Patricia Berntsen
Director, Grants and Federal Programs
6301 Kirkwood Blvd. SW / PO Box 2068
Cedar Rapids, IA 52406-2068
319-398-5472 / 319-398-5667 (F)
pat.berntsen@kirkwood.edu
Pat Berntsen is director of Grants and Federal Programs for Kirkwood Community College. In that capacity, she serves as the principal investigator for the Community and College Consortium for Health and Safety Training (CCCHST), one of 20 model programs recognized by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS). She directs the North Central Partnership for Environmental Technology Education (NC PETE), serving ten states with a membership of 130 community colleges and affiliated universities, professional societies, governmental agencies and businesses. Pat also administers the Environmental Technology ET Online program, a Learning Anytime Anywhere Partnership (LAAP) grant supported by the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE), Department of Education.
Pat has a BA in languages from the University of Iowa and is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate. She holds an MA in social justice from the University of Loyola, New Orleans, and has over 25 years experience in educational fundraising, planning, grantwriting and federal program management.
Pat has secured millions of dollars in private funds for programs supported by the prestigious Hewlett-Mellon Foundation, the Roy J. Carver Trust Foundation and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute; and in public funds through Title III, Higher Education Act; the Fund for Improvement of Postsecondary Education; the Older Americans Assistance Act; the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences; the Department of Defense and the National Science Foundation. She has directed political campaigns for U.S. Senators, state legislators and city mayors.
Doug Feil
Associate Director, HMTRI
Director, ETC
6301 Kirkwood Blvd. SW / PO Box 2068
Cedar Rapids, IA 52406-2068
319-398-5678 / 319-398-1250 (F)
dfeil@kirkwood.edu
Doug Feil is director of the Kirkwood Community College Environmental Training Center and has been associate director of the Hazardous Materials Training and Research Institute (HMTRI) since its formation in 1987. Doug manages the physical facilities of the environmental training center, oversees quality and safety of center programs, directs the development of new programs and administers the center's environmental worker training programs, the center's industrial fire, safety, haz-mat and rescue training. Doug is on the management team for the Advanced Technology Environmental Education Center (ATEEC) funded by the National Science Foundation. He is training director for the NIEHS-funded Community College Consortium for Health and Safety Training (CCCHST) and is technical director for the North Central Partnership for Environmental Technology Education (NC PETE).
Doug has a BA in chemistry and environmental studies, 26 years experience in postsecondary technical education and six years industrial and environmental work experience. Doug is a board member of the national Partnership for Environmental Technology Education (PETE) and a member of the NC PETE Steering Committee. He is an advisor to Intelecom's Preserving the Legacy curriculum development project and to the HazMat Management Technology Skills Standard Project sponsored by the Center for Occupational Research and Development (CORD).
Doug was the 1990 president of the Iowa Water Pollution Control Association. He was the League of Innovation in the Community College, 1988 Innovator of the Year, and he received the National Environmental Training Association's 1994 National Environmental Educator of the Year Award. Doug has been director of Kirkwood Community College's Environmental Training Center since 1985 and was principal investigator of the NIEHS/ Community College Consortium for Health and Safety Training from 1992-1995.
Donna Silver-Hoppes
Educational Programmer
6301 Kirkwood Blvd. SW / PO Box 2068
Cedar Rapids, IA 52406-2068
319-398-5899 x5082 / 319-398-1250 (F)
dsilver@kirkwood.edu
Donna joined HMTRI in 1999 and is responsible for developing courses for on-line delivery, editing, designing/creating graphics needed for various courses in environmental training, and maintaining the Web sites for the Community Training and Research Center (CTRC), HMTRI, CCCHST, MOEC, AgTerror, NC PETE, EHST, ET Online, and the National Mass Fatalities Institute. She is proficient with HTML, Dreamweaver, Paint Shop Pro, PageMaker, Photoshop, PowerPoint, WebCT, Respondus, StudyMate, Sound Forge, Microsoft Draw, etc. Donna has 17 years experience as a classroom teacher.
