MEPP Faculty Biographies

Jake Blanchard, PhD, is a professor in the Engineering Physics Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He holds a BS in mechanical engineering, an MS in engineering, and a PhD in nuclear engineering, all from UCLA. He has published more than 75 articles in refereed journals in several engineering fields, including fusion technology, solid mechanics, materials, and applied physics. Dr. Blanchard received the prestigious UW Distinguished Teaching Award in 2002.
Darryl Craig bio Darryl L. Craig, PhD, is professor emeritus in the School of Business, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He specializes in financial and managerial accounting, taxation, accounting information systems and classroom automation. Previously he taught in the School of Business at the Pennsylvania State University and was chief financial officer and treasurer of INTERx Research Corporation, a pharmaceutical research and development corporation. Dr. Craig earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and his MBA and PhD degrees from the University of Kansas with a major in accounting and minors in operations research and computer systems.
Patrick Eagan bio Patrick Eagan, PhD, is an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Department of Engineering Professional Development and the Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies. He develops and offers continuing environmental engineering education to practicing professionals. Dr. Eagan has been actively involved internationally in the development of design-for-the-environment tools and has worked with many companies tailoring educational programs on the emerging topics of environmental awareness, life-cycle management/design-for-the-environment, environmental management systems, and environmental purchasing. Dr. Eagan recognizes the value of quality concepts and has focused on merging environmental perspectives with quality education programs (e.g. design-for-excellence or six sigma). In addition to his research in industrial ecology, his outreach courses include a range of topics including wastewater and stormwater treatment and restoration of water resources.
Bruce Elbert bio Bruce Elbert, MSEE, MBA, is president of Application Technology Strategy, Inc., a communications consulting firm that assists private and public sector organizations, and adjunct assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His fields of expertise include telecommunications, information technology, satellite and aerospace systems, and data communications. From 1980 to 1999 Mr. Elbert held various technical management positions in the Hughes Electronics Corporation. He has extensive experience in communications systems and has led engineering and business teams that created new data communications capabilities. Author of seven books on telecommunications and data communications topics, he has been an instructor at UCLA Extension since 1990. He has an MBA degree from Pepperdine University, an MSEE degree from the University of Maryland, and a BEE degree from City College of New York.
Conrad Fung bio Conrad Fung, PhD, is adjunct assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a statistician in private practice in the Milwaukee area. From 1981 to 1984 he was a statistician at the DuPont Company, implementing modern quality control at DuPont's manufacturing plants in Europe and in the US. During 1987-92 he held joint appointments at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the Department of Industrial Engineering and the Center for Quality and Productivity Improvement. He was an officer of the American Society for Quality for four years, retiring from the chairmanship of the Statistics Division in 1992. He presently consults for companies across the US in a wide variety of industries. He has a PhD degree in statistics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Don Hanna bio Don Hanna, PhD, is professor of educational communications, University of Wisconsin- Extension. Don has written extensively in the fields of distance learning, leadership, technology, and organizational change in higher education, and he regularly consults on these topics with educational organizations nationally and internationally. He is an experienced online educator, and frequently is a keynote speaker at online learning conferences. He has been both an administrator and teacher at four land-grant universities and has helped to lead major institution-wide change efforts related to technology and distance learning. He received his PhD from Michigan State University in 1978 and his AB degree from the University of Kansas in 1969.
Traci Kelly bio Traci Kelly, PhD, earned her PhD in 1997 in English. At that time, she was also the program director for the Scientific and Technical Communication BS degree at the University of Minnesota, Crookston. She came to the University of Wisconsin–Madison to teach in the College of Engineering’s Technical Communication program in 2000, where she teaches technical communication, technical editing, Web design, writing user manuals and other topics. Active in the Society for Technical Communication as Senior Member, she is the manager for International Technical Communication, part of the Committee on Global Strategies, and judges at the international level for the publications contests for scholarly journals, scholarly articles, and information materials. She regularly holds workshops for practicing engineers on how to improve their technical presentations, and she is a review coordinator for the journal Technical Communication.
Christine Grohowski Nicometo bio Christine G. Nicometo, MS, has taught technical communication courses for undergraduate and graduate students at the UW-Madison campus since 2003. She received her master of science degree in rhetoric and technical communication from Michigan Technological University, where she taught technical communication and English as a second language (ESL) courses. She also taught ESL courses at Finlandia University where she was the director of a federal, TRIO, Students Support Services grant. Her interests lie in discovering how technology alters the ways we communicate, learn, and teach. She has directed nationally funded K-12 technology workshops and is currently the director of the New Educator's Orientation workshop in the College of Engineering at UW-Madison.
Paul Ross bio Paul Ross, MA, teaches University of Wisconsin-Madison campus courses in technical communication for advanced undergraduates and for graduate students in science, technology, and engineering. He also directs the university's Technical Communication Internship program. A member of the Technical Communication Program at UW-Madison since 1991, he has taught at Northern Illinois University, Texas A&M University and several community colleges. He is committed to continued cooperation between the university and business and industry and has worked with Texas Instruments and the Sundstrand (now Hamilton Sundstrand) Aviation Advanced Technology Group as a documentation specialist. He is active in STC and ASEE.
