Nathan Beil Bio

Nathan Beil PE, D.WRE | Chairman of the Board, KCI

Nathan Beil joined KCI in 1988, and within four years, he started the company’s water resources division, which quickly grew to a team of 21 and became one of KCI’s top-performing business units. In 1994, he was promoted to vice president and the following year to senior vice president. Beil led the firm’s environmental group from 1995 to 2001, adding three new service lines—public utilities (now the communications design, power, and utility services practices), subsurface utility engineering, and geographic information systems (now geospatial solutions and asset management practices). He was then promoted to executive vice president, responsible for managing the four operating groups that made up the Mid-Atlantic region. Beil was promoted to president in 2006, growing our incredible team from 900 to more than 1,500 and significantly expanding the firm’s geographic footprint. He led KCI’s expansion to Texas where over 200 professionals currently work. During his tenure as president, and much to his credit, KCI was named Engineering News Record’s Mid-Atlantic Design Firm of the Year and the Baltimore Sun’s top workplace among large firms in 2017. Beil assumed the role of CEO in 2018 and chairman in 2021. He is a two-time graduate of Lehigh University, earning his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in 1983 and 1987, respectively. He completed the Executive Program at the University of Virginia’s Darden Graduate School of Business Administration in 2000 and the American Council of Engineering Companies Senior Executive Institute in 2006. He is a registered professional engineer in Delaware and Maryland and a Diplomate of Water Resources Engineering. Throughout his career, Beil has been dedicated to improving the profession, the region and his community, and currently serves on the executive committee of The Design Professionals Coalition (DPC) and is the past chair of the Maryland Chamber of Commerce and the Design Professional Risk Control Group. He also serves on Lehigh University’s Masters of Structural Engineering Advisory Board as well as the boards of directors for the Scouting America, the Woodmont Chapter of the Izaak Walton League of America, and the Maryland Transportation Builders & Materials Association (MTBMA). Nate is an active member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), American Water Resources Association (AWRA) and the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC). A long-time supporter of the Boy Scouts of America, he is the past President of the Baltimore Area Council and has been recognized with the National Outstanding Eagle Scout and Silver Beaver Awards.

Mike Shields Bio

Michael D. Shields, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Civil & Systems Engineering, Johns Hopkins University

Michael D. Shields is an Associate Professor in the Dept. of Civil & Systems Engineering at Johns Hopkins University where he is also the Director of the Center on High-Throughput Materials Discovery for Extremes (HT-MAX), holds a secondary appointment in the Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering, and is a fellow of the Hopkins Extreme Materials Institute. Prof. Shields conducts research in uncertainty quantification (UQ) and probabilistic modeling for problems in structural mechanics, materials science, and physics with applications ranging from multi-scale material modeling to assessing the reliability and safety of large-scale structures. He received his Ph.D. in Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics from Columbia University in 2010, after which he was employed as a Research Engineer in applied computational mechanics at Weidlinger Associates, Inc. He joined the faculty at Johns Hopkins in 2013. For his work in UQ, Prof. Shields has been awarded the ONR Young Investigator Award, the NSF CAREER Award, the DOE Early Career Award, and the Johns Hopkins University Catalyst Award. Prof. Shields and his group also develop the open-source UQpy (Uncertainty Quantification with Python) software, which is a general toolbox and development environment for UQ in computational, mathematical, and physical systems.

Mike Sarafin Bio

Mike Sarafin, Mission Manager, NASA Headquarters

EXPERIENCE: Sarafin currently serves at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C., as the mission manager for Artemis III, which will land astronauts on the Moon to advance long-term human lunar exploration and scientific discovery. Before, in late 2022, Sarafin served as the mission manager for the maiden voyage of Artemis I, confirming that the agency’s deep space rocket, spacecraft, and ground systems needed for launch and recovery are ready to fly astronauts on missions to the Moon. As mission manager, Sarafin chairs the Mission Management Team (MMT) for uncrewed and human spaceflight missions involving the Artemis program — comprised of the Space Launch System rocket, Orion spacecraft, Exploration Ground Systems, Gateway, and Human Landing System programs. As the MMT chair for Artemis III, Sarafin has requirements-change authority, provides risk acceptance at the agency level and oversight of mission operations across all flight phases (launch, in space, and recovery), and is the launch decision authority — giving the final “GO” to proceed with launch. Prior to becoming mission manager, Sarafin served as one of 87 individuals who have led human spaceflight operations as a NASA flight director. In that role he accumulated a decade of experience, with overall responsibility for safety and success of assigned space shuttle, International Space Station, and Orion flight test mission operations from within mission control in Houston.
Sarafin’s experience to date totals 65 spaceflight missions, including 43 space shuttle missions; 20 station Expeditions of American, Canadian, European, Japanese, and Russian astronauts and cosmonauts; and two Orion uncrewed flight tests. Thirty-three of those missions he supported as flight director (12 space shuttle, 20 station, and two Orion), and 31 of those missions were supported as a space shuttle Guidance, Navigation, and Flight Control officer (call sign “GNC”) mission controller. As GNC, he executed launch, landing, rendezvous, and docking operations of the space shuttle with the former Russian Space Station Mir and the present-day space station. He also led flight testing of the uncrewed Orion spacecraft aboard a Delta-IV Heavy rocket, conducted assembly and repair operations of the station, servicing of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), deployment and recovery of unmanned satellites, and enabled missions dedicated to science and human research. In his current and previous roles, Sarafin represents the U.S. government and NASA’s human spaceflight programs and partnerships around the globe during mission operations. Leading up to mission execution, he serves as a senior technical leader that integrates mission requirements, mission planning, operations, and flight readiness.
Additionally, Sarafin completed a one-year rotational assignment at NASA Headquarters in 2011 as a program analyst. He also supported the Space Shuttle Columbia Accident Investigation Board and recovery effort by performing parallel vehicle recovery and flight reconstruction accident investigation activities.

PERSONAL DATA: Michael Sarafin was born in 1972 in Herkimer, N.Y., and graduated from Richfield Springs Central School in upstate New York in 1990. He considers Richfield Springs, NY, his hometown and currently resides in Washington, D.C., with his wife, Angela.

 

EDUCATION: Sarafin received a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering from Clarkson University in Potsdam, N.Y., in 1994.

SPECIAL HONORS:

  • Two NASA Outstanding Leadership Medals: 2007, 2014
  • Three NASA Exceptional Service Medals: 2008, 2009, 2010
  • NASA 25-year Civil Service Award: 2018 • Woodstock Award, Clarkson University: 2014
  • NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal: 2005
  • Mission Control Plaque Hanging Honors for support of STS-111 space shuttle mission: 2002
  • Astronaut’s Personal Achievement Award (Silver Snoopy): 2000