Melinda McGrath, PE
Executive Vice President,
Central Region Manager
Melinda joined Neel-Schaffer in 2023 and serves as an Executive Vice President and Central Region Manager.
In this role, she is responsible for managing more than 300 employees and overseeing the firm’s 18 Mississippi offices, four Louisiana offices, as well as ongoing projects and pursuits in Arkansas.
Melinda has more than 30 years of engineering and management experience, including a 30-year career with the Mississippi Department of Transportation that included history-making roles as the first woman to hold the position of Chief Engineer and, later, Executive Director.
As Executive Director – a position she held for nearly 10 years before retiring from MDOT in 2021 – Melinda oversaw 3,400 employees and managed a $1.2 billion annual budget.
Melinda is a Registered Professional Engineer in Mississippi. She has served on the Dean’s Advisory Council for the Mississippi State University Bagley College of Engineering and in 2013 was named a Distinguished Fellow by the Bagley College of Engineering.
