2024 Board of Directors Nominees

President-Elect Nominee, One-Year Term, followed by President, Two-Year Term

Peter M. Babaian, P.E. S.E., is a Principal and the Building Technology Division Head for the Simpson Gumpertz & Heger Chicago office. He has over 20 years experience designing, investigating, and rehabilitating a variety of building enclosures and structures. Peter’s projects involve exterior enclosure consulting for new construction, rehabilitating existing structures and enclosures, historic preservation, building enclosure commissioning, investigating non-performing building enclosures, and providing expert services related to construction litigation. Peter is an active member in many professional industry groups. He is a former chair of the Technical Activities Committee at The Masonry Society and serves as the Secretary/Treasurer of the Society. He is also on the Board of Directors of the Chicago Building Congress and Landmarks Illinois. Peter holds a Master’s of Science in Civil Engineering from Northwestern University and a Bachelor’s of Science in Civil Engineering from Tufts University. He is a licensed professional engineer in 32 US states, a licensed structural engineer in 2 US states, and a registered professional engineer in British Columbia, Canada. He has served as Chair of the Technical Activities Committee, Secretary/Treasurer, and Vice President of the Society.

Vice President Nominee, Two-Year Term

Jamie L. Davis, P.E., LEED AP, is Principal of Ryan Biggs | Clark Davis Engineering & Surveying, a 50-person consulting firm specializing in structural engineering and land surveying. She manages the Finger Lakes Office in Skaneateles Falls, New York. She provides structural design services of educational facilities, medical buildings, industrial facilities, corporate office buildings, and masonry repair projects. Ms. Davis is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers in which she has served as President of the Mohawk-Hudson Chapter, the American Concrete Institute, the American Institute of Steel Construction, the Mason Contractors Association of America, and The Masonry Society. She is a voting member of TMS Committee 402/602 and serves on the Structural, and Reinforcement and Connectors subcommittees. She is also CD-BIM certified and a member of the BIM-M Committee for TMS, part of the BIM-M Initiative, which is focused on promoting BIM within the masonry industry. Ms. Davis lectures frequently on masonry topics. She has served as Secretary/Treasurer and three terms as an Affiliate/Sustaining Member Representative to the Board of Directors.

Secretary/Treasure Nominee, Two-Year Term

Brian Trimble has over 30 years’ experience in the masonry industry, assisting design professionals in the design of masonry structures. He is a frequent lecturer to local, regional, and national construction industry groups. He has authored many articles and papers on various masonry subjects. Brian started his career with a brick manufacturer and worked at the Brick Industry Association for over 20 years serving in various positions. For the International Masonry Institute he coordinates activities in the Western PA and Western NY areas promoting masonry to a wide variety of audiences including owners, contractor, architects, engineers and craftworkers.

Brian received his engineering education at Penn State University, where he received a Bachelor of Architectural Engineering Degree – Structural Design Option in 1986. He was granted his professional engineer’s license in the state of Virginia and is also registered in the state of Pennsylvania. Brian is actively involved in many organizations including the Construction Specifications Institute (CSI), American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), The Masonry Society (TMS), and the International Brick Collectors Association (IBCA). Brian is a Fellow of ASTM International.

He previously served two terms as an Affiliate/Sustaining Member Representative to the Board of Directors.

Zone 1 Nominee, Two-Year Term

John M. Hochwalt, P.E., S.E., is Director of Engineering for the Seattle structural group of KPFF Consulting Engineers. In that capacity, he provides technical leadership for over one hundred structural engineers. John has practiced structural engineering for over thirty years following his graduation from Cornell University where he received a B.S. in 1987 and an M.Eng in 1988. Prior to joining KPFF in 1998, he worked with RTKL in Baltimore and Barber & Hoffman in Cleveland. In addition to providing engineering services for the design of new buildings and retrofit of existing buildings, John has taught and published widely on topics related to the structural design of masonry. He has authored or edited publications for the Western States Clay Products Association, the Masonry Institute of America, and The Masonry Society. He is the current editor of the Reinforced Masonry Engineering Handbook, originally authored by James Amrhein. Organizations that John has presented to include the National Council of Structural Engineers Associations, the Structural Engineers Association of Washington, the Northwest Concrete Masonry Association, The Masonry Society, and the University of Washington. He has been a member of The Masonry Society since 2013 where he has served in a variety of capacities. He is currently Chair of the subcommittee for Seismic and Limit Design for TMS 402, and is a voting member of the TMS 402/602 Main committee and a corresponding member of the Design Practices Committee. And he recently served as co-author on the new Strength Design Guide of Masonry. He is being nominated to serve a third term as a Director of the Board to represent Zone 1.

