues to attract the best and brightest to our industry, and my goal is to expand that in Canada.
What future trends do you see shaping deep foundations engineering?
SM: I would like to see modelling extend into virtual reality of construction sites at various stages of construction to really improve construction staging and sequencing. I would like to see a back-to-basics approach to design and monitoring so people start to really understand construction, where load really goes in any soil structure system, understand why apparent earth pressure diagrams were created and enacting performance based designs (hint: you need to understand the performance of a structure to do this!).
What advice would you give to young engineers entering the field today?
SM: Spend time on site and see as many sites as you can – field trips, site visits, project field assignments, etc. That is where you will develop your real understanding of what construction is, the needs of a contractor on site, and you will take that with you throughout the rest of your career and be much more valuable for it.
What do you think needs to happen to make this field more attractive to young workers?
SM: Good question. I think many just need to know it exists and what roles exist in it. Many people I know fell into it by a fluke, myself included. The deep foundations industry is one of the coolest around. I am biased, I know, but any time I show a student real photos of a construction site or talk about just how creative my job really is and about the art of subsurface engineering, I can see them fall in love too.
What do you like to do outside of work?
SM: Spend time with my two girls, Nora and Emily, and with my husband, Jason. [My daughters] are both young, so it’s the simple things like going for walks, to the park, gardening, playing in the backyard.