PPI Instructors
Any educational program is only as good as the people who construct and deliver it. We have assembled the most effective, well-respected, and competent team of professional writers and instructors to create and deliver PPI, a Kaplan Company's content and instruction.
Anna Sawicka (Anka), Architect is a Job Captain at a New York Architectural firm. She immigrated to the US at age of sixteen and encountered her first task of navigating a high school labyrinth of corridors and, of course, an unfamiliar education system.
Arthur Chianello, PE is a licensed professional engineer in both Mechanical Engineering and Civil Engineering. He has a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering and a Masters degree in Civil Engineering. His current position is the Water Resources Manager for a large City in California with a population of over 380,000 people.
Ben Hamlett, PE started working with electronics when he was in Junior High, working at a local small company, repairing multi-meters and making electronic trainers. Ben received both his Bachelor's and Master's in Electrical Engineering from the University of Idaho and is a Professional Engineer in Idaho.
Bernard Bahaya, Ph.D., PE holds a doctorate from the University of Toledo (2019), a master's degree from the University of Texas at San Antonio (2014) and a bachelor's degree from Makerere University, Kampala in Uganda (2012). He works as a Hydrology and hydraulics modeler Engineer Intern at the Lucas County Engineer's office
Bhaven Naik, PhD., is a registered professional engineer (Nebraska & Ohio), professional traffic operations engineer (PTOE), and registered road safety professional (RSP). Bhaven is a Civil Engineering faculty at Ohio University where his focus is in transportation/traffic engineering. He teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in the fields of Civil, Transportation, and Construction Engineering and Management.
Brian McSweeney, PE, SE is a licensed professional engineer currently practicing at a multidisciplinary firm, TLC Engineering, in the Orlando, Florida area and is an active member of ASCE. The first eleven years of his career were spent in the Washington, DC area at structural-focused consulting engineering firms.
David Micnhimer, PE, SE is a licensed professional engineer in California, Virginia, and North Carolina. He has known that he wanted to be a structural engineer since elementary school. The past few years, he has worked at a steel bridge manufacturing company, designing over 150 different bridges, including trusses, modular bridges, and buried structures.
Douglas Bowman, MSEE, PE is the Lead Engineer in R&D and Special Studies group at Southwest Power Pool in Little Rock, Arkansas. His area of expertise is in power system modeling, reliability planning studies, and grid stability analysis, as well as development and delivery of engineering courses for graduate engineers.
Elena Badilla, PE, MCE earned a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from California State University–Northridge (CSUN) and a Master of Civil Engineering from Norwich University. She currently works as a survey engineer on a 10-mile segmental bridge project in Hawai’i.
Emanuel Machado, AIA is a Senior Project Architect with 20 plus years of experience in the Architecture & Planning Industry. His building type expertise ranges from Historic Renovations to Healthcare Facilities.
Upon graduation with a BSEE from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, Dr. Kim accepted a position as a contract Electrical Engineer at the Naval Ocean Systems Center at the Kaneohe Marine Corps Air Station in Hawaii.
Foad Alvandi, MSEE, PE has taught engineering courses since the early 1990's, including a 10 year period of full time tenure track teaching at a private engineering school from 1997 to 2006. Most recently he has developed and taught a graduate level course in power systems engineering at the Johns Hopkins School of Engineering.
Gregg Wagener, MS, PE has taught several Electrical PE exam and FE exam review courses for PPI. Gregg has also worked for PPI on several writing and technical review projects for PE exam and FE exam products. Gregg has served as an electrical engineering and fundamentals advisor for PPI's online discussion forums. Gregg is a licensed electrical engineer in California.
Guy Graening, PE has a Bachelor’s degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Stanford University and started his engineering career at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio as an Air Force officer conducting research and development on advanced windshields for fighter aircraft. He then obtained a Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from University of Dayton with a focus on structural finite element analysis.