Jeffrey Russell bio Jeffrey S. Russell, PhD, PE, is professor and chair in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and a co-founder of the Construction Engineering and Management program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has a BS degree in civil engineering from the University of Cincinnati, has MS and PhD degrees from Purdue University, and is a registered professional engineer in Wisconsin. Recipient of more than 11 national and regional awards and four best paper awards for his research, Dr. Russell has published nearly 200 technical papers on construction topics and two books, Constructor Prequalification (1996) and Surety Bonds for Construction Contracts (2000), with a third book on the design for constructability and maintainability in progress. He served as editor-in-chief of the ASCE Journal of Management in Engineering (1995-2000) and as founding editor-in-chief of the ASCE publication Leadership and Management in Engineering (2000-2003). He is presently Chair of the ASCE Committee on Academic Prerequisites for Professional Practice, which is charged with defining the future education requirements necessary to practice civil engineering at the professional level.
Don Schramm bio Don R. Schramm, MS, RA, is a faculty associate with the Department of Engineering Professional Development at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has responsibilities for courses in building energy systems, creativity, disaster management, workplace design and distance learning. A registered architect in Wisconsin, he holds an architectural degree from the University of Illinois-Urbana and an MS from UW-Madison. He has been in private practice and taught for a year as a Fulbright professor at universities in Bogotá and Calí, Colombia. He has worked in professional education for two decades throughout the United States and has lived and worked in 40 countries in Latin America, Africa, Asia and Europe. He directs the University of Wisconsin-Disaster Management Center (UW-DMC), a provider of international distance learning programs since 1985.
Tom Smith bio Thomas W. Smith, MS, is director of telecommunications programming in the Department of Engineering Professional Development, University of Wisconsin-Madison. He currently directs a series of short courses in telecommunications and distance education. He has been instrumental in the development of the university's audiographic teleconferencing and satellite communications capabilities. For this work he received the UW-Extension Award for Excellence and national awards from Telecom and ASEE. He has written more than 40 papers and articles on telecommunications and distance education and is a frequent speaker on this topic in the United States and Europe. He received his BS degree from Dartmouth College and MS degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Harry Steudel bio Harold J. Steudel, PhD, PE, is the Emerson Electric Professor in Total Quality in the Department of Industrial Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Active in teaching and research in quality and productivity improvement and integrated management systems, he serves as the convener of the Quality Engineering group. Dr. Steudel draws upon more than 30 years of experience in designing and implementing leading-edge techniques for improving the control and productivity of organizations' quality, environmental and manufacturing systems. He has developed assessment tools, training courses and other management system elements for Malcolm Baldrige, ISO 9001, QS 9000, ISO/TS 16949 and ISO 14001 quality guidelines and standards. He has also served as a certified quality system lead auditor under the Registrar Accreditation Board (RAB), and as a senior examiner for the Wisconsin Forward Award to recognize world-class excellence. Dr. Steudel has published more than 60 papers and is author of the book, Manufacturing in the Nineties: How to Become a Mean, Lean, World-class Competitor.
John Stremikis bio John Stremikis, MS, is a consultant for the Department of Information Systems, University of Wisconsin-Extension, and for UW-Madison Department of Engineering Professional Development. He is currently the primary technical support person for the MEPP program and has been a key contributor in the development of the MEPP learning platform. John holds a "distinguished" title or prefix, awarded in 1994 to recognize exemplary professional quality, performance and growth, as well as for his service, teaching, consulting and volunteer activities in the international, national, state and local community. He received his BS and MS degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and has been working with professional development and learning systems throughout his careers, first in atmospheric, hydrologic and space sciences; with children and their teachers; and more recently in engineering professional development.
Wayne Pferdehirt bio MEPP Program Director and Distance Degrees Director
Wayne P. Pferdehirt, MS, PE, AICP, is the director of the MEPP program and director of distance degree programs for the College of Engineering. Wayne oversees the development and delivery of MEPP courses and ensures that the program meets the needs of current and prospective students. Wayne also co-teaches the Technical Project Management course. Prior to joining UW-Madison, Wayne directed the Midwest solid waste consulting services of an international environmental consulting firm and led energy conservation research projects for Argonne National Laboratory. He has a BS in engineering from Carnegie-Mellon University and an MS in civil engineering with an emphasis in regional planning from Northwestern University. Wayne is a licensed professional engineer and a nationally certified professional planner.
Karen Al-Ashkar bio MEPP Student Services Director
Karen Al-Ashkar, PhD, is the student services director for the MEPP program. One of her roles is to listen to student concerns and issues and seeks resolution when concerns conflict with academic performance. She chairs the MEPP Admissions Committee and is the point-of-contact person for applicants and students. Karen has been counseling adult students since 1991 and working with students at a distance since 1994. She has a BA in clinical chemistry, an MA in counseling and a PhD in Continuing and Vocational Education.
Phil O'Leary bio EPD Department Chair
Philip R. O'Leary, PhD, PE, is chair of the Department of Engineering Professional Development, University of Wisconsin-Madison. In addition he conducts professional development courses in the areas of solid waste management, hazardous waste control, groundwater quality protection and related environmental topics. Prior to joining the university, he worked for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources where he developed guidelines and issued permits for industrial pollution control systems, land application of effluent systems, and the application of sludge on agricultural land. Dr. O'Leary earned BS and MS degrees in agricultural engineering and a PhD in land resources with a specialization in energy and environmental issues, all from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Bill Long bio MEPP Program Committee
Willis F. Long, PhD, is professor emeritus in the Departments of Engineering Professional Development and Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. With BS and MS degrees from the University of Toledo and a PhD from UW-Madison, Professor Long worked at Hughes Aircraft Research Laboratories and elsewhere before joining the university. Professor Long's principal research interests are power electronic applications in electric utility systems, for which he serves as a consultant to the US Department of Energy and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He has been cited by the university for excellence in the development of distance learning education programs and by IEEE for meritorious achievement in continuing education.