Faculty & Staff

Full-Time Faculty

ALINA HANDOREAN // TEACHING PROFESSOR, EDS

Education:

• BS & MS in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Bucharest
• MA & PhD in Chemisty, Washington University in St. Louis
• Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Cancer Biology, University of Colorado’s Health Sciences Campus

Experience & Specialties:

• 15+ years experience teaching biology, chemistry, and fundamental engineering
• Research Faculty and Lecturer in the Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering department at CU Boulder
• Research areas include: Environmental Engineering (Drinking Water, Bioaerosols), Chemistry, Cancer Biology, and Pedagogy
• Passionate about teaching user-centered design, communication skills, and teamwork

CHELSEA SALINAS // TEACHING PROFESSOR, EDS

Education:

• BS in Chemical Engineering, University of Texas at Austin
• PhD in Chemical and Biological Engineering, CU Boulder

Experience & Specialties:

• 10+ years experience teaching at institutions such as Duke University, University of Pennsylvania, and Philadelphia University
• Areas of interest and specialty include Engineering Design, Design for People with Disabilities, Biotechnology, Stem Cells, Materials Science, Chemical Engineering, and Biomaterials
• Focused on teaching design thinking strategies at both the freshman and senior level
• Passionate about creating an engaging classroom, using active learning techniques, and integrating user-centered design approaches to create a targeted and meaningful experience for her students

LESLIE LIGHT // TEACHING ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, EDS

Education:

• BS in Product Design Engineering, Stanford University
• MBA in Entrepreneurship/Entrepreneurial Studies, University of Pennsylvania – The Wharton School

Experience & Specialties:

• 20+ year career in R&D and project management, including optimization & management at John Deere, and product development and management in Silicon Valley
• Appropriate Technology, innovation, and humanitarian engineering at iDE (International Development Enterprises), expanding market based solutions to dollar-a-day farmers around the globe
• Product development and business consulting in India, South Africa, Kenya, and Chile
• Passionate about bringing user-centered design principles she learned at school and in her career to Mines’ cornerstone open-ended technical problem solving program

MIRNA MATTJIK // TEACHING ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, EDS

Education:

• BS in Industrial Technology, Institut Pertanian Bogor (IPB)
• MA in Project Leadership and Management, Regis University
• MA in International Political Economy of Resources, Colorado School of Mines

Experience & Specialties:

• 13+ years teaching at the Colorado School of Mines in Cornerstone
• Primary Faculty Champion for the University Innovation Fellows
• Background in industrial technology,  international political economy, project management and leadership
• Research interests include student-centered teaching and learning, pedagogy in design, honors pedagogy and scholarship, diversity and inclusion in higher education, and ethics in engineering

YOSEF ALLAM // DIRECTOR, CORNERSTONE PROGRAM, EDS

Education:

• BS & MS in Industrial and Systems Engineering, The Ohio State University
• PhD in Engineering Education, The Ohio State University

Experience & Specialties:

• Previously taught in the Fundamentals Department at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and served as the Affiliate Director for Project Lead the Way, as well as at The Ohio State University in the First-Year Engineering Program
• Interested in spatial visualization, diffusion of evidence-based teaching practices, student applications of the design process, and fulfilling the needs of an integrated, multi-disciplinary first-year engineering educational environment through active and collaborative learning

Industry Advisors

Our Industry Advisers are adjunct faculty hired to teach Design because they have 10-15+ years of experience solving difficult, open-ended problems in a variety of industries.  They bring to their classrooms copious experience in group work, project planning, persistence, creativity, communication, professionalism, and tenacity, often with one foot still in the trenches.

ADAM DURAN

Experience & Specialties:

• 11+ years at NREL in various positions, currently serving as Program Manager and GCxN Co-Director focusing on addressing market gaps by providing cleantech start-ups with technical and business development support to move their technologies from early stage prototypes to commercially viable energy solutions
• Interests center around the nexus of technology, entrepreneurship, and innovation, where he shares his practical knowledge of engineering design, technology commercialization, and startups with his students
• Teaches at Mines in both Capstone and Cornerstone

Education:

• BS & MS in Engineering, Colorado School of Mines
• MS in Engineering & Technology Management, Colorado School of Mines

BRIDGET WETZEL

Experience & Specialties:

• 35+ year engineering career spanning prestigious companies such as Ball Engineering, Anheuser-Busch, Alcoa, Sundyne, and the Florida Department of Transportation
• Broad Material Science and Forensics Engineering plus Project Management experience covering the aluminum, packaging, oil/gas, and transportation industries
• Specialties include structured technical problem solving, decision making, data analysis, and research
• Strong application knowledge in Statistical Process Control and Design of Experiment
• Uses her strong industry experience to bring communication, organization and effective teaming to the classroom
• Passionate about encouraging students to embrace challenges and never fear hard work in engineering – or any part of their lives

Education:

