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ENR editor McFarland (far right) initially went to Turkey to visit a dam project overseen by another newsmaker, Fatih Çevik (2nd from left). While there, she worked with Miyamoto’s team to report on the earthquake recovery efforts.
Photo courtesy of Limak Construction
As editor-in-chief, I have the special privilege every year of presenting the ENR Award of Excellence in New York City and helping make a video about the winner. But the real work of writing the cover story and co-producing the video this year was done by Pam McFarland, ENR’s Washington, D.C.-based senior editor for environmental and labor news.
McFarland was already having a very productive 2023 by stepping outside her primary focus on policy and traveling to Turkey to write and shoot video about a dam project. When, unexpectedly, a major earthquake struck eastern Turkey, she added a tour of that area to her itinerary.
Photo by Pam McFarland/ENR
It was during her coverage of the earthquake disaster that McFarland first met this year’s winner of the Award of Excellence, Kit Miyamoto, the engineer who for more than a decade has headed into disaster areas to gather information about damage and prevention. She was impressed enough to nominate Miyamoto for the Award of Excellence, which involves winning a vote by the editors in support of the award. She then in a short time prepared a feature story and video. To do it, McFarland’s team included deputy editor Jeff Rubenstone; Kit Miyamoto’s daughter, Mimi, who joined Pam in parts of California to capture footage; BNP Media Video Production Manager and skilled editor Drew Lockwood; ENR Art Director Scott Hilling, who created the print story layout and shared video advice; and me.
McFarland already had a background in journalism when she first joined ENR in 2007. She had majored in print journalism at American University, and one of her first jobs was serving as an editor for the Associated Builders and Contractors, which provided her first experiences with construction and labor issues. A perpetual student, she got a masters’ degree in creative writing in 2018 and, as a lover of good stories, has written a few herself that have been published in literary journals.
The Award of Excellence story tests every ENR editor and writer in ways that few other ENR assignments do, and Pam has passed them all with flying colors.
Scott Blair
Editor-in-Chief
Blair leads day-to-day operations of the ENR editorial team to ensure brand quality and further best practices. He spearheads ENR’s various competitions, including Best Projects and the Award of Excellence, and organizes editorial content at events including the Top Young Professionals conference. A Jesse H. Neal, Construction Media Alliance and AZBEES-award-winning writer and videographer, Blair frequently contributes to ENR’s burgeoning video channel with project tour videos and interviews with industry leaders. He is also a frequent speaker and moderator on topics such as diversity and inclusion, design and jobsite technology, construction means and methods and marketing.
