Meet Ansley Tilley | Strategic Thinker & Water Resources Solutions Professional

We had the good fortune of connecting with Ansley Tilley and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Ansley, what is the most important factor behind your success?
Integrity and perseverance are the two primary factors behind my success. My story, like many, is one that has included challenges along the way. How I overcame those challenges shaped my future. Keeping true to who I am, doing the right thing for me and my family when it was hard and slogging away, made me look at every challenge with two perspectives: 1) “I can let this obstacle consume me” or 2) “I can figure out how to overcome it and then DO it”. I chose 2) everytime.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
Im a water resources engineer focused on developing systems and solutions to create a more adaptable and resilient future for the natural systems we all love in Florida from the Everglades to the Springs and all of our coasts. While I provide many of the same services as my colleagues, planning, design, construct/implementation, monitoring, I have taken a slightly different approach to this work. Typically the services of engineers are provided on a consultation basis where clients have determined what they need and they call an engineer to solve that problem. In water resources quite often clients are government and to some extent, agriculture, and they attempt to have problems solved using the land within their boundary and don’t often look at their project from a whole system approach. Particularly in South Florida, the water resources we all rely on are highly interconnected and managed to benefit all of us and the environment. When we make changes on our property, we affect that system and water balance. I have taken a different approach to project delivery for these clients by creating the solution that is developed from this whole system approach, that allows clients to leverage the benefits each may provide. This requires me to be able to create collaborative partnerships, work with legal counsels to create a solution beneficial to all of the parties, and develop a lasting, adaptable solution that is cost-effective and reduces the long term capital outlay of the primary client. As a result of this work we have been able to develop partnerships that benefit the public on a regional scale to improve water quality, flood resilience and mitigation, hydrologic and habitat restoration, as well as influence policy development for a more sustainable and adaptable future for Florida’s water and natural resources. Ive been “coined” as an environmental developer, which is a tag Im happy to wear if it means Im helping to save the natural systems that made Florida great to its first developers and prepare it for brighter tomorrow.

My journey as an engineer here in Florida was not a straight path. My career was a patchwork of experiences that collectively have allowed me to see this unique perspective of how to execute my work. Ive worked as a project engineer and project manager in construction and design, in water policy, in government, in the military, and as a project developer working with agriculture and land developers. This series of experiences has allowed me to see connections and collaborations that have turned into very successful projects and programs for public and private clients and Florida.

Overcoming challenges is something we all do throughout our careers. For me, one of the most challenging has been creating and developing from a different perspective. Because my solutions have been created using alternative approaches to the traditional project delivery method, Ive had to work hard to educate and partner with stakeholders to show how this alternative project delivery approach can be successful and that it can provide them greater benefits and flexibility and price certainty. And, in some arrangements, it can reduce their risks over project’s life cycle. Finding like minded professional partners that are trusted advisors to new clients has helped in this messaging.
Lessons learned: Assume you will work harder than you think you need to to make what appears logical to you, logical to someone else. Change is hard for people to adopt, go their pace to get buy-in. Large bureaucratic agencies quite often have very low tolerances for change and innovation without an internal champion that is forward leaning and has the authority to influence change in the organization. Find that person.

When you realize your work and your goals for the place you love in lock-step, entangled, it’s exciting to realize it’s not work.

Im a water resources engineer using collaborative solutions to make Florida the nation’s leader in providing natural system solutions to our infrastructure challenges.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I love finding and visiting the hidden gems. Doing the work I do, Im looking for the pretty tree canopy, a place to kayak, see the mangroves, and just “get outside”! My favorites include the Oleta River State Park is one of these gems in North Miami Beach. I really enjoy a beach and exploration day at Bill Baggs on Key Biscayne. And if the weather is good, I want to get out on the boat and go fishing. For days we are on the go, my “on the go” picnic lunch is a simple wrap from Publix! It’s simple, but it sure is satisfying when you’re hot and sticky. If we go to Miami Beach, Im a La Sandwicherie fan. My husband I enjoying heading to the Keys and typically will make it a point to stop at Alabama Jacks on the way down or on the way back. A combination of any and all of these places and activities, is a great day or weekend for us! Just “Get OUTSIDE”!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
There are so many people who have guided, chided, and provided. And all of them have played a role in my being where I am today. My first shoutout is to my parents who never let off the pedal for themselves and for the family. They were examples of what it takes to be something and get ahead. They worked to bring themselves and our family from nothing to something. To my daughter, Ceceri, for giving me all the reasons to only look forward and to be the best example of a successful woman I can be. Ive had several mentors through the years, some who I asked to be my mentor and others who mentored without knowing it. Grateful for all of them.

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ansley-tilley-pe