2025 Florida Engineer of Distinction: Joshua Revord

St. Lucie County Native Now Helping Ports Across State

Joshua Revord is living the dream.

Revord grew up fishing and diving in St. Lucie County, spending days around Fort Pierce Inlet and St. Lucie Inlet – the two best inlets in the State of Florida, he says, renowned for their proximity to the continental shelf. 

Florida’s waters became part of Revord’s blood and fueled a passion that has helped guide his education and career.

At 39, Revord and his family call St. Lucie County home. As the director of Port, Inlet & Beaches (PIB) for St. Lucie County and the newly-elected chair of the Florida Seaport Transportation and Economic Development (FSTED) Council, Revord has his dream job.

“It’s a dream job from my perspective because I get to be integrated with everything – I get to play with the bugs and bunnies, and I also get to do the hard stuff with the engineering, and then I also get to advocate for these things at the state or federal level,” Revord said. “Think of a Swiss Army knife and then doing everything you love to do, and that’s kind of how my world is.”

Joshua Revord: 2025 Florida Engineer of Distinction

As Director of PIB, Revord helps to identify and initiate coastal initiatives and port development strategies for St. Lucie County. He is tasked with building relationships with stakeholders, regulatory authorities and local, state and federal policy makers. Revord also assists with the County’s relationship with Derecktor Shipyards – one of Port Fort Pierce’s biggest tenants servicing mega yachts – and oversees various aspects of the long-term management of the Fort Pierce Inlet. 

The Path to Passion

After graduating from Port St. Lucie High School, Revord enrolled at the Florida Institute of Technology to study ocean engineering – “It sounded like, ‘Wow, I could do something that requires me to be by the water,’” he said. 

He earned his bachelor’s degree at Florida Tech and continued his studies in Gainesville, earning a master’s degree in coastal and oceanographic engineering from the University of Florida.

Out of school, he took a job with a small engineering firm and ultimately opened a satellite office in his hometown. The firm specialized in residential dredging and small dredging projects, as well as marine structures. He gained firsthand experience as a project manager and had to learn his industry fast. Revord then spent a couple of years in Boca Raton with Coastal Planning and Engineering, where his education in coastal engineering really took off. 

But the pull back to St. Lucie County was strong – he joined the county as its stormwater engineer in 2016. The timing was perfect, as he got to learn skills from the retiring coastal engineer that ultimately expanded his career. 

“It was perfect because I got my education, I just got done in a job where I've learned all these things needed to actually be a coastal engineer, and I had just got my PE license,” he said. “We were just about to execute a new federal shore protection project and had to go through a very long and laborious, perpetual easement effort with a community and condominiums. 

“We ended up getting that all resolved, and then immediately after that took place, I made my proposition (to St. Lucie County) and said, ‘Look, I am already doing all this coastal stuff.’” 

Revord took on his current position as PIB director three years ago, effectively starting a new department for the county. At that time, he and his admin staff were the entire department.  

Now, the department has a four-person staff with eyes on more expansion. Revord and his team work and interface with consultants on a regular basis for all of the projects that they're currently undertaking. The work spans efforts to address coastal erosion, maintaining the inlets and working out a plan to responsibly develop Port Fort Pierce.

“And it's just a super fun job because I get to be involved with every aspect of the development from concept to completion,” Revord said. “It's pretty much the engineer's dream when it comes to our waters and the interface between upland and waterside development.”

Strengthening Florida’s Ports

The FSTED Council is responsible for implementing Florida’s seaport capital improvement projects at the local level, while its members consist of experienced port directors and representatives from the Florida Department of Transportation and FloridaCommerce.

At the state level, project review is accomplished by state agency partners who are full voting members of the FSTED Council. FSTED approves projects and provides that program funds will be used to fund them on a 50-50 matching basis with any of the public ports that are governed by a public body. 

Revord’s election to Chair of the FSTED Council through 2027 makes him the point person for bringing leaders from Florida’s 16 deepwater seaports, but he already has familiarity with the Council and its members through his role at the Port of Fort Pierce.

“I was graciously allowed to move up the ladder into this position,” he said. “It's going to be a great learning experience for me.
I believe that I'm qualified to do it, and I believe that it'll help elevate the stature of St. Lucie County even further.”

While the Port of Fort Pierce may be one of the smaller seaports in the state, the FSTED Council brings the ports together as one entity. Looking at the ports as a whole, Revord sees that each brings something unique to Florida’s ecosystem. 

“If you go to Port Canaveral, you're going to see a lot of cruise operations – they really cater to visitors and bringing people to Florida,” Revord explained. “You look at Port Everglades, they're dealing with fuel, and they're dealing with produce commodities coming from South America. 

“Here at the Port of Fort Pierce, we are just now starting to get our wings, but we want to focus on the mega yacht industry. Our community says, ‘Hey, we really want to focus on high-skill and high-paying jobs to keep the mega yacht industry in Florida.’" 

Revord wants to showcase the diversity of Florida’s ports and bring awareness to the massive impact they have on the state – currently, Florida seaports contribute $117.6 billion in economic value to the state through cargo and cruise activities. 

“What we want to do is show how we provide those critical commodities and things that people take for granted and really to just bring awareness so that we can not only elevate the ports to the legislature, but also showcase how we make Floridians and our visitors' life better,” Revord said. “At the end of the day, we want to ensure that these ports are running as optimal as possible.”