The Distinguished Service Award honors an individual who has given countless volunteer hours of support to the association and the engineering profession. It is not given every year. It is reserved for sustained service that has shaped the council and the industry over time.
2026 Recipient
Ron Bray, P.E.
WSB
Ron is one of the founders of WSB, which began in 1995 and has grown into one of the larger consulting engineering firms in the region. He spent more than three decades in transportation project development and construction, including early years at MnDOT as a resident engineer and pre-design engineer, and quality assurance work on the I-35W bridge reconstruction.
His service to ACEC Minnesota is the kind that holds a council together over years. Ron was the longtime chair of the sponsorship subcommittee for the Minnesota Transportation Conference and Expo, work that is central to the financial strength of the council’s flagship event and runs throughout the year. He is stepping back from that role now, and characteristically has offered to mentor whoever takes it on.
In committee rooms, Ron has been the voice of reason, bringing perspective from both the public agency side and the consulting side of the industry, and steadying conversations when other voices grow louder. That combination of long service, dependability, and sound judgment is what the Distinguished Service Award recognizes.
Bret Weiss presenting the award to Ron.
Bret Weiss, co-founder of WSB, sharing remarks.
Ron with the WSB team.
Distinguished Service Award Recipients
2026Ron Bray
2021Gene Sieve
2020Shirley W. Stinson
2019Melissa Langowski
2018Brad Hamilton
2017Justin Schmidt
2016Jon Wacker
2015Jody Elam-Foote
In 2025, the award was renamed the Holly J. Newman Distinguished Service Award.
