Karen L. Becker, P.E.
Principal Civil Engineer, City of Manhattan, KS
Office Location: Manhattan, KS
Education:
- BS, Civil Engineering, Kansas State University
Professional Associations
- Tri-Valley Kansas Society of Professional Engineers Board
- KSU Civil Engineering Advisory Council
Karen Becker is a registered professional engineer in the State of Kansas and has been the Principal Civil Engineer for the City of Manhattan, KS since 2016. In this role, Becker primarily oversees internal and external design development for Public Works Engineering Department projects. The City of Manhattan, KS has a population of approximately 55,000 (US Census Bureau) with annual expenditures around $30M for Public Works infrastructure projects.
Becker graduated from Kansas State University with a bachelor’s of science degree in 1998. Following graduation, Becker spent the majority of her career in private consulting with BG Consultants, Inc. as a Project Engineer and Associate. As a member of a small firm, her technical skills were wide-ranging, including land development, site planning and public infrastructure planning and design. She gravitated towards, and had more of an expertise in, wastewater treatment plant and lift station design projects. Becker prepared many large technical studies, both wastewater and stormwater, performed project management, worked with contractors, authored marketing proposals and developed client relationships.
Becker also previously spent two years on the east coast working in private consulting for a large engineering firm, O’Brien & Gere (now Ramboll Group). As a member of O’Brien & Gere’s Federal Division, Becker served one year embedded into the 43rd Civil Engineering Squadron at the former Pope Air Force Base as a Program Manager. She considers this time a great privilege and thoroughly enjoyed estimating and programming vertical and horizontal projects for our nation’s service members.
In her current position with the City of Manhattan, Becker manages the Engineering Division Design Section. The Design Section is responsible for internal design development; review and management of external design development; review of planning documents (plats, rezoning requests, master plans, traffic & stormwater studies) and private projects submitted for building permits; responding to citizen complaints; and managing projects through construction. She served multiple years on the KSPE Tri-Valley Board and recently ended six years on the KSU Civil Engineering Advisory Committee.
Growing up on a family farm in northeast Kansas, Becker’s love for the smell of fresh turned earth and the steel and oil of the steel bridge near her parent’s home turned into a lifelong love of seeing civil engineering projects come to fruition from start to finish. She resides in the greater Manhattan area and enjoys spending extracurricular time in her garden, with her church family, extended family, children and grandchildren.
