Question:

Please provide a short biography (No more than 250 words) for each presenter.
Include bio(s) here for co-presenter(s).

Brandon Miller has been part of the WithersRavenel stormwater group for 11 years. During his tenure he has had the opportunity to work on a wide range of projects including residential subdivisions, commercial properties, public infrastructure master plans, and flood studies. In recent years he has worked closely with landscape architects and communities to incorporate SCMs into active use spaces for public benefit.

Mark is Duke Energy's Energy and Environmental Affairs Director in North Carolina. In this capacity he represents the company on key issues like offshore wind, nuclear power, water infrastructure challenges, and emergency preparedness.

Travis Crayton, AICP, is the Vice President of Planning and Public Policy for the Research Triangle Foundation of North Carolina. In his role, Travis oversees all long- and short-range planning activities and processes that touch Research Triangle Park (RTP). His work includes closely coordinating with RTP’s local and state government partners in Durham and Wake counties.

Prior to joining RTF in August 2021, Travis worked as a transportation planner for the U.S. Department of Transportation in Cambridge, MA, where he managed and supported transportation planning and research projects for a variety of federal agencies across the United States.

Travis earned his Master of City and Regional Planning, Master of Public Administration, and Bachelor of Arts degrees from UNC-Chapel Hill.

Natalie Gorensek is an Engineer II in the Division of Water Resources Municipal Permitting Branch. She serves as a Pretreatment Coordinator, assisting the regional offices and municipalities to achieve the objectives of the Pretreatment Program. Natalie previously worked as an Environmental Health and Safety professional and a Continuous Improvement engineer in the electrical protection, commodity chemical, and food manufacturing industries in Moore, Richmond, and Robeson counties. She is a graduate of NC State University with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering.

Karen Preston joined NCDEQ in 2024 as the Municipal Permitting Unit Supervisor. After graduating from East Carolina University with a degree in Environmental Geology, she gained over 10 years of experience in the water, wastewater and pretreatment industry while working for several local municipalities in North Carolina. Currently, Karen is responsible for Municipal NPDES permitting, Collection System permitting and NCDEQ’s Central Office Pretreatment Unit.

Matthew B. Barragan, P.E., is a Construction Services Project Manager and licensed Professional Engineer with S&ME, Inc., based in Raleigh, North Carolina. He specializes in geotechnical engineering, construction materials testing (CMT), special inspections (SI), and nondestructive testing (NDT) for complex commercial, industrial, and institutional projects across North Carolina.

A recent student of the PENC Leadership Institute, Matt focuses on bridging the gap between design intent and field execution - leveraging data, field experience, and emerging technology to drive better infrastructure performance and project delivery. With a passion for people development and operational excellence, he also helps mentor early-career staff and leads internal initiatives to improve team communication, process efficiency, and leadership accountability.

Erin: Erin brings a unique blend of no-BS honesty and an empathetic teaching approach to her coaching and consulting. With experience as a middle school teacher and a professional engineer, Erin has led teams in various environments, including the office, the field, and even nightshifts with wastewater manholes and coyotes. She has worked with cities, towns, nonprofits, and corporate teams, focusing on team development, facilitations, and customized coaching. Erin is a licensed Professional Engineer and certified Wastewater Operator.
Kevin: Kevin is a water/wastewater engineer with 19 years of experience. His experience includes being a consulting engineer for municipalities as well as working as an engineer at a municipality. Kevin currently serves as the Deputy Director of Water Resources for the City of Concord, NC, which provides water, wastewater and stormwater services to over 115,000 people. He is passionate about growing, mentoring and creating leaders that can take the organization to the next level.

Kevin Han is CTO and co-founder of PowerN and Distinguished Associate Professor at
North Carolina State University. He has led several major research projects sponsored by the Department of Energy to help reduce nuclear power plant construction costs and schedules through advances in robotics, visual data analytics, and construction engineering. He is a recipient of 2024 Daniel Halpin Award for Scholarship in Construction by the American Society of Civil Engineering (ASCE).

