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Meet the Team
Board of Directors
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Nicholas Pfeiffer - CVM President
Nick joined CVM in 2019. He is a graduate of Iowa State University with a B.S in Mechanical Engineering. He is currently an Engine Application Engineer at John Deere where he has been employed since 2011. Nick learned many hands-on skills at a young age by working with his father who was a part time contractor and cabinet maker. Those skills have now developed into hobbies that benefit greatly from the tools available at CVM.
Karen Everling - Vice President
Karen Everling - Vice President Karen is the Executive Director of The World Grace Project. She has embraced the Cedar Valley Makers mission and facilities, helping the Cedar Valley refugee & immigrant community integrate into the workforce. She has leveraged the makerspace towards prototyping products to provide funding streams for the project’s mission and as a collaborative workforce development center for the clients she serves.
Michael Hoffman - Treasurer
Michael Hoffman has a BS in Management and Finance and a Masters of Business Administration. Work experience includes human resource management, project management, and risk management. Michael has a long list of maker projects and interests, which include programming, digital design, CNC, 3dprinting, woodworking, metal shop, and welding, and loves to help others create.
Todd Prusha - Secretary
Todd comes to us from Kirkwood Community college after 34 years working in public education. Todd's experience leading teams to identifying community needs towards creating affordable, accessible, quality training and degree programs, will be leveraged as we continue to grow Cedar Valley Makers as an incredible community resource.
Pete Lilja - Shop Manager
Pete Lilja is a retired Waterloo Firefighter, so brings safety and organizational skills to the makerspace. A longtime maker of things. Pete's interests are varied and hobbies have been many: from high powered rockets and high altitude balloons to fly fishing the activities always have a component to making in them. He enjoys looking for a new skill to develop and something new to make.
Mohammed Albasri - Board Member
Mohammed Albasri - Mohammed is a graduate of the Electrical Engineering Technology program at UNI and is a consultant and trainer at the Hawkeye Community College Robotics Center. Mohammed enjoys woodworking, design, and 3d printing and has been an excellent resource on shop automation projects, and ideas on how to make CVM a better resource for the community.
Sara Smith - Board Member
Long before the term “makers” described those of us who like to make all kinds of things, Sara was using the Childcraft series of the Encyclopedia Britannica set to learn how to make things. Specially, the appropriately titled “Make and Do” book. This led her to degrees at UNI for arts, teaching, and technology. While at UNI she taught in the graphic technology program for 15 years. Currently she teaches at Hawkeye Community College in the Adult Education and Literacy program. At the Makerspace, Sara especially likes to focus on the Cricut, lasers, and learning more about wood construction. She has a very broad range of interests and experience with materials and techniques, from painting to sewing and much more. She definitely likes to help others learn about trying out new techniques and strategies for making things.
Cory Tannis - Board Member
Corey is an Embedded Software Engineer at John Deere since 2018. He graduated from South Dakota State University with a bachelors degree in Computer Science. Corey became a member of CVM in 2019 with interests that include woodworking, 3d printing, utilizing the laser engraver, and wood turning. He has dabbled in epoxy resin with some woodworking projects and is hoping to complete a river table in the future - after finishing up the other projects on his list.
Sarah Tannis - Board Member
Sarah is currently a stay-at-home mom, but comes from a background of working in higher education, student affairs, and non-profit youth programming organizations including 4-H and Foodcorps. Her educational background is from the University of Wisconsin - Stout in Service Management; with minors in Business Administration and Human Development and Family Studies. Sarah furthered her education at North Central College with a masters in Professional Leadership. Her interests lay in more arts, crafts, and design - projects that include ceramics, pottery, leathercraft, drawing, and painting miniatures (generally for board games!). Sarah originally got involved with the Makerspace when working at the Black Hawk County Extension office doing youth programming as a way to connect youth to amazing opportunities in the Cedar Valley - with one of those top opportunities being CVM.
Dave McKeown - Board Member
Dave is enjoying retirement after a long career in software development and electrical engineering, and he brings his talent to Cedar Valley Makers troubleshooting and installing systems and helping with workshops and events:
Education: Hawkeye Institute of Technology Associate Degree in Electronics Engineering Technology Wartburg College Bachelors of Arts Degree in Computer Science
Experience: Sperry Univac Computer - Technician, John Deere
Electrician, General Dynamics - Avionics Software Engineer
Tandy Research and Development - Diagnostic Software Engineer
Automation Systems and Controls - Controls Engineer
Warren Transport - Director of Software Development