Bob Susee

KENT, WA (HQ)

Bob Susee is proud to be serving as our Executive Director. He has been in the trade for 40+ years and says the best thing about his position is helping build careers and improving lives. His advice to apprentices is to have a “can do” attitude in the apprenticeship training program and on the job, be the first to start work and the last to roll up; characteristics that will ensure you stay employed. He wants apprentices to know that he started as an apprentice in 1976 and that the knowledge the Carpenters Training Program and employers provided him helped him become a foreman as soon as he graduated. His main goal is that all apprentices and journeymen receive excellent training, both in the classroom and on the job. Outside of work, Bob enjoys fishing and wilderness camping.

Dan Johnson

KENT, WA (HQ)

Dan Johnson is the coordinator for the Kent location. He is a Lathing, Acoustic and Drywall Systems instructor and has been in the trade for 37 years. Mentoring individuals from apprentices to journeyman to foreman is a proud accomplishment for him. He instills in apprentices to work hard and when in doubt, work hard. One of the things he enjoys most is vacationing in Hawaii.

Dave Leon

KENT, WA (HQ)

Summary: 

Dave Leon has been an interior systems carpenter for 35 years. He started his career as an apprentice and journeymen in the Southwest Region in 1983. From 1991-2006 Dave served as a journeyman, leadman, foreman and project supervisor in the Pacific Northwest for WPI, Western Partitions, GL Systems, Ledon Drywall and Firstline Systems INC. He returned to the Southwest in 2006 and became a lead On-the-Job Trainer for the Southwest Carpenters Training and Apprenticeship Program. In 2010 he returned to the greater Seattle area as a leader in the industry and began working as an instructor for the Northwest Carpenters Institute in 2014.  

David Sanchez

KENT, WA (HQ)

Summary: 

Dave Sanchez has been an interior systems carpenter 31 years. During his extensive career, he has been successful in the field as a journeymen and foreman for companies like PCS, PSI, Anning-Johnson and Gordon Brown specializing in exterior and interior framing. In the Northwest, his project highlights include Century Link, Convention Center, Fort Lewis and Boeing. For the last 11 years of his UBC career, he has served as an interior systems instructor for Northwest Carpenters Institute of Washington and has taken over 750 hours of training. In addition to his many contributions in the field and our training centers, Dave has dedicated countless hours to his local as a 10 year regional council delegate and Local 41 trustee.          

Marc Bozarth

KENT, WA (HQ)

Marc Bozarth is a Millwright Welding instructor. He has been a Millwright over 20 years and in his specialty, Welding, for 45 years. His proudest accomplishment is returning to college at 57 years old and getting a degree in Welding Technologies. He advises apprentices to stay focused, work hard and always try to improve.

Michael Jones

KENT, WA (HQ)

Summary: 

Mike Jones has been a carpenter for 35 years and a full-time instructor for the United Brotherhood of Carpenters (UBC) since 2007.  When Mike started his career as a taper, he saw the opportunities available to UBC members and joined in 1996, and used a wide variety of experiences to excel in the industry. As an apprentice, he worked for US Drywall and then spent the majority of his field experience working for Firstline and Western Partitions on large projects like the Tacoma Art Museum, Seattle Downtown Library and the Microsoft Center in Quincy, WA. In 2007 he became a full-time instructor for the Northwest Carpenter Institute and has trained thousands of apprentices throughout their 160 hours of Related Supplemental Instruction (RSI) and hundreds of journeymen in certification and continuing education courses as well as develop the taping curriculum for the taping program.   

Robert Howard

KENT, WA (HQ)

“Good work ethic and a positive attitude will get you a long way,” says Robert Howard, Pile Driver instructor. He wants his apprentices to know he was once an apprentice too. Now 24 years in the trade, he specializes in Marine Construction. As a Pile Driver, he loves working in different locations and meeting new people.

Steve Anderson

KENT, WA (HQ)

Steve has worked in the construction industry for 33 years, entering the UBC in 1985 as an apprentice out of Local 470. As a journeyman, Steve pursued structural work welding and rigging on projects with hydraulic, lattice boom, and tower cranes, eventually specializing in concrete construction as a signatory contractor with projects at EWU, WSU, and Whitman Mission SP. In 1998 he became a project superintendent, overseeing work in Washington, Utah, Texas, and Nevada, then took a position as a Project Manager in 2004. In 2011 he began teaching and writing curriculum in Construction Technology for Clark County School Districts’ Youthful Offender Program at High Desert State Prison where he also developed a welding certification program and LEED GA curriculum. Steve moved back to Washington in 2014 and became an instructor for NWCI where he currently holds a supporting role in the education technology department. Steve has professional licensure with Nevada Department of Education in secondary Business Management and Computer Literacy, and with Washington’s Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, holding endorsements in Business and Industry CTE, and Business and Marketing Education. He spends leisure time hanging out with family and friends, doing stuff outdoors, playing soccer, and reading.

