Erica Mulligan.
Erica Mulligan, 30
Associate at Jaros, Baum & Bolles
It is something that is often said and rarely acted upon, but there are few things that feel more important in the year 2020 than helping others. And Erica Mulligan has, indeed, helped others in real, tangible and critically important ways.
First, she’s project manager and lead electrical engineer on the Kigutu Hospital & Women’s Health Pavilion in Kigutu, Burundi. The hospital — a site Mulligan hasn’t visited yet and has worked on from afar — will be an 85,000-square-foot, 150-bed teaching hospital in a community desperately underserved by medical space. Mulligan has been working on it since 2015, confronting challenges from the get-go.
“There was no real electrical infrastructure there,” Mulligan told CO. “Their main source is a hydroelectric plant.” In 2017, a landslide blocked the plant. “We needed more power, needed to turn on another source,” she said. Mulligan and her team built a microgrid of hydroelectric, solar, battery and diesel generators. The hospital is set to open in January 2021.
Beyond this, Mulligan’s do-goodism can also be found closer to home. Last year, Mulligan became chair of JB&B’s’ STEAM Initiative, which fosters middle-schoolers’ interest in science, technology, engineering, art and math. She arranged student visits to JB&B’s office. “We showed them rollercoaster designs, stringing lights, how to wire things up … We let them create a 3D office — we showed them the virtual reality software in the office.”
Finally, she is the project manager and lead electrical engineer for the 5,000-square-foot expansion of the Lower Eastside Girls Club headquarters at 402 East Eighth Street, where JB&B is building (pro bono) a gallery, a cafe, a lounge and a yoga studio.
But, yes, the Manhattan College graduate with a master’s in electrical engineering has some time in her schedule to work on more monetarily profitable endeavors. Among her estimable projects are the Cornell Tech campus, the Jacob K. Javits Federal Office Building, the NYU Winthrop Hospital campus and 561 Greenwich Street in Hudson Square.
