About Me.

Every person has a unique story. This is mine.

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I grew up in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, right in the heart of Amish Country. From an early age, it was clear I had a knack for working with my hands. By the time I was 2, I was already taking apart and reassembling an oscillating fan, which gave my parents a good idea of where my future was headed.

 

My love for building and designing only grew as I got older. My childhood was filled with Lego Technic, Lego Mindstorms kits, K’Nex, model planes, trains, and rockets. While most kids were playing sports or watching cartoons, I was attending Lego Robotics camps, joining rocketry clubs, exploring music, railfanning, and woodworking. In middle and high school, I played Cello and Double Bass in the orchestra and percussion in the marching band. I was also heavily involved in the Technology Student Association (TSA), participated in The American Rocketry Challenge, and even designed and built sets for theater productions, running the lighting as well. Summers were spent helping out at Millersville University, teaching the same Lego Robotics camps that I had attended as a kid.

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I went on to study Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics at Drexel University, where I was accepted into the accelerated BS/MS co-op program. Unlike most students, I kept my third co-op cycle while diving deeper into my MS focus by joining the Theoretical and Applied Mechanics Group (TAMG), where I pursued a thesis on Finite Element Analysis (FEA) modeling of fatigue-induced crack growth propagation. By the time I graduated in 2012, I had earned both a BS and MS in Mechanical Engineering, published research, and accumulated over 18 months of real-world engineering experience.

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Originally, I had dreams of working in aviation, but my co-op experiences shifted my focus toward medical devices, a field I’ve now worked in for over 15 years. Although graduating during the Great Recession presented its challenges, it also opened the door to a variety of opportunities in engineering, from New Product Development to Process Development and Sustaining, in companies ranging from startups to multinational corporations.

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In my free time, I love being outdoors, tackling home improvement projects, working with foster youth, creating art, and spending time with my family. In 2014, I started an Etsy business called EngineeringCocktails, where I created blueprint-style cocktail drawings. While I’ve since closed the business, it led to a 6-book illustration contract for the Shake, Muddle, Stir coffee table book series, published by Hardie Grant.