Voices of Sherwood: Jimmy Galvez, Promoted to Principal
Born in Guatemala, some of Jimmy’s earliest memories are of those involving nature, hiking through green open space, observing the active Pacaya volcano, or exploring the coastline of Monterrico Beach. These memories marked the beginning of his journey, and along the way he learned there was even more to explore and protect: Semuc Champey, with its limestone bridges and turquoise blue pools; the abundant waterfalls of Parque Natural Las Conchas; Lake Atitlán—Central America’s deepest; and the Maya Biosphere nature reserve, which covers nearly one-fifth of Guatemala’s land and includes multiple national parks and ancient cities. Even at a young age, he felt connected to nature and recognized its power.
He was also aware of destructive events—such as Guatemala’s 1976 earthquake that leveled whole towns and killed tens of thousands, or the bus on its commute to a nearby town that lost control due to poor road conditions and plummeted down a ravine claiming the lives of its occupants—and became curious about the role that infrastructure played in his community and the world around him.
Jimmy at the Tikal Mayan ruins in Guatemala, a UNESCO World Heritage Site dating back to 900 BCE.
In his young mind he was perplexed by the inequalities of infrastructure he saw in different parts of the world, and how this translated into unfortunate casualties and loss of property. His arrival to Los Angeles at the age of 10 further fueled his desire to explore how we can do better. How can we achieve equity in infrastructure? How can we create more green space and contribute to healthier communities? Combining his passion for nature and his curiosity for science with his desire to do better for those around him pointed him towards civil engineering. Growing up in South Central Los Angeles, Jimmy was bussed for his early education in the west side, where he graduated from Westchester High School as class Salutatorian. Jimmy then attended Santa Monica College and California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, where he earned a degree in civil engineering. Focusing on technical training during the early years of his career, Jimmy ultimately joined Sherwood in 2011, finding direct alignment between the questions and ideas that had started him on this journey, and the firm’s design approach that merges creativity, engineering and ecology with a mission to have a positive impact—to do better.
He worked from Sherwood’s San Francisco office before moving to Houston and then back home to Los Angeles, where he’s played a critical role in building and growing a regional presence from the ground up since 2017. He now leads a team of ten LA-based professionals, and has recently been promoted to Principal. At every scale, whether he’s working on an individual building, a campus, or a city plan, Jimmy considers ways to reinvent development, and to work with the land rather than against it.
Jimmy in Griffith Park, overlooking
Griffith Observatory and Los Angeles.
Jimmy on the construction site of the
Center for Early Education in West Hollywood.
Much of Jimmy’s success at Sherwood has been fueled by his approach to relationship-building both inside and outside the firm, demonstrating his openness to listen and learn as he collaborates across Sherwood teams and with project partners to find each challenge’s best solution. He’s motivated to push to do better than business as usual—to develop forward-thinking strategies that go beyond local code requirements and that show clients and cities the benefits of a more sustainable, site-specific approach. This has been especially valuable on tight urban infill sites where Jimmy sees constraints as opportunities to innovate, merging science and engineering while honoring a client’s vision and an architect’s design intent.
Image: Sherwood’s LA team celebrates Jimmy’s 2024 promotion to Principal.
Jimmy is not only passionate about project delivery—in fact, he helped to establish Sherwood’s company-wide quality control/quality assurance program. He’s also committed to pay it forward through community outreach, learning and knowledge sharing. For decades, he’s been actively involved with the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) at local, regional and national levels. He was part of the ASCE team that assembled Canon 8 to promote and protect diversity in our profession. And he’s served as president of the San Francisco, Houston and Los Angeles chapters of SHPE, through which he mentors many students and young engineers—including a 10-year-old kid from a farm-working family in Santa Maria, CA, who was inspired to become a mechanical engineer after attending a SHPE event. Grateful for the invaluable mentorship and training he’s had access to throughout his 20+ year career, Jimmy is now proud to have the opportunity to touch the lives of many.