Neel-Schaffer, Slade Exley win prestigious awards from Mississippi Engineering Society

JACKSON, Miss. (April 15, 2021) – Neel-Schaffer won two prestigious honors during the 2021 Mississippi Engineering Society virtual awards ceremony that was held earlier this year.

The firm won the Private Practice Professional Development Award, and retired Neel-Schaffer Senior Vice President Slade Exley won the award for Distinguished Engineering Service.

The Distinguished Engineering Service award is awarded to a retired engineer “whose sustained contributions have been to public welfare, the advancement of the profession, and/or service to mankind.”

Slade was part of Neel-Schaffer from the firm’s founding in 1983 until his retirement in 2013. He served as Chief Administrative Officer in his final years with the firm but before that was involved extensively in Transportation Engineering, with an emphasis on planning studies, traffic operations, traffic signal systems, and traffic safety and operations studies. He designed intersections and interchanges and developed plans for roadway signing, striping, signals and traffic control.

Slade was very active in MES while working for Neel-Schaffer, along with ITE, the ACEC and the Society for Military Engineers. In retirement, Slade has stayed busy with several volunteer organizations, including Habitat for Humanity, the Boy Scouts of America, and the Marion Medical Mission.

Neel-Schaffer actually won two MES Professional Development Awards – the overall award that covers the statewide organization and the award for the MES Jackson chapter.

The Private Practice Professional Development Award is presented to firms that promote development throughout their organization. Neel-Schaffer was honored “For its record of advancement and improvement of the engineering profession through development and use of forward-looking engineering employment practices in accord with industry standards.”