Lt. Col. Kathryn Werback assumed duties as the deputy commander of Portland District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, on July 23, 2022. Her responsibilities include supporting the commander in overseeing a workforce of 1,500 federal employees in Oregon and southwestern Washington.
Lt. Col. Werback’s Army career started at Fort Stewart, Georgia (2006-2010), where she was assigned to the 92nd Engineer Battalion and then deployed to Operation Iraq Freedom V and to Yuma, Arizona, to build border road for Joint Task Force-North.
In 2010, Lt. Col. Werback was assigned to the 18th Engineer Brigade, Germany where she served as Brigade Public Affairs Officer and deployed in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. While deployed, she served as the Public Works Officer with the Construction Management Team during Operation Devil Hammer, the Ghazni rapid base expansions for the 82nd Airborne.
In November 2012, Lt. Col. Werback assumed command of the 902nd Engineer Company. Her command culminated in a two-month long deployment to Mihail Kogălniceanu Airbase, Romania, to construct a personnel staging facility.
Lt. Col. Werback was selected for the “Training with Industry” program starting in 2014 where she worked for a year with Dewberry, a civilian architect and engineer firm in Fairfax, VA.
From 2015 - 2017, she was assigned to USACE with duties in Fort Belvoir and then Poland at Naval Support Facility-Redzikowo to serve as the military representative for the construction of a U.S missile defense site. From 2018 to 2021, she was assigned to the 130th Engineer Brigade in Hawaii as S3 Plans, 84th Engineer Battalion executive officer, and 130th Engineer Brigade executive officer, supporting engineer missions throughout the United States Indo-Pacific Command.
Lt. Col. Werback’s most recent experience was serving as the Aide de Camp to the 55th Chief of Engineers and Commanding General of the US Army Corps of Engineers in Washington, DC.