When Clark Dietz nominated Senior Engineer Chris Gutkowski, PE, CFM for the 2026 Civil Engineer of the Year award, the challenge was not finding reasons why he deserved the recognition. It was capturing more than two decades of engineering, mentorship, professional leadership, and community service in one nomination.
Chris honored as Civil Engineer of the Year at the ASCE Central Illinois Section awards banquet.
The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Central Illinois Section has now named Chris its 2026 Civil Engineer of the Year, recognizing a career that demonstrates how civil engineering can make a difference far beyond the infrastructure itself.
For 21 years, Chris has built a career in water resources and municipal infrastructure, helping communities address flooding, plan, and turn necessary infrastructure investments into opportunities to improve the places where people live.
But when Executive Vice President and Illinois Regional Director Sean Widener, PE, PTOE, nominated Chris for the award, the story went beyond his technical accomplishments.
It was also about the way Chris approaches the work, the relationships he has built, the engineers he has helped develop, and his commitment to the communities he serves.
Engineering With the Community in Mind
For 18 years, Chris has worked with the City of Champaign to address stormwater and flooding challenges. That relationship has included watershed planning and projects that have changed not only how water moves through neighborhoods, but how residents experience those neighborhoods.
One of those projects was the West Washington Street Stormwater Improvements, where Chris served as project manager. The project addressed longstanding flooding affecting hundreds of residents through new detention and storm sewer facilities while incorporating sidewalks, a multipurpose path, rain gardens, and other public amenities into the neighborhood. The experience helped shape Chris’s approach to engineering, grounded in how infrastructure improves people’s daily lives, a philosophy that became central to his Civil Engineer of the Year nomination.
Sean wrote in his nomination of Chris:
“His work has demonstrated that thoughtful engineering can strengthen entire communities, creating places where residents are safer, neighborhoods are more resilient, and public spaces become assets that people value long after construction is complete.”
That philosophy can be seen again in the multi-phase, award-winning Garden Hills Neighborhood Drainage Improvement Project, part of the continued effort to address flooding in Champaign. The project pairs regional stormwater improvements with reconstructed streets, lighting, sidewalks, and green space. Around the detention basins, walking paths, pedestrian bridges, playgrounds, basketball courts, and other amenities help turn infrastructure into places the neighborhood can use and enjoy.
West Washington and Garden Hills are part of a much larger body of work. Chris’s experience includes watershed planning, floodplain analysis, stormwater management, municipal utilities, stream restoration, drainage improvements, and combined sewer overflow studies. Across those efforts, he has earned the trust of municipal clients by bringing together technical knowledge, long-term planning, and an understanding of the people affected by the decisions engineers make.
Sharing What He Has Learned
Chris’s nomination was also about the influence he has had on the profession and on other engineers.
Chris volunteering at El Paseo Community Garden.
As a past president of the ASCE Central Illinois Section, he has served the same professional community that now recognizes him as Civil Engineer of the Year. He has also shared lessons from his water resources work through technical presentations and involvement in professional organizations.
Within Clark Dietz, that commitment takes another form.
As the firm’s Stormwater Community of Practice Lead, Chris helps connect professionals across our five-state footprint, shares technical knowledge, supports project teams, and mentors others working in stormwater management. He participates in other Communities of Practice and remains committed to his own professional growth as a participant in a mentoring pod.
Even after more than two decades in the profession, Chris continues to learn while helping others do the same.
Investing in the Next Generation
Mentorship was another important part of Chris’s nomination, but his investment in future engineers does not begin or end at Clark Dietz.
Through Engineers in the Classroom, Chris has helped introduce elementary school students to engineering with hands-on activities designed to make STEM approachable and engaging. At Clark Dietz, he has mentored younger professionals, providing technical guidance while encouraging them to take on new challenges and grow in their careers.
Sean described that investment in the nomination:
“Chris understands that inspiring future engineers is just as important as educating current ones, and he has devoted considerable time to both.”
It is an approach that looks beyond the project in front of him. The knowledge Chris has gained throughout his career becomes more valuable when he shares it with the people who will carry the profession forward.
Service That Extends Beyond Engineering
The nomination also told a story about Chris that cannot be captured by a project list or résumé.
Chris volunteering at forest preserve cleanup in northern Illinois.
He volunteers during Boneyard Creek Community Day and has participated in other environmental cleanup efforts. He supports local schools through community fun runs, has volunteered as an assistant coach for his daughter’s basketball team, and serves alongside his wife on his church’s hospitality team.
Individually, these activities may seem separate from his engineering career. Together, they reflect the same commitment to people and communities that has shaped his professional work.
A Career Built Around People
Technical expertise is an essential part of Chris’s success, but it was not the only reason Clark Dietz nominated him for Civil Engineer of the Year.
We nominated Chris because of what he has done with that expertise.
He has helped communities make difficult infrastructure decisions. He has built relationships that have lasted nearly two decades. He has helped turn stormwater infrastructure into community spaces. He has shared what he knows with his peers, mentored younger professionals, introduced children to engineering, and given his time to the communities around him.
For 21 years, those contributions have added up to something much larger than any one project.
They have built a career centered on what civil engineering is ultimately intended to do: improve people’s lives.
Congratulations, Chris, on being named the ASCE Central Illinois Section’s 2026 Civil Engineer of the Year.
Learn More About ASCE
To learn more about the ASCE Central Illinois Section, visit its website. You can also learn more about the American Society of Civil Engineers.
