Frances Kallam Hits the Road Running

What makes a job worthwhile? The answer ranges from person-to-person, but for Frances Kallam, the chief design engineer in the City’s Engineering & Inspections Department, it came down to making positive change in her hometown.

The first step to making that happen was to leave the private sector – where getting the job done was important, but so was making a profit. Kallam wanted to serve the people of Greensboro, and her career as a civil engineer was focused on doing just that. That call to serve led to a change of scenery last September when Kallam joined the City after 30-plus years in the private sector, where she worked as an engineering consultant specializing in transportation. It was a change years in the making.

“That’s our whole purpose at the City, we’re serving our community and that’s what we should be doing,” Kallam said. “In Engineering and Inspections, I love that our focus is improving our infrastructure to best meet the needs of our community.”

There’s much Kallam enjoys about serving as the City’s chief design engineer. She mentors and supervises a staff of 11, and offers learning opportunities through specialty training. Kallam also manages project scheduling and coordinates design services for the City’s Transportation Department. Her team also manages the project bidding for both Engineering & Inspections and Water Resources.

These duties coincide with her role as a public-facing employee, which requires addressing resident’s concerns and questions – it’s a part of the job Kallam finds rewarding. She recently met with property owners upset about potentially losing large trees that were in danger of removal due to their proximity to the road right-of-way and proposed stormwater system. Following the meeting, Kallam worked with her staff to find a solution.

“If they request to see a manager, that’s OK,” Kallam said. “If we’re able to make a feasible design change, then that’s a win-win for the City and our citizens. It’s a good feeling to represent the City well and let people see that we’re not just ‘The Government’ but, instead, we are simply citizens helping citizens in a positive way.”

Just a year prior to her family moving from Greensboro to Atlanta in 1974, Kallam’s now brother-in-law began engineering studies at Georgia Tech. Hearing him talk about the field, combined with her childhood love for math, inspired her to follow suit. She graduated from Georgia Tech with a civil engineering degree in 1985.

“As a child, I didn’t really know what civil engineers did, and I never thought about transportation as a career,” Kallam said with a laugh. “Once I took the elective that covered all of the transportation opportunities, I absolutely loved it.”

After graduating, Kallam started her career doing road design for a consulting engineering firm in Florida. She earned her Professional Engineer license and served in various transportation engineering roles before accepting a program management position at a South Carolina firm from 2003-2012. There she first experienced working in depth with municipal government as she served as design and environmental manager for York County’s “Pennies for Progress” program, a $173 million sales and use tax program for roadway improvements.

After moving back to Greensboro in 2012, Kallam spent 11 years at a local firm managing municipal clients, including the City. The experience eventually led to her accepting her present position. She had the benefit of knowing and working with many City employees, including Ted Kallam, a former City engineer, who she eventually married.

“When this position at the City became available, I decided it was an opportunity I really wanted to pursue,” Kallam said. “Over the last several years, I became heavily involved in the federal funding arena by managing federally funded transportation projects for municipal clients and helping them navigate the requirements of the funding process, which is administered by NCDOT. This position was perfect for that, because the majority of the projects that we are doing are fed funded.”

While she finds purpose in her work, Kallam also enjoys the simple things in life. She and her husband love travelling and spending time with their families, as well as their dog and three cats. The Kallams are active in their church, and she especially enjoys playing in the church’s handbell choir.

“I’m very blessed,” Kallam said. “I’m so happy to be living in Greensboro and I love working at the City.”