For immediate release — Nov. 30, 2011

(DALLAS) — The North Texas Association of Energy Engineers has selected Cedar Valley and Mountain View colleges — both part of the Dallas County Community College District — as the first NTAEE student chapter in the north Texas region. NTAEE and DCCCD will host a kick-off event to launch the student chapter at Mountain View College in room B149 on Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2011, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in room B149.

NTAEE will present the student charter to Dr. Wright Lassiter Jr., DCCCD’s chancellor, during the event between 11:40 and 11:50 a.m. Mountain View College is located at 4849 W. Illinois Ave. in Dallas.

NTAEE was founded in 1985 by a small but determined group that was involved in energy management. Counting more than 150 members, NTAEE is one of the largest regional chapters of the Association of Energy Engineers, which is headquartered in Atlanta. NTAEE includes a broad cross-section of professionals associated with the area’s premier companies. Its mission is to promote the scientific and educational interests of people engaged in the energy and engineering industry and to foster action for sustainable development. Both AEE and NTAEE, through combined efforts, have awarded more than $140,000 in scholarships to students in north Texas who are majoring in energy and engineering-related fields.

“DCCCD is the model that will be used to develop future student chapters at community colleges and universities in the north Texas area, such as the University of North Texas and the University of Texas at Arlington. We look forward to creating more partnerships with colleges in the region. NTAEE also can be a catalyst for educational transition from community college student chapters to university student chapters and into the workforce,” said Larry Kramer, NTAEE Student Chapter chair.

A number of individuals worked on creating the new NTAEE/DCCCD student chapter partnership: Peter Thorne, NTAEE president; Larry Kramer, DFW Airport energy engineer; Deylan Walker, Atmos Energy manager of public affairs; Dr. Stephen Jones, STEM faculty member at Mountain View College; Ruben Johnson, dean of business and technology at Cedar Valley College; and Joyce Williams, DCCCD director of workforce education. DCCCD was selected because it is the largest community college district in the north Texas region and has a variety of energy-related programs such as engineering; residential green building; commercial energy efficiency; renewable and alternative energy; and LEED certification courses.

DCCCD also has participated in two statewide grants to develop curricula for energy power management and energy efficiency.  “As sustainability and energy become more pervasive in our daily lives, we need to ensure that north Texas is better positioned economically and as a community to do business on a global scale. We must build a sustainable workforce that understands energy and engineering fields,” said Williams.

“The partnership between the DCCCD student chapter and NTAEE — in addition to tuition scholarships — will help fund and strengthen the skills and knowledge of students. Those students will receive practical experience provided through community-sponsored energy audits conducted by NTAEE, plus monthly networking with NTAEE professionals that will involve case studies, internships and mentoring opportunities,” said Walker.

“Atmos Energy has led the way in bringing our organizations together and initiating meetings to develop the first NTAEE student chapter through their community partnership with DCCCD,” said Johnson.

“We believe that both NTAEE and the student community will benefit greatly from the formation of student chapters like this one. Students will have a real link to engineers and business people who work in the broad field of energy engineering, and the organization will be able to play an important role in developing the energy professionals of the future,” said Thorne.

For more information about NTAEE, please visit http://www.ntaee.org.

For more information about DCCCD, go to http://www.dcccd.edu.

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Press contact: Larry Kramer
972-973-3617 / lkramer@dfwairport.com