To be provided in the future

Josh Deyton, PE is the Division Construction Engineer for NCDOT's Division 14 and is the owner's representative for the I-40 Pigeon River reconstruction project. With 25 years of experience, he manages 6 Resident Engineer Offices that administer NCDOT contracts, 3 District Engineer Offices, Division Right of Way Unit, and Division Utility Unit. He has been involved in 100s of transportation projects including CMGC, Design Build, and Design-Bid-Build.

Greg Goins, PE is the Director for RK&K’s Southeast Geotechnical Group and is the contract manager for the design of the I-40 Pigeon River reconstruction project. With 25 years of experience, he leads a team of over 20 geologists and engineers in a variety of small- and large-scale bid-build and design-build transportation projects in NC, TN, SC, and FL. His career has included management, subsurface exploration, and engineering design for projects that characterize subsurface conditions and provide geotechnical engineering recommendations for roadways, retaining walls, buildings, bridges, railways, pavement, and stormwater management facilities.


Matthew Cook, PE is the Director of Water Resources in the Raleigh RK&K office and heads the hydraulic design efforts for the I-40 Pigeon River reconstruction project. With 27 years of experience and in addition to leading a water resources team of approximately 20 people, he has experience in leading large scale NCDOT, SCDOT, and TDOT transportation projects including interstate widening and new location work, layout and modeling for major hydraulic conveyances, linear drainage, erosion prevention and control, environmental compliance and permitting, and scheduling. He has modeled dozens of bridges and culverts across NC while coordinating with all environmental agencies and stakeholders. He has worked on multiple design delivery methods including P3, CMGC, design-bid-build, and over 50 design-build projects.



Mimi Sweitzer, PE, is a Project Delivery Leader in RK&K's Raleigh, NC office and has 14 years of experience as a geotechnical engineer. As the geotechnical project manager for the I-40 Pigeon River reconstruction project, she has directed the subsurface explorations and is coordinating the geotechnical design efforts. Her project experience includes Triangle Expressway (NC 540) Southeast Extension, I-40 Widening in Raleigh, US 321 Widening in Hickory, and various roadway, bridge, and retaining wall projects throughout NC, SC, and TN.

Benjamin Cauthen, P.E., serves as a Project Manager for Cavanaugh & Associates, P.A. Ben began his career with Cavanaugh as a Bioenergy Project Engineer in 2018 after graduating from NC State University with a B.S. in Biological and Agricultural Engineering. Ben is a strong advocate for practices that recover organic materials for beneficial reuse and for restoring healthy soil across farms in North Carolina. Ben is a founding member and the current Chair for the North Carolina Soil Health Coalition, which is a non-profit organization providing farmer-to-farmer education and resources to regenerate healthy soils and farm profitability. Ben has been responsible for engineering design, permitting, procurement, construction management, and commissioning of animal waste-to-energy projects across hog and dairy farms. Ben has consulted for clients on renewable natural gas projects across the U.S. to improve upon existing operations. Most recently, Ben has been focused on the intersection of organic waste recovery, renewable natural gas production, and on-farm nutrient management.

Jeff Roman is a Principal and the Director of Engineering for Progressive Companies. He is responsible for leading, growing, and mentoring engineers and leaders. Jeff also leads business development and reputation building efforts in the Carolinas. He advocates for integrated and collaborative design teams, building trusted partnerships across disciplines, and championing a culture purpose.

Jeff has been recognized as Engineer of the Year in both North Carolina and Florida for his sustained efforts in STEM Outreach to students of all ages. He’s been Top 40 Under Forty for multiple publications. He’s spoken at annual conferences for NSPE and PSMJ as well as PENC, and he’s been published in PE Magazine and Fortune. Jeff is the previous owner of 2 small businesses. He earned his Bachelors in Civil Engineering from Lawrence Tech and an Executive MBA from the University of Florida.

