Meet the CROSS-US team

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.

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.

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.

John’s research, teaching and professional expertise includes forensic engineering, structural resiliency, concrete materials, structural mechanics and design, construction vibrations, and structural evaluation after extreme events. As an active participant with the Structural Extreme Events Reconnaissance network (StEER), John has performed investigations into structural performance after Hurricane’s Harvey, Michael, Laura, and Sally.
 
John is an active member of the American Society of Civil Engineers at the local and state level where he currently serves as the Mobile (Alabama) Branch Director. He is very active on the national level with the SEI where he has been a member of SEI Board of Governors, is a past chair of the Local Activities Division, is active in the Student Initiatives Committee where he is a past chair, and has been active on many other committees. 

In his current role as Western U.S. Regional Manager, Craig leads a team of risk engineers specializing in construction professional liability and builders risk insurance assessments, claim reconciliation and claim prevention consulting services for design professionals, contractors, subcontractors and owners.  In his previous role, Craig provided technical guidance and recommendations as a subject matter expert to customers and business partners in support of Zurich’s professional liability book of business.  He was instrumental in the resolution of several highly complex, multi-million dollar customer claims.

Craig recently completed service as an Associate Member of the ASCE 7-22 committee, and also lead an industry task force within the Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute (PCI) Erectors Committee in authoring a PCI Journal article on the problems and associated risks with improper structural grouting of precast concrete load bearing elements.

Currently serving as Chief Resilience Officer for the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and Managing Director of the Structural Engineering Institute (SEI), Jennifer’s reputation for collaboration and consensus building, transparency, and effectiveness makes her a strong advocate and sought-after industry partner to allied organizations, associations, and federal agencies. 

Her experience as a design practitioner at several premier engineering consulting firms, as the editor of Structural Engineer magazine, as well as past Director of Codes, Standards, and Technical Initiatives for the SEI — where her purview included leading the development of ASCE/SEI 7 Minimum Design Loads and Associated Criteria for Buildings and Other Structures for more than a decade — has positioned her well to lead ASCE’s efforts to advance resilience in the built environment. As Managing Director, Jennifer also has purview over ASCE’s Construction Institute, Architectural Engineering Institute, and Infrastructure Resilience Division. 

In addition, Jennifer works tirelessly to advance performance-based design, as well as climate resilient design, sustainability, and carbon reductions. She is passionate about structural engineering education and developing future leaders. A former board member of the National Institute of Building Science’s Building Seismic Safety Council, she serves on many committees — including many at SEI and at the International Code Council. 

Jennifer has written numerous articles, was an author on the Prestandard for Performance Based Wind Design and an editor of the Sustainability Guidelines for the Structural Engineer, and has spoken frequently on the topics of environmental hazards, design standards, and building code development.

Jennifer earned her master’s degree in civil engineering at Cornell University and her bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Virginia Tech. She is a fellow of ASCE and SEI, a member of the Structural Engineer’s Association of Colorado and of Washington and is a licensed professional engineer in Colorado.

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.

Alastair was a founding member and Director of CROSS, and then Structural-Safety, from 2005 to 2021. In 2021, he became a Consultant and a member of the CROSS Technical Board. 

Previously CEO of a consulting firm, he has extensive experience in the design and constuction of major building and structural projects in the UK and internationally. He has had a long interest in safety and forensic engineering, and has a Sir Arnold Walters Medal, a Lewis Kent Award and a President’s Award from the Institution of Structural Engineers. The American Society of Civil Engineers presented him with their Forensic Engineering Award for 2021 and, in the same year, he was made an Honorary Fellow of the Institution of Fire Engineers. 

Author of numerous publications, for many years he was visiting professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Liverpool, and is a Past President of the Smeatonian Society of Civil Engineers.