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Editor’s note: This is the second in a series of six articles, each highlighting one of the 2024 inductees to the Franklin Community Wall of Excellence. The first in the series can be viewed by clicking here: Daniel T. Balfour.

The Franklin Community Wall of Excellence gained six new names via its 2024 class.

Those names included Dr. Amy K. Cheatham, James P. Councill III, Wyatt B. Durrette Jr., the late Charles “Chip” Fisher Kingery Jr., Dr. Chiquita L. Seaborne and Daniel T. Balfour.

The eighth annual Franklin Community Wall of Excellence Induction Dinner and Ceremony took place Saturday, Oct. 26, at the Cypress Cove Country Club.

As noted in the event’s program, through the vision of some local Franklin City Public Schools alumni and school personnel, the Franklin Community Wall of Excellence Inc. was established in 2016 as a program to honor former Franklin and Hayden high school students, administrators, teachers and staff who have excelled or distinguished themselves through personal and/or professional success, as well as to recognize those community members who have made significant contributions to the public schools in Franklin.

“The Wall” is located at Franklin High School, adjacent to the gymnasium, a Wall of Excellence news release stated. Names and photos of each inductee are displayed for generations of Franklin High School students and community members to see as they walk by on their way to class or an event at FHS.

AMY K. CHEATHAM

Amy Cheatham was inducted in the category of Outstanding Career, and she was introduced by her father, Barry Cheatham.

Barry said that he had a job that moved the family all over the country when Amy was growing up, and they moved about once a year.

He noted that this had to be awfully tough on a kid, “every year having to make new friends, start new activities and basically start from scratch. Most kids would look back on that and say, ‘Those were horrible days.’ Amy didn’t. She looked at it and said, ‘This is what taught me how to be outgoing, how to meet people, how to learn how to work with people with different walks of lives, different backgrounds.’

“So she did that,” he continued. “She became very resilient, she became very self-confident, almost to the point of being fearless.”

He said that as she grew up, Amy always gave her very best at anything she ever did, whether it was at school, at church, in the community, with family and friends, sports activities or whatever else. 

“She decided at the age of 10 she wanted to be an engineer,” he said.

He recommended Virginia Tech to her, and that was the only school she applied to.

The printed program for the induction dinner and ceremony noted that she graduated from FHS in 1993 and then went to Virginia Tech.

“Her mother and I didn’t know quite what to expect as we left her that day at Virginia Tech as she was standing at attention in Bravo Company in the Corps of Cadets,” Barry said. “Amy, from that time on, has had a lot of twists and turns and different things happen in her career. A lot of people would say, ‘That’s awfully tough.’ Amy says, ‘No, that’s what gave me the advantages, because I got to learn from all these twists and turns, I got chances to do things I normally wouldn’t have been able to do, and this is what led to me having the adventures overseas,’ and Amy’s been all around the world a few times, working in different places with the Navy and with the Coast Guard…”

The printed program stated that Amy earned a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering from Virginia Tech in 1997. She earned a Master of Engineering degree in environmental engineering in 2001 at Old Dominion University. Eventually returning to VT, she then earned her doctoral degree in civil and environmental engineering there in 2009.

Amy worked in the field of engineering throughout her years as a graduate student.

The printed program highlighted how she was first hired as an associate engineer at Newport News Shipbuilding from 1998-99, working on operation procedures and often interfacing with senior leadership. From 1999-2001, she worked in Norfolk as a junior staff engineer at Clark Nexsen Architecture and Engineering, supporting environmental permitting land development and utility design. From 2001-03, she worked as an environmental engineer at Northrop Grumman in Newport News, serving as the Industrial Wastewater Program manager.

Then when she returned to Blacksburg, from 2003-08 she worked as a graduate associate at VT, the printed program stated. During that time she served in several roles, including multidiscipline project manager, research leader and member of the adjunct faculty as an instructor for the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

The printed program continued to track the evolution of Amy’s career. 

From 2008-10, she served as an associate engineer for CH2M Hill, working in both their Charlotte, North Carolina, and their Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, offices.

Then she served from 2010-14 with Naval Facilities Engineering Command Atlantic in Norfolk, hired as senior environmental engineer.

From 2014-17, she was program director with the Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery.

Then, for Wood Environment and Infrastructure Solutions Inc. in Virginia Beach, she worked as the key specialty lead and federal sector and strategy and development lead in the eastern U.S. from 2018-22.

Amy was promoted to Environmental Management Division chief with the Coast Guard Logistics Center in Norfolk in 2022, and she continues to hold this position today.