Pat Schroder
Educational Programmer
Kirkwood Community College
Cedar Rapids, IA 52406-2068
319-398-5899 x5377
Pat joined Kirkwood in 2001 and is responsible for developing courses for on-line
delivery using a variety of software, including Dreamweaver, Respondus, StudyMate,
Photoshop, and others. She also works with multimedia specialists to design
engaging animations and video for use in on-line courses. Among her current
specialties is the creation of on-line testing materials using Respondus software.
Prior to joining Kirkwood, Pat worked for ten years as a technical writer and trainer in the computer software industry. She has created extensive libraries of both on-line and print documentation for computer end-users as well as technical and training staff, and has conducted software training and consulting all over the U.S.
Pat holds a BA in English and an MA in Education, both from the University of Iowa. She has been active in the Society for Technical Communication (STC), where she attained the rank of Senior Member. In 2004, she served as a member of the Kirkwood Quality Improvement Process (KQIP) Learning Technology committee. Her team conducted a pilot study to determine how educational technology is used by Kirkwood faculty to aid and enhance teaching and learning.
Mina Mouhda
Multimedia Developer
Kirkwood Community College
Cedar Rapids, IA 52406-2068
319-398-5899 x5370
Mina is a Multimedia Developer and designs and builds instructional material on CDs and DVDs using varied tools such as Flash, Director, Adobe Encore, DVD Studio Pro, and Photoshop. She has a BA and a graduate certificate in interactive multimedia. She joined Kirkwood in 2004.
Shani Hepker
Educational Programmer
Kirkwood Community College
Cedar Rapids, IA 52406-2068
319-398-5899 x5083
shepker@kirkwood.edu
Shani has been employed by Kirkwood Community College since 2003. Her responsibilities include administration of the semantic web and its database, creation of LogicNets and other web-based applications, and design and maintenance of web sites. She works with several software programs including Dreamweaver, Flash, Visio, Fireworks, Microsoft Office Suite, as well as the HTML, PHP, XML and XSL programming languages.
Ms. Hepker previously worked in the Grants Department at Kirkwood. She learned and applied her knowledge of grant creation and submission processes to aid the Principal Investigator.
She has a BA in psychology from the University of Iowa and was employed by the Hawkeye Area Community Action Program as a Management Information Specialist and McLeod USA as a web designer.
Cynthia Root
Supervisor, ETC Programs, Environmental Training Center
6301 Kirkwood Blvd. SW / PO Box 2068
Cedar Rapids, IA 52406-2068
319-398-5678 / 319-398-1250 (F)
croot@kirkwood.edu
Cynthia oversees the funding and implementation of short-term and upgrade training for environmental workers including water/wastewater treatment operators, county sanitarians and well contractors. She assists the HMTRI administrative team with grant management and manages its Microscale Chemistry initiative.
Cynthia has a BA in microbiology with a minor in chemistry, 25 years postsecondary environmental education experience, and five years microbiological research including two years of service on ASTM Committee D-19. She is an NSF/ATEEC Fellow.
The American Academy of Microbiology certifies Cynthia as a registered microbiologist in Agricultural, Industrial, Food, Dairy and Sanitation Microbiology. She conducts an environmental education outreach program for the greater Cedar Rapids area for youth and has been awarded the Joseph Hammond Scholarship for excellence in environmental education. Cynthia has also authored four manuals on the implementation of the Safe Drinking Water Act published by the National Environmental Training Association (NETA).
