A Decade Building UCLA Hospitals

The Healthcare Years

For ten years, I worked at UCLA Health—not as a consultant, but as someone who actually built hospital facilities. I poured foundations, coordinated structural work, and solved problems that couldn't wait for committee meetings. When you're building a working hospital, you learn that accessibility isn't a checkbox—it's the difference between a patient getting care and not getting care.

That decade taught me things no certification course can teach: how gurney clearances work in practice, not just on paper. Why certain door configurations fail in real use. How radiation shielding and accessibility requirements interact in ways that surprise even experienced architects.

The Engineering Foundation

My formal education includes a BS in Civil Engineering and an MS in Structural Engineering. These degrees gave me the technical language to communicate with architects, engineers, and contractors. But more importantly, they taught me to think systematically about buildings— how forces flow, how systems interact, how changes in one area ripple through others.

When I review a building for accessibility, I'm not just measuring door widths. I'm understanding how the building was designed, why certain choices were made, and what remediation approaches will actually work in that specific context.

The CASp Certification

Becoming a Certified Access Specialist was the natural evolution of my career. After 30+ years in construction and engineering, I had the experience. The CASp certification gave me the formal credentials and the ability to provide Qualified Defendant protection that my clients need.

But I approach inspections differently than someone who came from a purely compliance background. I don't just identify problems—I provide solutions that are buildable, affordable, and often don't require the regulatory complexity that others might assume.