Our Employees

• Mitch Stelling P.E. - Project Principal
• Kathy Harris P.E, PTOE - Senior Traffic Engineer
• Mary Stelling P.E. - Structural Engineer
• Jeff Walla P.E. - Civil Engineer
• Josh Sommer P.E. - Civil Engineer
• Russell Lay, E.I. - Structural Engineer
• Steve Brown, E.I. - Civil Engineer
• Chriss Payment - Bookkeeper

• Paul Hohn - Chief Technician
• Rick Rust - Designer/Technician
• Scott Fanning - Designer/Technician
• Kevin Frasz - Technician
• Paul Stetson - Technician
• Amanda Anderson - Administrative
• Debra Clark - Administrative Assistant

Mr. Stelling attended Montana State University, Bozeman, Montana, and the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he received his Bachelors and Master of Science Degrees in Civil Engineering. He is a Registered Civil Engineer and a Registered Mechanical Engineer by examination in California, New Mexico, Colorado, and Montana. He is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers.

As president of Stelling Engineers, Inc., Mr. Stelling is responsible for engineering planning, and design projects conducted by the firm. Mr. Stelling has supervised and completed many planning and engineering projects during his career. These projects include work in airport planning and design, highway planning and design, and wastewater facility planning.

Before starting Stelling Engineers in 1996, Mr. Stelling was employed as a Department Head by another Great Falls-based consulting firm. There, Mr. Stelling served as a Senior Project Manager with responsibilities in planning, design, and construction management on wastewater, water, highway, and airport projects.

Mr. Stelling has been project manager on many airport and highway projects. Some of the most notable include the complete reconstruction of Choteau Airport, Ronan Airport, Polson Airport; Havre Airport; Harlowton Airport; resurfacing of the main air carrier runway at Great Falls International Airport; and the design of the Kalispell Bypass and Ronan to Polson Highways.

Ms. Harris brings 20 years of planning, engineering and management of infrastructure projects within the Rocky Mountain Region. She received a Bachelors Degree in Civil Engineering from Montana State University, Bozeman, Montana, with additional graduate studies at the University of Colorado, Denver, Colorado. She is a Registered Engineer in Montana, California, Colorado, Utah, and Idaho. Ms. Harris is active in the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE), currently serving as the past-president of the Intermountain Section and was a founding member and officer of the Montana Chapter of ITE.

As a Senior Engineer for Stelling Engineers, Inc., Ms. Harris is responsible for project management and transportation design. Kathy has provided traffic expertise for rural and urban roadway issues, including roadway planning, location, alignment, construction traffic control and signalization, roadway EIS preparation, transportation modeling, and travel demand forecasting.

Prior to joining Stelling Engineers, Ms. Harris served as the inaugural Transportation Coor­dinator for the City of Helena and Lewis and Clark County. There, Ms. Harris focused on transportation planning, project implementa­tion, and integrating project development for two separate jurisdictions which developed an extensive understanding of local and state governmental interaction and policy implementation. Prior job experience includes 17 years as a consulting engineer and planner.

Ms. Stelling has extensive experience in structural design and stress analysis. She has over 18 years experience in the management and design of bridges and building structures of many types, including commercial, industrial, military, educational and residential. She is very knowledgeable in design aspects utilizing reinforced and pre-stressed concrete, steel, masonry and timber. Ms. Stelling has designed numerous foundation systems to overcome expansive soil problems common in the Rocky Mountain Region.

Ms. Stelling attended Montana State University, Bozeman, Montana, where she received her Bachelors Degree in Civil Engineering in 1982. She is a Registered Civil Engineer in New Mexico, Washington, Idaho, and Montana. She is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers and a charter member of the Structural Engineers Institute.

Ms. Stelling’s varied experience includes structural analysis of static and dynamic (wind and seismic) forces through the application of computer modeling. She has extensively used 3-D finite element computer programs such as Staad III, Ansys, and Stardyne, as well as several programs for component design. She is experienced in the design of several framing and foundation systems including moment frames, load bearing and shear wall construction, braced frames, tilt-up and pre-cast wall systems, trusses, conventional spread footings, steel and wood pile foundations, and concrete drilled piers.

Most recently, before joining Stelling Engineers, Ms. Stelling was employed as a Department Head in charge of Architectural Structures by another Great Falls-based consulting firm. There, Ms. Stelling served as Senior Project Manager with responsibilities in planning, design, detailing, plan and specification preparation, shop drawing review, construction observation and supervision of junior engineers and technicians on several bridges, building and industrial projects.

Mr. Walla attended Montana State University, Bozeman, Montana where he received his Bachelor of Science Degree in Civil Engineering in 1993 and Bachelor of Science Degree in Business in 1988. He has been a Registered Professional Engineer in the State of Montana since 1999.

Prior to his employment with Stelling Engineers, Inc., Mr. Walla served as a Design Engineer, Project Engineer, and Project Manager for two other Great Falls consulting firms. At these firms, he worked in a variety of disciplines including rural and municipal water distribution and storage, water treatment, wastewater conveyance, wastewater treatment, site development, and storm water collection. Mr. Walla has added Airport and Highway design to this list since joining Stelling Engineers, Inc. in 2001.

