Army Corps of Engineers

The division has 4,800 employees working in seven engineer districts in all or part of 17 states. It is charged with directing federal water resource development in the Great Lakes and Ohio River basins with infrastructure valued at more than $80 billion.

The division's annual budget is more than $2 billion for hydropower plants, dams, flood rehabilitation and water conservation. In addition, the division is responsible for military construction in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois and Michigan.She replaces Maj. Gen. John Peabody, who served the division for three years and participated in a ceremonial passing of the division colors to Burcham.The division's territory runs south from the Great Lakes to Alabama and east from the Mississippi River to Virginia. It is responsible for 96 locks on the Great Lakes, 79 dams and flood protection projects, 10 hydro-electric power plants and 868 recreational areas.Its districts are in Buffalo, Chicago, Detroit, Huntington, W.Va., Louisville, Nashville and Pittsburgh.More than 300 of its active duty members have deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq since 2001. Burcham served in Iraq as commander of the Gulf Region North District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Iraq. She also has served overseas in Germany and South Korea.Overall, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has about 37,000 soldiers and civilians serving in 90 countries. The U.S. Army established the Corps of Engineers as a separate and permanent branch in 1802.

Burcham, who served most recently as the Chief of the Joint Capabilities Division of the Resources, Assessments and Force Management Directorate, is the eighth commander of the Great Lakes and Ohio River Division and the first female."To director stakeholders here today," Burcham said to an audience of about 250 people with the Ohio River as a backdrop, "I express my sincere commitment to all of you. I'll listen as we serve our nation's engineering needs."