On any given day, Gabby Faltin moves fluidly between contrasting environments. One moment she’s seated at her desk coordinating with internal team members, stakeholders and nonfederal sponsors. The next, she’s standing on site at large infrastructure projects such as a dam and flood risk management projects, most of the time the only person donning an Army combat uniform.
She is an Army engineer with a civil engineering background, providing project management support for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Sacramento District. Her dual role as a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army Reserve working among civilian team members enables her to provide an engineer’s mindset for efficient project delivery.
With a calm demeanor, she approaches tasks steadily, relying on critical thinking and a natural curiosity about how large systems work.
“I find myself doing different tasks and constantly moving around between those, to figure out where I can help and what needs more support,” Faltin said. “I really like solving problems and not just rigid problem solving. Solving problems where you don’t already know what the answer is going to be.”
Her interest in engineering and infrastructure is rooted in a curiosity that began early during family vacations to Chicago, Ill. She became fascinated with skyscrapers and bridges.
“As a kid, I loved going on skyscrapers during vacation and I was always curious about how bridges are built and how they stay standing,” she said. “I was impressed by the magnitude at which people can build.”
The Chicago River also left an impression. Around age 12, she learned the river’s flow had been reversed in the early 1900s through a massive engineering project that connected Chicago to the Mississippi River system, an effort supported in part by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The discovery stayed with her, though she didn’t yet realize it would foreshadow her own career.
Faltin moved frequently growing up due to her father’s corporate career, eventually spending most of her formative years in Iowa. Applied engineering classes in high school introduced her to different engineering disciplines, and she chose civil engineering.
After one semester at junior college, she earned an Army scholarship and enrolled at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. At the same time, she joined the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) program hosted at Creighton University, effectively splitting her time between two campuses.
She studied engineering at one school while learning to become an Army officer at another.
“It was kind of like living in two different worlds,” she said. “It took a little bit of balance to figure out the time between both programs. I had to learn a lot of lessons about time management.”
Through the ROTC program, she met USACE engineers who visited the university during her time studying. The organization she had once unknowingly learned about as a child suddenly became a real career path. Before she graduated college, she found herself preparing to join a USACE district and applying for an internship.
“One of the first weeks of my sophomore year, we had some of the hydraulic engineers come to our class and talk about dams, levees, and big structures, and my interest was piqued again,” Faltin said. “They were looking to hire somebody for a winter internship, so I applied for it and in my interview, I talked about my ROTC experience in engineering school and how I wanted to combine it.”
Faltin was hired as an intern in the hydraulics engineering section of USACE’s Omaha District, where she later worked for the next seven years in both the hydraulic engineering and military construction sections.
“I realized how big of an impact the Corps has while I was an intern and how much the community depends on us with flood risk and water management,” Faltin said. “A lot of the projects I’ve worked on since have a similar impact, like the Sacramento levees and Folsom Dam, and it’s one of the reasons I’ve stayed with the Corps.”
After completing her college coursework and Army training, she graduated, was commissioned as an Army officer the following day, and was hired to join USACE.
“I worked in the Omaha District almost seven years, and I became interested in going to another district for civil works experience,” Faltin said. “I applied for active duty orders, was able to interview, and moved to the Sacramento District.”
Today, Faltin continues to navigate between project management and fieldwork. Some days require coordinating schedules, reviewing documents and communicating with partners. Others involve visiting project sites and working alongside engineers and contractors to keep projects moving safely and effectively. The variety is what keeps her engaged.
As an Army engineer serving alongside civilian professionals, Faltin represents a unique bridge between military service and public infrastructure, supporting projects that directly protect communities from flood risk and strengthen regional resilience.
Her role demands communication, adaptability and technical understanding. Whether supporting a project team or helping partners understand the process, she focuses on making projects successful and beneficial to the public.
“It definitely hasn’t been luck though,” Faltin said. “Everything seems interlinked, but at each moment, I was setting another goal and ready to go down that path.”
For Faltin, infrastructure is more than concrete and steel. It represents service to communities, and she has found a career where her interests in problem-solving, teamwork and large-scale systems all come together.