Dr. Bellandra B. Foster is the president and principal engineer of BBF Engineering Services, PC (BBF). The company is a civil and transportation engineering consulting firm incorporated in the state of Michigan. With a staff of 12, BBF specializes in road and bridge related construction inspection/engineering, traffic and transportation engineering, utility and permit coordination and project management.

Dr. Foster, who founded BBF in 1994 as a sole proprietorship, is a native of Flint, Michigan. At an early age she exhibited talent in math and science. Her late parents, Dr. George and Ella Pearl Benefield, encouraged her to concentrate on her interests, even though girls were not typically directed toward these subjects in the 1970s.

When Dr. Foster was planning for college, her father suggested that she set her sights on engineering. She enrolled in Michigan State University (MSU) not knowing whether she would pursue civil, mechanical or industrial engineering – all options potentially open to her. After successfully completing her first two years at MSU,

Dr. Foster applied and was accepted into the civil engineering program at MSU’s College of Engineering in her junior year.

Dr. Foster launched her career working as a structural engineer for Bechtel Power Corporation in the fall of 1983, followed by a posting as Assistant Road Design Unit Leader for the Road Commission for Oakland County (MI). From 1985 to 1992, she took on progressively more challenging positions with the Michigan Department of Transportation including Staff Engineer, Assistant Design Unit Leader and finally Metro Region Utilities-Permits Engineer. Each of these positions advanced her traffic and transportation engineering knowledge-base.

In 1992, Dr. Foster put her transportation know-how to work in the city of Atlanta (GA) Department of Public Works when the late Mayor Maynard Jackson appointed her Director of the Bureau of Highways and Streets. She was charged with guiding a staff of 550 employees and seeing to the design, construction and maintenance of the booming city’s streets and sewer system.

In the spring of 1993, Dr. Foster and her husband, Michael, a fellow engineer whom she had married in 1984, decided to return to Michigan. There the couple would start their family and Dr. Foster would take on two other demanding projects: pursuing a doctorate in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Michigan State University, and opening her own business -- BBF Engineering Services, P.C.

The triple challenge of being a new mother, a new entrepreneur and re-immersed in the world of academia was made manageable by a supportive network that included her husband, colleagues, family and close friends – all of whom were as determined as Dr. Foster herself to see her succeed.

Life might have been considerably easier had Dr. Foster chosen to open a business in a field in which women and minorities were already well represented--
but she didn’t. So despite her years of experience and professional connections, finding contracts was challenging. Only by starting small, staying focused and overcoming often unfair obstacles has Dr. Foster grown BBF from a small at-home business into a company with two offices and gross revenues of $2 million. Among her clients: the Michigan Department of Transportation, the Detroit Department of Transportation, the Detroit Department of Public Works; the Pontiac Silverdome Stadium Authority, Detroit Entertainment and a number of engineering consulting firms.

In 1999, Dr. Foster earned her Doctorate from Michigan State University’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering having previously earned a Master of Science degree in Civil Engineering at Wayne State University ten years earlier.

Dr. Foster’s achievements have gained regional and national recognition. In 1998 the Federal Highway Administration named BBF its United States Department of Transportation Minority Business Enterprise of the Year. In 2004 the company was profiled in Black Enterprise magazine and again in Essence magazine in 2005. BBF has also been highlighted in Michigan Contractor and Builder magazine, Jet magazine and the Detroit Free Press. Dr. Foster has been recognized as a notable alumnus by Michigan State University. She is an ENO Transportation Fellow, a King-Chavez-Parks Fellow and has won the Wayne State University Headliner Award.

Dr. Foster is also a sought-after public speaker and has delivered commencement addresses at the engineering schools of the University of Notre Dame and Wayne State University. She frequently speaks to professional organizations. Dr. Foster shares not only her experiences as an engineer and an entrepreneur, but also her challenges and successes in combining those roles with being a wife and mother.

To further spread the message that one can have both a successful business and a sane, happy family life, Dr. Foster is currently completing her book titled For Love and Money: Seven Guidelines for Achieving Success in Your Home and Business. In it she details steps aimed at inspiring and advising would-be entrepreneurs. She discusses the keys to finding and acting upon one’s true purpose; the necessity of careful research and preparation before starting up any business venture, and the value in finding a vision partner. She tells readers what it means to be an effective leader in your own organization and most of all of the importance of always playing for the “home team” by putting family first.

Dr. Foster resides with her husband, Michael, and two sons in Farmington Hills, Michigan.

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