I was born in Anchorage, Alaska, to an Air Force family that values self-reliance and service. Growing up was a collection of Boy Scout projects and adventures in America’s wilderness. I like working outside, working with my hands, and understanding how things work. My work experience is best described as broad, with multiple years of experience in detailed engineering, fabrication, and construction across Mechanical, Civil, Chemical, Welding, and Metallurgical disciplines.
In 2002, I graduated from Texas A&M University with a B.S. in Industrial Engineering. I began work with Jacobs Engineering as a field engineer, cost engineer, subcontract coordinator, constructability organizer, and safety coordinator, supporting large capital projects from field mobilization through startup. This was also my first introduction to process hazard analyses (PHAs), and I participated in project PHAs.
In 2007, I moved to Celerity3, where I began working with John Perez and started facilitating PHAs. My responsibilities also included relief device sizing, flare assessments, mechanical integrity, and PSM program development, supporting projects at more than 50 facilities.
After Celerity3 was acquired by Lloyd’s Register, I became a surveyor, obtaining authorizations for welding/welder qualification, nondestructive examination certification, materials certification, and pressure vessel design examination. Working with Lloyd’s Register gave me the opportunity to directly assess equipment and documentation against a wide range of codes and industry standards.
In 2013, I left Lloyd’s Register to rejoin John Perez at Cognascents. My work has included facilitating HAZOPs and What-If studies, conducting bow tie analyses and preventive and mitigative barrier assessments, supporting facility siting and ignition studies, and helping clients work through identified risks.
Today, as Director of Process Safety & Risk Management, a large part of my role is developing young engineers, providing technical guidance to clients, and performing quality assurance reviews of our HAZOPs and other process safety work. I also support audits and PSM program development.
At my core, I still consider myself a facilitator, always pushing for the things that make a good HAZOP: preparation, thoroughness, and care. Every facility has something to teach you, and some of the most valuable moments come when operations and engineering learn something unexpected from each other. Someone says, “You do what?” and suddenly the team sees the process differently. I think of it a little like building with LEGOs: you see how everything fits together, then ask, “What happens if we pull this piece out? Does the whole thing fall apart, or does something else hold it together?” Exploring those questions with the people who know the process best, and helping our engineers develop the curiosity and judgment to ask them, is one of the most rewarding parts of my role.