CROSS-US Expert Panel

Glenn has had a career-long passion for learning from failures. He spent 45 years at Simpson Gumpertz and Heger (SGH), where he engaged in the design, investigation and rehabilitation of building structures, building envelopes and other structures. He was SGH’s CEO from 1995 through 2016 and its Board Chair from 2016 through 2018.

Glenn was Co-Founder of the ASCE Technical Council on Forensic Engineering (now the ASCE Forensic Engineering Division). He is Past President of SEI, a past Director of IStructE and a Board Member of the Charles Pankow Foundation.

After earning BSCE and MSCE degrees at UW-Madison, Stan has gained 52 years of experience in the analysis, design and management of more than 800 projects, including buildings, bridges and specialty structures. The buildings range from 1,000 sq. ft. to 1,000,000 sq. ft. and the bridges range from 100 ft. to 22,000 ft. The specialty structures include retaining walls, spillways, levees, large underground vaults, wharves, offshore oil platforms, pipelines and elevated LNG tanks. His experience encompasses all types of steel, concrete, masonry and timber construction, as well as all common foundation systems. 

Stan has held senior leadership positions in several local, regional and national structural engineering firms. Having 'failed' retirement, he currently is engaged as a sole-proprietor, working as a consultant to attorneys and insurance companies on construction litigation issues related to structural distress and failure. He is a highly sought-after expert that often shares lessons learned through presentations and articles.

Beyond the workplace, Stan has served as a leader with SEAoT, ACEC, and TBPE in Texas, as well as with ASCE, SEI, AEI, SECB, NCSEA and BSC on a national level. At the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), he was elected to the Board of Direction as the first Technical Region Director and also served on the Executive Committee. At the Structural Engineering Institute (SEI), he was appointed to the Board of Governors and became the Founding Chair of the SEI Futures Fund. As Chair of ASCE’s AE Division Executive Committee, he founded the Architectural Engineering Institute (AEI). Subsequently, as a member of the AEI Board of Governors, he founded ASCE’s Building Security Council.

John has a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering (1978) and Master of Science in Structural Engineering (1981) from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and is a licensed professional in sixteen states. He has published more that forty papers and lectured extensively on the performance and assessment of structures, structural facilities, structural rehabilitation, and design and construction codes and standards. 

John is a contributing author to the Handbook of Temporary Structures in Construction (1996, 2012) and the Forensic Structural Engineering Handbook (2000, 2010). He also authored a state-of-the-art standard, Guide Design Specification for Bridge Temporary Works (1995, 2015) adopted by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials.

John is a Fellow of the Structural Engineering Institute (SEI) and International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering (IABSE). He is a past President of the Structural Engineering Association of Illinois (2013-2014) and served on the Illinois State Task Force on School Plan Review and Inspection (2006). He is also a former member of the National Council of Examiners for the Engineering and Surveying Structural Exam Committee (2004-2010) and a member of the ASCE/SEI 7 Standards Committee, Minimum Design Loads and Associated Criteria for Buildings and Other Structures, since 1995.

Dan has recently joined GMS, where he is involved in accident investigations and litigation support.  Previously, he was the Chief Structural Engineer of the New York City Department of Buildings.  In that capacity, he organized its Forensic Engineering unit and was involved in numerous investigations of building and retaining wall collapses.

Some of his findings and statistics related to construction accidents (excavation, demolition, underpinning, cranes) were published and provided the basis for improvements to the NYC Building Code. His prior experience includes design of high-rise office buildings and of installations for petrochemical and nuclear plants.

Dan is a member of several American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) standard committees, including Structural Design for Fire Conditions, Design Loads on Structures during Construction, Structural Condition Assessment of Buildings, Foundation Standards and ASCE 7 Minimum Loads. Dan also organized the engineering response at the WTC for 9-11.

Eric is a Structural Bridge Engineer at Kiewit Infrastructure Engineers, where he has designed and analyzed bridges of varying complexity and size across the country for both preliminary and final designs. As his design experience is rooted in the design-build delivery method, he has an enhanced perspective on constructability considerations and concerns during the design process.

Eric has also served in leadership roles in SEI Colorado, is a member of the SEI Young Professionals Committee, and co-authored the bridges chapter of the 2020 ASCE Colorado Infrastructure Report Card.

Herrmann is Partner Emeritus of Hardesty & Hanover, a transportation consulting engineering firm headquartered in NYC specializing in fixed and movable bridges. He is a Fellow of both the Structural Engineering Institute (SEI) and ASCE and served as ASCE’s President for 2012, SEI’s President in 2017, and Chair of ASCE’s Report Card for America’s Infrastructure Advisory Committee in 2009.

An advocate for improving our nation’s infrastructure, he has testified several times before Congress and been interviewed many times by the media, most notably appearing on CBS’s “60 Minutes” and HBO’s “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.” Registered as a Professional Engineer in multiple states, he graduated from Valparaiso University with a BSCE and NYU POLY with a MSCE.