Jeff and his wife have two boys and reside in Charlotte. He is an active leader in Boy Scouts and has sat on numerous boards and committees for community and education organizations.

Tim Gubitz, PE has over 15 years of experience in the utility industry including generation, transmission, and distribution design. The past three years he has worked with NC's Electric Cooperatives and leads a team of PM's and Engineers that help design, build, and maintain NCEMC's DERs.

Mark Denton has over 8 years of automation experience in industrial applications. He is bringing this experience to bear to help NC's Electric Cooperatives improve the operation of its portfolio of generation assets which include conventional generation and DER.

Jinxin Yi is a Director in the Applied AI and Modeling Division at SAS, where he leads teams of data scientists in developing analytical models for business applications. He holds a Ph.D. in Operations Research from Carnegie Mellon University.

Chuck Howard has been in the metal building/metal roofing industry for over 52 years. In the early 1980's he began to center his work in the metal roofing industry. For the next 30 years he owned and operated a metal roofing business covering multiple states and into Canada. From the early 2000's he has owned Metal Roof Consultants, located in Cary, NC. He graduated from The Ohio State University in 1973 and received his PE credentials in 1978. He is licensed in eight (8) states, including NC. He has provided numerous seminars for PENC as well as others over the US and also authored several articles concerning metal roofing.

Santiago Aguilar: Santiago is the head of bridge structures in the Raleigh office. He has over 18 years of experience in the design of transportation and highway structures and is a registered professional engineer in several states. He has 3 kids: (Francesca (11), Julien (8) and Isabella (5)) and wife Anna. Santiago enjoys biking and hiking with his family. Santiago is currently learning how to play pickle ball and really enjoying the sport.

Peter Shaw: Peter is a structural engineer from Philadelphia with 9 years of experience in design and inspection of transportation structures. Peter is a Registered Professional Engineer in North Carolina and Delaware. Peter enjoys mountain biking, sports and golfing.

Presenter: Michael W. Johnson, PE
Michael Johnson received his BS in Civil Engineering from North Carolina State University and is a registered Professional Engineer in North Carolina. He worked as a consulting engineer for 5 years, and as a sales manager in the water, wastewater and civil infrastructure markets for approximately 17 years. Mike is currently the Southeast Sales Manager for CP&P Engineered Products.

Steven is a veteran Electrical Power Engineer with more than 27 years in the practice. He has been an early adopter and implementer or technology in Engineering ever since he got his first TI-85 calculator. He is licensed in 9 states and has presented to this group on numerous topics across the last 20 years. When not fretting about the perils of Artificial Intelligence, Steven serves as the Senior Vice President of Asplundh Engineering Services, designing and building the electrical infrastructure for utilities, municipalities, and countless data centers to power the AI revolution.

Patrick Gallagher is a Senior Bridge Engineer with WSP, in Raleigh North Carolina. He has a diverse set of experiences with bridge engineering, including bridge inspection, concrete and steel bridge design, and steel truss load rating and repair. He’s even spent a few years early in his career designing buildings.

Patrick came to North Carolina in 2015, bringing with him 12 years of experience working for the Washington State Department of Transportation. His presentation today will focus on his experience load rating long span steel trusses, specifically one significant in his personal and professional journey.

He’s been a regular speaker at PENC events.

Kevin Moluf is a licensed Professional Civil Engineer in North Carolina with over five years of experience in water resource planning, management, and conservation. He currently serves as the Water & Sewer Engineer for Facilities Management at UNC Charlotte, where he is responsible for the hydraulic models and utility data for the campus's water distribution, reclaimed water, and sanitary sewer collection systems. In this capacity, he acts as an owner's engineer, bridging the gap between design teams and university stakeholders to ensure system-wide integrity for all capital projects. His current work includes migrating utility GIS records to ESRI’s Utility Network data model and adopting ASCE standards 38-22 and 75-22 into the university’s as-built record-keeping practices.

