2022 Hall of Fame Inductees

John Olivier is president and CEO of Fuscoe Engineering Inc., a Southern California 200-person employee-owned firm that provides civil engineering services for land development and public infrastructure services, using eco-adaptive processes.

Olivier earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from UCI in 1985. He has worked at Fuscoe Engineering since its founding in 1992.

At Fuscoe, Olivier leads and supports the company’s employees throughout four offices in Irvine, San Diego, Ontario and Los Angeles. He serves as a hands-on principal-in-charge for numerous projects, providing direct oversight and team leadership. Olivier has more than 35 years of experience delivering exceptional civil engineering design in urban, commercial/industrial, mixed-use, master-planned communities, infill and complex entitlement projects. He is able to conceptualize a project from inception to completion and motivates Fuscoe’s staff members to develop highly creative engineering solutions. Utilizing his strong communication skills, he maintains excellent working relationships with clients and team members to keep projects moving on schedule and on budget. He maintains a singular focus on customer satisfaction, which he achieves by delivering top quality work and exemplary project management.

Olivier is also a prominent and respected advocate of the architectural, engineering and construction industry. He is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers and the Design-Build Institute of America. He served five years on the HomeAid Orange County Board of Directors Executive Committee and is its vice president of housing development. Olivier has donated funds and provided pro-bono services to several HomeAid OC shelters and Habitat for Humanity projects. He also served 10 years on the board of directors of the Community Foundation of Orange and is active in the Building Industry Association of Southern California, including the BIA/OC Urban Infill Committee.

Olivier lives in the city of Orange with his wife, Cindy, and together they have raised two sons, Kevin and Nathan, and a daughter, Lauren. Olivier enjoys cycling, and his love of swimming dates back to his days on the UCI Water Polo Team.

Cecilia Richards is a mechanical engineering professor at Washington State University whose research interests have spanned fuel-air mixing in gas turbine engines to waste-heat harvesting in micro-scale engines. She has been a leader in the development of small-scale engines for portable power applications. Her work on integrating thin film piezoelectrics as generators in micro-scale engines is pioneering and has contributed to the fundamental understanding of power conversion efficiency of piezoelectric components.

A fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Richards has authored over 150 technical papers and proceedings. Her work has been funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Standards and Technology among others.

A leading engineering educator, Richards spearheaded many innovations in the classroom and laboratory. She developed and ran several NSF-funded Research Experience for Undergraduate Programs at Washington State University. Her work developing and implementing remote laboratory access for off-campus students was recognized by the American Society for Engineering Education.

Richards received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering from the University of British Columbia, Canada. She was the first woman in the UCI Department of Mechanical Engineering to earn a doctorate in 1990, working with Professor Scott Samuelsen as her adviser. Following completion of her graduate work, Richards was a fellow at the National Institute of Standards and Technology for two years before becoming the first woman on the faculty in the School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering at Washington State University.

Elizabeth San Miguel has worked in numerous capacities at Northrop Grumman, a multinational aerospace and defense technology company, for nearly 18 years. She was selected as a Northrop Grumman Corporate Technology Council Protégé in 2017 for her technical accomplishments and leadership potential, and as an emerging leader in the field of engineering by the Sonora Region Society of Women Engineers in 2018.

She currently serves as program director of vehicle engineering at Northrop Grumman. Previously she was manager of specialty systems engineering for the corporation's ground-based strategic deterrent weapon system replacement program. Generally, her work focuses on applied research for future airplane concepts, and she has developed enabling steal technologies for next-generation military aircraft. She has led several integrated product teams over the years, including a multimillion-dollar portfolio of technology development, and coordinated a corporation-wide technology review with the industry's customer base. In her role as an assistant department manager, she led 200-plus engineers on projects spanning early technology development through operations and sustainment.

San Miguel earned a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering at UCI and a master’s degree in electrical engineering at USC. At UCI, she was heavily involved in student government with a desire to advocate and empower students. She was the Engineering Student Council representative on the Undergraduate Studies Committee. She continues to advocate for future engineering leaders through her active involvement in the Society of Women Engineers. She also is an advocate of STEM outreach, serving as a guest speaker at events for the Girl Scouts, Graduate Women in Science and Society of Women Engineers.