Tara is General Counsel of the American Society of Civil Engineers and a member of the Virginia bar. She is legal advisor to CROSS-US. Her responsibilities for ASCE include legal consultation in the areas of employment, tax, corporate, contract, mergers and acquisitions, antitrust, intellectual property, real estate, and construction law.

Norma Jean completed ten years as one of two civilian civil engineer Commissioners on the Mississippi River Commission (MRC), nominated by President Obama. She was 2017 President of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), chairing that organization’s Board of Direction that year. 

Norma Jean is currently on the Executive Committee of CROSS-US, on the Board of Governors of COPRI and locally serves on the ASCE New Orleans’ Chapter of the Structural Engineering Institute as well as several non-profit organizations such as the Water Institute of the Gulf, SciHigh and GNOSTEM. She also has served in the past on several National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES) committees and task forces, most recently serving as chair of the Board-level NCEES Education Committee and is an Emeritus Member of NCEES. 

Norma Jean was named by the Governor of Louisiana to LAPELS, Louisiana’s licensing board for professional engineers, serving as Chairman of the LAPELS Board in 2011-12. She, her husband, two engineer daughters and engineer son-in-law all reside in New Orleans.

Judy is the Associate Chief of the Materials and Structural Systems Division at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). She provides leadership in the development and coordination of statutory processes for making buildings safer and oversees the National Construction Safety Team (NCST), National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP), and the National Windstorm Impact Reduction Program (NWIRP).

Before her role in the Division Office, Judy was the Director NIST’s Disaster and Failure Studies (DFS) Program, where she led a multidisciplinary staff responsible for conducting fact-finding investigations focused on: building and infrastructure failures; successful building and infrastructure performance; evacuation and emergency response systems; and disaster recovery and community resilience.

Judy is a Director of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI), on the Executive Committee and Expert Panel of CROSS-US and co-founded SEI’s Committee on Multi-Hazard Mitigation.

Dr. Paul Mlakar recently retired after 40 years of service to U. S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. After beginning his ERDC career as a research engineer investigating the mechanics of structural elements and going on to service in various leadership roles, Mlakar's career culminated with his appointment as the Army's senior research scientist for weapons effects and structural dynamics, a position he held from 2003-2015. A graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Mlakar also served as the Class of 1953 Distinguished Chair in Civil Engineering for the storied organization from 2010-2014; he facilitated countless interactions between ERDC and West Point and an official Educational Partnership Agreement between the two was recently signed.

Paul is notable for his work on investigation of a number of catastrophes, including the 9-11 Pentagon crash, the Oklahoma City bombing, and the breach of the levees in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina.

Kevin is a Professor of Architectural Engineering at Penn State University, where he has been on the faculty for over 39 years and served as AE Department Interim Head for 2 years. He has received numerous teaching and advising awards including being named a Penn State Teaching Fellow.  Professor Parfitt teaches courses in structural engineering, engineering capstone, and building failures and forensics. His areas of expertise include building performance and evaluation, building damage assessment, building collapse, architectural systems failures, forensic engineering, site specific snow studies and disaster recovery. Prior to joining the PSU faculty Kevin worked for a number of prominent architectural and engineering firms. Kevin also serves as an independent industry consultant in investigating and evaluating structural distress and failure.

Kevin is active in ASCE including the Forensic Engineering Division. He is a founding member of the Architectural Engineering Institute and served as Editor of the Journal of Architectural Engineering for a number of years. Kevin has followed CROSS since its inception in the UK and has advocated for it in industry and amongst his students.

John G. Tawresey, is recognized as a structural masonry and risk management pioneer. Tawresey is a forerunner in the research, testing and development of new building exterior wall systems including panelized reinforced brick masonry; brick veneer/steel stud, thin-stone and aluminum/glass walls. He was one of the drivers behind the formation of The Masonry Society (TMS) in the late 1970s and has served in numerous positions since its inception including president. He has been teaching a structural masonry course at the University of Washington since 1984. More than any other structural engineering leader, Tawresey served to help structural engineers manage risk.

He led the Structural Engineers Risk Management Council (SERMC) where he participated in numerous activities including president and he was one of the drivers behind the formation of ASCE’s Structural Engineering Institute (SEI) where he served as president from 2001 to 2003. Currently, he is the force behind the ASCE Committee on Claims Reduction and Management, which initiates educational sessions as well as other activities where structural engineers can share their professional negligence claims experiences.

Tawresey’s career includes 40 years of achievement at KPFF Consulting Engineers as their CFO. Under Tawresey’s unique business leadership, which emphasized that the purpose of the business was to support the practice of engineering (the Supportive Business Organization) KPFF grew from 50 to 950 people.

Tawresey is an honorary member of The Masonry Society where he twice received the President’s Award and Haller Award. He was named Professional Engineer of the Year by the Washington Society of Professional Engineers in 2011, and received ASCE’s SEI Dennis Tewksbury Award and in 2017 was recognized as a Distinguished Member of ASCE.