A Family of Fellows Reveals a Deep Connection to SAME Values and to Each Other

In 1972, SAME created the grade of Fellow as an honorary distinction for individuals with at least 10 years of membership and dedicated, outstanding service to the Society and engineering community. In 1995, the Academy of Fellows was formally established as an official body within the Society to oversee the Academy and its focus on mentoring.

The impact of SAME’s Fellows is deeply felt throughout the Society as sources of wisdom and mentorship. This tradition is not just shared professionally year after year, but in many cases, it is also passed from generation to generation, such as in the O’Brien family. Jim O’Brien, President and CEO of O’Brien Engineering (OEI), and his daughter Sarah Cole, Vice President of Business Development for OEI, both give back through the Academy of Fellows (Class of 2012 and 2019, respectively). SAME recently sat down with them to discuss their Fellows journey, the impact on their firm, and their commitment to SAME’s mission–and to each other.  

SAME: What drew each of you to SAME?

Sarah: When I joined OEI, I was going to grad school at the time, and Jim wanted somebody to handle marketing and business development. I joined the company about 2002-2003 I believe, and Jim wanted to get into federal. We had no federal presence, and we didn’t know anybody that was doing any federal work.

So, I thought that seems like a pretty daunting task. How do we even get into serving the federal government? How do you learn about it? You know, I can’t just call up the Corps of Engineers and ask them some of these questions. So I needed to have a way to find that. Then I came across SAME in my research, and I told Jim to get involved in the Dallas Post since we’re in the Dallas area, and he’s military and an engineer. It seemed like an obvious fit. I think after that very first meeting, he was already leading the Small Business Committee. He walked in there and they said, “You’re with a small business? Great, you’re on the board.” Then I joined the Fort Worth Post about a year or so after that.

The goal at the time wasn’t about the Society; it was about doing federal work. But now, my professional network is SAME. I didn’t serve in the military, and I don’t have a lot of long-term educational friends, so when I think about who I want to work with on a project, I think about SAME. Getting involved in SAME did achieve that original goal, but it obviously became so much more. We committed so much to it for two decades.

I had to get educated after Jim got involved, and I was kind of supporting him when he was doing his volunteer efforts at the Post. He said there are people here that are not military, there are people here that are not engineers, maybe you should get involved. It became a kind of organic learning process where I thought I’m going to be a fish out of water, and I definitely was for a long time.

Jim: Sarah and I were trying to recall if our joining and involvement in SAME was that a specific moment? But in retrospect, I think it was more organic. We knew where we wanted to go business-wise, and so things kind of fell into place. I had contact from a colleague who suggested SAME, and though we weren’t all that familiar with SAME, it all just kind of came together about the same time.

As Sarah said, I joined and went from being a member to immediately being a board member of the Dallas Post. It was actually pretty beneficial, since it meant that rather than just bouncing around but not really getting to know anybody, I had to get to know everybody immediately and start developing a plan as to how Dallas could maximize their small business outreach and involvement.

SAME: What does it mean for both of you to be Fellow? Does having this distinction as a family make it more meaningful?

Jim: The same thing relates to being Fellows together at SAME as it pertains to what benefit SAME may gain by my participation or Sarah’s or Joe’s participation. We are very supportive of each other, and there’s not much competition in that regard. It’s a much more organic, supportive involvement, and that’s a result of both of us being Fellows at SAME.

Sarah: It’s a layered response because as Fellows we also work together. We have shared goals, and as Jim said, we work on multiple levels every day. I’m sure that in the end, it will be the highlight of my career–getting to do all of this together, to get to work alongside my dad, and my brother within that family.

SAME: Are there special milestones or moments that stand out to you about the SAME Fellows?

Sarah: I became a Fellow in 2019, and I was pregnant with my second child. My due date was about five weeks after the ceremony was supposed to happen, so I asked my doctor how I was supposed to travel. Driving is not really a good option. Flying is not really a great option.

But you know, when you sign up to become a Fellow, you’re committing. I was going to find a way to be at the ceremony! But when it came down to it, my doctor said, I hope you’ll enjoy having a baby on the plane, because that’s probably what’s going to happen. So, my dad went in my place and was sworn in on my behalf. We did something official with Buddy Barnes after the fact, but it was memorable that he went up there when I couldn’t fulfill my promise in the meantime.

SAME: How have you seen the values of service, leadership and mentorship come to life through your involvement with the Society?

Jim: I’ve been involved in a number of other societies and SAME is unique compared to the others. I think it’s because of the high level of involvement of enlisted, officers, and then former military. You have a very strong influence of service that is inculcated by the military, but also of leadership and mentorship.

The whole notion in the military is passing on the ability to continue the mission to your successors. It is just built into the whole culture, and I think it translates very strongly into SAME. As a result, I don’t find as much of a competitive or cutthroat environment in SAME like you might tend to see in some other organizations. Instead, my experience has been more of the hand extended, reaching out to pull you up to the next level. By that, I mean many people do not hesitate to say, hey, you ought to try this, or you ought to go over here, you need to meet this person, or, hey, I’ve got somebody I want you to talk to. That happens much more readily with SAME, and I think that’s the real strength of the Society.

My advice to others is to do more than just being a member. Get involved in a contributing way so you meet other people inside SAME. If you’re simply joining and attending and then going back to the office, you’re really depriving yourself of the opportunity to meet many of these people who have developed those deep, lifelong qualities of service, labor, leadership, and mentorship that will become a part of your experience with SAME.

Sarah: Early on, it became pretty apparent to me that serving alongside other like-minded people in a volunteer role made it so much easier to work with those same people on the execution of a federal project. If somebody has that level of professionalism, dependability, and excellence to something that they’re not getting an obvious, immediate benefit from, it’s easy to trust that they’re going to bring that mindset and work ethic to a job. People I’ve met through SAME, I know that I could bring them to a client and trust that they’re going to bring that same level of professionalism and technical capacity to the job. My involvement in SAME is a catalyst for me, my company’s clients, and our veteran service members. Getting to do so with my dad has been an added layer of mentorship, and it’s pretty cool to get to do that while also serving the federal government.

SAME: That’s a pretty unique experience. Do you find that people approach you directly for advice or guidance on engineering and business, especially at your local Post?

Sarah: We’ve been pretty involved at the local and regional level, and within industry-government engagements as a company and individuals. At some of our board level positions or committee level positions, folks have asked us how they can also get into the federal world and get involved in SAME? Because we were floundering for so long, I can confidently say that if you want to do this work, this is the society for you. It can be overwhelming, but there’s a lot of really good folks that just want to help and who know that sharing information actually helps us all.