IMI Webinar Series - Resilient, Sustainable, and Safe Masonry Solutions for the Next Generation of K-12 Schools
Join us as we examine how masonry materials contribute to the design of safer, more resilient, and sustainable K-12 school environments. This session explores how interior and exterior masonry systems support long-term durability, life-cycle performance, energy efficiency, and occupant comfort. You’ll learn how thoughtful material selection and detailing can reduce operational costs, enhance acoustic performance, and improve thermal stability in educational facilities. We’ll also review design strategies that strengthen schools against high-wind events, seismic activity, and fire exposure, while supporting their role as emergency shelters within the community.
Learning Objectives:
- Evaluate the role of masonry materials in interior and exterior school applications and how they contribute to durability and long-term building performance.
- Explain how masonry systems enhance life safety in K-12 schools through fire resistance, structural stability, and impact resilience.
- Analyze how material selection influences life-cycle cost, energy performance, thermal comfort, and acoustic control in educational facilities.
- Analyze how material selection influences life-cycle cost, energy performance, thermal comfort, and acoustic control in educational facilities.
About the Speaker:
Tom Elliott
Director of Industry Development and Technical Services, IMI
Tom is a journey-level craftworker who joined the masonry industry in 1985 as an apprentice bricklayer for BAC Local 5 in Cleveland, Ohio. Throughout his time in the industry, he has worked as a journey-level bricklayer, project foreman, and field superintendent on larger masonry projects in Ohio and surrounding states. He also served as a project manager for a restoration contractor and oversaw the restoration of several historic structures.
Previously, he managed his own mason contracting business and helped to negotiate local labor contracts as a board member of the Northeast Ohio Contractors Association.
Tom is a member of the Construction Specifications Institute (CSI) and is a CSI-Certified Construction Document Technologist. He is a voting member on several TMS subcommittees and is actively involved in the ACE Mentoring program. He is also a lecturer at both the Ohio State University and Kent State University and the Chairman of his local Architectural Board of Review and Planning Commission Board.
About the Speaker:
Sunup Mathew, SE, LEEP AP
Director of Industry Development and Technical Services, IMI
Sunup is a structural engineer with more than 20 years of experience in masonry, concrete, and steel design. He has expertise in the design of new structures, evaluation and retrofitting of existing structures, and identification and resolution of field construction problems.
Sunup is an active member of the Masonry Society (TMS), Masonry Alliance for Codes and Standards (MACS), and C 12 and C 15 committees of ASTM. He has co-authored structural engineering papers in TMS, American Concrete Institute (ACI), and Precast Concrete Institute (PCI) publications. He actively participated in the editing and drafting of several sections in Building Code Requirements and Specifications for Masonry Structures (TMS 402 and TMS 602), Masonry Designers Guide (MDG), and standards under the jurisdiction of C 12 and C 15 ASTM committees.