Zone 2 Nominee, Two-Year Term

Pamela C Jergenson, FCSI, CCS, CCCA, BECxP, CxA-BE, CABS, has over 35 years in construction with nearly 30 years in investigation, survey, design, construction observation, and construction contract administration of new and existing building enclosure projects; with expertise in exterior walls. She is the BECx Technical Manager and Principal Consultant in the Building and Structure Sciences group at Braun Intertec. Pam is a Certified Construction Specifier (CCS) and Certified Construction Contract Administrator (CCCA) from Construction Specifications Institute (CSI), Building Enclosure Commissioning Process Provider (BECxP) and Accredited Commissioning Authority + Building Enclosure (CxA+BE) from University of Wisconsin-Madison, and ABAA Licensed Field Auditor and Certified Speaker with Air Barrier Assocation of America (ABAA).

Zone 3 Nominee, Two-Year Term

Rachel Will, P.E., is an Associate Principal and Executive Director of Knowledge Sharing with Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc. in Chicago, Illinois. She has over 16 years of experience related to the investigation and repair of existing building facades. She has performed numerous evaluations of historic masonry facades and prepared repair documents along with provided construction period observations for many masonry-clad buildings. She has authored multiple articles and given numerous presentations related to masonry. Ms. Will has been involved in TMS since 2011. She is currently the secretary and voting member of the Existing Masonry Committee and the TMS402/602 Veneer & Glass Block Committee and is a voting member of the following committees: Meetings, Segmental Retaining Wall, TMS402/602 Construction Requirements, and TMS 402/602 Main. She is being nominated to serve a third term as a Zone 3 representative to the Board of Directors.

Zone 4 Nominee, Two-Year Term

Dr. Laura Redmond is an Assistant Professor of Civil and Mechanical Engineering at Clemson University. She received a PhD in masonry testing and finite element modeling from Georgia Institute of Technology and continued to be active in masonry research since she began at Clemson in 2018. She is the editor of The Masonry Society (TMS) Journal and a member of the TMS 402/602 main code committee. Laura has actively advised at least one graduate student with a research focus on structural Masonry design each year since joining Clemson University in 2018. Laura has previously conducted NCMA-funded research as PI on the project, Development of Lambda Factors for Lightweight Grout, and is currently Co-PI on the project, Experimental and Numerical Evaluation of the Modulus of Rupture Values and Deflection Limits for Masonry Beams. Outside of her work in the masonry field, she spent approximately four years at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory as a structural engineer working on projects such as the Mars Perseverance program. She continues to conduct research in aerospace/mechanical engineering related to structures and dynamics at Clemson University.

Zone 5 Nominee, Two-Year Term

Paulo Lourenço is Full Professor at the Department of Civil Engineering, University of Minho, Guimarães, Portugal since 2006. He received his degree in Civil Engineering at University of Porto, Portugal in 1990 and his PhD in Civil Engineering at Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands in 1996. He has been the Head of the Institute in Sustainability and Innovation in Structural Engineering since 2007. He is experienced in the fields of non-destructive testing, advanced experimental and numerical techniques, innovative repair and strengthening techniques, and earthquake engineering. Specialist in structural conservation and forensic engineering, with work on more than one hundred monuments and existing buildings, including 17 UNESCO World Heritage sites. He is also a structural masonry expert, responsible for R&D projects with the clay brick, concrete block and lightweight concrete block masonry and mortar industry. Consultant on innovative masonry structures using confined and reinforced masonry, and on masonry infills. He has been the leader of the Project Team responsible for the revision of Part 1 of the European code for masonry (EN 1996-1-1). Coordinator of the Advanced MSc on Structural Analysis of Monuments and Historical Constructions (SAHC) since 2007, with alumni from 70 countries and European Heritage / Europa Nostra Award (the most prestigious in cultural heritage in Europe) in 2017. Editor of the International Journal of Architectural Heritage and co-advisor of the Conference Series on Structural Analysis of Historical Constructions. Author of the books “Historic Construction and Conservation” and “Finite Element Analysis for Building Assessment”, Routledge (2019 and 2022). Supervised more than 50 PhD theses and coordinated multiple national and international research projects. Awarded an Advanced European Research Council (ERC) Grant of 3.0 M€ to develop an integrated seismic assessment approach for heritage buildings. Coordinator of an innovative training network on sustainable building lime applications via circular economy and biomimetic approaches with 15 PhD students across Europe.