Mr. Walla has extensive experience in rural water system design and construction. He was the lead Design Engineer and Construction Manager for several rural water projects on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. These projects, part of the Oglala Sioux Rural Water Supply System (OSRWSS) included over seventy (70) miles of 4-inch through 12-inch transmission main, three (3) main line booster pump stations, five (5) above ground reservoirs, one (1) 6-inch river crossing (directional drilled), and numerous service line stream crossings. Mr. Walla was responsible for plan and specification preparation, hydraulic modeling, and construction management of these projects.

Mr. Walla was the lead Project Engineer for the Mni Wiconi Water Supply System Master Plan and the Oglala Sioux Rural Water Supply System Master Plan. As a Design Engineer on one of the phases of the Mni Wiconi project, he prepared plans and specifications for a 36-inch, micro-tunneled crossing below the Bad River in Pierre, South Dakota.

Six of Mr. Walla’s eight plus years of experience were specialized in rural water system design and construction.

Mr. Sommer attended Tri-State University, Angola, Indiana, where he received is Bachelor of Science Degree in Civil Engineering in 1998. He has been a Registered Professional Engineer in the State of Montana since 2003.

Before his employment with Stelling Engineers, Mr. Sommer was employed by a national contractor who specialized in the construction of water and wastewater treatment plants. His responsibilities included estimating and communicating with subcontractors and suppliers in order to receive bids.

Josh’s experience with Stelling Engineers includes design, preparation of specifications and cost estimates, and construction management for storm water improvements, wastewater, highway, and airport projects. His experience also includes performing constructability reviews and construction inspection.

Mr. Sommer’s wastewater experience includes the construction management and inspection for several phases of the Sweetgrass Wastewater Improvements project and the preparation of operation and maintenance manuals for the Highwood, Alberton, and Sweetgrass wastewater projects.

Mr. Sommer also prepared the Preliminary Engineering Report, assisted in obtaining CDBG grant funding, and designed a UV disinfection system for the Sweetgrass wastewater project.

Mr. Sommer also has diverse experience in wastewater and storm water conveyance systems. His storm water experience includes the design of $3 million in storm drainage improvements along MT 35 in Polson, MT and $2.6 million in storm drainage and glycol treatment ponds at the Great Falls International Airport.

Mr. Lay attended Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, where he received his Bachelor of Science and Master of Science Degrees in Civil Engineering with an emphasis on structural aspects. He has successfully completed the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) exam and is an Engineer in Training (E.I.T.) in the State of Montana.

While at Brigham Young University, Mr. Lay took extensive course work in bridge design, pavement design, and soil mechanics.

As a graduate student, Mr. Lay’s thesis research involved designing and building a frost heave testing apparatus and creating a standardized testing procedure for the evaluation of the effects of cement treating roadbase and subgrade soils. The final goal of this research was to establish a cost effective and reliable method to evaluate frost heave in soils and produce roadway resilient to frost associated damage. Tasks included designing and building a frost heave testing apparatus, sieve and hydrometer analysis, locating OMC for various soil samples, tube suction tests, electrical conductivity testing, identifying target cement contents, unconfined compression tests, and frost heave testing.

Russ recently joined Stelling Engineers, Inc. as a Structural/Civil Engineer. He has over two years of experience in surveying and drafting. As a Civil Engineering Intern, his duties included working on the design of a downtown road reconstruction and updating city utility maps using GIS software and GPS surveying equipment.

Steve Brown recently graduated from Montana Tech in Butte. Steve’s duties include general engineering as well as construction inspection.

Paul has 14 years experience in the Design/Drafting field. As Chief Technician of Stelling Engineers, Paul supervises the preparation of all working plans and details, and performs inspection on various projects. Paul is familiar with MDT roadway projects, and has extensive experience in preparing deed exhibits and right-of-way plans. He also is familiar with MDT data filing standards.

Paul is also the site administrator for the Firm’s computer network, maintaining all computers and networking system.

Rick recently joined Stelling Engineers after working the last 26 years for the Montana Department of Transportation. His experience includes highway and roadway design and construction for a large number of Montana’s primary, secondary, and urban highway systems. He has extensive knowledge of CADD and computer applications for highway and roadway design and plan preparation, and a thorough knowledge of related surveys and construction practices. Rick worked on project designs that were developed using survey data and aerial mapping together with hydrologic, geotechnical, surfacing, traffic, and other information.

Scott has five years experience in the design/drafting field and has experience in roadway projects, structural design, subdivisions, utilities, bridges, and right-of-way plans. As a Designer/Technician for Stelling Engineers, Scott prepares working plans, develops roadway design concepts, performs topographic surveys, develops design details, and performs inspection on various projects.

Kevin has ten years experience in the design/drafting field. As a Technician of Stelling Engineers, Inc., Kevin is a CADD designer and surveyor. Kevin routinely works on airport layout plans and the development of airport construction plans.

Paul is a CADD Technician and surveyor with Stelling Engineers.

Amanda has over 15 years experience in the administrative field, working with office and financial management, databases, and project support. Her duties include marketing submittals, FAA project support, and backup word processing and production.

Chriss has been with Stelling Engineers since its inception. She is responsible for accounting and project invoicing, as well as backup word processing and production.

Debra handles reception duties as well as word processing and production.