Jeffrey W. Coleman elected president of American Concrete Institute

The American Concrete Institute (ACI) announces its 2020-2021 president, vice president, and four board members. Jeffrey W. Coleman has been elected to serve as president of the Institute for 2020-2021, Charles K. Nmai has been elected ACI vice president for a two-year term, and Cary S. Kopczynski is now the Institute’s senior vice president, which is also a two-year term. Additionally, four members have been elected to serve on the ACI Board of Direction, each for three-year terms: Scott M. Anderson, G. Terry Harris Sr., Kimberly E. Kurtis, and W. Jason Weiss.

President

Jeffrey W. Coleman, FACI, is a licensed professional engineer, Attorney at Law, and Principal Partner of The Coleman Law Firm, LLC, Minneapolis, MN. He is a Fellow of ACI and has been an ACI member for 40 years. Coleman is the author of the book Legal Issues in Concrete Construction, published by ACI in 2004 (second edition published in 2014), and previously authored the “Concrete Legal Notes” section of Concrete International.

Coleman received both his BS in civil engineering in 1976 and MS in structural engineering in 1977 from Iowa State University, Ames, IA. Coleman is licensed as an engineer in Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin and as a lawyer in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, and North Dakota; however, he practices regularly in other states through admission “Pro Hac Vice.” His master’s degree thesis work involved research funded by the Iowa Department of Transportation and studied fatigue behavior of air-entrained concrete. This led to his early involvement with ACI Committee 215, Fatigue of Concrete.

Coleman served as a member of the ACI Board of Direction from 2012-2015 and has served as a member of ACI Committee 301, Specifications for Structural Concrete. He has also served as a member of the ACI Construction Liaison Committee, TAC Specifications Committee, Financial Advisory Committee, and Conventions Committee and was Chair of the Responsibility in Concrete Construction Committee (now ACI Committee 132), where he continues as a member.

After receiving his master’s degree in structural engineering, Coleman moved to Minneapolis/St. Paul, where he practiced as a Structural Engineer with Ellerbe Associates, Inc. After completing his law degree in 1984, Coleman served as general counsel for Ellerbe, Inc. (later Ellerbe Becket, Inc. and now part of AECOM). After spending 2 years with a Minneapolis-based boutique construction law firm, he started his own firm in 1991, which was quickly merged and renamed Coleman, Hull & van Vliet, PLLP. In 2013, he founded The Coleman Law Firm, LLC—committed to continuing his representation of engineers, architects, and the concrete construction industry, including concrete contractors and suppliers.

Coleman represents engineers, architects, concrete contractors and suppliers, and building owners in all aspects of construction. He is consistently recognized as a construction “Super Lawyer” by Thomson Reuters publications. He is the Past President of the Minnesota Concrete Council (MCC) and a former Board member. He is also a sustaining member of the American Society of Concrete Contractors (ASCC). Coleman has served five terms on the Board of Directors of the American Council of Engineering Companies, Minnesota, and is one of only two nonpracticing engineers to receive the Tom Roach Award for Outstanding Service and Motivation to the Consulting Engineering Professional Community. Coleman is a past member of the Minnesota Board of Architecture, Engineering, Land Surveying, Landscape Architecture, Geoscience, and Interior Design (the Minnesota Licensing Board), having served from 2000 to 2004. He is a past member of the University of Minnesota Concrete Conference Planning Committee.

Coleman is a frequent lecturer on topics involving construction law but also is a regular practitioner who is involved daily with construction disputes involving concrete. In 2020, he was recognized by Concrete Construction magazine as one of “The Year’s Most Influential People” in the concrete industry.

Vice President

Charles K. Nmai, FACI, is Head of Engineering Services in the Admixture Systems business of Master Builders Solutions USA in Cleveland, OH, the leading provider of specialty construction chemicals used in the ready mixed, precast, manufactured concrete products, underground construction, and paving markets. He has been with the company since 1987 and is actively involved in technology transfer/standards activities and specification efforts to advance the use of durable and sustainable solutions in the concrete industry worldwide.

He is a member of the ACI Financial Advisory Committee and ACI Committees 130, Sustainability of Concrete; 201, Durability of Concrete; 222, Corrosion of Metals in Concrete (Chair, 1999-2005); 363, High-Strength Concrete; and E701, Materials for Concrete Construction (Chair, 1998-2001). Nmai served on ACI’s Board of Direction from 2003-2006 and is currently a Board member of the ACI Foundation Strategic Development Council (SDC). He has also served on several other ACI committees, including the Construction Liaison Committee, Educational Activities Committee, and Fellows Nomination Committee.