Prior to this role, Kevin honed his expertise in water utility management by administering the water conservation program for Union County, NC, where he conducted AWWA-based water loss audits. A graduate of Kansas State University with a B.S. in Civil Engineering, he is currently expanding his credentials with a graduate certificate in GIS & Technology and a Master of Public Administration at UNC Charlotte, in addition to having completed the ASCE certificate in GIS and Asset Management.

Paul Barbieri, P.E. BIO

Paul Barbieri is a licensed Professional Civil Engineer with over forty years of experience in both industrial and commercial design settings, including 25 years in the power industry. His background includes structural design and analysis, failure analysis, structural rehabilitation, waterproofing and roofing.

He has a wide variety of successful projects including power generation and transmission, industrial facilities, pump stations, marinas, commercial and institutional buildings. He graduated with Honors from Clarkson University in 1978. During his career he has watched engineering transformation from pen and mylar to AutoCAD and Revit; from slide rule to BIM and from punch cards to laptops. Side interests include serving as a volunteer spokesperson advocating nuclear power as well.

Mr. Barbieri’s current role is with Siemens Energy, Inc. providing civil engineering design and project management for the expanding smart grid technology sector of today’s power distribution systems.

Adolfo Ochoa Vargas BIO

Adolfo Ochoa Vargas is a Principal Electrical Engineer with 30 years of experience in varied projects across three continents. He holds a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering from Universidad Nacional Autonoma of Mexico, as well as a master’s degree in administration. His varied background includes work for oil platforms, industrial plants and high voltage systems. Mr. Ochoa’s current role with Siemens Energy, Inc. provides vital engineering and project management for Siemens Energy’s growing High Voltage business group. This work includes proposal development through complete project execution. He has been the lead electrical engineer on numerous infrastructure projects across the United States, including the largest high voltage substation projects in the country.

Ashish Garg, P.E. BIO
Ashish Garg is a licensed structural engineer with over 20 years of experience in the energy sector. He earned his Bachelor of Engineering from the University of Delhi, India (2001 - 2005). Fresh out of college, Ashish began his career with Siemens Energy in India in 2005 and relocated to the USA in 2014.
His technical expertise encompasses planning, design, review and approval, and site execution, spanning the entire project lifecycle from proposal to commissioning across various power plants, substations, and synchronous condenser projects. Working with Siemens Energy has afforded him the opportunity to contribute to projects worldwide. He is well-versed in numerous international design codes, including US codes, DIN, Euro, Indian, Mexican, Peruvian, Chilean, Canadian, BS, Philippines, and Australian codes.
In addition to his technical skills, Ashish has significant project management experience, which includes mentoring, managing people and resources, scheduling, conducting quality audits, developing and improving processes, qualifying and developing vendors/contractors, managing claims and changes, and performing root cause analysis.

John and Vivian are principals with Value Based Design, llc, a boutique firm specializing in Value Management (VA/VE) workshops, providing tools, and methods that focus on identifying and delivering real value in projects and products through the lens of function analysis.

John has extensive experience in new product development & manufacture, equipment design & build, facility design & renovation, environmental, and transportation issues. Trained in the highly competitive arena of consumer product development, he has worked in various product design, marketing, and manufacturing positions for Fortune 500 firms, achieving results focused on innovation for 40+ years.
Vivian has been facilitating value workshops for 20+ years with experience in vertical construction, transportation, water/wastewater, environmental, and new product development.

Gary E. Kilpatrick, PE, NSPE, NAFE, Diplomat Forensic Engineer: I have 20+ years of industrial work experience in machine design and automotive manufacturing and processing. I was employed by The Clark Equipment Company who invented the Forklift and Frontend Loader. I worked in manufacturing of drive train components for the Telescopic Boom Crane Swing Cab as well as forklifts as well. I am a certified crane operator for the (1) Telescopic Boom Fixed Cab (TSS) also known as a Boom Truck or Neck Breaker; (2) Telescopic Boom Swing Cab crane (TLL) which includes two crane designs namely the Rough Terrain that has only two driver steer axles and the All-Terrain crane which can have up to eight drive steer axles; (3) Lattice Boom Crawler crane.

