Janiele Maffei is the California Earthquake Authority’s Chief Mitigation Officer and Director of Research. Among several responsibilities at CEA, she manages an incentive program that has helped more than 23,000 California residents complete code-compliant seismic retrofits. She earned an AB in architecture and an MS in structural engineering at the University of California Berkeley. She is also a past president of the Structural Engineers Association of Northern California.
STRUCTURE: What or who encouraged you to seek a career in structural engineering?
Maffei: My grandfather was a carpenter, and he had a magical workshop in his basement with a box of scrap wood specifically saved for his granddaughters’ special projects. Each of us had our own little tool box and we loved spending time with him building objects with maximum nails and minimal usefulness. My grandfather built a playhouse in our back yard and filled it with creative home-made toys. My Barbie dream house and dream car were made of wood. I loved designing and building things and was the only girl I knew who had a Mattel power shop. I was the only girl in my 8th Grade mechanical drafting class and one of three girls in my high school drafting class. I majored in architecture at the University of California (Cal) but took all the math, science, and undergraduate electives necessary to be accepted into the Structural Engineering Structural Mechanics (SESM) graduate program. While the ratio of men to women was close in architecture, I was one of only six women in the graduate program. While being a female certainly made me stand out I shared the same desire to build great things.
STRUCTURE: If you had to give advice to young people considering a career in structural engineering, what would that be?
Maffei: The typical advice to someone interested in engineering is to take all the math and science you can. However, the people who gravitate towards engineering already tend to already be interested in math. I would encourage them to make sure that they focus on being a well-rounded person. Study music, art, and literature, and be an effective communicator too.
STRUCTURE: Any pitfalls to be avoided?
Maffei: Structural engineers play a hugely important role in society, not only in their contributions to the built environment, but also in providing solutions to the challenges and problems of our world. I read an article once about how many of the significant improvements in health and safety in our communities were advancements in civil engineering: improved sanitation; access to clean drinking water; protection from inclement weather; and building fire protection to name a few. It may feel comfortable to be behind the desk on a computer, but real problems are solved through creativity, collaboration, and communication.
STRUCTURE: Your working career started out in a traditional engineering office. What did you learn there or who did you meet then that proved useful later?
Maffei: To answer your question about who I met as a young(er) engineer that proved useful today, I have a one-word answer: everyone. My current job is to take the best and brightest structural engineering ideas and put them to use to create earthquake resilience in residential buildings. I really enjoy the notion that everyone in structural engineering, and in the broader earthquake engineering community, has a little piece of the puzzle and I am the puzzle master. The modern term for this is networking but it feels more like making friends to me.
STRUCTURE: Of all of the projects you have worked on, would you describe the one or two that you are most proud of and why?
Maffei: The work I am now doing in research and mitigation for the California Earthquake Authority (CEA) will most definitely be at the top of the list but there are a few projects from my consulting days that I am very proud of too. As a Bay Area native, after I graduated from Cal I remained in the area working in the East Bay and in San Francisco. I still live about 5 miles from the Berkeley campus and I drive by the historic Claremont hotel and numerous campus buildings that I worked on. Being a part of preserving those gorgeous buildings still brings me joy. I remember walking through Le Conte Hall and being told by the architect I was working with on the seismic retrofit of that structure that “Oppenheimer touched these doorknobs.”
STRUCTURE: What lessons did you learn that were valuable for later?
Maffei: The grass is not greener on the other side of the fence. It might taste a bit different, but it is still pretty much grass. When I first started Janiele Maffei SE after my son was born, I had the pleasure of working with a number of structural engineering firms around the Bay Area. I found similar issues at all of them with middle managers, less so with the older guys. I found giant egos and gentle souls. I also discovered the depth and breadth of talent in our industry was enormous.
STRUCTURE: After several years in the industry, you shifted focus and went to the California Earthquake Authority. Why?
Maffei: I was in a semi-retirement state, traveling a lot with my husband. We visited 12 countries in 12 months one year and I was pretty much able to work anywhere with a laptop. Then the job description for the Chief Mitigation Officer with the CEA flashed across my screen. I realized that I wasn’t finished yet, I had more to give. The notion of working on residential earthquake resilience directly through mitigation could be described as being my sweet spot. I also had that collection of friends, otherwise known as my network, who teemed with solutions ready to be put into action.
STRUCTURE: Most engineers don’t want to speak, let alone be the voice of an industry. What can we learn from your experience?
