Emily Forbes, a Project Manager at ONE Environmental Group, is now a Professional Engineer.

PE licensure is the engineering profession’s highest standard of competence. Forbes and Principal J. Rusty Field are ONE’s only Professional Engineers. Forbes is licensed in North Carolina, and Field in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and West Virginia.

“This license will allow ONE to expand our engineering services,” said Forbes, now able to sign and seal engineering documents, such as Spill Prevention Control and Countermeasure (SPCC) Plans and various environmental remediation reports.

Forbes took the nontraditional route to become a PE, as she does not hold an engineering degree. She graduated from North Carolina University in 2013 with a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Technology and Management.

That meant she needed eight years of professional engineering experience in addition to passing the Fundamentals of Engineering exam and the Professional Engineering exam. The nights and weekends of studying paid off on July 15, 2021, when Forbes received a letter from the North Carolina Board of Examiners for Engineers and Surveyors acknowledging her as a PE.

“I was pretty excited, relieved, and proud of myself because I haven’t had a math class since my freshman year of college,” Forbes said. “It’s a big accomplishment that I toasted with champagne!”