All Aboard for EMDC

Kevin Nolan (EMDC ‘17) wants to make commuters’ lives better.

Nolan is a senior associate at STV, a professional services company that specializes in architecture, engineering, construction management, and planning. As part of his job, he serves as an extension of the staff of Metra — the commuter rail system that serves Chicago and its surrounding suburbs — and manages a group of construction management professionals leading transit and highway projects.

In his Metra role, Nolan is the project manager for roughly $300 million of the company's multibillion dollar capital program including projects that add new stations, replace bridges, and increase mainline and yard capacity to allow better service for riders.

To find success, Nolan leans on the lessons he learned through Northwestern Engineering’s Master of Science in Executive Management for Design and Construction (EMDC) program. 

“The EMDC program provided a comprehensive look at project management and executive management,” said Nolan, who has been working in the industry for 17 years. “Some of the best lessons I learned were the real-world examples of best practices and what to avoid to better deliver on projects.”

Many of Nolan’s current projects focus on improving Metra. Nearly 300,000 passengers travel on its trains every weekday, with another 93,000-plus riding the rails on weekends.

His largest active project is a $200 million job to add a fourth track for the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District between 11th St. and Millennium Station in downtown Chicago. The Millenium Station is the final stop for trains coming from Indiana and Chicago's southern suburbs. The line narrows to three tracks just before its destination, and the addition will help Metra avoid a bottleneck when 26 trains are added to that line in 2024 and 2025.

Nolan said his time in EMDC set him up to excel in his current job.

“As I've progressed over time to take on more and more responsibility, the EMDC program helped me build a better base for managing those projects, a stronger foundation of contract management and schedule management,” he said. “All those courses that I took at Northwestern — accounting, lean construction — expanded the base technical capabilities that I can offer to clients.” 

It also helped him expand his network. That has been especially important given one of the biggest challenges he and others in the industry are facing at the moment: Hiring and retaining quality employees. 

“EMDC is the best program for those who want to stay in the construction and built environment,” he said. “You are going to walk away with connections to the industry here in Chicago and across the country that you won't have at other programs.”

Those connections help with the other part of Nolan’s work with STV. He manages a group of engineers and inspectors focused on transit and highways. His job is to hire and train new staff while winning new work for the company.

The EMDC curriculum – which is strongly linked with the industry standards outlined through the Construction Management Association of America (CMAA) – makes training easier, Nolan said.

“CMAA standards of practice and the EMDC coursework are so well aligned, and they give you a baseline of understanding of how the industry works and how contractors operate and develop their bids,” Nolan said. “The EMDC program is really unmatched.”

Nolan has been involved with CMAA for more than six years and is a board member and the immediate past president of the organization's Chicago chapter.

Because of how EMDC boosted his own career and gave him the knowledge he uses daily, Nolan routinely recommends the program to prospective students. One of the EMDC program's biggest strengths, he said, is its people.

“The staff and faculty are unmatched with other programs,” Nolan said. “The faculty are actively leading firms and projects. It's a great networking opportunity, as well as a great learning opportunity.”