Nate Diller

KENT, WA (HQ)

Summary: 

Nathan has worked in the carpentry industry for over 20 years with experience in both wood and metal stud framing, interior finish carpentry and exterior siding/ waterproof barriers. Safety is a top priority for him, leading him to strive to improve the safety record and image of every organization he represents. The majority of his career has been spent in the acoustical ceiling trade where he has done projects for many world class corporations in the Puget Sound Region; including Microsoft, Boeing, Amazon and feature ceiling in area malls and hotels. He has three years’ experience as a foreman where he used Bluebeam and Revit to build and oversee crews of carpenters from many backgrounds, ethnicities and skill levels on as many as nine different projects at the same time. He also has experience as a CAD operator designing cabinets and custom staircases that were fed to a CNC Router for automated fabrication. In his free time, he is a helicopter pilot instructor and studies fundamentals of instruction. 

Eric Isaacson

KENT, WA (HQ)

 Summary:  

Eric has worked in the tradeshow industry for 32 years for several companies in the Seattle area and has held leadership positions in the industry for the majority of his career, including being co-owner of Triumph Expo and Events. As owner, he was the company’s operations manager in its infancy and used his leadership skills to build the company’s strong foundation. In addition to leading his own company, Eric was a general foreman for GES, Freeman, Rowan and TCS. In 1994 he became a part-time instructor for the Northwest Carpenters Institute and served in that role until 2006. In 2016 he returned to NWCI as a full-time instructor, achieving one of his life-long dreams of returning to the classroom to pass his knowledge on to future generations.

Lisa Marx

KENT, WA (HQ)

Lisa Marx

Lisa started the Scaffold Apprenticeship March of 2011 and journeyed out in 2015. Through her time in the UBC she has been very active with her local, council and safety committees on the job. As a second-year apprentice, she became an officer and delegate. Later she was appointed onto the Regional Council Finance Committee. In addition to her local and council work, Lisa represented Safway on the BP Safety committee and at Contractor Safety Council Meetings. Around the same time, she became a facilitator for BP’s BASIC program and started the North Puget Sound Sisters in the Brotherhood Committee. In 2017, started and chaired the Scaffold Caucus at delegate meetings as well as the Local Mentor Committee. For the past couple years, she has served on the Scaffold and Shoring Negotiations team. 

As the NWCI Apprentice Outreach and Retention Specialist, Lisa works with community partners, schools, pre-apprenticeships, DOC, TERO and other community groups to share information about the many apprenticeship opportunities we offer. She loves helping others find hope and opportunities for future growth. She states, “Empowering others and watching them succeed is the greatest gift and feeling one can ever have.”

Scott Moorman

KENT, WA (HQ)

Summary: 

Scott has worked in the construction industry for 29 years as an exterior/ interior systems carpenter spending most of his career working Pacific Construction Sytems, Western Partitions and D.L. Hendrickson. He became a part-time instructor for Northwest Carpenters Institute 11 years ago and served for 5 years. During that time, he taught journeymen upgrade classes covering everything from basic framing to print reading and layout. Similar to Scott’s versatility in the classroom, in the field, he covered all aspects of the metal stud framing industry, including but not limited to, layout, light gauge interior framing, heavy gauge and structural framing and fire rated wall ceiling systems. He returned to NWCI in 2017 full-time and continues to excel as an instructor.   

Bernardo Diaz

KENT, WA (HQ)

Summary: 

Bernardo has over 26 years of combined experience as a union construction tradesman, business development manager, sales and coaching professional and post-secondary vocational instructor. He is a licensed real estate broker in Arizona and Washington, which he uses for his own personal endeavors during his spare time. He has worked for companies and organizations like Pacific Construction Systems, Western partitions, Windermere, RE/Max, and discovered a talent for serving others to assist them with personal and professional growth.  

Aaron Combs

KENT, WA (HQ)

Aaron went through the apprenticeship from 1998 to 2001 in Anchorage Alaska. He worked up to foreman and general foreman for several different companies and started instructing in 2007 at the Southern Alaska Carpenters Training Center. He became the coordinator at SACTC in 2012 and then transferred to Washington in 2017 to support NWCI with technology integration.

Rachel Stevens

KENT, WA (HQ)

Prior to her employment at NWCI, Rachel worked at a family owned aerospace manufacturer as clerical support in Finance and Quality Assurance for 22 years, most of which was in Finance as an Accounting Clerk. Her experience in Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, month end closing processes and numerous other accounting related tasks takes care of the details, providing critical support to the mission of the organization. 

Jody Kane

KENT, WA (HQ)

Jody started out as a program specialist at the Renton Carpenters Training Center March of 2000, and is currently the Executive Assistant to the Director of Training. The greatest pleasure at the position was meeting new apprentices and seeing them progress through the program to achieve their Journey Level status, then to see them go on as a Foreman, Superintendent and for a few of them, become a business owner/contractor.  She likes to see them become mentors to new apprentices, or instructors for our organization and leaders in the industry and looks forward to continuing to serve and support apprentices, journey level members and all of our partners in the apprenticeship training program. 

Karla Madrigal

KENT, WA (HQ)

Karla works at the Kent Training Center greeting customers and members in person and over the phone. She is bilingual and enjoys working to ensure all members feel welcomed, and makes it a personal goal to help, provide, and achieve. 

Maria Turnbaugh

KENT, WA (HQ)

• Maria started with NWCI in 2014 as the receptionist at the Kent training center, shortly thereafter moving to the Renton training center as administrative support. She returned to the Kent office about a year later to be the Program Specialist for the LADS (Lathing and Acoustical Drywall Systems) and Tradeshow programs where she enjoys using her customer service skills to support and encourage apprentices to complete their programs and reach journey level status.