From Brian Steffens, November 2021:

I was born and raised in the northwest suburbs of Chicago and graduated from John Hersey High School in 2004.  I grew up always loving math and science, so I gravitated toward engineering. That brought me to Iowa State University.   I started in undeclared engineering and after changing my major several times, I found a great fit with a combination of Mechanical and Construction engineering.   I graduated from Iowa State in 2009 with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Mechanical Engineering and a Bachelor of Science Degree in Construction Engineering with a Mechanical Emphasis.

My involvement in ASHRAE started when I was at Iowa State when I became involved with the ASHRAE Student Chapter after hearing about it while taking Dr. Maxwell’s HVAC Design courses.  I am a previous award winner of the ASHRAE Iowa chapter’s student scholarship.  After graduation, in May of 2009, I went to work for Shive-Hattery, where I am still employed today.  While first at Shive-Hattery, I was encouraged by other ASHRAE Iowa past presidents like Jim Lee and Chris Nelson to get involved and attend our local ASHRAE meetings.  I have served on the ASHRAE Iowa board since 2014 in several different positions. After just attending chapter events for several years, I asked to get more involved and started on the board as a General BOG chair when Justin Barrett was president.  In the 2015-2016 year, I helped co-chair the CTTC committee with Chad Raymer.  I went through our chairs and was president of our chapter for the 2018-2019 year.  During my presidential year, my goal was to focus on providing great technical presentations at our meetings and providing PDH opportunities for our licensed engineers.

The ASHRAE Iowa chapter is a great chapter to be a part of with so many amazing members who are involved, dedicated to providing a quality experience, and also know how to have a fun time!  It’s been a great network of people to get to know. It’s what has kept me here all these years and what keeps me sticking around.

I am married to my wife Kayla and we get to share life with our 3 amazing kids.  In my free time you can find me enjoying time with my family, helping serve our church, being outdoors, or doing some woodworking project.