Senior Vice President of Client Solutions

Cogensia

Craig works for Cogensia, a data sciences and marketing analytics consulting firm based in Chicago. He designs and implements data-driven solutions to help companies solve their business problems. Craig has also managed a data analytics teams in the Marketing and Finance areas at GE Capital. He has both a Bachelor's and Master's degree in Economics and has taught Economics courses at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln. Craig developed a passion for applying a scientific problem-solving approach to challenges through his parents' commitment to education, his upbringing on a family farm, his interest in the quantitative methods of Economics, and by just having an inquisitive nature.

Engineering IT Business Analyst

3M Engineering – Engineering Systems & Technologies

3M

Patti provides IT support to Engineering Division.

Civil Engineer

RYAN A+E

MaKinnah Collins is a Civil Designer at Ryan A+E, Inc. She has 4+ years of working in the civil engineering field with emphases in land development and water resources. Before working at Ryan, she obtained her BS in Engineering at Calvin University in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Senior Director of Marketing and Business Assurance

BROADCOM

Project Engineer

3M

Kelly manages the design, purchase, and installation of new production and lab equipment in 3M facilities. Her degree is in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University.

Advance Product Development Specialist

Product Safety Division

3M

Dr. Kevin Frankel received his Ph.D in chemical engineering from North Carolina State University in 1997. Currently he works at 3M developing industrial respiratory protection products to keep user’s safe while at work.

Entrepreneur

Business Management

Global IT Category Manager

IBM

Mark is a leader within the Global Services organization at IBM, a Tech giant with over 350,000 employees offering Applications, Technology Consulting, Cloud, Artificial Intelligence, Digital Workplace Services, Network services, Disaster Recovery/Business resiliency, Transformation Strategy, and Design solutions. IBM is also a major research organization, holding the record for most U.S. patents generated by a business (as of 2020) for 27 consecutive years, and considers their ‘Engineering and Development first’ mindset the foundation of success.

Utilizing over 20 years of experience in IT Strategic Sourcing, Procurement, and Consulting, Mark leads a team responsible for developing and executing Digital Transformation Sourcing Strategies in the Technology Category for some of IBM largest clients such as Nike, Carrier, Kraft Heinz, and Anthem to name a few. From a technology perspective, Transformation strategies can often include Cloud, AI, CyberSecurity, Compute, Storage, and Network based solutions within its architecture. This means Mark and his team must stay current on market intel, from both a solution capability and business perspective, across a vast Technology landscape and the Vendors that lead within them if they want to be successful in negotiating the best possible outcome for their clients.

Prior to IBM, Mark held similar management roles working for employers such as Oracle, CRAY, Accenture, American Express, and Honeywell. Work environments which he credits his keen sense for negotiation and strategy.

For high school, Mark attended America’s 3^rd oldest private boarding school, The Governors Academy, founded in 1763 just north of Boston, MA. After graduation, it was off to the University of Massachusetts where he majored in Business Management and played Ice Hockey after being awarded an athletic scholarship.

Interpretive Naturalist

MN Zoo

I work as an Interpretive Naturalist in the education department at the Minnesota Zoo. I am an environmental educator that gets to teach a variety of school and community programs to all ages. Previous to this job, I spend 9 years teaching biology and other sciences in schools. I spent 4 of these years as the high school biology teacher at New Life. I have a Bachelor of Arts degree in Biology and Environmental Studies and a Master of Arts degree in Teaching. My areas of expertise include the biological sciences, environmental studies and animal science.

Lead Research Specialist

3M Corporate Research Analytical Laboratory

3M

Dr. David Johnson received his B.S. in chemistry from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, and his Ph.D. in analytical chemistry from the University of Arizona in Tucson. After completion of his schooling, he began his career in industry with 3M. He worked in the 3M Corporate Research Laboratory Separations Group developing methods and doing general problem solving with various separation technologies including LC, GC, CE, and SPE. In addition, he performed research into novel sorbent systems and applications for SPE. After managing various groups in 3M's Corporate Analytical and Corporate Process Laboratories, he returned to the bench where he is now group leader of the Competitive and Litigation Analysis group in 3M’s Corporate Research Analytical lab. This group’s mission is to protect 3M's intellectual property interests through scientific inquiry. In addition to his work at 3M, Dr. Johnson has served as an adjunct professor with the St. Paul Technical College (now St. Paul College), and as an instructor in 3M's STEP program - a science encouragement outreach program for St. Paul high school students.

Senior Technical Supervisor

Corporate Research Process Laboratory

Precision Coating and Web Processing Cluster

3M

Dr. Jendrejack has more than 15 years of technical and leadership experience in research and development. He joined 3M in 2003 as a Senior Research Engineer in the Engineering Systems Technology Center after completing a B.S. in Chemical Engineering at the University of California, Davis and a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering (Multiscale Simulation of DNA Dynamics in Confined Geometries) from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Since joining 3M, Richard has developed unique modeling tools for coatings and nanoparticle solutions and has deployed new process technology to a variety of 3M applications including solar and display light management films, industrial abrasives, ceramic fibers, and industrial tapes.

Today, Richard leads the Printing & Patterning group within the Precision Coating and Web Processing cluster. His team is focused on generating discrete patterns on flexible substrates in roll-to-roll processes with applications in diverse areas such as health care, consumer home care, safety and graphics, industrial abrasives, and next generation light management films.

He lives in Hudson, Wi., with his wife of 22 years and his four children.

