Inside Halff: A Look at December 2024

December was a holly jolly month filled with holiday cheer, as Halff employees got into the holiday spirit with celebrations, volunteering and traveling! Take a look below to see how Halff bid farewell to 2024.

Halff Wins Three ACEC Texas Gold Medal Awards | HCI Updates | Teaming Together | Halff Bag Travels

Celebrating Our People

Congratulations to our people’s certifications, licenses and accomplishments in December!

• • • Annie Umuhoza – passed FE exam
    • Cavel Williamson – passed PE exam
    • Noah Easom – passed PE exam
    • Parker Maddocks – earned PE license
    • Tyler Keppel – earned PE license
    • Audrey Giesler Klump – named APWA NCT Member of the Year
    • Matt Stahl – article featured in ASCE’s Civil Engineering magazine

Halff Wins Three ACEC Texas Gold Medal Awards

Halff earned three gold medal honors from the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) Texas’ 2025 Engineering Excellence Awards (EEA). The Brazos Bend State Park Drainage Improvement earned gold in small projects, RM 620 Railroad Overpass and Roundabout in transportation, and Statewide Base Level Engineering was honored in water resources.

HCI Updates

The Angel Tree is a time-honored tradition throughout many Halff offices. This past Christmas, offices including Baton Rouge, Corpus Christi, Houston, Richardson, San Antonio, Shreveport and Tyler all adopted angels.

Tavares volunteers participated in Habitat for Humanity’s Jingle Bell Build event where they got to build and decorate a playhouse that was given to families for Christmas. All proceeds raised at the event will be used to build homes for the families in need.

Norman and Oklahoma City employees partnered with the City of Norman and the University of Oklahoma (OU) women’s softball team members to host an evening of baseball for special needs children within the community. The event was held at the newly-built Reaves Park sports complex designed by Halff. This game was the first step in the process of raising funds for the construction of a Miracle Field that is to be included in the next phase of the Reaves Park expansion.

Brownsville volunteers donated gifts and necessities to the Tip of Texas Family Outreach’s program for children’s Christmas gifts. The Tip of Texas Family Outreach is a non-profit organization established to strengthen families and prevent child abuse and neglect by providing supportive services, information and referrals.

Sandra Ratchford from the Little Rock office delivered an HCI monetary donation to Habitat for Humanity of Central Arkansas, which will help transform lives and cities by building and repairing homes in partnership with families in need.

Teaming Together

Employees in the San Antonio office enjoyed a night out watching the San Antonio Spurs win against the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Houston’s Public Works team chased adventure at Geronimo Adventure Park where they ziplined three courses and participated in knife, axe and ninja star throwing.

Brownsville employees from the water resources team participated in the 5k Santa Dash in Weslaco, Texas. Team members donned their Santa suits and successfully completed the race together!

Tavares employees participated in the barbeque competition at the Florida Section American Water Works Association (FSAWWA) conference. Although they didn’t place, they enjoyed feeding hundreds of attendees and networking within the water/wastewater field.

Many offices got together during the holiday season to celebrate in their own way, from Christmas parties to ugly sweater days, there was never a dull moment!

Halff Bag Travels

Sean Lahav (left) and his wife explored Norway, Sweden, Finland and Estonia over Christmas. A highlight of their journey was visiting Tromsø, Norway, the northernmost and largest city inside the Arctic Circle, where they experienced 24 hours of darkness during the polar night and witnessed the northern lights.

Karen Bonvillain and her family chose an unconventional Christmas by skipping gifts and enjoying a vacation in Taos Ski Valley, New Mexico.

Read more about the History of the Halff bag here.

DID YOU KNOW?

Halff sits at No. 16 nationally in the companies with 1,000 to 2,499 employees in the 2024 Top Workplaces USA award rankings presented by Energage. Halff was recognized as a Top Workplace in Austin, Dallas, Houston, Jacksonville, Orlando, Oklahoma, San Antonio and Tampa. We have also been recognized as a Top Workplace in Austin and Dallas nine times each since 2015, seven times in Houston since 2016 and for the second consecutive year in San Antonio this year.

Cumulatively, Halff has been recognized as a Top Workplace 36 times.

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