Get to know our leadership team and the members of our chapter.
Jonathan Ard, PE
Chris Mack, PE
Charles Skipper, PE
Timothy Cooner
Thomas Smoak, III, PE
Matthew W. Lucas, PE
Kweku Brown, PE
Trey Nelson
Timothy Cooner
The Eastern Branch of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), South Carolina Section, is located in Charleston, South Carolina.
Copyright © 2023.
Jonathan Ard is an engineering manager for Black & Veatch and has 18 years experience as a geotechnical engineer in Texas and South Carolina. He has worked on a variety of public and private projects such as water conveyance tunnels, marine structures, water and wastewater treatment facilities, pipelines, transportation infrastructure, light rail stations, airports, wind farms, and military facilities. His recent projects experience for Black & Veatch consists of design of stormwater tunnel for the Medical District of Charleston, SC, intake design for a future water treatment facility in Lexington County, SC, Plum Island Interconnecting Tunnel and West Ashely Sewer Tunnel Extension in Charleston, SC.
Colonel Skipper was born on December 6, 1949 at Cherry Point Marine Corps Air Station, North Carolina. He is the son of Master Sergeant and Mrs. Olan P. Skipper. Colonel Skipper earned a BS in Civil Engineering at The Citadel (1971), Masters in Civil Engineering at The University of South Carolina (1972), and PhD in Civil Engineering at Clemson University (2004). His dissertation was a study of the Leadership Behaviors of Top Performing Engineer Project Managers. He is a registered Professional Engineer (PE) in The Commonwealth of Virginia and the State of South Carolina; and a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) by The Project Management Institute (PMI).
Colonel Skipper served 28 years of active military service, achieving the Rank of Colonel, United States Marine Corps. During his military career he served in a variety of progressively responsible command and staff leadership positions in Engineering, Logistics, Research & Development, and Human Resources; with both peacetime and combat experience. He served as a Commanding Officer twice at each of the ranks of Captain, Lieutenant Colonel, and Colonel. During Operation DESERT STORM he commanded the 8th Engineer Support Battalion. During his military service he received 11 personal awards, including The Bronze Star and Combat Action Ribbon for service in Operation DESERT STORM. Upon completion of active military service, Dr. Skipper served in leadership positions at The South Carolina Department of Transportation, Johns Hopkins University, and The Medical University of South Carolina. His last position was in The Citadel School of Engineering, where he taught both Undergraduate and Graduate courses in Civil Engineering, Project Management, Engineering Management, and Leadership. He has authored over 20 journal articles, with a special interest in Leadership Development, Technical Project Management, and Emotional Intelligence.
At The Citadel Dr. Skipper stood up and became the first Chair of the Department of Engineering Leadership and Program Management (ELPM). He personally developed five graduate level courses and 2 undergraduate courses to help establish and grow the Master of Science in Project Management (MSPM) program. He then orchestrated the 3-year effort to attain the Project Management Institute (PMI) Global Accreditation Center (GAC) accreditation for the MSPM. He also chaired the search committee that selected the initial faculty for the Mechanical Engineering program and stood up the Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering (BSME) program under his department. He has been inducted into The Alpha Epsilon Lambda, Tau Beta Pi, and Phi Kappa Phi Honor Societies.
Dr. Skipper retired from the Citadel in January 2018 and was named an Emeritus Professor of Engineering Leadership and Program Management. He and his wife of 44 years, Janice Lipe Skipper of Camelot Tennessee, reside at Folly Beach, South Carolina. They have 3 children, and 2 grandchildren (so far). Among many other volunteer activities, he is serving as co-chair of the PFC Ralph Johnson, USMC, Medal Of Honor, Scholarship.
Melissa Wheeler Black is a civil engineer with over 28 years of experience in the electric utility industry. As a co-op student at Georgia Tech, she began working for Georgia Power Company and has never left! She currently serves as a Transmission Project Manager, focusing on DOT Projects involving high voltage power lines. Her previous experience includes Environmental Affairs, Distribution Engineering, Transmission Line Design, and Maintenance Center Line Engineer. Melissa has been a member of ASCE since 1997. In this time, she has served as Director and Governor of Region 5; president of the Georgia Section; Member Communities Committee, Leader Training Committee, co-chair of the Georgia Section’s 100th Anniversary Committee; member of the Georgia Infrastructure Report Card committee; Committee on Diversity and Inclusion, Pre-College Outreach, Key Contact, and Public Policy. Melissa and her husband Chuck, also a civil engineer, live in Hollywood. In addition to ASCE activities, they enjoy traveling and cooking.
Ryan Mattie is a civil engineer with a diverse background and skillset in Civil Site Design. He graduated from Penn State University with a B.S. in Civil Engineering in 2007. His experience includes planning and design of site, roadway, drainage and ADA compliant projects for both municipal and private work. His is licensed in five states including North Carolina and currently works in JMT’s Charleston, SC office as the Section Head of the Civil Site Department.
Laura Boisclair was born and raised in Rhode Island and graduated from Villanova University in 2014 with a B.S. in Civil Engineering (where she was selected as one of six students to be a “face of engineering”). She is currently working on obtaining her master’s degree in Civil Engineering from The Citadel. She has 6 years’ experience working for a general contractor on NCDOT an SCDOT projects and has been working for JMT the past 3 years as the Construction Project Manger on the Low Battery Reconstruction Project. In her free time (outside of working full time and being back in school), she enjoys being active at Holy City CrossFit, going for runs around the peninsula and participating in marathons across the country, exploring new restaurants/bars, and spending time with her two puppies and family and friends.
Thomas C. Smoak, III, P.E., M.ASCE, is a Senior Geotechnical Engineer and Department Manager in the North Charleston, SC Terracon office and has more than 14 years of experience in geotechnical engineering, primarily in the Coastal Plain of South Carolina. Since graduating from Clemson University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering, he has gained a wide range of experience from commercial developments, transportation projects, infrastructure projects, water/ wastewater projects, industrial facilities, schools, hospitals, residential developments, retaining walls, and seawalls. He has also been involved in construction oversight and quality control on many projects.
Thomas has been a member of ASCE since 2014. In 2022, Thomas became the Membership Chair of the South Carolina Eastern Branch.
Kweku Brown is an Associate Professor in Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Citadel. He is a member of both the National and South Carolina Section of the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) and American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). He is currently a member of two Transportation Research Board (TRB) committees: Statewide/National Transportation Data & Information Systems (AED10) and; Geospatial Acquisition Technologies in Design and Construction (AKD70). He is very active in engineering education, professional organizations, community engagement, and has represented The Citadel at national capacity-building workshops.
Dr. Brown is the current chair of the AASHTO GIS-T Student Paper Competition. Dr. Brown has written and collaborated with colleagues on many engineering education publications and is currently the committee chair of the Graphics Division for the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE) Southeastern section. He works on South Carolina Department of Transportation (SCDOT) projects on safety, access management and traffic operations. Additionally, his research focuses on transportation safety using geospatial analysis methods, transportation, health and the built environment and engineering education.