 

The printed program noted that Amy has led environmental operations, project management and cross-functional teams to mission success as an environmental engineer and program director with an impressive 26+ years of professional experience.

“She has won many awards and has been internationally recognized as a professional with clearly demonstrated achievements as an amazing problem solver, supporting both complex public and private organizations in a myriad of countries spanning five continents, 32 states and two U.S. territories,” Wall of Excellence officials stated in the program. “Thank you, Amy, for your service to our country and your outstanding career accomplishments. You make us proud.”

At the conclusion of his introduction, Barry said, “Everything that has happened to Amy, she takes it as lemonade, not just the lemons, and that’s what makes her the person that she is today. And so it’s with great honor that I get the chance to introduce you to my daughter, Dr. Amy Cheatham, professional engineer.”

Amy thanked everyone for the honor and then shared why she wanted her father to be the one to introduce her.

“There’s so many people in this community that have supported me and that I deeply respect, but I kept coming back to my dad being the one to do it, because, like so many of us, my parents were the first ones that taught me what it meant to be part of a community and what it meant for service over self.”

She said, “I’m so privileged to be inducted tonight as one of the inductees, but I also know in the core of my being that I wouldn’t be here without my family and my community, and anything I’ve accomplished is because of that.

“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again tonight — I’m one of the luckiest girls in the world that was given both roots and wings,” she continued. “I was given (wings) that allowed me to dream big and achieve things, but I was also given roots and a foundation of where I came from and things that I can fall back on in times of stress or times of trouble, and it never let me forget what I came from and all of those things that mattered most.”

She acknowledged that moving from place to place was a big part of her childhood.

“I always was the new kid, and the same thing happened when we moved to Franklin, the middle of my freshman year,” she said.

Reflecting on her time at FHS, she said, “I had so many wonderful educators and mentors and coaches during my time at Franklin High School.”

She highlighted those who inspired her to keep pursuing her STEM career and also those who helped hone her skills in other subjects, like English.

She noted how the whole spectrum of features that came with attending FHS had a notable impact on her.

“Whether it was as an officer in a club, the captain of majorette squad or hitting the softball field, the lessons that were ingrained in me during my time in Franklin High School included key takeaways about dedication, reliability, respect, collaboration, compromise, patience and kindness,” she said. 

She then mentioned that the Franklin community continued to have a strong influence on her life even after she graduated from high school. 

“It was at Union Camp that I was literally and figuratively able to test the waters of environmental engineering in their environmental engineering department,” she said. “That team there gave me opportunities and a constructive space in which to learn and grow and make decisions about my future. But what I found was that I loved all of it — I loved the field work and the lab work and the inspections and the data analysis, so I got to geek out every summer and get paid for it — best thing ever.

“But what was equally important is that at that point in the progression of my professional life, I was able to see women in leadership positions in STEM fields, and even today, the architecture and engineering profession is only 16% women nationwide,” she said. “So to see these women in these positions of leadership, not just in the office but in their community, as a young female engineer, was inspiring, and it was practically unheard of back then.”

She affirmed that Franklin was ahead of its time in the mid-1990s courtesy of those women in leadership roles.

“I still carry many of the lessons I learned from them about mentorship, leadership and teamwork with me today as I’ve progressed in my career,” she said.

Amy noted that as she reflected on the various themes that have defined her time and her progression, she kept coming back to the words “foundation” and “opportunity.”

“My life has afforded me opportunities I never, ever, ever could have dreamed would become reality, and early in my career, those opportunities were made for me by people who had already paved the way who were already making their mark, and I can remember being so excited that they deemed me worthy of taking them on,” she said. “So sometimes those opportunities were really big and really scary, and I just kind of had to take a step back and say, ‘Well, what’s the worst that can happen?’ And then close my eyes and jump, and it’s because of my foundation that I was brave enough to do that.

“I’m so grateful to all the times that I said, ‘Yes,’” she continued, “because saying ‘Yes’ led me to my Ph.D., saying ‘Yes’ led me to, like my dad said, going around the world — 32 states, two U.S. territories and a laundry list of countries across five continents. And those numbers are still growing, which is also super exciting.”

After reflecting further on the many opportunities she has been able to experience thanks to her foundation, she said, “So what a privilege it is to now find myself as the one that’s the paver of the way, making opportunities, asking young professionals, ‘What’s the worst that can happen?’ and preparing them with a foundation to seek those opportunities for themselves and the ones that are going to follow them.”