ST PAUL, MINNESOTA (September 16, 2026) — The US Army Corps of Engineers, Headquarters, selected Rock Island, Illinois, resident and St Paul District environmental specialist Jesse Ray for its 2025 Planning Excellence Award.
The Planning Excellence Award, or Planner of the Year Award, recognizes personnel exhibiting exceptional job performance. Ray received the award for his work on the Upper Mississippi River’s Navigation and Ecosystem Sustainability Program, or NESP. The program works to increase the capacity and improve the reliability of the inland navigation system while restoring, protecting, and enhancing the environment.
Ray was recognized alongside his coworker, Jill Bathke, a water-resource planner with the St Paul District, for their vital contributions to NESP's ecosystem program, seamlessly integrating science and policy, interagency expertise, and public engagement to strengthen river and floodplain forest restoration.
Ray began his Corps of Engineers career with the Walla Walla District in 2012 and joined the St Paul District in 2019. Since 2023, he has served as senior environmental specialist with NESP.
“Jesse Ray is the person to seek when complex planning challenges arise. His deep knowledge, expertise, and relentless work ethic have earned him the respect of our entire community of practice,” said Steve Acuff, Ray’s supervisor.
“From his early days in the infantry to his vital contributions in Army’s Civil Works mission, this award recognizes only a fraction of Jesse’s selfless service to the Army and the Nation.”
The St Paul District serves the American public in the areas of environmental enhancement, navigation, flood risk-management, water and wetlands regulation, recreation, and disaster response. Our employees work at 49 sites in five Upper Midwest states.
ABOUT US: The 650 US Army Corps of Engineers, St Paul District, employees working at more than forty sites in five upper-Midwest states serve the American public in the areas of environmental enhancement, navigation, flood damage-reduction, water and wetlands regulation, recreation sites, and disaster response. Through the St Paul District Fiscal Year 2025 $303 million budget, around 3,800 non-Corps jobs were added to the regional economy as well as nearly $817 million to the national economy.
Learn more at www.mvp.usace.army.mil.