Ron Snyder
Training Supervisor
6301 Kirkwood Blvd. SW / PO Box 2068
Cedar Rapids, IA 52406-2068
319-398-5678 / 319-398-1250 (F)
rsnyder@kirkwood.edu
Ron supervises the Hazardous Materials Training and Research Institute's environmental health and safety training coordinated through Kirkwood Community College. He assigns and supervises training staff, assures that instructional materials and supplies are available, and files reports with appropriate certifying or sponsoring bodies. Ron designs and updates curriculum per regulatory standards and instructs classes in industrial health and safety. He designs, coordinates and instructs in the NIEHS-funded Community College Consortium for Health and Safety Training (CCCHST) Trainers' Institute, the nation's premier Waste Site Operations and Emergency Response train-the-trainer program for community college instructors.
Ron has a BA in biology with a chemistry minor; an MA in education with 50 hours post- graduate work, is a certified environmental trainer (CET) from the National Environmental Training Association (NETA), serves as an OSHA specialist on the Board of Examiners for the CET and has 31 years experience in education and science/environmental instruction at the secondary and postsecondary levels. Previously Ron served as the program coordinator for International Education Programs in South America and has been an academic dean at the postsecondary level.
Ron has been invited as a keynote speaker and presenter on environmental health and safety issues across the United States for various organizations including NETA, NSTA, Iowa Governors Safety Conference, Rockwell Collins' corporate Annual Safety Conference, Iowa Industrial Users Conference, Occupational Medicine Network of Iowa and the Iowa-Illinois Safety Council. He also is responsible for the operation and training of the GreatEST summer Train the Trainer program conducted on the Kirkwood campus each summer.
Kimberly Fensterman
Program Coordinator, Environmental Training
6301 Kirkwood Blvd SW / PO BOx 2068
Cedar Rapids IA 52406-2068
319-398-5678 / 319-398-1250 (F)
kfenste@kirkwood.edu
Kim is the program coordinator of Environmental Training for the Environmental Training Center at Kirkwood Community College where she plans, coordinators and schedules all certified operator worker programs and conferences to ensure that adequate records are kept for all operators. Two major conferences are held each summer for the certified operators from across the state of Iowa and Kim is responsible for the general operations of both of these. She is also responsible for the Water & Wastewater Self-Study Program, processing all incoming CEU courses and then reporting all CEUs for certified operators to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.
Kim develops promotional brochures and maintains adequate records for the volunteer fire training program. Kim is the coordinator for the Central Iowa Training Association/Kirkwood Fire School. She also holds the position of secretary to the Central Iowa Training Association Board of Directors. Kim is also involved as the assistant coordinator for the Fire and Life Safety Conference co-sponsored by the Cedar Rapids Fire Department and Kirkwood Community College.
Kim has a BA in business administration management/marketing from Mount Mercy College. Before becoming a program coordinator, she worked five years in Contract and Continuing Education for Kirkwood Community College.
Bob Downs
Fire and Safety Instructor
6301 Kirkwood Blvd. SW / PO Box 2068
Cedar Rapids, IA 52406-2068
319-398-5677/ 319-398-1250 (F)
bdowns@kirkwood.edu
Bob is HMTRI's fire and rescue training manager, coordinating the responsibilities of HMTRI's Fire and Rescue Brigade instructional team. Bob is also an industrial safety instructor and works with industrial safety curriculum development. Bob has 29 years experience as a fire fighter, 11 years experience as a fire brigade instructor and six years in industrial safety work. He is a certified fire fighter I and II and a certified fire service instructor. He has work experience with lead, asbestos and construction activities.
Bob was the fire chief in Vinton, Iowa, for six years. He is a founding member of Central Iowa Training Association. He is a JCI senator and is listed in the 1980 Young Men of America Who's Who.
Doug Elam
Program Manager
6301 Kirkwood Blvd. SW / PO Box 2068
Cedar Rapids, IA 52406-2068
319-398-5893 / 319-398-1250 (F)
delam@kirkwood.edu
Doug Elam joined HMTRI in February 2000 after leaving Charles County Government (MD) where he had been the environmental educator and recycling superintendent. Along with recycling operations his duties included household hazardous waste programs, water conservation and pollution prevention. While in Maryland he was active in the recycling and waste reduction arena, being chair of a national awards committee for the Solid Waste Association of North America and the recipient of three awards for excellence from the Maryland Recyclers Coalition. He has also been published in trade journals and is a presenter at national and regional forums.
