Maria is the President of Marakae Marketing Incorporated, a company that she founded in 1996 dedicated to providing clients with creative, professional marketing services that enhance their image and help to increase profits. Celebrating over 20 years in business, Marakae Mareting, Inc. is a Certified Women Business Entity. In addition to running her business, Maria is a wife and mother of three girls, Maria, Rachael, and Kailey; the name of her business incorporates the first syllable of each of their names.
Frederick Fernsler, Fernsler Hutchinson Architecture, LLC
Frederick is the President of Fernsler Hutchinson Architecture, LLC. Frederick has over 40 years of experience as a Registered Architect with 38 of those years as a Principal starting a firm in 1975. Additionally, Frederick has spent significant time as Real Estate Developer and Owner. He has provided expanded services for international and domestic project management and specialized consulting from the first manned flight to Mars to the manufacture of ice in the Arabian Desert. Frederick received his Bachelor of Architecture from Penn State as well as completed the Architectural Engineering Graduate Program.
Karen Norris, Green Collar Consultants, Inc.
Karen is the president and owner of Green Collar Consultants, Inc., a certified Women-Owned Business Enterprise providing sustainability consulting services to the building industry. Karen became a LEED Accredited Professional in 2009; her goal in forming Green Collar Consultants, Inc. was to unite the often divided factions of white collar professionals to the blue collar workforce in a team with a different color in mind: green. As the primary consultant, Karen helps clients achieve LEED certification or simply incorporate as many energy saving and environmentally friendly aspects as possible into the design and construction of buildings.
Karen received her Bachelor’s degree in English before she became involved in Engineering. Apart from her own business, she does proposal writing on an almost daily basis for her husband’s engineering firm that has generated millions of dollars in revenue for his company, his architectural and engineering sub-consultants, and the contractors who build the projects he designs. For her own company, she written narratives for sustainable design and construction projects that have helped eight projects achieve LEED certification and number of others acquire state and federal grants to help get their projects built. Karen is interested in speaking to Penn State students about the value of writing in the fields of architecture and engineering.