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When people describe Jenifer Willer, they use words like driven, committed, supportive and caring.

Eugenes city engineer, they say, has an infectious laugh and tireless spirit and has shown a career-long dedication to public service.

Willer, whos worked for the city for nearly two decades, is set to be honored in August during the American Public Works Associations national conference. She was one of 10 selected as a top leader by the organization earlier this year.

In a nomination packet, the president of the Oregon chapter of the national organization writes that Willer is successful in her role because of her commitment to the city, community and to her profession.

In my opinion, Jenifer is the epitome of a leader in that she brings excellent ideas, comes ready with justification to support those ideas, often has resources to realize the ideas and is supportive through to execution, wrote John Lewis, who leads the state chapter and is public works director for Oregon City.

Willer shows incredible leadership in the city and does work that makes life better for people in Eugene, said Matt Rodrigues, Eugenes public works director.

Though Willer started her engineering career in the private sector, she grew up with family in public service and developed a passion for it.

After a handful of years with a private consulting firm, Willer started with the city as a civil engineer in early 2005. In February 2016, she was promoted to principal civil engineer, first in an acting capacity then officially in early 2017.

After more than three years in that role, she was promoted again to city engineer in an acting capacity. Shes had the role in an official capacity since the start of this year.

As city engineer, Willer manages 84 full-time equivalent positions, a division operating budget of about $15 million, and a capital budget of around $33 million.

She enjoys working directly for the people that Im working for and having a direct connection that lets her see the impact of her job.

In a typical day, Willer will coordinate with other divisions, departments and local governments, and she gives the final stamp of approval to projects.

With capital projects at an all-time high, theres a lot to do, she said.

It shows, Willer said. You drive around town, and you see construction.

Willer loves her job. Living and working in Eugene is exciting, she said, and people have a lot of passion about the work she does.

Everything that we do is personal to somebody, Willer said.

She added while emotions sometimes run high, she knows its important to play a part in something thats personal and means something to people.

Willers favorite part of the job is her team, who she credits for most of the recognition shes received over the years.

But she also simply likes the work she loves that its all about making things work that we all depend on every single day.

Willer particularly likes projects where shes able to talk to residents and figure out how to make things better, whether thats safer pedestrian crossings, a new facility or some other project.

Its complicated but its really rewarding to be part of that, she said of the job overall.

While Willer loves her career, she knows its a path that few people, especially woman, realize is an option, and shes enthusiastic about promoting it as something that others can do.

Her passion, advocacy for women in public works and engineering, and willingness to mentor all stood out to people who wrote letters or sent comments as part of her nomination.

Lewis said she has an amazing amount of drive, and its clear she loves what she does.

Drake McKee, who works with the Oregon Department of Transportation, said Willer backs up her project managers and is there to mentor young engineers.

Rodrigues added she rises to meet challenges and opportunities with grace, purpose and dedication and is a highly capable and caring leader who is deeply committed to the work while putting people first.

Their comments echoed others in a nomination that got Willer selected as a top 10 leader by the national organization that has around 30,000 members.

Willer was humbled and touched to even be considered and said it took her a minute to find her voice when she got a call from the national president informing her shed received the award.

She stressed that the award isnt about her individually but about her team and beyond.

The recognition is really about the city of Eugene.

Contact city government watchdog Megan Banta at mbanta@registerguard.com. Follow her on Twitter @MeganBanta_1.

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Eugene city engineer 'epitome of a leader,' selected for national award - The Register-Guard