Heather Potts, AIA is a licensed architect practicing in Atlanta, Georgia. She is also a studio instructor in the School of Architecture at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where she earned her Master of Architecture. She completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Georgia’s Interior Design program in the Lamar Dodd School of Art, where she has since taught courses in drafting, rendering, and Building Information Modeling.
Hossein Ataei is a Civil Engineering faculty at University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) where he is also the Director of Undergraduate Studies. He teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in the fields of Civil, Structural and Construction Engineering, and oversees the Construction Engineering and Management program.
Jake Dunn has always had a passion for engineering. From shake table science fair projects in elementary school to receiving a Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Utah, engineering has always been an integral part of Jake’s life.
James A. Mirabile, PE obtained his BSEE from Drexel University and a master’s degree in Administrative Science from the Johns Hopkins University. He is a registered Professional Engineer in the state of Maryland. In his many years with Baltimore Gas and Electric Company, Mr. Mirabile has held various technical and leadership positions.
James Shimalla, PE, or Jimmy, is currently a general superintendent for Kiewit Infrastructure on the Verrazzano Bridge in New York City. In his 9 years with Kiewit, he has also managed construction on the Willis Avenue swing bridge replacement and the raising of the Bayonne Bridge in NYC.
Jerry Maffia, DE, MBA is a professor of chemical engineering at Manhattan College. After 20 years as a process engineer and manager in the petrochemicals industry, Jerry joined Widener University in the fall of 1992 as Chairman of the Department of Chemical Engineering. Prof. Maffia has broad research interests in environmental, energy and biotechnology areas.
Jeyoung Woo, Ph.D, PE, PMP is an assistant professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Cal Poly Pomona) and a registered Professional Engineer (Civil - Construction) in Texas. Jeyoung has worked in the industry for nine years as a project manager, a corporate quality manager, and a designer.
Joe Andrada, AIA, NCARB is a Project Architect practicing in Atlanta, Georgia. Growing up playing football, baseball, basketball, and soccer, Joe had his eyes set on being a professional athlete at a young age. Football brought him to the east coast where he was a member of the Columbia University football team, where he set his eyes on a new career path as a sports architect.
Joshua Ogle, PE, SE is ‘The Hipster Engineer’. He is more than your average engineer and tries to find ways to give back to the profession. With his passion for engineering, Josh started TheHipsterEngineer.com to be a resource for engineers as they prepare for their licensure exams, job search and career growth.
Justin Francisco, AIA, MBA, is a Tenant Coordinator Project Manager with one of Hawaii’s oldest companies as well as the largest grocery and drug-anchored retail operator. He manages all new tenant projects from design through construction by retaining and managing AEC professionals.
Kenneth Wasserman, PE is a Project Manager within the Rail / Transit practice within HNTB Corporation located in New York City. Before joining HNTB, Mr. Wasserman was working as a Deputy Project Manager for a 36 kM Light Rail Transit expansion project in Ottawa, Ontario for STV Inc.
Dr. Kunal Patel, PhD, PE is an Environmental Engineer working for NJ State. He has 15 years of work experience in programs for water quality, stormwater, floodplain analysis, & teaching. Currently he is working as a project manager for engineering studies in co-ordination with FEMA and multiple engineering firms.
L. Adam Williamson, PE is a registered professional engineer in the states of Connecticut and Georgia with inactive registrations in Pennsylvania and Oklahoma. He is a Senior Process Engineer with Studsvik Inc., where he specializes in thermal oxidation and volume reduction of both nuclear and non-nuclear wastes.
Lauren Sittler, PE is a registered professional engineer in the state of Virginia. She has held positions in product management for Aspen Technology, Inc. and as a process specialist for Carnegie Strategic Design Engineers, LLC. In her process design role, she worked on the construction of natural gas processing facilities. Lauren holds a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.
Mathew Sadoff, PE, NEBB TAB CP, CPMP is a licensed Professional Engineer (PE) in the state of New York. He is a Certified Professional in Testing, Adjusting, & Balancing (TAB CP) with the NEBB organization. Also, he is a certified commissioning agent with ASHRAE as a Commissioning Process Management Professional (CPMP) and Associate Commissioning Professional (ACP) with the BCA.
