29 Jul 2025

Answering the call: Kansas City District volunteers bring expertise, compassion to national disaster response

As incidents of extreme storms and natural disasters continue to rise across the nation, more volunteers are needed to help their fellow Americans find normalcy in their lives again. That's why the Kansas City District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, has consistently deployed volunteers and emergency management professionals to support recovery efforts in some of the most ravaged area across the nation.

23 Jul 2025

Love, Carissa: Granddaughter’s legacy is saving lives one lifejacket at a time

Shannon Shaw never thought she’d be part of a growing group of grieving families who’ve lost a loved one by drowning. In 2015, her granddaughter, Carissa, tragically drowned at the age of nine while swimming in a river. She was not wearing a lifejacket. Despite her unimaginable grief, Shaw decided to dedicate her life to preserving Carissa’s enthusiasm for life by helping save others. Shaw is the CEO and founder of the Love, Carissa Corporation, a non-profit committed to preventing drowning fatalities by raising awareness and providing resources like lifejackets and financial assistance for swimming lessons. According to Shaw, she doesn’t want to lecture people about water safety. Instead, she wants to provide them with resources to stay safe.

16 Jul 2025

‘Seeing is believing’: Project site visits provide valuable knowledge sharing opportunity

Employees leave their jobs for many reasons. Some retire while others leave to explore new career opportunities. While workplace attrition is common across industries, it can pose a challenge to those left behind, especially when decades of institutional knowledge are also lost when the experienced employee departs. Sometimes, there can be a gap in knowledge, skills or abilities when a senior employee leaves an organization. Mack Landen, project manager with the Kansas City District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Civil Works Branch, saw a wave of employee departures and new hires at the district within the last few years not as a deficiency, but as an opportunity.