• BS in Metallurgical Engineering, Michigan Technological University

CARA JUERGENSEN

Experience & Specialties:

• Private sector as a consulting engineer with a focus on water resources such as urban drainage, stream restoration, flood control, and bridge hydraulics
• Currently working at Bridge and Stream Engineering as a project engineer for surveying and site analysis including hydrology and hydraulics of existing bridges and culverts for the BNSF and UPPR railroads
• Previously worked at Musetter Engineering and Boyle Engineering
• Excited about sharing the knowledge she’s gained through her career as a professional engineer, along with the problem solving and communication skills that are associated with being a consulting engineer, with her students

Education:

• BS in Civil Engineering, Colorado State University
• PE, State of Colorado Civil Engineering

CHRIS RUSIN

Experience & Specialties:

• Entrepreneurial product development engineer and executive with over 15 years experience developing and bringing high value products to market
• Named inventor on over a dozen patents and filings
• Broad innovation leadership experience from founding and directing small startup companies to new platforms development in a corporate setting
• As manager within internal incubator at a fortune 500 sized company, applied innovation management methodologies and a design thinking approach developed together with the Stanford D-School to launch a portfolio of new product offerings
• Specialties include medical device development, innovation in healthcare, program and project management for new product development, managing large and geographically dispersed cross functional teams, and entrepreneurship
• Passionate about user centered design and helping engineers and scientists become impactful industry leaders and collaborative open ended problem solvers

Education:

• BS in Mechanical Engineering, University of Minnesota

DANNY TRAVIS

Experience & Specialties:

• Lockheed Martin staff project engineer
• Previously served in various Project Engineer and Project Management roles at companies such as Tetra Tech/Rooney Engineering, Halker Consulting, RETECH Systems, and Halliburton
• Passionate about teaching students innovation, open-ended problem solving, and collaborative idea generation

Education:

• BS in Engineering – Metallurgy & Materials, Colorado School of Mines
• MBA in Sustainability, CU Denver
• PMP, Project Management Institute

DONNA BODEAU

Experience & Specialties:

• 20+ years as a Senior Design Engineer at Thomas Electronics and Honeywell
• 7+ years teaching/advising in both the Cornerstone and Capstone programs
• 2+ years teaching in Computer Science
• Specialties include research, product development, data and spectral analysis
• Expert knowledge in cathode ray tubes and electron beam uniformity characterization
• FIRST Robotics high school coach & recipient of the 2018 Woodie Flowers Award
• Patents: staggered multiple CRT’s in a photographic process printer (US5373347A)
• Special area of interest is developing solutions for people with disabilities
• Passionate about teaching students design methodology, how to develop controller technologies, data analysis skills, and professional/business skills

Education:

• BS in Electrical Engineering, Gonzaga University
• Member of Tau Beta Pi and Alpha Sigma Nu

EMILY SIEVERS

Experience & Specialties:

• A Colorado School of Mines alumni with an interest in using real-world experience to guide Mines students in their Capstone and Cornerstone design experience. 
• After spending time working as a process engineer in the oil and gas industry, she is excited to be back at Mines in an instructional and mentoring role. 
• She has worked as a Process Engineer at Samuel Engineering Inc. and URS Corporation. She has also done work with Bear Paw Energy. 
• She is currently a Capstone Project Advisor and Purchasing Assistant. Previously, she has been a Cornerstone design instructor.  

Education:

• B.S. Chemical Engineering, Colorado School of Mines, 2004

GARRETT ERICKSON

Experience & Specialties:

• 8+ years of experience in structural engineering, both as a project manager and lead discipline engineer, encompassing all phases of project delivery, including resource allocation and funding prioritization, project development/scoping, agency coordination, conceptual/preliminary/final design, public involvement, and construction support
• Structural experience includes all types of foundation and retaining wall variants, hydraulic structures, energy structures, and bridges
• Certifications from the National Highway Institute’s Introduction to Safety Inspection of In-Service Bridges certification, US Army Corps of Engineers LIS 3 Day certification, Confined Space certification, and LPS Leadership certification

Education:

• BS in Engineering, Colorado School of Mines
• MS in Engineering Systems, Colorado School of Mines
• PE in Colorado and California

KELLY PICKERING

Experience & Specialties:

• A master’s candidate in the Advanced Manufacturing program my area of focus is entrepreneurial design for additive manufacturing. My 16+ years of industry experience focused on brand and product development creating user-centric design solutions that merge user needs, project objectives, and stakeholder inputs. 
• As a design engineer, the main focus is meeting and exceeding the stakeholder visions, user needs, and project objectives for any successful product, service, or solution. Utilizing various digital and analog design and analytical techniques the goal is to distill the various issues within a given assignment. Identifying, defining, and prioritizing the obstructions specific to a sub-optimal User Experience allows a design engineer to craft the ideal user-based solution. My approach to work can be summed as the following. Stakeholders identify objectives, however, user behavior ultimately identifies problems. In turn, a design engineer’s job is to follow the data and build solutions specific to users’ needs states.
   