Maffei: The common notion is that public speaking is number one on the list of human fears. Seinfeld had a great bit about people preferring to be the guy in the casket rather than the one giving the eulogy. A quick internet search suggests that the fear of heights is actually number one, and contractors I have worked with can attest that I definitely have acrophobia. However, I somehow found my voice somewhere around the time I stepped into that middle school drafting class as the only girl. I stood up at a school assembly and said something into the mic and realized that the world didn’t come to an end. It didn’t rise to the level of “Ich bin ein Berliner” but I think it encouraged me to speak up. In my current job I have on average one public speaking event a week, sometimes more. However, I don’t consider myself to be a fully formed orator. I am continually watching and listening to other speakers, at conferences, on TV, and in movies, noting how they succeed, and fail.
STRUCTURE: There is a lot of talk these days about community resilience. But more than talk about that, you actually did something. Would you tell us a little more about your motivations and goals?
Maffei: My success started with the important decision in 1996 to include continual funding for mitigation in the CEA’s operating budget. While the contributions are small ($5 million maximum per year) we are able to leverage that funding with State and FEMA funding to provide $3,000 grants for what is, on average, a $5,200 retrofit. We also just received news that we have Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) funding for multi-family soft-story retrofit grants. The decision to ask the California legislature to create the Chief Mitigation Officer position was also an important step towards success. My motivation was to step up and accept the challenge to put that funding to good use.
STRUCTURE: Can you say a little more about what it was like entering an industry where women are few and far between?
Maffei: With a nod to Ruth Gordon, the first woman to become a structural engineer in California, there were definitely challenges to being one of very few female engineers in the profession in the 1970s and 1980s. While there were supposedly around 20 women who got their California SE before me, I knew of only a handful of women who were older than me who were still working in the profession. It was a time when construction calendars and marketing materials featured scantily clad women on their covers. The Anita Hill testimony hadn’t yet socialized the notion of sexual harassment, and there was barely any maternity leave let alone parental leave. I can honestly say that it was very difficult to compete with my male colleagues who had a wife at home. I took a leap and started my own company and that forced me to take a lot of responsibility and also allowed me to work with so many different engineering firms. From lemons—lemonade.
STRUCTURE: You have demonstrated a long and dedicated commitment to professional activities. What is the most rewarding aspect of your service?
Maffei: We asked the very first homeowner who retrofitted with one of our grants how he felt about the program and about the retrofit. He said, without prompting, that he slept better at night. I honestly feel that my team is “fighting the good fight.” Our residences are typically the single largest investment we will make, they are where our family sleeps at night, they are our home. Knowing that we are assisting homeowners increase the resilience of their homes is so worth it.
STRUCTURE: What is your approach to mentorship?
Maffei: It still surprises me when I am the oldest person in the room. I laugh at myself because I have become that older person who always has a related story to tell, on any subject. Being around longer does afford one the opportunity to share lessons and wisdom. But it is also an opportunity to assist a mentee find the value in themselves, regardless of what stage they are in their career. The most important part of being a good speaker is being a good listener because everyone learns more from a dialogue than from a monologue.
STRUCTURE: Many people think the structural industry broadly, including risk mitigation and insurance, has changed during the last few decades. Do you agree? Is it for the good or bad?
Maffei: Mitigation and insurance has definitely changed. Mitigation has become enormously important because we have so many buildings that are becoming un-insurable. The confluence of older buildings designed and built before building codes with seismic provisions, the upward financial pressures of inflation and the cost of global capital make catastrophe insurance unaffordable to most people. Many cities in California are moving in the right direction by retrofitting their vulnerable structures. However, life-safety retrofits don’t necessarily improve the insurability of the building. It is safe to say that there is more work to be done.
STRUCTURE: We all have mentors and people who helped us be successful. Who would you like to thank and why?
Maffei: I would like to thank my husband who taught me what torque was when I was an architectural student and he was in civil engineering at Cal. I think my forming a study group with two other female graduate students was absolutely the right thing for me to do for our relationship at the time. However, he has been a sounding board and incredible engineering confidant and mentor. He is, and I believe I am qualified to say this, one of the best structural engineers I know.
STRUCTURE: In terms of your personal legacy, what would you like to be remembered for?
Maffei: Just to prove I can make up a story about anything: a few friends and I pondered the question of whether we would like to be known for our intellect, our beauty, or our kindness. I don’t think anyone is truly intelligent or beautiful if they are not kind. I will go with kindness. ■