Our Team
We are proud to have an amazing staff with the professional experience to provide the best services to our clients.
Education
Electrical Engineering, University of Colorado at Denver, 1981-1985
Architectural Engineering, University of Colorado at Boulder, 1979-1981
Professional Registrations
Registered Professional Engineer, State of Colorado, State of Utah and State of Wyoming
U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) Professional Accreditation, LEED AP
Professional Affiliations
National Fire Protection Association (NFPA)
Association for Learning Environments (A4LE)
Illumination Engineering Society (IES)
Don J. Ackerman, P.E., LEED AP
Power & Safety/Security
Awards
GSA Environmental Award 2001: The United States Courthouse Annex in Denver, CO. Successfully incorporated over 120 innovative sustainable features that reduced the building’s overall electrical demand, maximized natural daylighting to building occupants, employed displacement ventilation technology along with evaporative cooling, and met the criteria for a ‘Gold’ rating with the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system.
American Consulting Engineers Council Engineering Excellence Award: Confluence Park Improvements/Fabridam in Denver, Colorado.
Articles
“Bond Voyage” December 1998 issue of Colorado Construction
Experience
Don has over 30 years of experience with electrical system design. His design experience includes power distribution, emergency and standby power, lighting (interior, exterior, ballfield, arena, and event), life safety (fire alarm, detection, and special suppression), lightning protection, grounding, voice/data communications, master clock, and security.
He has been responsible for project management of multi-discipline design teams (electrical and mechanical) as the prime consultant and as sub-consultant, design, opinions of cost, bid assistance, and administration, construction administration as well as all coordination with owners, clients, other disciplines, utility companies, vendors, contractors, and code authorities.
From 1990-2000, Don served in various capacities at the Lakewood office of The RMH Group, Inc.: 1990-1994 as Lead Engineer, 1994-2000 as Multi-Discipline Team Manager, and 1998-2000 as Vice President. When Don left RMH, the company had 125 people in two offices with projects throughout the world.
Prior to RMH, Don served as Design Engineer for Garland D Cox Associates, Inc. from 1981-1990.
Education
B.S., Architectural Engineering with Illumination Emphasis, University of Colorado at Boulder, 1990-1994
Professional Registrations
U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) Professional Accreditation, LEED AP
Professional Affiliations
Designer’s Lighting Forum of Denver
Illuminating Engineering Society (IES)
Helen Reschl, LEED AP
Lighting
Experience
Helen has over 15 years of experience designing lighting systems for a variety of facilities including schools, courthouses, offices, multi-use live/work lofts, parking lots, exterior parks and recreation facilities. She strives to integrate lighting with architecture and enjoys working closely with both the architect and owner to illuminate the architecture while providing a pleasing and maintainable lighting system for the owner.
Helen is very knowledgeable with the many light sources and, when feasible, she utilizes emerging technologies to design energy-efficient lighting systems to provide the owner with long term monetary savings. Helen is proficient with AGI32 lighting design/calculation software, AutoCAD, Revit and is familiar with requirements of the IECC energy code.
Helen served as a volunteer assistant to Jefferson County for the development of the exterior lighting ordinance and guidelines for the mountains and western plains.
Since 2002, Helen has served as Project Manager, Project Engineer, and/or Lighting Designer on a variety of projects for Ackerman Engineering, Inc. Prior to Ackerman Engineering, Helen served as the Lighting Designer at The RMH Group, Inc. from 1998-2001 and as the Lighting Designer for ME Engineers, Inc. from 1995-1997.
Education
Electrical Engineering, Colorado School of Mines, 2014-2018
Professional Registrations
Registered Engineer in Training in Colorado
Passed Fundamentals of Engineering Exam (FE)
Professional Affiliations
Quality of Life Plus
IEEE
Tanner L. Ackerman, EIT
Power
Experience
Tanner has worked part-time for four years drafting and designing low voltage power systems at Ackerman Engineering Inc. while attending the Colorado School of Mines. He has a wide range of experience in the power industry from his experience at Colorado School of Mines including high voltage power, low voltage power, power distribution, and generation. Tanner joined Ackerman Engineering full-time after graduating in May 2018.
