Meet the Faculty

Sandra Vásconez is a senior instructor in the Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering at the University of Colorado, Boulder. She teaches lighting courses with an emphasis on lighting application and design to Architectural Engineering and Environmental Design students. Sandra has been at the helm of the Lighting Program at CU for thirteen years, is co-creator and co-director of the Rocky Mountain Lighting Academy, manages the Lighting Design Certificate offered to non-engineering students, and is faculty co-advisor of the CU Boulder IES Student Chapter. Sandra obtained her Masters of Science in Lighting from the Lighting Research Center (LRC) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. She worked at the LRC as adjunct faculty, teaching graduate-level lighting courses and working as program manager. She later earned a Masters of Arts degree from the University of Denver in art history and museum studies. Besides her work and interests in lighting, she also has worked in museum exhibition design.

Jennifer Scheib is an instructor in the Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering Department. She teaches courses with an emphasis on illuminating engineering fundamentals to undergraduate and graduate Architectural Engineering students including Illumination I, Luminous Radiative Transfer, Daylighting, and Adaptive Lighting. She is co-advisor to the CU Boulder IES student chapter and Solar Decathlon team. Jennifer received Bachelor and Master of Science degrees in Architectural Engineering from the University of Colorado Boulder. Her professional experience includes working with the Daylighting Analysis Group at Architectural Energy Corporation and supporting the Buildings Research Program at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

Rachel Fitzgerald, CLD, LC, IALD, LEED AP BD+C is the Discipline Lead for Lighting Design with global design firm Stantec. A graduate of the University of Colorado’s lighting program, she has nearly 20 years of experience providing exterior and interior lighting designs for hospitality, mixed-use, retail, corporate, civic, multi-family, transportation and site development projects. Rachel’s talent and commitment to the design of highly-sustainable and human-centric spaces has been recognized with more than three dozen design awards. Her drive to create a world where lighting plays a more impactful role manifests itself through her industry involvement. She is actively involved in regional and national organizations such as the IALD and is passionate about educating others on the power of quality lighting.

Mark Jongewaard is president and principal of LTI Optics, which develops and sells Photopia — the most widely used optical design software in the architectural lighting industry, used in 44 different countries around the world — as well as provides optical design services for illumination based (non-imaging) optical systems. Jongewaard has extensive experience in lighting software development, lighting and optical analysis, and illumination optical design and training. His broad experience in lighting analysis and algorithm development influenced the calculation modules in all of LTI's products, including Photopia, Lumen-Micro and Lumen Designer.

Bob Davis is a senior staff lighting engineer at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, where his responsibilities include serving as technical director of the solid-state lighting program and leading several human-factors research efforts. He has been a faculty member at RPI’s Lighting Research Center and in the College of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Colorado Boulder. His experience includes working in engineering and marketing at a lamp manufacturer and leading the product development and engineering teams at a luminaire manufacturer. He has degrees in architectural engineering and a PhD in cognitive psychology, and is a fellow of the Illuminating Engineering Society.

In 1981, David was appointed associate professor adjunct of architectural engineering in the College of Engineering at University of Colorado Boulder, and established its lighting education program. He was appointed senior instructor in January 1994; he later was named professor and associate chair for architectural engineering. In 2007 he joined Acuity Brands Lighting as principal illuminating engineer in its Innovation and Technology Group.