The Many Roads to Asphalt: Breaking into Asphalt Without an Engineering Background with Lauren SeBlonka

The Many Roads to Asphalt: Breaking into Asphalt Without an Engineering Background with Lauren SeBlonka

From Pave It Black: The Official Podcast of NAPA by National Asphalt Pavement Association

March 17, 2026 · 23 min · Season 10 · Episode 6

About this episode

Lauren SeBlonka discusses her journey into the asphalt industry as a non-engineer and shares insights on innovation and sustainability.

In this episode of Pave It Black, we explore how non-engineers are transforming the road construction industry. Lauren SeBlonka shares her unconventional journey from studying sociology at the University of Glasgow to leading innovation and sustainability initiatives in the UK highways sector with Amey. Lauren highlights her work with the Live Labs 2 project and her involvement with PIARC, the World Road Association, to illustrate how international collaboration and diverse perspectives accelerate progress. For professionals considering a career change, this episode offers practical advice on overcoming the intimidation of entering a technical industry. This season is sponsored by FleetWatcher by AlignOps . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

People in this episode

Guest: Lauren SeBlonka

Topics covered

  • asphalt industry
  • career change
  • non-engineers
  • innovation
  • sustainability
  • international collaboration

Keywords

  • asphalt
  • road construction
  • career advice
  • sociology
  • innovation
  • sustainability
  • Live Labs 2
  • PIARC
  • international collaboration

Sponsors

FleetWatcher

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Amey, PIARC, National Asphalt Pavement Association

Places: University of Glasgow, UK

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