ICC Board Member

Andy Higgins is currently the Customer Success Director for the Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections (SDCI), having previously served as the Engineering Services Director for SDCI for over 15 years. Before being appointed in June 2025 to fill a Director At-Large vacancy on the ICC Board of Directors, Andy was most recently serving as the Secretary of the ICC Building Membership Council (ICC-BMC) and continues to serve as the Immediate Past President of the Washington Association of Building Officials (WABO).

With over 28 years of experience in the building and code profession, Andy has contributed significantly to the development and advancement of the mission of the Code Council. He has supported the SDCI and WABO Technical Code Development teams for many years, encouraging and significantly growing participation in the Code Development Process. In addition to being a Past President of WABO, Andy is the former Chair of the WABO Code Official Accreditation Program (WABO-COAP) - and one of the original founders of the program - the mission being to cultivate the next generation of successful code officials, with an emphasis on reaching people coming from non-traditional educational pathways and/or from underrepresented communities. The WABO accreditation program is now a fully licensed education provider in the State of Washington and the participants in the fully online program can be from anywhere in the world. In partnership with ICC’s Certifications, the WABO-COAP program is built to enhance a student’s learning through real-world experiences of instructors having worked in the industry. (Learn more here)

Beyond his work in the WABO Chapter of ICC, Andy has also participated in numerous professional development initiatives within the Code Council. In addition to serving two 3-year terms on the IBC/IRC Exam Development Committee, most notably Andy was honored to be the 2023 recipient of the Emory R. Rodgers Leadership in Building Safety Fellowship Award (read more about that here). Andy holds 28 ICC Certifications, including the ICC Master Code Professional (MCP) (the highest level of designation the Code Council offers - learn more about that here), which he achieved in 2011.

Born and raised in Seattle, WA, Andy studied Construction Management at the University of Washington prior to moving to Minneapolis, MN (with a 6-month study abroad in Oslo, Norway) in the course of obtaining his Masters in Business Administration (MBA) in Operations, Strategy, & Supply Chain Management from the University of Minnesota. Most recently, Andy has been attending the Harvard University – John F. Kennedy School of Government, Executive Education program in pursuit of an Executive Certificate in Public Policy, which he is on track to complete in March of 2026.

Andy and his lovely wife Kelly together have a son and three daughters. The family currently lives in Snohomish County, WA in an area about 20 miles north of Seattle and they enjoy time together watching sports, camping in their travel trailer, and being thoroughly loved (and regularly annoyed) by their two cats, Howie & Suzie, and their Golden Retriever, Bentley Rae.