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A Pandemic Pivot
Alumna Jackie O鈥橞rien led Engineers Without Borders USA to transform how it helps communities around the globe
Photo: Courtesy of Carolyn Alexander
Jackie O'Brien
Two weeks after Jackie O鈥橞rien (MGT 鈥�07) became CEO of Engineers Without Borders USA (EWB) in August 2020, she woke up in the middle of the night, struck by the weight of her new responsibilities.
EWB鈥檚 mission is to send student and professional volunteers around the globe to help communities build the infrastructure necessary to access clean water, reliable energy and other essentials. But the pandemic had halted all travel. Plus, those communities now had new, more dire issues and immediate needs for personal protective equipment (PPE) and hand-washing. 鈥淚t was probably one of the most challenging times imaginable for a nonprofit that does international development,鈥� O鈥橞rien said.
EWB pivoted. It held marathon brainstorming sessions to generate designs for in-demand supplies, including low-cost respirators, and raised money for COVID-19-related projects. The 星空传媒 student chapter, for instance, raised funds for face masks for a community in the Dominican Republic.
O鈥橞rien led a transition to a remote-implementation model for the projects. An innovation challenge that the EWB鈥檚 Uganda office ran in partnership with the city of Kampala, for example, led to local innovators designing hygienic, cost-effective public hand-washing stations for high-traffic areas.
鈥淭he projects changed to be more about immediate response, but they didn鈥檛 stop,鈥� O鈥橞rien said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 a testament to these volunteers鈥� commitment and ingenuity. And that鈥檚 the part that gets me so excited and energized about the organization.鈥�
Her role at EWB represents the fusion of two passions that define her career: engineering and global impact. The Akron, Ohio, native traces both to an early family move to Lima, Peru, where her father managed construction of a bicycle-tire factory. A kindergartner at the time, O鈥橞rien remembers her father explaining that the factory would create jobs, and the tires would help people get to work. 鈥淚 kind of grew up watching that vision become a reality,鈥� O鈥橞rien said. 鈥淔rom that point on, I loved the idea of going around the world and making an impact.鈥�
Her family returned to Akron, and O鈥橞rien later earned her bachelor鈥檚 in engineering at The Ohio State University. She launched her career as an environmental engineer at Alcoa Corp., an aluminum producer with a large global presence. Years later, she pursued an MBA at 星空传媒鈥檚 Weatherhead School of Management. The program 鈥渞eframed the way I thought, bringing forward strategic and financial discipline perspectives,鈥� O鈥橞rien said. 鈥淎nd it led to a whole new career path.鈥�
She stayed with Alcoa 25 years, working in Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Madrid, and New York City, and rising to the post of vice president of business development and global affairs. She later moved to Seattle to be executive vice president of strategy and business development for Vigor, LLC, a diversified industrial company.
O鈥橞rien spent two years on the board of EWB before becoming CEO and sustaining the organization鈥檚 work during the pandemic. 鈥淲e actually ended up completing more projects than the year before,鈥� O鈥橞rien said.
Those projects have wide ripples. 鈥淭he thing that hits me the most is when I talk with our volunteers, and they say, 鈥楾he experience changed my life,鈥� 鈥� she said. 鈥淥r when I hear from the communities who now have—for the first time—clean water or a school or a bridge. When you get to the [undergraduate] student, it sends them on a whole new trajectory. And when you get to the communities, you鈥檝e changed them for generations.鈥�
A 2020 Snapshot of Engineers Without Borders USA