Prior to his county service, Doug was in the non-profit field, working as an administrator with the Accokeek Foundation; their mission included land preservation and sustainable agriculture. He was also a sergeant with the Coconino County Sheriff's Department in Flagstaff, Arizona. Doug has a BS in environmental studies from Northern Arizona University and did his undergraduate research on air quality in the Grand Canyon. He is currently working on an MS in distance education from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Mike Buser |
Craig Dirks |
Lenny Drake |
Mike Fredericks |
Jason Lopez |
Terry McAtee |
Pat Mick |
Keith Miles |
Don Ransford |
Greg Smith |
Marty Hoy
Facilities and Equipment Technician
6301 Kirkwood Blvd SW / PO Box 2068
Cedar Rapids, IA 52406-2068
319-398-5678 / 319-398-1250 (F)
mhoy@kirkwood.edu
Marty Hoy has been the equipment technician for HMTRI and the Environmental Training Center since 1991. He is responsible for maintenance of all equipment and supplies used in HMTRI and Environmental Training Center programs. He is responsible for equipment and supply logistics for off-site courses throughout the Midwest. Marty also takes the lead in developing training props and simulators used in the haz-mat, industrial fire and the industrial rescue programs.
Marty came to the program with a wealth of experience both in hazardous materials handling from eight years of work on rail car repair and 11 years experience in industrial maintenance and fabrication. Marty received his vocational training at Kirkwood Community College completing the welding program in 1973. He is a U.S. Army veteran and worked in maintenance and heavy equipment operation. Marty's unique talents and ability have given him the title as the HMTRI McGyver.
Patti Thompson
NC PETE Membership and Conference Coordinator
6301 Kirkwood Blvd. SW / PO Box 2068
Cedar Rapids, IA 52406-2068
319-398-5893 / 319-398-5894 (F)
pthomps@kirkwood.edu
Patti is the Hazardous Materials Training and Research Institute's membership and conference coordinator for the North Central Partnership for Environmental Technology Education (NC PETE), serving over 150 members of the organization. Patti also serves as the arrangements coordinator for the Community College Consortium for Health and Safety Training's (CCCHST's) Train-the-Trainer Institutes. She maintains communications databases for both organizations.
Patti has a BA in music education, has worked in music education since 1974. Christian education since 1980, and in sales since 1995. Patti operates a successful multimedia music studio.
Marvelene Foreman
Office Coordinator
6301 Kirkwood Blvd. SW / PO Box 2068
Cedar Rapids, IA 52406-2068
319-398-5893 / 319-398-5894 (F)
mforema@kirkwood.edu
Marvie provides administrative and organizational assistance as well as extensive secretarial support for HMTRI and the Environmental Training Center instructional programs. She also maintains personnel records, coordinates travel, tracks expenditures and coordinates schedules for both ETC and HMTRI personnel.
Marvie has 22 years of experience in accounts receivable and collections (LeFebure Corporation, Cedar Rapids) and has been with HMTRI/Kirkwood since 1998.
Marilyn Sonka
Office Associate, ETC/HMTRI
6301 Kirkwood Blvd. SW / PO Box 2068
Cedar Rapids, IA 52406-2068
319-398-5678 / 319-398-1250 (F)
msonka@kirkwood.edu
Marilyn provides general clerical duties for HMTRI and the Environmental Training Center such as mailings, filing, registration, and setting up final exams. She also does transcription for curriculum development and textbook preparation.
Marilyn started her career at Kirkwood Community College in 1988 as a part-time office associate at the Lincoln Learning Center. She has been with the Environmental Training Center since December 2000.