Board of Directors

President
Term: 2020-2021

Biography

David Cocke, S.E. is the founder and President of Structural Focus in Gardena, CA with expertise in seismic evaluation, historic preservation, retrofits, and new design.

David brings a long history of involvement and leadership with EERI. David joined EERI in 1992 and is a Charter Member of the Southern California Chapter. He has served for several years as a member of the EERI Initiatives Development Committee and has participated in the Friedman Family Visiting Professionals Program since 2009.   Read more

Past-President
Term: 2019-2020

Biography

Laurie Johnson (M. EERI, 1990) has nearly 30 years of experience in urban planning and disaster recovery planning, management and research. She has written extensively about land use and risk, disaster recovery and reconstruction, and the economics of catastrophes and studied many of the world’s major urban disasters, including the 2011 Tohoku Japan, 2010-2011 Christchurch New Zealand, 2008 China, 1995 Kobe Japan, and 1994 Northridge earthquakes.  Read more

Vice President
Term: 2018-2021

Biography

Dr. Judith Mitrani-Reiser (M. EERI, 2001) is the Director of the Disaster and Failure Studies Program at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). She earned her B.S. from the University of Florida, M.S. from the University of California at Berkeley, and Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology. During her B.S., Judy worked at Exponent Failure Analysis, where her curiosity for understanding the technical causes of failures first began.  Read more

Secretary/Treasurer Term: 2018-2023 (previously served as Director on the board from 2015-2017)

Biography

Lucy Arendt, Ph.D., is the Associate Dean and Director of the Cofrin School of Business at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. She is also an Associate Professor of Management. She earned her Ph.D. in Management Science from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and has been a full-time faculty member since 2006. She was the recipient of the 2008 Founders Association Award for Excellence in Teaching, and the 2010 Student Nominated Teaching Award.  Read more

Director
Term: 2021-2024

Biography

Carlien Bou-Chedid an Independent Consulting Structural Engineer in Ghana. Her career has spanned more than 35years and covers a breadth of activities. She worked as a structural engineer with the Architectural and Engineering Services Corporation (AESC now AESL) where she was engaged in the design, supervision of construction and rehabilitation of several structures in Ghana. She was later engaged as Director, Education and Training of the Ghana Institution of Engineering (GhIE) during which period she was involved in designing policies and programs for the education and training of engineers. She also served as the Executive Secretary of the GhIE responsible for management of its administrative and financial affairs.

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Director
Term: 2019 – 2022

Biography

Erica Fischer, Ph.D., P.E. is an assistant professor of structural engineering at Oregon State University. She received a B.S. from Cornell University and a Ph.D. from Purdue University. Prior to Oregon State, she worked as a structural engineer in New York and Seattle where she focused mainly on renovations and retrofits of existing buildings.

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Director
Term: 2021-2024

Biography

Ayse [eye-sha] Hortacsu is Director of Projects at the Applied Technology Council (ATC) in the San Francisco Bay Area and has been a member of EERI since 2001, ever since she graduated from Stanford University. She is currently serving as the Chair of the EERI Oral History Committee that seeks to connect current members to those who have had pioneering careers in the field of earthquake engineering by recording their impressions, judgments, and experiences. As a Housner Fellow in 2014, Ayse helped complete a project on building code implementation in Nepal. She served as a Director for the Structural Engineers Association of Northern California (SEAONC) in 2016-2018 and the EERI Northern California chapter in 2009-2012.

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Director
Term: 2018-2021

Biography

Tara Hutchinson is a Professor in the Department of Structural Engineering at the University of California, San Diego with broad research interests in the area of geotechnical, structural and earthquake engineering. Much of her efforts involve full- or large-scale shake table and fixed reaction-type experimentation.  Read more

Director
Term: 2019 – 2022

Biography

Jorge F. Meneses, Ph.D., P.E., G.E., D.GE, F.ASCE, Principal Geotechnical Engineer, RMA Group, Inc., has more than 30 years of consultancy, project management, research, and teaching experience, in both private industry and research institutions in the field of geotechnical and earthquake engineering. He has been involved in numerous projects serving as a technical lead in geotechnical earthquake engineering and foundation engineering across the country and various markets including water, nuclear, transportation, high rise buildings, energy, schools, hospitals, commercial and industrial. 

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Director
Term: 2020-2023

Biography

Terri Norton, Ph.D. is the Associate Dean for Students and Strategic Initiatives and associate professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Bucknell University. She also serves as the executive director of the Engineering Success Alliance. Terri’s technical expertise is in the area of structural dynamics and structural vulnerability. Prior to Bucknell, Terri was faculty at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and worked at the Aerospace Corporation.
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Director
Term: 2020-2023

Biography

Jonathan P. Stewart is a Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering at UCLA, where he has been a faculty member since 1996 and served as department chair from 2012-2018. He brings expertise in geotechnical earthquake engineering and engineering seismology. Jonathan serves on the Building Seismic Safety Council Provisions Update Committee and the Southern California Earthquake Center Planning Committee, and is co-principal investigator of the Geotechnical Extreme Event Reconnaissance Association.  Read more