Mesa Sherriff, M.Arch caught the architecture bug when he was young. Various roles in the construction trades led to an architecture internship, which led to school. Faced with the opportunity for greater specialization, Mesa chose to broaden his focus and completed an undergraduate degree in urban + regional planning with a focus on urban design.
Nebojsa Sebastijanovic, PE, PhD is a registered professional mechanical engineer in the state of California. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from McNeese State University and a Master of Science and Ph.D. degrees in mechanical engineering at University of California, Santa Barbara.
Paul Anderson, MS, PE has tutored and lectured for college level courses in Physics, Thermodynamics, Fluid Dynamics, and Heat Transfer. In graduate school, he was also a Teaching Assistant for upper division mechanical engineering courses in Fluid Dynamics and Heat Transfer.
Quint Robinson, PE obtained his Civil Engineering Bachelor’s degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology and Applied Mathematics Bachelor’s degree from Georgia Southwestern State University. After graduating, he began work with a precast concrete manufacturer as a Project Engineer.
Raymond M. Burynski, Jr., PE holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and an M.S. in Applied Mechanics from Lehigh University. As a graduate student, he performed research related to corrosion fatigue of aerospace aluminum alloys. The results of this work were presented in an ASME publication on structural integrity of aging aircraft.
Richard Austin, PE, SE is a registered Professional Engineer in Arizona, California, Texas, Louisiana, and Hawaii as well as a registered Structural Engineer in California. He graduated from California Polytechnic University Pomona with a bachelor of science degree in Civil Engineering.
Rima Taher, PhD, PE is a Senior University Lecturer at the Hillier College of Architecture & Design, at NJIT, and is a part-time instructor in the graduate program at the NJIT-Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering. She is a licensed professional engineer in New Jersey and practices as a civil/structural engineer with her own consulting firm “Taher Engineering LLC”.
Robin Closs, PE, SE has 15 years of experience as a structural engineer in designing and analyzing anything from pipes to multistory buildings in fields such as commercial, power, government, institutional, nuclear, industrial, and residential. She traveled to Long Island in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy as part of a Code Enforcement Disaster Assistance Response Team.
Samuel Severns, RA grew up wanting to be an inventor but failed to find that degree at the University of Colorado. The next field that caught his eye was architecture and industrial design. His Bachelor of Environmental Design marries architecture, industrial design, and graphic design to make Sam a talented addition to any firm.
Tina Sanghrajka, B. Arch, M.S. (Applied Geography) LEED AP (BD+C) has a passion for architecture and has worked on a variety of projects including Aviation, Commercial, Retail, and Residential for about 8 years both abroad and in the United States. Her interest extends from large scale aviation project planning to retail interior space planning.
Tyrell W. Arment, PE graduated with honors with his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the U.S. Naval Academy and went on to earn his M.S. in Nuclear Science and Engineering from MIT. He is a registered Professional Engineer in the state of Washington.
Will Carlson, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, WELL AP is a licensed architect practicing in Dallas, Texas with three years of experience in the A/E industry. He received his Bachelor of Architecture from the Illinois Institute of Technology in 2017. His education was formed around the legacy of Mies van der Rohe left at IIT’s College of Architecture; finding beauty in the details.
Yasaman Bagheri, AIA,NCARB, LEED AP BD+C is a Project Architect & Medical Planner with 7 plus years of experience in the Architecture & Planning Industry. Yasaman currently works in Washington DC. Yasaman is skilled in Project Management, Architectural Design, Construction Documents and Construction Administration & has successfully managed & orchestrated projects for clients like National Institute of Health, Environmental Protection Agency & Georgetown University.
Rafael Gonzales-Lagos, MS, PE is a seasoned US Army Disabled Veteran, Retired US. Federal Interdisciplinary Engineer, and a Licensed Professional Engineer in NYS with an aggregate professional experienced of over 20 years in the private and public sector.
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