I am an architectural engineer within the the Transportation and Infrastructure sector of WSP. My group focuses on the vertical aspect of transportation and infrastructure projects and other agency-funded works, such as: transportation faciltities, airports, higher-education, municipalities, and government facilities. I’ve had the chance to work on a variety of buildings, project types, and project sizes ranging from hundreds of thousands to hundreds of million dollars in both the US and abroad. My technical focus is on building sustainability, climate resilience, and structures; with particular focus on aiding agencies on framework considerations to be “future ready” and conversion to green-technologies (including battery electric and natural gas). Technical expertise includes: Report, presentation, and purposal/funding request writing, green-certification pursuits, including Envision and LEED; sustainability design and documentation; condition assessments; evaluation of structural engineering system concepts; structural analysis and design; preparation of contract documents, plans, and specifications; construction phase design-review and administration; BIM (building information modeling), visualization, and CADD; data analysis and presentation; project management.Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion & Civic EngagementIn addition to my technical role at WSP, I am also heavily involved with our Diversity and Inclusion initiative and serve as the Pittsburgh office’s Diversity and Inclusion ambassador and the North East Regional lead. I am also lead of the Pittsburgh office for WSP’s Developing Professionals Network, which strives to provide opportunities for mentorship and growth to professionals with 10-years experience or less.

Throughout my my time at Drexel, I held a part time job at the student center: first as an information desk attendant and later as a building manager of multiple buildings throughout campus. This job not only provided me with knowledge of my university and kept me informed; it allowed me to practice my management abilities and required me to form time management skills.

As a quality performance engineer, my primary role was a researcher and data analysis for mechanical HVAC systems. Projects of this nature included comparisons between newly constructed and retrofitted test homes under contracts for the Department of Energy; in-house testing of proprietary equipment for private clients; and cost-benefit and energy consumption analysis for retrofitting of community-scale endeavors throughout the country. Deliverables for these studies included comprehensive reports consisting of methodology, results, and conclusions. Additional tasks included: cost analysis, schedule tracking, market research, drafting of presentations, extensive code review of various ASHRAE standards, and product testing.I spearheaded a research project to determine any adverse effects on the longevity and structural capacity of the roof system in residential housing retrofitted to (and constructed-as) “tight homes.” This effort required a literature and code review to understand available engineering methods for quantifying attic leakage; performing hygrothermal analysis; using a high-level of attic physics to develop a sophisticated computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model; and working within tight budget and scheduling constraints.One of the most unique projects I was involved in was: SABIC Home of Innovation, a joint project between IBACOS, SABIC, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's Housing Ministry. My primary role was commercial product research to discern the availability and limitations of products that were capable of being provided for, and to operate in the climate/ecological region of Saudi Arabia. This project was not only a major endeavor for the firm, but allowed me exposure to how architecture and design is influenced, not only by the user; but by the user’s culture, religion, climate/surroundings, and many more aspects. More information can be found here: http://www.ibacos.com/what/home-of-innovation

As an on-site project engineer, I participated in the construction phase of a $38 million, LEED gold residence hall for Duquesne University.Weekly meetings included a mix of on-site team members, architects, owners, design team members, and subcontractors; which provided me a prime opportunity to observe communication differences between each discipline. Often, information being relayed was required to be conveyed in two manors, receiving two perspective responses: from a technical and non-technical perspective. This highlighted the importance of ensuring all parties understand what is agreed upon and the need for frequent updates of information. I accomplish this by providing daily reports of on-site activities with a multitude of photos, both detailed and overview shots, of goings on and various construction techniques used. This served as an adequate information delivery method, kept the owner and design team appraised of the progress, and kept a visual history.Walking the site, taking photos, also allowed me to spend time learning how a building is constructed. Time spent speaking with union and non-union construction workers proved to be invaluable; they provided a previously unrealized perspective on the construction industry: what things work and don't and the disconnect they have with the design team. From a project management perspective, I was also able to observe the adverse effect changes and delays have on the project's budget and schedule; the design team's ability to turn around design changes, approve submittals, and return RFIs (requests for information); and how to anticipate these during design phase.