Mandy Hampton Cansler is a national ophthalmic consultant, keynote speaker, and thought leader. With more than two decades of experience in healthcare leadership, she rose from an entry-level role to Chief Clinical Officer of a multi-location ophthalmology practice, Mandy’s career is proof that resilience, vision, and vulnerability can transform both leaders and organizations.

Alongside her consulting and keynote speaking, Mandy is the author of the upcoming memoir Not Enough…Until I Was, which explores adoption trauma, overachievement, burnout, and healing. Her story highlights the question that shadowed much of her journey—“Am I really enough?”—and how embracing emotional intelligence and wholeness became the key to authentic leadership.

As a keynote speaker, Mandy delivers signature talks including From Imposter to Influencer, empowering leaders at every level to move beyond feelings of inadequacy and step into clarity and confidence. Her message resonates deeply with healthcare professionals, emerging leaders, and anyone navigating the tension between external success and internal self-worth.

Passionate about helping others feel seen, heard, and valued, Mandy blends humor, raw honesty, and practical strategies to equip audiences with tools for growth and resilience. Whether consulting with healthcare practices, mentoring leaders, or speaking on stage, her focus is the same: to help others lead from wholeness rather than hustle.

Dr. Jenna Carpenter is Founding Dean and Professor of Engineering at Campbell University and President of the Mathematical Association of America. A national thought leader in STEM education and expert on workforce development and student success, she is Past President and Fellow of the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE), an 2023 ASEE Hall of Fame Inductee and sits on ABET’s Engineering Accreditation Commission. She is also a Past President of WEPAN, the Women in Engineering ProActive Network. She has received the 2023 ABET Claire Felbinger Award, 2019 ASEE Sharon Keillor Award for Women in Engineering Education, and was a co-recipient of the 2022 National Academy of Engineering Bernard M. Gordon Prize for Innovation in Engineering and Engineering Technology Education for her role as a co-founder of the Grand Challenges Scholars Program. She also received both the 2013 WEPAN Distinguished Service Award and the 2018 WEPAN Founder’s Award. She has served on both the Executive Committee for the Global Engineering Deans Council and the US Engineering Dean’s Council. In 2024, she was a presidential appointee to the US President’s National Infrastructure Advisory Council Subcommittee on Expanding the Workforce. She served on the ASCE Task Committee on Transforming the Workforce. She is a member of NSPE and PENC, along with IEEE and ASME.

Christopher K. Horne, PE is a Teaching Assistant Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering at North Carolina A&T State University and the principal engineer of eMuWave, PLLC. He brings more than twenty-five years of engineering experience spanning building residential and commercial construction, RF systems, and engineering education.

In his academic role, he teaches courses in electric circuits, problem solving, and artificial intelligence in engineering. His scholarship focuses on innovative teaching methods, including the use of real-world analogies and generative AI to enhance student learning. He has published and presented at national and international conferences, including ASEE, IEEE EDUCON, and the SoTL Summit.

Through his consulting practice, eMuWave, PLLC, he provides structural, electrical, and MEP design services to general contractors and design firms across North Carolina and beyond. His portfolio includes structural assessments of retaining walls and foundations, high voltage electrical system design, HVAC and fire alarm design, and antenna modeling projects for wireless systems.

Professor Horne also serves as the IEEE Student Branch Advisor, a Faculty Fellow with the Defense Civilian Training Corps, and a board member of the North Carolina Board of Examiners of Electrical Contractors. His professional interests lie at the intersection of engineering practice, education, and leadership, with a passion for mentoring the next generation of engineers.