Engineering Student

Iowa State University

An alumni of NLA, Zachary Kauffman is a junior studying computer engineering and physics at Iowa State University. His main areas of focus are computer architecture and embedded systems. Zachary is planning on working for IBM in Rochester, MN as a hardware developer intern for the summer and fall of 2020.

Director of IT

NEXSTAR

Education

• New Life Academy

• Bethel University; B.S. in Communication

Career

• Director of IT, NEXSTAR

• Project Manager, Insite Software; Minneapolis, MN

• Software Engineer/Project Lead, COLSA Corporation; Huntsville, AL

• .Net Developer, Benchmark Learning; Bloomington, MN

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I have been passionate about technology since college, with a primary focus on all things .NET. Experienced in agile/scrum development environments and enthusiastic about team-driven software design and development. I believe that coming together with people to solve complex problems is the most interesting kind of work there is.

Lead Chemist

EcoLab, Inc

• Ecolab is the global leader in water, hygiene and energy technologies and services. Around the world, businesses in foodservice, food processing, hospitality, healthcare, industrial, and oil and gas markets choose Ecolab products and services to keep their environment clean and safe, operate efficiently and achieve sustainability goals.

• At Ecolab, Chris Meyer works as a product development chemist creating and launching hard surface cleaners, disinfectants and sanitizers, hand hygiene products, and automatic and manual warewashing products for the foodservice and hospitality market. Chris’s main focus is on registration and development of EPA and FDA regulated products

LSS Black Belt & Research Specialist

3M Corporate Research Materials Laboratory

3M

Jana Ninkovic is a Research Specialist and a LSS Black Belt for the Corporate Research Labs(CRL) in 3M. She graduated from University of Minnesota with a B.S in Genetics Cell Biology and Development, B.A. Physiology (2005) and PhD in Pharmacology (2011) studying under Prof. Sabita Roy. During her PhD, her research focused on “Morphine mediated inhibition of macrophage phagocytosis and bactericidal function”. She expanded her knowledge of immunology during her post-doctoral studies at Harvard Medical School (2012-2013) at the department of Infectious Diseases (Boston Children’s Hospital) studying under Dr. Ofer Levy, where she investigated vaccine adjuvants for development of neonatal vaccines, as well as animal modeling of infectious diseases in newborn mice. She joined 3M CRL in 2013 where she has been working on development of new technologies and products for wound care, dental restorative applications and small molecule development collaborating with 3Ms Healthcare Business Group. More recently, in her role as a LSS Black Belt she has led and contributed to management of CRL’s new technology portfolio, strategy development and technology prioritization initiatives.

Owner

OYEN Digital

Oyen Digital is an innovative developer and manufacturer in the storage industry, specializing in professional storage for videographers, independent filmmakers, photographers, and many other industries. We are dedicated to developing ground-breaking storage products using our extensive knowledge and experience in audio/video production and mass storage. Founded in 2005 and headquartered in Oakdale, Minnesota, we have established a reputation for high quality products and exceptional customer service.

My professional background --

Founded Oyen Digital with brother Scott in 2005. Prior to that I worked for G.E. Security in the technical services department from 1996-2004.

Education --

Metropolitan State University

B.S. Technical Communication

Interior Designer

Ryan

Hannah Preble is an Interior Designer at Ryan Companies. Born and raised in Minnesota, she studied interior design with a minor in architecture at the University of Minnesota. In her career she has focused primarily on workplace and healthcare design. Her favorite part of being a designer is being able to combine technical skill and creativity, it’s a great blend of her artistic talent and analytical mind. Fun facts: She was homeschooled her entire life prior to university, lived in Switzerland for almost 3 years, and has traveled to over 25 countries.

President of Architecture and Engineering

Ryan A+E, Inc.

Mike Rodriguez is the President of Ryan Architecture and Engineering, Inc., a 110 person practice located in eight offices around the country. A few key projects the team is working on locally are the 44 story condo tower in downtown Minneapolis along the river and the redevelopment of the old Ford Site in St. Paul, 43 city blocks of new housing, healthcare, retail, fitness and senior living.

Architecture Student

U of M

Architecture and Engineering Intern

RYAN A+E, Inc.

My name is Lauren Tateosian and I graduated from NLA in 2017. I am currently at the University of Minnesota studying architecture and will start grad school in the fall to get my Masters degree. I have been interning at Ryan Companies, a construction management company, with their architecture and engineering team since May of last year, and I'm excited to continue with them through this summer!

Deirdre Tschanz received her BS in biochemistry from North Carolina State University. While an undergraduate there, she did biochemical research. She received her Masters of Arts in Teaching from Hamline University where her thesis was on how trauma impacts youth development and best classroom practices to overcome its effects.

Lead Coastal Engineer, Discipline Leader for Coastal and Sediments Practice

FOTH

Professional background: I graduated with an Ocean Engineering Degree from Texas A&M University in 2006 and currently am a Lead Coastal Engineer at Foth Infrastructure & Environment. My work areas of expertise are numerical modeling of coastal processes (waves, tides, etc...), sediment transport, and coastal structures. In addition I have spent a large part of my career working on dredging projects, with a large focus on contaminated sediment clean up sites.

NLA Alumnus, Class of 2019.

University of Rochester, NY. Class of 2023

ECE Major

"I’m always fascinated by the science laws behind modern technology, and I’m always looking forward to see how technology can further benefit the whole society".