Meet Layla El-Khoury

The Stream Doctor at Qunity

Dr. Layla El-Khoury works on Qunity’s Environmental Engineering team, where much of her work focuses on stormwater and water resources. Think: running streams, ephemeral creeks, and vast watersheds - that's Layla's bread and butter. She brings a strong research background to her current work, having recently earned her PhD in Biological Engineering from NC State, where her dissertation focused on streambank erosion, sediment, and nutrient loading in the Falls Lake watershed.

For Layla, the most rewarding part of her engineering work isn't just solving technical problems... It’s knowing that the work she puts forth can be a useful tool to someone else. Engineering projects, after all, are always a deeply collaborative effort.

One of Layla’s current projects at Qunity is developing standardized survey point materials for Stormwater Control Measures (referred to as SCMs around the office - these are thoughtfully engineered structures and techniques designed to manage the quantity and improve the quality of runoff from precipitation, preventing flooding and reducing pollution in our local waterways). The standardized survey point materials Layla is developing will help surveyors efficiently collect the field data needed to ensure SCM calculations are accurate from the start.

In engineering, seemingly small pieces of information can have a huge impact. A missing elevation, an incorrect dimension, or a survey point that wasn’t collected can affect all of the calculations that follow. Layla’s work is establishing a more consistent process so that no important information is left behind.

“I like knowing I’m doing something that adds a benefit to others,” Layla says. “It’s something they can use. It gives me a greater sense of purpose.”

That same approach was at the heart of her PhD research. Her studies examined streambank erosion throughout the Falls Lake watershed, including how much sediment, phosphorus, and nitrogen were generated through erosion and ultimately delivered to the reservoir. Her research found that streambank erosion is a significant source of sediment and phosphorus, while nitrogen is transported more commonly through surface and subsurface flows.

What makes Layla especially proud of that work is that she didn’t stop with the research itself. She created an interactive dashboard that allows users to visualize erosion conditions alongside sediment and nutrient loading throughout the watershed, making the findings more accessible for planning and prioritization.

It’s a good example of how Layla approaches engineering: the goal isn’t just to produce information. It’s to turn that information into something that can help someone else make a good decision.

Finding the Right Fit at Qunity

Layla has found that same sense of purpose in her work at Qunity. She appreciates the firm’s collaborative environment and the sense of community between everyone, describing the culture as friendly, supportive, and encouraging. What she values most is that people genuinely care about one another—not just about the work they produce, but about each other as people. She also sees the combination of experience, technical knowledge, and collaboration across the firm as one of Qunity’s greatest strengths.

Since joining the company, Layla has worked on stream and wetland delineations, SCM as-built packages, hydrologic modeling, and field data collection. She has also helped implement tools such as ESRI Field Maps and Survey123 to make collecting and organizing field information more efficient.

For someone who likes finding ways to make things work better, it’s a natural fit.

A Very High Bar

Layla holds herself to an extremely high standard. She has been known to describe herself as a perfectionist. Sometimes, she needs a dose of outside validation before she can convince herself that a job is actually finished.

This drive for perfection isn't limited to engineering, either.

Layla has danced for most of her life, and dance has taught her a lot about dedication and continuous improvement. In artistic movement, performing constantly evolving choreographies, there is always another detail to refine, another skill to work toward, another opportunity to do it better. She knows "perfection" may not be attainable in all of those moments of movement, but that doesn’t stop her from pursuing it. In engineering, this philosophy translates to no shortcuts taken and a willingness to keep digging into the details until she is confident in the result.

On the Horizon

Layla is currently preparing to take the Agricultural & Biological Engineering professional exam as she continues working toward becoming a Professional Engineer.

Outside of work, she stays busy with the things she has always enjoyed, including weekly dance classes, lots of reading, and plenty of baking. She's also been enjoying a bit of Dancing with the Stars in her free time, a show she claims has had a comeback in recent years.

Whether she's working on a stormwater project, developing a resource for her colleagues, or pursuing her next professional goal, Layla brings the same mindset to all of it: hold yourself to a high standard, keep improving, and make sure the work you're doing benefits others.