Transforming Houston and Beyond
By Alex Keimig
Described as “a trailblazer in civil engineering,” former TxDOT Houston District Engineer Eliza Paul (M.S. ’88) has spent the better part of the last four decades directly shaping Texas and Houston-area infrastructure. Paul was recognized this year with the UH Alumni Association’s Distinguished Alumni Award, which honors individuals whose professional accomplishments bring credit to the University of Houston.
“I was totally surprised — really shocked,” she said. “There are a lot of deserving alumni out there, so I feel really honored, and at the same time, humble. I still don’t know why they picked me, but I’m very grateful and glad to accept the honor.”
Perhaps it was the several multibillion-dollar projects Paul oversaw in her time with TxDOT, including the $11 billion I-45 North Houston Highway Improvement Project — the largest in TxDOT history — that caught their attention, or perhaps it was her overall lifelong dedication to the betterment of Houston’s communities.
From the Ground Up
“I started out in what they call the lab. They do a lot of materials testing for the highways, but also the geotechnical design of things like bridge foundations and stability analysis. After a couple of years, I wanted to go out into the field to learn more about the projects we build and get involved in the day-to-day construction part of things,” she said.
Working in the Greater Houston area presented unique challenges in contrast with Paul’s oversight in Houston proper. In Harris County, she worked most closely with the City of Houston: one mayor, one city manager, one city engineer. In Brazoria County — which is geographically smaller yet more complicated due to the density of communities like Pearland, Alvin and Sweeney each having their own mayor and city manager — a great deal of coordination was required to complete similar large-scale projects.
Paul went on to serve as Director of Construction and then Deputy District Engineer for the Houston Area, comprising Brazoria, Fort Bend, Galveston, Harris, Montgomery and Waller counties, where she oversaw operations during Hurricane Harvey, Winter Storm Yuri, the 2024 derecho and Hurricane Beryl.
“During all of those events, we had to deal with both the constituent cities and counties as well as CenterPoint Energy, the US Coast Guard and FEMA to try to bring the region back to what we needed. It’s not just one person,” she said. “We had a really good team at TxDOT; I had a good team of people helping me in each of our counties, areas, and groups. There are a lot of people working together to make this whole engine work. It’s a team effort, and everybody is putting in their fair share of work to make TxDOT successful.”
The View from the Top
To pursue her master’s degree in civil engineering, Paul came to Houston from the UK after completing her bachelor’s degree at the Imperial College of Science and Technology at the University of London. Growing up in Hong Kong, she “always wanted to build things — building was always on [her] mind.”
“My parents originally came from Mainland China, and they escaped communism during the Cultural Revolution in the 60s. They went to Hong Kong with very little — only what they could carry with them. They left everything to build a home for me and my brothers and sisters,” she said. “I will always remember — my mom told me that you cannot carry everything with you, but you can always keep your education with you, and nobody can take that away.
“When you’re coming from overseas, you come in not expecting too much,” she continued. “You try to do the best you can in a totally new land, and here the university gives you that opportunity to excel, and to get a good education — which is the foundation of getting a good job — and contribute to Houston and the surrounding area, wherever you go. There’s a lot of community involvement and want to try to give back to UH, and the city of Houston, and to Texas as well.
“When I first came here, I never could have imagined that I was going to be the District Engineer of TxDOT, overseeing six counties and all the billions of dollars of projects that we do. [But] UH is a university that really helps their students. The environment is geared to allow people to work and to study, to continue their education and get something good out of that.”
Paul credits that design for the number of successful Cullen College alumni who are eager to give back to the university and to their community, as well as for her own success.
In fact, in addition to her professional history helping to build today’s Houston, Eliza Paul and her husband Dennis Paul — a fellow Cullen alum as well as a Texas state representative — have enjoyed finding additional ways to nurture their Houston engineering community. In their spare time, they’ve visited middle and high schools to encourage students — especially girls — to pursue an education or career in STEM.
“Dennis ended up being a politician, and I ended up working for on infrastructure for the state with TxDOT, but we both continue to want to develop the next generation of engineers. Both of us are very grateful to UH and Cullen College, and we want to give back to the community that helped us grow.”