A true problem solver, Dr. Kassidy O’Malley has discovered that the solution to enjoying the best of both worlds is knowing what is best for her.
O’Malley, a bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral alumna of Marquette’s Opus College of Engineering, is carving a dual path in industry and teaching that is guided by her clear vision, her passion for learning, and a Marquette skill set that opens doors.
By day, O’Malley, Eng ’19, Grad ’20, ’24, is a water resources engineer at Jacobs, an international technical services firm reporting over $12 billion in annual revenue. Outside that full-time role, she is also back at Marquette as an adjunct instructor teaching engineering students who are sitting where she was just a few years ago.
An eye on industry from the beginning
“I always knew I did not want to go into academia after finishing my Ph.D. program,” O’Malley says. “I wanted to stay in Milwaukee and choose a career in industry that made the most sense for me.”
O’Malley initially pursued a master’s to expand her expertise as an environmental engineer. Continuing to a Ph.D. was never set in stone, but as she excelled in her graduate work, she was drawn to an opportunity to be a leader in an emerging area of research.
Working alongside two faculty members, Dr. Patrick McNamara and Dr. Walter McDonald, O’Malley found herself drawing on their combined expertise to study antibiotic resistance and biological contaminants in the context of stormwater runoff. The emergence of this new area of study with its new problems needing solving presented an exciting challenge to O’Malley.
“Kassidy has been a peer from an early, early stage,” says McNamara, professor of civil, construction and environmental engineering. He explains that her maturity in the lab, paired with her incredible research output, made her an early star and collaborator in Marquette’s Water Quality Center.
With her growing skills and success, O’Malley’s post-Ph.D. path led to many open doors in industry to feed her curiosity and passion. To her academic mentors, her trajectory to industry seemed like a perfect idea, and a destination they encourage for all their students.
“For engineering Ph.D. graduates, you are sought after by industry as well as universities. Kassidy had a lot of opportunities, and we wanted her to go out, grow bigger and make a difference,” says McNamara. “It felt like she would excel in industry and project management because it’s already what she had been doing as a research leader.”
O’Malley’s research success brought opportunities to network with the wider environmental engineering community, putting her name on the radar of multiple organizations looking for an engineer ready to tackle big projects and grow as a leader.
Knowing what type of role she wanted for her next step, O’Malley found her professional match with Jacobs.
“My graduate program set me up in every kind of way to be successful,” O’Malley says. “I owe a lot to Marquette, especially in the transferrable skills I’ve gained that have helped me thrive in the transition to consulting.”
A new environment to continue learning and leading
In Jacobs’ Milwaukee office, O’Malley is collaborating on multiple projects related to water resources and green infrastructure across Wisconsin. The role is a welcome change of pace from her Ph.D. program, where she had become the expert on a single topic. “I feel like I’m back on the upward trajectory of learning again,” says O’Malley.
Although humble about her relatively fresh start in industry, her years in school give her confidence for the work at hand.
“I went through a Ph.D. program where you fail every day, and you have to use the failures as part of the process,” she says. “Being able to just figure things out and be resourceful to solve a problem is something I’m very good at because of my time at Marquette.”
She adds that Marquette never feels distant at work because of the many Marquette engineers at Jacobs and at other organizations in her field. As a proud alumna, she is happy to have blue and gold continuing to color her journey.
Full circle back to the classroom
The decision to pursue a career in industry was always clear to O’Malley, but the appeal of some academic duties still stuck with her. “I always thought I would love to teach,” she says.
Even at her doctoral graduation, she envisioned how she might find a way back to Marquette to support students just like her. That return came quicker than expected when her faculty mentors asked her to join them as an adjunct instructor.
“She had a lot to teach her peers when she was here. It’s exciting that now she has a platform to teach the next generation,” says McNamara. He explains that beyond her history as a research collaborator, her success in industry makes her an ideal fit to teach students about the skills they will need as they approach their own careers.
This fall, O’Malley is teaching a water resources, planning and management course and serving as a guest lecturer in a first-year engineering course.
For O’Malley, the classroom brings a new opportunity to connect all her experiences for the benefit of students who will be joining her in the field soon. She admits that there are moments that are hard as a new teacher, but true to her personality, she welcomes the challenge. And with a sense of humor, she even takes on the surprise challenge that was never in her vision as an educator: having her younger brother in the classroom.
A path made possible with Marquette
Looking beyond Marquette for the next big thing was a recurring thought during O’Malley’s time as a student, and it is precisely the thought that faculty and staff in the Opus College want engineering students to have in mind. What comes next is what all the engineering courses, relationships and experiences are designed for.
O’Malley’s path as a student culminating with her arriving at the beginning of a new adventure is not unique. For her, that new adventure was in industry as an environmental engineering consultant. It is a doorway many students like her enter, along with doors that lead to academia, alternate fields and a wide world of opportunities.
As O’Malley thinks of students facing the journey ahead, her advice remains the same regardless of the vision they have in mind: “Take advantage of all of the opportunities Marquette gives you.”
