Dr. Marwan Youssef

Professor Marwan Youssef is the new Professor of Practice—Beavers Endowed Chair for the Department of Civil Engineering & Construction Engineering Management, accepting the position after retiring as city manager in Westminster, Calif., a role which he was unanimously appointed to in early 2021. Prior to that, Youssef served as the public works director and city engineer for over 15 years, working his way up from an associate civil engineer position. He began his civil service career in La Habra, Calif. 

Youssef was involved in many notable construction projects throughout his career. Among them are the 450-seat performing arts theater Westminster Rose Center, the Sid Goldstein Freedom park and Vietnam War Memorial, the Coastline Community College Le-Jao Campus, a three-story police building and accompanying four-story parking structure, new chamber of commerce building, City Corporation Yard Building, a police shooting range and the city’s two 8-million gallon water tanks.  

He was also involved in many critical and large infrastructure projects, including paving, drainage, sewers, parks, traffic signals and water projects for the city, improving its infrastructure and assets tremendously. 

As part of his role, Youssef represented the city with many governmental agencies, such as the Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA), the County of Orange, West Orange County Water Board, and many more.  

He is a proud member of many professional organizations, including the American Concrete Institute, American Public Works Association, American Society of Civil Engineers, the Santa Ana Flood Protection Agency, the Orange County City Manager’s Association, and many others. Youssef also served as president for the City Engineers Association of Orange County and City Engineers Flood Control Advisory Committee for County of Orange. 

In addition to his work as a practicing professional engineer throughout the years, he has always lectured in Civil Engineering at Cal Poly Pomona, UCI, and CSULB, where he’s served as a part-time lecturer in structural engineering for more than 12 years. He has a passion for the area of Heavy Civil, teaching and coaching new students to join the field. 

Youssef earned his Bachelor and Master of Science degrees in Civil Engineering from the University of Louisiana-Lafayette, and his PhD in Structural Engineering from the University of California-Irvine. He currently holds a Professional Engineering License in Civil Engineering from the State of California.