John France, P.E., D.GE, D.WRE
JWF Consulting LLC
President
John France is a registered professional engineer with over 45 years of consulting engineering experience over which time he has worked on hundreds of civil engineering projects. He received BS and MS degrees in civil engineering from Cornell University. For the past 40 years, his professional career has been focused on dam engineering and dam safety services. During his career, Mr. France has been involved in various capacities in evaluating and remediating seepage issues for earth dams. He has written numerous papers on the topic, and in 2012, he was an invited speaker at a FEMA workshop on filters and seepage remediation. He was also engaged by the Montana Dam Safety Office to prepare a technical note on chimney filter design for posting on the state’s website. Together with Jennifer Williams, Mr. France has presented workshops on internal erosion failure modes for ASDSO and the states of Colorado and Wyoming. In 2017, Mr. France served as the team leader for the independent forensic investigation of the Oroville Dam spillway incident, and in 2020 he served the same role in the independent forensic investigation of the failures of Edenville and Sanford Dams in Michigan. He has twice received the ASDSO President’s Award for his contributions to dam safety and in 2022 won the esteemed Danny McCook Award for excellence in geotechnical engineering.
John Cyganiewicz, P.E.
Cyganiewicz Geotechnical, LLC
President
John Cyganiewicz is a registered professional engineer with over 45 years of engineering experience specializing in the dam safety practice. He received his BS degree at the University of Rhode Island and has completed graduate-level studies at the University of Rhode Island, University of Colorado, and University of California – Berkeley. Mr. Cyganiewicz retired in 2008 from a 32-year career at the Bureau of Reclamation and has continued to work as a consultant for several dam safety rehabilitation projects. Mr. Cyganiewicz was a leader in developing Reclamation’s risk analysis methodology with a specialization in seepage and piping issues of embankment dams and in the development of a toolbox compiled to provide guidance in seepage and piping risk analyses. As an invited speaker, Mr. Cyganiewicz has made numerous presentations at technical meetings of various professional societies including ASDSO, USSD, NZCOLD, ANCOLD, and ICOLD. The presentations focused on design and construction of embankment dams, seepage and piping-related issues, and risk analysis with a specialty in seepage and piping.
Jennifer Williams, P.E.
AECOM
Assoc. Vice President
Jennifer Williams is a registered professional engineer for AECOM (Denver) with over 25 years of experience specializing in geotechnical design and analyses of earth dams. Ms. Williams received her BS degree in engineering-civil from Colorado School of Mines and MS degree in civil/geotechnical engineering from the University of Colorado. She has provided dam safety engineering services including inspection, analysis, design, and risk assessment to several federal and private dam owners and operators. Ms. Williams has been involved in evaluating and remediating seepage issues for both low-head and high-head earth dams. Together with John France, Ms. Williams has presented workshops on internal erosion failure modes for ASDSO and the states of Colorado and Wyoming and was an instructor and co-facilitator for an ASDSO technical workshop on the Emergency Response to Seepage Incidents.
Harry C. Donaghy, P.E.
AECOM
Geotechnical Engineer
Harry Donaghy is a registered professional engineer with AECOM (Denver) specializing in geotechnical design and analyses of earth dams. He received BS and MS degrees in civil/geotechnical engineering from the University of Kentucky (Go Cats!). During his 5 years of experience with AECOM, he has focused on material characterization and seepage and stability analyses of embankment dams. He recently co-authored a guidance document on “Seepage and Slope Stability Modeling for Embankment Dams” that he presented at the ASDSO West Regional Conference in 2022. Harry enjoys living in Denver with his wife and young son.
