Emily Lawson-Bulten

Dr. Lawson-Bulten teaches in the civil engineering department at Duquesne in water resources, water treatment, and contextual engineering design. She partners with communities in the United States and internationally to design infrastructure systems that provide equitable access and address community priorities. She specializes in integrating participatory approaches into engineering. Dr. Lawson-Bulten earned her Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2026. Her dissertation research investigated power dynamics between stakeholders in co-designed infrastructure systems through a case study of a community water system design in rural Honduras. 

Growing up in Colorado, Dr. Lawson-Bulten has always been passionate about water dynamics and access. As an undergraduate student at Calvin University in Grand Rapids, MI, she served as a Research fellow of the clean water institute working on water access across the world. Prior to her graduate degree, she worked as an engineer in industry and for the Kent Conservation District.

• B.S.E. in Civil and Environmental Engineering, minor in International Development Studies, Calvin University
• Ph.D. in Agricultural Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

• Water infrastructure design
• Place-based adaptation