Page 3 - CEGE Magazine Fall 2024

fter 12 years as a
consulting engineer,
Saura Jost (BCE 2010),
stepped into elected government
service.
On November 7, 2023, Saura Jost was
elected to the St. Paul City Council
where she represents Ward 3. She is
now part of a historic city council in
which all members were under 40 years
old when elected, all are women, and
most are people of color. CEGE talked
with Jost just six months into her term.
Jost had already identified instances
where her engineering expertise is
helpful in this new role.
Deep Roots
Although City Councilmember is a
new role for Jost, politics is not a new
interest. She has deep roots in her
community—now living in the same
house where she grew up—and had
thought about running for elected office
even in high school. After a few years
away while completing her master’s
in civil engineering at the University of
Washington, Jost returned to St. Paul.
She worked almost ten years with MBJ
and now works at SEH. Jost has been
active in local politics, campaigning for
other candidates and taking part in her
Neighborhood Council.
A big impetus in running for City
Council was Jost’s experience as
an engineer and understanding the
impact engineering has on a city. “I
saw how much funding we need at all
levels of government to make all the
infrastructure that we need a reality.
Working as an engineer, I’ve seen what
can happen when a city doesn’t have
the funding needed. I started to see the
importance of being involved civically.”
Another motivator was watching Ann
Johnson Stewart, her fellow engineer
(and former instructor for surveying
and CADD), run in and win a state
senate election. Johnson Stewart talked
with Jost about the impact that could
be made by an engineer at the state
level, from educating her colleagues
to championing infrastructure. Jost
recalls, “I saw that I could make a really
great impact, that I could do it, and that
people would support me.”
“Another important motivator,” Jost
noted, “was that I became a mom.
Having a now-5-year-old at home made
me think about our future and providing
for young people in the city. That was a
strong motivation for me to run.”
The Campaign
Jost described the election process as
unlike anything she had done before.
“The work was really different, a lot of
fundraising, a lot of talking to people
telling them why I wanted to do this,
what I would be able to do for them,
and why they should trust me.
“I had to overcome my discomfort with
things that I hadn’t done before.
ALUMNIPROFILE
SAURA JOST
A
St. Paul City Councilmember
Saura Jost, PE
University of Minnesota College of Science and Engineering | DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL, ENVIRONMENTAL, AND GEO- ENGINEERING 3