Renee Turner has been named programs director and chief of Civil Works Integration Division for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Mississippi Valley Division and the Mississippi River Commission.

Her duties will include developing and defending the federal budget and preparing the fiscal year work plan for the division, which includes six districts from the headwaters of the Mississippi River in Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico and is responsible for water resources engineering solutions in a 370,000 square-mile area, extending from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico and encompassing portions of 12 states.

“I’m thrilled,” she said of the appointment. “I’m very excited about the opportunity to be able to help the region and the people in the region, help prepare a budget that will get projects to the people, where it is needed, and help them with their problems and issues.”

She said most of her time will be spent in Vicksburg, coordinating funding with Corps headquarters in Washington, D.C., for the division’s organizations.

Turner began her career with the Corps in 1983 in the Vicksburg District’s Design Branch of the Engineering Division.

“I had some friends who were working here, and had somebody suggest to me that I come over here and talk to the people in the human resources department,” she said. “They thought it would be something I would like and would be a good fit for me, so that’s what did. It has been a good fit and a good career for me.”

She started as a design engineer working on recreation areas.

“I did a lot of roads and parking areas and campsites, and anything associated with recreation,” she said.

She also served as a study master for projects in the district’s planning division, and became a senior project manager in 1999, leading teams covering diverse projects including flood risk management and ecosystem.

In 2006, she was selected deputy chief for the Memphis and Vicksburg District Support Team at the Mississippi Valley Division.

Before her appointment as Civil Works Integration Division chief, Turner was deputy chief of the St. Paul, Rock Island and St. Louis District Support Team.

“I coordinated projects for those districts at the division office,” she said. “It was a good stepping stone to get me here where I am now.”

Turner is an officer in the Society of American Military Engineers and the Society of Woman Engineers. She is also a member of the Programs and Project Management Community of Practice Steering Committee.

A native of Clarksdale, she graduated from Mississippi State University with a degree in civil engineering. She is married to Mike Turner and they have three children. She is a member of St. Paul Catholic Church.