A corrosion inhibitor patent holder, Nmai was honored in 2009 at the Ninth ACI International Conference on Superplasticizers and Other Chemical Admixtures for outstanding and sustained contributions in this field. He was awarded the 2013 ACI Arthur R. Anderson Medal for outstanding contributions to the advancement of knowledge of concrete as a construction material in the areas of corrosion and chemical admixtures.

In 2012, he was a recipient of the Civil Engineering Alumni Achievement Award presented by the Faculty of the Purdue University School of Civil Engineering. He is an Honorary Member of ASTM International Committee C09, Concrete and Concrete Aggregates, and immediate past Chair of ASTM International Subcommittee C09.23, Chemical Admixtures. A member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) since 1984, he was an active member of the Committee for the National Concrete Canoe Competition from 2003 through 2009. He is currently President of the Fiber-Reinforced Concrete Association (FRCA) and a member of the Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute (PCI).

A recognized industry expert, Nmai has authored/co-authored numerous articles and papers on admixtures, fibers, high-performance concretes, concrete durability, and troubleshooting; and he speaks frequently on these subjects. He has served on several technical advisory panels and was an Adjunct Professor in the civil engineering department at Cleveland State University. He is an instructor for the “Basics of Concrete Materials and Testing” and “Troubleshooting Concrete Construction” seminars offered by ACI. He also spearheaded the development of two comprehensive Federal Highway Administration seminars on chemical admixtures and self-consolidating concrete to facilitate their acceptance and use by State Departments of Transportation. A member of the World of Concrete (WOC) seminar faculty since 2013, he has been the instructor for various WOC seminars, including “Effective Use of Chemical Admixtures in Concrete Construction,” “Troubleshooting Concrete for the Concrete Producer,” “Extending Joint Spacing in Concrete Slabs-on-Ground: The Options,” and “Performance-Based Design and Specification of Fiber-Reinforced Concrete.”

Nmai received his BSc (first-class honors) in civil engineering from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana, and his MS and PhD in civil engineering from the University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, and Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, respectively. He is a licensed professional engineer in the state of Ohio.

Directors

Scott M. Anderson, FACI, is Vice President and General Manager of Keystone Structural Concrete, LLC (Keystone), a turnkey concrete contractor in Houston, TX. Keystone is a division of the Stewart Builders family of companies that performs all types of concrete construction in the Houston, Austin, and San Antonio, TX, markets. At Keystone, he has overseen its elevated formed concrete construction since 1999.

Anderson serves on the ACI Financial Advisory Committee and is a member of ACI Committees 134, Concrete Constructability, and E703, Concrete Construction Practices; and Joint ACI-ASCC Committee 117, Tolerances. He previously served on the ACI Construction Liaison Committee (CLC).

Anderson has been very active in the American Society of Concrete Contractors (ASCC) for the last 15 years. He has served on its Board of Directors since 2007 and was elected President for 2015-2016. He chaired the ASCC Education and Training Committee from 2011-2014. During his tenure as Chair, the committee produced a video detailing the basics of concrete finishing that has been widely used by ASCC members. He continues to be active at ASCC as a Past President and currently serves on the ASCC Finance Committee and Company Certification Committee, and he is President of the ASCC Education and Research Foundation. Concrete Construction magazine named him one of 2018’s Most Influential People in the concrete industry, in part for his leadership at ASCC.

He received his BSCE from the State University of New York at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, and his MS for graduate studies researching properties of concrete at The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX. Anderson is a licensed structural engineer in Texas.

Terry Harris Sr., FACI, is Director, Technical Services – Concrete and Verifi, with GCP Applied Technologies (formerly W.R. Grace), Cambridge, MA. He started his concrete industry career in 1979 and has 40 years of experience with ready mixed and precast concrete, masonry, and admixtures.

Harris is a member of the ACI Financial Advisory Committee, ACI Honors and Awards Committee, and the ACI Foundation Strategic Development Council Technology Transfer Advisory Group. He serves on ACI Committees 211, Proportioning Concrete Mixtures; 212, Chemical Admixtures (current Secretary); 229, Controlled Low-Strength Materials; 232, Fly Ash in Concrete; 237, Self-Consolidating Concrete; 305, Hot Weather Concreting (of which he is a past Chair); C601, New Certification Programs; C610-QR, Field Technician Certification Quality Review; C610-FQR, Field Testing Technician Grade 1 Quality Reviewers; C620, Laboratory Technician Certification; C620-QR, Laboratory Technician Certification Quality Review; and C670, Masonry Technician Certification. Harris is also an associate member of several ACI committees and is a past Chair of the ACI Certification Programs Committee.