Sustaining/Affiliate Representative Nominee, Two-Year Term

Jan Boyer

• Executive Director, Pennsylvania Concrete Masonry Association – 2000 to present
• Executive Director, Mid-Atlantic Masonry Association – 2013 to present
• Executive Director, Masonry Instructors Association (PA, MD, DC, NJ)  2002 to present
• Masonry Alliance for Codes and Standards – Board Member 2014 – present
• The Masonry Society – Board of Directors 2007 – 2012 and Administrative & Membership Outreach Chair  
• Member ASTM C 27.2 Committee – 2015 – present
• National Concrete Masonry Association Board Member 2017 – 2019 (first State Exec on Board)
• National Concrete Masonry Association Foundation Review Committee  (2012 to 2023). Elected position
• Pennsylvania Housing Research Center of Penn State University – Industry Advisory Council  2001 to 2024 (Elected Position)
• Lebanon Country Career & Tech Center – Executive Planning and Masonry Craft Advisory Council 2005 – 2018
• 2016 Women of Influence Award2016 Issued by Central Penn Business Journal
• Lebanon Valley Chamber of Commerce Entrepreneurial Spirit Award Winner 2000

Sustaining/Affiliate Representative Nominee, Two-Year Term

Richard Rydell, P.E., LEED AP BD+C, is an Executive Director of the Masonry Institute of America. Prior to joining the MIA, he has practiced structural engineering for over twenty years following studies at the University of Technology in Warsaw, Poland and graduating from Montana State University in 2000. He worked with several structural engineering consultants: Monroe & Newell Engineers, Jordan Engineering, Thornton Tomasetti in Oakland, CA and Gouvis Engineering. His expertise includes structural design of schools, hospitals, multi-use/residential buildings, existing buildings rehabilitation, analysis and repair of existing structures as well as seismic evaluation and upgrade of existing masonry structures. He is an active member of the Structural Engineering Association of Southern California, the American Society of Civil Engineers, the International Code Council, the American Concrete Institute and The Masonry Society. Mr. Rydel is being nominated to serve a second term as an Affiliate/Sustaining Member representative to the Board of Directors.

Sustaining/Affiliate Representative Nominee, Two-Year Term

Jon Merk is a Shareholder and Chief Estimator of Forrest & Associate Inc., a masonry contracting firm in Des Moines, Iowa. His duties have included consulting, constructing, restoring, and investigating masonry structures for over 20 years. Mr. Merk is an active member in many professional associations including MCAA, ASTM, and MII and serves on the Board of Directors for the IA Builders Retirement Fund. At TMS, he is a voting member of TMS 402/602 Main Committee as well as the Executive and Veneer & Glass Block subcommittees. Merk additionally serves as the Chair of the Construction Requirements subcommittee. Mr. Merk is being nominated to serve a second term as an Affiliate / Sustaining Member representative to the Board of Directors.

At-Large Nominee, Two-Year Term

Lane Jobe, P.E., S.E., P.E., S.E., is a Principal of Miller Consulting Engineers, Inc., His breadth of experience includes historic building retrofits, seismic pipe bracing, foundation designs for traffic poles, steel moment frame designs, seismic roof upgrades and investigations that require analysis and retrofits employing recognized standards such as FEMA 178, ASCE-31 and ASCE-41. He participates as an active member in various professional organizations focusing on improving existing building codes and standards. His efforts include working with Structural Engineers Association of Oregon (SEAO) helping to establish guidelines for special inspection requirements used throughout Oregon. As a member of The Masonry Society (TMS) Lane has also served on TMS 402/602 Main Committee, its Reinforcement & Connectors Subcommittee and its Seismic/Limit Subcommittee, ad on the Design Practices Committee. He recently worked on the 2016 Masonry Design Guide (MDG) and participated in a research project regarding the Harmonization of Canadian and American Masonry Structures Design Standards. In addition, Lane is currently working with other peers on the 2022 MDG. He is being nominated to serve as an At Large Director of the Board.

At-Large Nominee, Two-Year Term

Todd Dailey, P.E., is President of Dailey Engineering Inc.; a structural design firm located in southern Michigan. Mr. Dailey has 40 years of experience, during which there has been a constant focus on masonry design. In addition to providing engineering services for the design of new buildings, he has performed temporary masonry wall bracing design on over 2,000 projects for masonry contractors in 33 states, and has widely promoted “internal bracing” for its unique ability to improve construction safety and lower costs. Other masonry related highlights include serving as an Adjunct Professor for the Civil Engineering Department at Lawrence Technological University teaching masonry structural design, and being a founding (and continuing) member of the Masonry Institute of Michigan’s Generic Wall Design Committee. His involvement with The Masonry Society began in 2014, and has included voting membership on TMS 402/602 Main Committee, and the Reinforcement & Connectors and Partition & Infill Subcommittees. Mr. Dailey is being nominated to serve as an At-Large Director of the Board.