What is your current position? My current position is a Level 3 Plumbing Designer for a consulting engineering firm.
What is your area of focus? My area of focus is plumbing design in the education and healthcare industry. However, this focus is a fairly new change for me after spending 19 years in the Senior Living, multi-family housing, & commercial property sector.
What are your Career Journey Highlights? Ever since I took my first drafting class in 9th grade using t-squares, triangles, french curves and compasses, I knew I wanted to be in a technical drawing field as a career, but somewhere in the architectural world. I remember my teacher saying words that have always stuck with me: “everything that’s made, starts with a sketch.”
My career started out drawing “on the board” as a technical illustrator for Mack trucks in the mid-90’s. This job involved creating an isometric view from engineered 2d drawings of the various components of the truck. These were drawn with pen and ink on mylar. The job didn’t pay well and I wasn’t really happy doing it. Plus, I wanted to be somewhere that used AutoCAD 12 for DOS, something I went to school for and was trained to use.
From there, I found my way into a consulting engineering company as an electrical drafter and did that for a couple years.
Then in the late 90's, due to the company’s needs, I was shifted from the electrical group to the Mechanical/Plumbing group, where I got my first taste of HVAC and Plumbing design. I found that I really enjoyed doing and understood it more than electrical.
Over the next 20+ years, the focus shifted more and more from doing both the HVAC & Plumbing design on projects, to just being the lead plumbing designer alongside others who were assigned the lead HVAC and lead electrical roles.
What is one piece of advice you would give to others just starting out in the field? My advice would be to always be ready and be flexible for changes in the world of plumbing design, such as with codes and regulations and technology.
What motivated you to get into the plumbing engineering industry? I really just fell into this industry and found that I enjoyed it. Enjoying a job is motivation to do the job. Do what you love and love what you do.
What is the most exciting or rewarding aspect of your work? I really love seeing my work come to life from paper to a real structure and working systems.
What value have you gained from participation in ASPE Connect? The value of this group is really immeasurable. Connecting and sharing knowledge and information with others in this field is great to have a place to do that and place to go to get answers.
What is the most interesting plumbing design challenge you have encountered? One thing I like about plumbing design is that no two projects are the same. Each one presents their own distinct challenges, whether big or small. It’s tough to think back and pick the most distinct interesting challenge, from doing a high-rise Sovent system or a rainwater collection to grey water use for toilet flushing; all of it is an interesting challenge.
What is your favorite hobby or pastime outside of work? Things I like doing outside work are volleyball, biking, and golf.