Education:

• BFA in Graphic Design, University of Northern Colorado

PATRICIA LITTMAN

Experience and Specialties:

• Project manager for software engineering teams in an Agile development environment
• Consulting experience focusing on digital transformation and targeted product development across industries, including: apparel manufacturing, telecommunications, and eLearning.
• Specialties include building high performing teams, work process improvements, and iterative management through the product lifecycle from inception through production
• Passionate about helping students develop their interpersonal team skills and problem solving abilities within the design thinking framework to ensure they can succeed in a variety of workplace environments

Education:

·        BS in Geophysics, Colorado School of Mines

·        MS in Engineering & Technology Management, Colorado School of Mines

SUE ANDERSON

Experience & Specialties:

• 15+ years’ experience teaching in a university setting, including Stanford University
• 25 years’ experience in Human-Centered Design at prestigious companies such as IDE0 and Apple
• Background in medical devices and products, anatomy and physiology, and prehospital emergency medicine
• Certified EMT with 8 years’ ambulance experience
• Interests in engineering problem definition, need-finding, creativity in engineering, the medical industry, and delivery of healthcare
• Passionate about applying Human-Centered Design principles to open-ended problems to make classes engaging and meaningful to students

Education:

• BS in Product Design Engineering, Stanford University
• National and Colorado State Certifications:  EMT, IV, EKG

TRACI CASE

Experience & Specialties:

• ME Technical and Operations Manager
• Served five years on active duty in the US Army where she led a platoon in the 4th Infantry Division at Fort Carson, Colorado
• Served as a project manager and the Research Services team manager at the Water Research Foundation, a non-profit research collaborative for water, wastewater and stormwater research for 20 years
• In her free time, she enjoys the outdoors – running, hiking, biking, trail building and backcountry skiing

Education:

• BS in Chemical Engineering, University of Texas at Austin
• MS in Environmental Science and Engineering, Colorado School of Mines

Adjunct Faculty

The adjunct faculty hired to teach Cornerstone Design have multiple years of experience teaching students – in a variety of contexts – how to solve difficult, open-ended problems.  They bring copious classroom experience for group work, creativity, hands on skills, communication, professionalism, and tenacity, and have areas of specialty enabling us to offer discipline-specific content in the context of Design.

HAMID ALAMIN

Experience & Specialties:

• Teaching Computer Aided Design (CAD) – both SolidWorks and AutoCAD – and Skills labs for Mines since 2015
• Solidworks certifications (CSWA, CSWP, CSWPA-SU, CSWP-MT, CSWP-DRWT, CSWP-WD)
• Taught thermodynamics and heat transfer at Sirte university, Libya.
• Prior work as Mechanical engineer in maintenance of HVAC systems.
• Research: non-destructive testing (NTD), with specific interests in Modeling of Acoustic Emission Source and Wave Response in Layered Materials.

Education:

• BS in Mechanical and Production Engineering, Sirte University, Libya
• MS in Automation and Production Engineering, Joseph Fourier University, France
• PhD & MS in Mechanical Engineering, Colorado School of Mines

KAREN WYLIE

Experience & Specialties:

• 15+ years teaching post-secondary and secondary students in a variety STEM classes focused on providing students with experiential and project-based learning opportunities
  
• Designed, constructed, and implemented a school community-wide MakerSpace in a k-12 public school setting
• Served as lead faculty of the Alternative Energy Technology program at Northwest State Community College, focused on serving displaced workers and preparing them for re-entry into the workforce with improved technical and academic skills and focused on building pathways for community college students to attain four-year degrees seamlessly with the 2+2 program
• Former geotechnical consulting engineer focusing on site preparation, forensic investigations, and slope stability analysis

Education:

• BS Geological Engineering, Missouri University of Science and Technology
• MS Energy and Sustainability, University of Denver

BRIAN JOHNS

Experience & Specialties:

• PhD – Industrial Engineering, University of Iowa

• BS, MS – Mechanical Engineering, University of Iowa

Education:

• 10+ years of engineering teaching experience, including an integral role launching and developing a new engineering program at Cornell College (Mount Vernon, IA)

• Specialization in hands-on teaching with an emphasis in 3D modeling, CNC machining, and additive manufacturing

MARK FLORIDA

Experience & Specialties:

• 40+ years of experience in Oil & Gas projects of all types including LNG and chemical plants
• Project management & safety management
• Specialized in offshore and subsea projects
• Engineering manager for Oil & Gas and Chemicals projects

Education:

• BS in Chemical & Petroleum Refining Engineering – Colorado School of Mines
• Amoco Electrical Engineering School
• Amoco Process Engineering School
• BP Project HSE Review Leadership
• Del Webb Constructability – Arizona State
• Asbestos Removal – Texas A&M
• Offshore Survival & Fire Response – LSU