Harris is an active participant in ASTM International, National Ready Mixed Concrete Association (NRMCA), National Precast Concrete Association (NPCA), American Concrete Pavement Association (ACPA), and the RMC Foundation Advisory Council. He chairs ASTM Subcommittee C09.23, Chemical Admixtures, and serves on the NRMCA Research, Engineering, and Standards Committee.

He received his degree in concrete technology from Daytona State College, Daytona Beach, FL.

Kimberly E. Kurtis, FACI, is Associate Dean for Faculty Development and Scholarship in the College of Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, where she manages the reappointment and tenure processes for the college’s faculty and researchers, leads faculty development initiatives, and assists with management of faculty hiring strategies and inclusion programs. She is a professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Georgia Tech, serving as interim Chair in the school (2017-2018) and as the college’s ADVANCE Professor (2012-2014), and she holds a courtesy appointment in the School of Materials Science and Engineering. Kurtis joined Georgia Tech’s faculty in January 1999.

Kurtis is Chair of the ACI Session Review Task Group and a member of the ACI Technical Activities Committee (TAC). She is a member of ACI Committees 130, Sustainability of Concrete; 201, Durability of Concrete (TAC Contact); 225, Hydraulic Cements; 236, Material Science of Concrete (of which she is a past Chair); 241, Nanotechnology of Concrete (TAC Contact); and S802, Teaching Methods and Educational Materials.

She was honored with the 2005 ACI Walter P. Moore, Jr. Faculty Achievement Award, 2013 ACI Delmar L. Bloem Distinguished Service Award, and 2019 ACI Arthur R. Anderson Medal.

Kurtis is a Fellow of the American Ceramics Society (ACerS) and was Chair of the ACerS Cements Division (2008-2009). She also served on the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Foundation’s Board of Trustees, was Associate Editor of the ASCE Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering, and served on the Editorial Boards of Cement and Concrete Composites and Cement and Concrete Research. Currently, she is an Editor for Cement and Concrete Research. She was honored with the 2010 Award for Outstanding Article in ASTM’s Journal of Testing and Evaluation, 2013 ASCE Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize, and 2013 Outstanding Senior Undergraduate Research Mentor Award at Georgia Institute of Technology.

Kurtis received her BSE in civil engineering from Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, under a Dean’s Honor Scholarship, and her MS and PhD in civil engineering from the University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, where she was a Henry Hilp Fellow and a National Science Foundation Fellow. Her research on the multiscale structure and performance of cement-based materials has resulted in more than 200 technical publications, as well as three U.S. patents. Her group is particularly recognized for its use of emerging methods and novel approaches to provide new fundamental insights into the behavior of cement pastes, mortars, and concretes necessary for improving their early age behavior and long-term durability.

Jason Weiss, FACI, is the Miles Lowell and Margaret Watt Edwards Distinguished Chair in Engineering at Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR. Before joining Oregon State, he was a faculty member at Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, for 16 years, where he held the position of the Jack and Kay Hockema Professor of Civil Engineering and Director of the Pankow Materials Laboratory.

Weiss is Editor-in-Chief of the ACI Materials Journal. He is the past Chair of ACI Committees 123, Research and Current Developments, and 231, Properties of Concrete at Early Ages; and a member of ACI Subcommittees 201-G, Executing Durability in Construction Specification, and 318-A, General, Concrete, and Construction. Weiss serves as an associate or consulting member on several other ACI committees.

He has received the 2004 ACI Walter P. Moore, Jr. Faculty Achievement Award, 2007 ACI Young Member Award for Professional Achievement, 2009 and 2014 ACI Wason Medal for Materials Research, 2018 ACI Foundation Concrete Research Council Robert E. Philleo Award, and 2020 ACI Arthur R. Anderson Medal.

Weiss is actively involved in research on cement and concrete materials focused on early age property development, cracking, transport in concrete, and concrete durability. Specifically, he is known for research his group has performed in the areas of shrinkage and cracking reduction, the use of the ring and dual ring test, use of electrical resistivity and the formation factor, use of internally cured concrete, and concrete pavement durability.

Weiss is also a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), ASTM International, RILEM, and the Transportation Research Board (TRB). He is the past Editor of the ASTM Advances in Civil Engineering Materials journal, past Editor-in-Chief of the RILEM Materials and Structures journal, and a past member of the editorial board of Cement and Concrete Research.

He has authored over 425 publications with over 225 peer-reviewed journal articles. He is a recipient of the RILEM L’Hermite Medal, the TRB Burggraf and Mather Awards for outstanding research and publications, and the ASCE Huber Award. Weiss is also the recipient of several awards for outstanding teaching/advising and has been inducted into the Purdue Teaching Academy.

Weiss received his BAE from Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA, and his MS and PhD from Northwestern University, Evanston, IL.