I knew I wanted to be an engineer since early in high school when a family friend gave me a tour of Rockwell International where he worked. I had initially wanted to be an electrical engineer but then, after one class realized that was not for me. My adviser suggested Civil engineering, which is where I found a passion for structural engineering.

My background is quite diverse. I started out designing parking decks for Carl Walker Inc. in Dallas, TX. When my son was born, we moved back to South Dakota, and for a year, I did assistant teaching for CAD and materials classes at a local tech college. I then worked at P&M Steel, which is a family-owned steel fabrication shop. That was one of my favorite places to work. Being a small business, I was able to get experience in everything from designing steel members for local contractors, detailing rebar and steel shop drawings, estimating costs for projects, and even arranging shipping. But I was tired of the cold and moved to Charlotte in 2008 to again design parking decks for Carl Walker. Then in 2012, I joined Amec and for the next 12 years I worked at the same place but with 4 different company names. Throughout those years, I was mainly focused on structural assessment and repair work. Fun Fact: for several years, I was on our SPRAT rope access team and rappelled down buildings to perform our assessments. During this time, I started to get involved with project and team management. I was able to be part of multi-discipline teams that did renovation and restoration work on Federal projects. We travelled to military or National Park sites all over the US and even overseas. In my final year and a half there, I led our East Coast Design Team and helped navigate our way through a challenging acquisition.

I enjoy learning new things and expanding outside of my comfort zone. I am grateful for all the different opportunities that I have been exposed to and have been able to be a part of. I enjoy the teamwork and helping others grow to find new levels of success personally and professionally.

I have co-workers from previous firms who work here and speak very highly of the work environment and company culture of Summit. I was impressed by the wide variety of services and types of projects that Summit works on. I am excited to be part of a team with so many talented people and so much potential for future growth.

I was project manager for a National Parks project at Perry’s Victory and International Peace Memorial. This is a historic monument constructed around 1913 on the island of Put-in-Bay in Lake Erie. Our scope of work only included design of the schematic phase so the project could then NPS would put it out for design build. We had 11 different disciplines involved with this work, ranging from structural to historic architects to MEP to environmental. We had to complete all of the fieldwork during the first weeks of December before the ferry shut down for the winter. The locals all had running bets on what day the ferry would stop. We did it though, and then we delivered the schematic package on time and under budget as well. They are still working on this project today.

I love to be outdoors. I have flower gardens all around our yard. I love to go hiking in the mountains whenever I can. One of my more recent adventures is snorkeling. There is so much to see under the water! My husband and I try to go once a year now.