Ackerman Engineering has provided Tanner with wide-ranging experience in low voltage power distribution including: emergency and standby power, lighting (interior, exterior, ballfield, arena, and event), life safety (fire alarm, detection, and special suppression), lightning protection, grounding, voice/data communications, master clock, and security.
Colorado School of Mines also provided Tanner with recent experience in the fields of controls, feedback systems, arc-flash, and high voltage power electronics.
Education
Electrical Engineering, University of Colorado Denver, 2011-2016
Professional Registrations
Registered Engineer in Training in Colorado
Fundamentals of Engineering Exam Candidate (FE)
Professional Affiliations
IEEE
Laura M. Lucas
Lighting & Power
Experience
At Sierra Nevada Corporation Laura learned to utilize AutoCAD and Zuken E3 electrical design software tools to create One-Line diagrams, AC/DC schematics, and wiring diagrams for the integration of new product designs as well as existing aircraft systems. Her experience included performing engineering design in adherence to government regulations regarding the proper selection of electrical components and implementation. She was involved with onsite testing of her designs with multi-disciplinary engineering teams, contractors, and technicians to ensure comprehensive execution of a program.
Laura’s internship at Xcel Energy involved developing power system One-Line diagrams, associated with the Xcel Energy Commissioning Engineering protective relay lab. Laura also assisted Engineers with the design and analysis of protective relaying, based off an array of protection schemes for high voltage equipment in substations, including the review of relay settings and communication pilot protection schemes as part of fault simulation tests to verify correct operation of new electrical protection equipment placed in the field. Her experience established project management skills through hands-on participation in each project phase while monitoring milestones and reporting progress to supervisors.
She is proficient with Microsoft Office, AutoCAD, Zuken E3, and MATLAB. Laura joined Ackerman Engineering in November 2018.
2017-2018 Laura served as an Electrical Engineer with Sierra Nevada Corporation
2013-2016 Laura served as an Intern with Xcel Energy Substation Commissioning Engineering
Education
Electrical Engineering Technology, Metropolitan State University, 1988
Professional Registrations
BICSI Registered Communications Distribution Designer (RCDD)
Professional Affiliations
IEEE
Curtis P. Henderson
IT & Power
Experience
Curtis has over 30 years of experience in electrical and technological systems design and construction. His varied experience includes technology design and project implementation with an emphasis on inside and outside cable plant and pathway design supporting flexible technology system installation and operation. His consulting roles and responsibilities as lead engineer on owner representative teams include leading data center design and construction teams, data center daily operation and maintenance activities, telephony network engineering and system design, sound system/presentation system design, installation and operation, commercial/public safety two-way communications and PSAP system design, IP backbone network design and integration for connectivity to internet peering points, and “Layer 0” / OSI Layer 1/2/3 connectivity for computer networking and telephony systems.
He is proficient with Microsoft Office, Revit, AutoCAD, Bluebeam Revu, Visio, Cisco IOS, Juniper JUNOS, EASE 4.0, and the application of National Electrical Code (NEC) requirements. Curtis joined Ackerman Engineering in March 2019.
2013-2018 Curtis served as Telecommunications Engineer with BCER Engineering
2007-2012 Curtis served as Sr. Telecommunications Consulting Engineer with Cyberlink Corp
2006-2007 Curtis served as Data Communications Technician with McBride Electric
1998-2006 Curtis held various Engineering positions throughout his career with NTT/Verio
1994-1997 Curtis served as both Field System and Network Engineer with Nextel Communications
1989-1993 Curtis served as both Specifying and Project Engineer with Motorola C & E
Education
B.S., Business Administration Accounting Emphasis
University of Northern Colorado, Colorado, 1987
Michelle Schiffbauer
Experience
Michelle has over 30 years of experience in Accounting and Business Administration. She has served in many paid and volunteer positions involving accounting, project management, and customer service.
2008-Present: Michelle has served in an administrative, office management and bookkeeping capacity while at the Wheat Ridge office of Ackerman Engineering, Inc.
2001-2009: Michelle served as a bookkeeper at Golden Business & Financial Services
1987-2000: Michelle served in many capacities at the Centennial offices of OppenheimerFunds, Inc., 1987-1990 Shareholder Accountant, 1990-1999 Reconciliation Supervisor, 1992-1995 Accounting Manager, 1995-2000 Special Project Analyst/Conversion Team.