Nominated by Construction Management’s interim department head, Mehmet Ozbek, Ph.D., Chris Lierheimer (B.S. ’15), is a deserving recipient of the College of Health and Human Sciences Emerging Leader Alumnus Award. While Lierheimer was a student at Colorado State University, he assumed many leadership roles and participated in several extracurricular activities including serving as the president for the Construction Management Association of America Student Chapter, participating on the Associated Schools of Construction pre-construction competition team, and providing significant community service through the CM Cares service program. He was named as a “shining star” of CSU’s 2015 graduating class, a designation that put him among a very elite group of nine students selected from programs all across the University (https://source.colostate.edu/shining-stars-of-csus-graduating-class-share-experiences/).
As a student, Lierheimer was always intrigued by the use of technology for construction management. He was the first place winner (among 27 submissions) of the national James L. Allhands Essay Competition, in which he wrote an essay entitled, “Building and Growing with Mobile Technology.”
He continued on that trajectory after graduation and embarked on a highly successful career in the construction industry. Most notably, he has been one of the pioneers of the use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (drone) technology on construction sites in Colorado. As such, he has contributed to the Colorado construction industry immensely by helping it transform how construction tasks such as surveying, inspections, and progress tracking are done. Lierheimer has also continued his community service efforts by actively participating in projects which benefited from his skills, specifically for the Habitat for Humanity Build Days and the Food Bank of the Rockies Volunteer Days.
Additionally, he has provided monetary donations to the CM Cares program to help it reach the endowment goals, so that this very program he volunteered for as a student could continue contributing to society after his graduation.
Since graduation, he has gathered a significant amount of “real-life” experience with respect to using technology to manage construction operations. He has kept in touch with a CSU CM faculty member on a frequent basis to discuss his personal experience on site and implications of technology on the work he has been doing. These conversations led to a partnership between the two and development of case studies to be freely available to construction management educators across the nation to help the next generation of construction industry professionals attain knowledge and develop critical thinking skills relevant to the use of technology on construction sites. His expertise in using technology in construction sites was materialized and resulted in a product that will benefit the construction industry. He did this as a volunteer effort to give back to the faculty, students, and the construction industry in a very meaningful way.
“He earned all of these accolades as a Ram and has always shown his Ram Pride,” Ozbek said. “We are very fortunate to have him as an alumnus of our program and look forward to his many achievements that will make CSU proud.”
The Department of Construction Management is part of CSU’s College of Health and Human Sciences.
