Meet the Instructors
Meet SAME’s Continuing Education Program Instructors
SAME strives to provide continuing education courses to our members that highlight current topics of interest to the A/E/C industry worldwide. Our instructors are selected based on their experiences and knowledge of the topics they present. We recently interviewed our Instructors to find out what motivates them to be outstanding teachers.
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MacDonald-Bedford, LLC
Zachary Bedford has been an instructor for over 30 years. His love of teaching developed from his infatuation with the Project Management Institute’s processes and philosophy. He believes that their "PMBOK" process is a great tool for project managers. Bedford strives to provide his students with the tools to use, and the right project management principles to apply on projects so they can be successful in the future. The beauty of his SAME course is the gathering of contractors, military service members, government agency personnel and industry partners together to learn best practices from each other.
Gilbert S. Brindley, P.E., CPSM
Benjamin Brindley & Sons, Inc.
Gil Brindley is President of Benjamin Brindley & Sons, an engineering and construction management firm that specializes in meeting the needs of the insurance industry. As an owner and principal, he is a seller-doer, responsible for getting the work and executing the engineering. He has been a member of SMPS since 2000, belonging to 4 different chapters and serving as Membership Chair, Programs Chair, President-Elect, President, Past-President, Education Chair, and National Business Development Institute Chair.
Michael T. Buell, CPSM
MHTN Architects
Michael Buell has been a marketing and business development professional in the A/E/C industry over the last 18+ years. He has worked with construction, architecture and engineering consulting firms from small to global in size. Throughout his tenure in the A/E/C industry, Buell has always pursued leadership opportunities. These efforts have afforded him a stellar reputation as a strategic marketing and client development resource for hundreds of marketing and technical professionals throughout the country in addition to a proven and integral leader with the firms he represents.
Karen O. Courtney, AIA, FSMPS
L’Acquis Consulting Engineers
Karen Courtney has been a marketing director and business developer for 25 years in AEC firms ranging in size from medium to extra large. She is both a registered architect and interior designer. She has worked for architecture, engineering and construction management firms, giving her a unique perspective of the challenges faced by each segment of the industry in building business. Courtney was a founding member of the Maine SMPS chapter and has been a member of chapters in Austin/San Antonio, Boston, Maine, Seattle and Indiana. Her service to SMPS nationally includes serving as National SMPS President in 2004/2005 and seven years as a board member, with two terms as Secretary/Treasurer. She is a founding member of the SMPS Business Development Institute and has taught BDI classes for five years.
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Vali Cooper International, LLC (VCI)
Rich Endriss is an Executive Vice President in VCI. He has more than 20years of experience as an engineer, Senior Project Manager and Construction Manager responsible for large and diverse capital projects at Reagan National, San Francisco, Cleveland, and New Orleans airports. Since 2009, Endriss and VCI have assisted the Corps and the VA with ECI and IDc projects through all phases of project delivery—from drafting RFP language and source selection criterion thru Firm Target and Fixed Price negotiations and ultimately to project completion. He has given FPIS training to multiple agencies and associations
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MacDonald-Bedford, LLC
Larry Jinkins has been an instructor for over 40 years working with the Military, the California General Services Association and now for SAME. His teaching style is participative. He likes to ask questions during his courses to elicit feedback from the class to better understand what his students need from the course to be successful Project Managers. The goal of his course is to provide attendees a mental framework of a comprehensive project management system.
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Kowalenko Consulting Group, Inc.
Emma Kowalenko, Professional Development Coach and Mentor, founded Kowalenko Consulting Group, Inc. (KCG) in 1988. She has developed organizational marketing and communication plans, trained professionals in communication and project management skills, designed and facilitated team building sessions and retreats for public and private sector clients; developed plans and presentation materials for outreach to public sector constituents; and developed cultural and foreign language immersion programs. Kowalenko is Past President of SAME Lake Michigan Post (2010) and Board Member of Chicago and Lake Michigan Posts. KCG is a Woman Owned Small Business, DBE, and SBA certified 8(a) SDB.
