HATTIESBURG, Miss. (February 25, 2025) –Neel-Schaffer is pleased to announce that Dustin Gatlin, PE, the former Director of Engineering and Property Management for Forrest General Hospital, has been hired to lead the firm’s Hattiesburg Office as Engineer Manager.

Dustin has more than 17 years of experience, 13 as a consulting engineer and 4-plus with Forrest Health, where he oversaw maintenance, construction and property management for more than 50 facilities within the Forrest Health system of hospitals and clinics.

As the Engineer Manager, Dustin will oversee all facets of design, project management, and construction engineering and inspection services provided through Neel-Schaffer’s Hattiesburg Office.

“I am delighted that Dustin has joined us to manage the Hattiesburg Office,” said Mike Essary, PE, a Vice President with the firm who serves as Pine Belt Area Manager. “He is well-known and well-respected by our clients in this area from his previous work as a consultant and then with Forrest General. We are confident he will leverage those experiences to strengthen our connections with existing clients and assist in growing our client base and the services we can offer throughout the Pine Belt region.”

“I’m a very relationship-driven person, so I Iook forward to building relationships with our staff and clients,” Dustin said. “I’m confident we will do great engineering work, but we also need to have relationships because that’s the part that really matters at the end of the day as we expand our footprint in the Pine Belt and grow the services we can provide for our existing and new clients. I’m excited about what the future holds here in Hattiesburg.”

Dustin holds a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from Mississippi State University and is a licensed Professional Engineer in Mississippi.