Charles J. Carter, SE, PE, PhD
President, American Institute of Steel Construction

Charles J. Carter, SE, PE, PhD, is president of AISC. He is responsible for providing leadership and direction to the structural steel industry through all facets of the organization to fulfill the mission and goals established by AISC’s Board of Directors. Prior to his appointment last December, Carter was vice president and chief structural engineer for AISC.

Carter has spearheaded a number of important AISC initiatives, including the revitalization of the AISC Code of Standard Practice, the development of a unified Steel Manual combining both ASD and LRFD, the development of AISC's first Seismic Design Manual, and the expansion of AISC continuing education programs into the online realm. He’s also a well-known speaker and the author of numerous papers as well as AISC Design Guides on Torsional Analysis of Structural Steel Members and Wide-Flange Column Stiffening at Moment Connections.

Carter holds a bachelor's and master's degree in architectural engineering from The Pennsylvania State University, as well as a doctorate in civil and architectural engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology.

Dr. Therese P. McAllister
Community Resilience Group Leader and Program Manager, NIST

Dr. Therese McAllister is the Community Resilience Group Leader in the Materials and Structural Systems Research Division of the Engineering Laboratory (EL) at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). She is also the Technical Point of Contact for the NIST funded Center of Excellence, Center for Risk-Based Community Resilience Planning led by Colorado State University.

Dr. McAllister conducts research on community resilience, with a focus on the integrated performance of physical infrastructure systems and social and economic systems. She has expertise in structural reliability, risk assessment, and failure analysis of buildings and infrastructure systems. She conducted detailed studies of the WTC disaster, Hurricane Katrina flooding in New Orleans, and Hurricane Sandy flood effects on infrastructure systems. Prior to joining NIST, she conducted forensic studies of structural failures.

Dr. McAllister has specialized expertise in the performance of structures in fire, including nonlinear finite element modeling of structural systems, temperature-dependent material models, and thermally-induced failure modes. Her research includes performance-based methodologies for structures subject to fire. Dr. McAllister was editor of the FEMA World Trade Center Building Performance Study and the Co-Leader for the Structural Fire Response and Collapse of WTC 1, WTC 2, and WTC 7 of the NIST World Trade Center Investigation.

She serves on standard and technical committees of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and has served on the International Code Council (ICC) Structural Committee. Dr. McAllister is an ASCE Structural Engineering Institute Fellow and a registered professional engineer in Maryland.

John Hooper, SE, PE
Director, Earthquake Engineering, MKA

John is a Senior Principal at MKA and leader of the Laboratory Specialist Group, focused on the unique design aspects of high-tech lab, research, and vivarium facilities. His portfolio includes laboratory-driven buildings reaching 11 stories, research campuses totaling up to 900,000 square feet, and change-of-use renovations to accommodate wet labs and genetic research equipment. John has designed state-of-the-art facilities to house research for infectious diseases, veterinary medicine, and life sciences, often meeting strict Bioscience and Animal Bioscience safety levels such as BSL-2, BSL-3, and ABSL-3. He has designed several facilities that have been tested to confirm vibration performances as low as 2,000 micro-in per second. John is also MKA’s Director of Earthquake Engineering, recognized nationally for his advanced seismic design expertise and active in code development and research.

Michael Mahoney
Senior Geophysicist, Federal Emergency Management Agency

Michael Mahoney is a Senior Geophysicist with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, a position he has held for over 36 years. He currently leads FEMA’s seismic problem-focused studies and has investigated a variety of earthquake-related issues to develop design and construction guidance under the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP). He is currently leading FEMA’s efforts on functional recovery and our recently published Report to Congress, Recommended Options for Improving the Built Environment for Post-Earthquake Reoccupancy and Functional Recovery Time (FEMA P-2090 / NIST SP-1254). His list of projects includes the development of FEMA’s seven volume Performance-Based Seismic Design Guidelines series (FEMA P-58), Example Application Guide for ASCE/SEI 41-13 Seismic Evaluation and Retrofit of Existing Buildings (FEMA P-2006), and Seismic Evaluation of Older Concrete Buildings for Collapse Potential (FEMA P-2018).

Mahoney is also responsible for FEMA’s earthquake-related work with the International Codes and has been involved in the nation’s model building code development process since 1984. He has investigated building performance in disasters dating back to Hurricanes Hugo and Andrew and the Northridge earthquake. In 2018 he was awarded the Alfred E. Alquist Special Recognition Medal and in 2020 he was received an honorary membership in the Structural Engineers Association of Northern California.