2022 Outstanding Young Professional Award

The Outstanding Young Professional Award was inaugurated in 2008 and recognizes an individual or individuals who are pursuing excellence in their careers and have made a valuable contribution to A&WMA by serving in a leadership position. To be eligible, a candidate must be a young professional working in the environmental profession. A young professional is defined by the Association as being 35 years of age or younger.

A&WMA presents the 2022 Outstanding Young Professional Award to Stephanie C. Bolyard.

Dr. Bolyard is a Research Engineer with the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) in the Research & Development Unit and courtesy professor at Florida State University. Prior joining NCDOT, Stephanie was the Research and Scholarship Program Manager for the Environmental Research & Education Foundation (2016-2021). She has also worked for Brown and Caldwell and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. Stephanie has over 13 years of academic and professional experience in research program development and management, implementation of research, technical communication, independent research, domestic wastewater permitting, environmental compliance, solid waste management, and emerging contaminants.
 
She received her PhD and MS in Environmental Engineering from the University of Central Florida and BS in Chemistry from the University of Florida. Her research expertise includes solid waste management, analytical chemistry, advance spectroscopic techniques, fate of dissolved organic matter in aquatic systems, biological and advanced oxidation processes, domestic wastewater treatment, nanotechnology, and emerging contaminants (dissolved organic nitrogen, PFAS, and organic matter). She has published 16 peer-reviewed publications, gave over 55 presentations, and has co-authored multiple book chapters focused on solid waste management.
 
She has built an extensive professional network due to her active membership and numerous leadership roles in the Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors (AEESP), Air & Waste Management Association (A&WMA), International Waste Working Group, American Academy of Environmental Engineers and Scientists (AAEES), and the Water Environment Federation (WEF). She is currently an Associate Editor for the Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association, Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors Foundation Board Member, Director in the South Atlantic States Section of A&WMA, and Chair of the RTP A&WMA Chapter. Her leadership in professional organizations has led to the implementation of new outreach programs with the goal of raising student and professional awareness in the environmental field. In addition, she has been able to leverage her professional network both nationally and internationally to bring a more applied perspective in her various research roles that have been used to strengthen research outcomes and bridge together academia and industry.
 
She was recently named a 2022 Air & Waste Management Association Outstanding Young Professional, 2022 American Academic of Environmental Engineers and Scientists 40 under 40 recipient, 2021 Waste360 40 Under 40 award recipient and 2020-2021 Top Reviewer Award for the Journal of Waste Management. Stephanie was an Environmental Research & Education Foundation doctoral scholar, ATHENA International Emerging Women Leader Fellow, and a former NSF East Asia and Pacific Summer Institute Fellow. In 2015, Stephanie was selected as a member of the inaugural top 30 Under 30 Alumni class at the University of Central Florida.