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K2A Consulting
Camille Krolikowski provides consulting services for Architect-Engineering and Construction firms seeking contracts with various government agencies. She has held the dual position of Assistant Chief of Engineering, as well as Chief, Engineering Technical Specialties Branch, Savannah District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers where she chaired numerous selection boards. From 1996 to 2001, Krolikowski fulfilled a tour of duty with the Corps’ Europe District office in Wiesbaden, Germany, where she was the Program Manager for the $800 million Barracks Modernization Program. She began her career in federal service with the USACE Mobile District, where she was Chief of the Architectural Section. Prior to her federal career, she practiced architecture in Mobile, Alabama.
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Lally Energy Saving Solutions
Brian Lally began his teaching career with US Army Corps of Engineers in the early ‘80’s. Since that time, he strives to present information on how to effectively use energy in buildings. Sharing information and experiences and then seeing that knowledge applied by his students is very rewarding to him. It is his hope that all of the students in the course glean useable information and techniques on affordable energy solutions that they can implement when his students return to their offices.
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Guidon Design, Inc.
Luke Leising has a passion about sustainability and “Green Design”. He pulls from his own personal experiences during each session to engage the attendees as much as possible. He looks to provide LEED and sustainable design methods that can successfully be implemented in their projects. As an Architect and Engineer, Leising understands the challenges both federal agencies and consultants have when implementing sustainability. His goal for the course is to ensure that his students to do not dismiss sustainable design in their projects due to cost or complication, but rather to embrace it and know that the long term rewards of designing a “green” building out way the up-front costs and complications.
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JEMCOR LLC
Jon Martens has more than 35 years of in-depth and diverse facilities experience. He is an IFMA-certified instructor and is internationally known for his expertise as a master instructor for the CFM Exam Review Course. He is the author of the CFM Study Guide, first published in August 2004, and has authored, co-authored, and been the consultant subject matter expert for numerous seminar development, college courses, and instructional materials for organizations in the facilities profession. Martens is a principal at JEMCOR LLC, which provides expertise in dealing with organizations in all aspects of facilities management, operations, maintenance and consulting activities within the built environment.
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MacDonald-Bedford, LLC
A former Naval Officer and Aviator, Michael Pampalone has an extremely diverse background leading and managing projects, including facility maintenance and engineering projects, as both a uniformed military officer and as a contractor for the Department of Defense for over 20 years. He believes that teaching is an inherent part of being a leader - to pass on the knowledge and skills that have been taught to each individual to the next generation of leaders. He considers the class a success if the students walk away knowing how to find the answers when presented with real-life issues. What is his favorite thing about being an instructor? Learning. He believes that he learns something every time he teaches.
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Vali Cooper International, LLC (VCI)
Col. Mike Rossi, USA (Ret.), is President and Chief Operating Officer of VCI. VCI is an SDVOSB Program, Project, and Construction Management firm. He commanded the Kansas City District from 2004 to 2007 when the district developed ECI and secured approval for its implementation throughout USACE. He subsequently directed the Belvoir Integration Office until fall 2008 where the $1.7B NGA campus (ECI) and $1B Community Hospital (ECI) were awarded and begun. Since 2009, Rossi and VCI have assisted the Corps in New Orleans on 5 ECI projects totaling over $1.4B, and the VA with 3 IDc Med Centers totaling over $1.5B. He has conducted ECI training throughout the past 4+ years to numerous federal agencies and professional forums.
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FTG Consulting
Katherine Stockton has been teaching the course, Best Value Source Selections for DoD Projects, for SAME since 2009. She feels there is a growing knowledge gap in the federal contracting acquisition career field that has been further widened by the flood of retiring baby-boomers in recent years. As part of that group of retirees, she has decided pass along that knowledge and try and plug that gap. Her classes are small, intimate gatherings that provide the students with a hands-on approach to federal procurement procedures and best practices.
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MacDonald-Bedford, LLC
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. An instructor since 1991, Ahmet Taspinar has a strong desire to prepare younger professionals for the road ahead. His course is very informal and provides an atmosphere where questions are encouraged. Ahmet structures his presentations with an emphasis on building knowledge that will give his students the self-confidence they need to be successful. He enjoys hearing back from his students that they have successfully managed their projects to completion or that they have passed the PMP Exam.
