Eric Douglas, MS, PE
Process Technology Program Coordinator
Mr. Douglas completed his undergraduate degree in chemistry at the University of the Virgin Islands and his master’s degree in chemical engineering at Auburn University. Mr. Douglas’s education at the graduate level was focused on chemical process design, math modeling and computer simulation. His engineering experience includes seven years with Dow Chemical, three years with Hess Oil Virgin Islands Corp. (HOVIC, now HOVENSA), two years with the Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority (WAPA) and twelve years with Maguire Group Inc. His teaching experience covers 12 years including six years as a part-time faculty member and six years as a full-time faculty member (Program Coordinator/Visiting Lecturer) on the St. Croix Campus of the University of the Virgin Islands. He is a registered Professional Engineer in the Virgin Islands.
Mr. Douglas joined Maguire in 1996 as a Senior Project Manager and the Virgin Islands Location Manager. Mr. Douglas has helped expand the commitment of Maguire to its USVI clients and projects. Responsibilities included administration of the Virgin Islands office, marketing of engineering services provided by Maguire, application of environmental permits (CZM, Air Permits, TPDES, Terminal License, Earth Change), proposal and technical report writing, and managing an assortment of projects including solid waste management, landfill design and operations, demolition of buildings, marine facilities design and construction, flood control design, and water systems design.
As Program Coordinator/Visiting Lecturer for Process Technology Program, Mr. Douglas manages the A.A.S. degree program in Process Technology at the University of the Virgin Islands. The program prepares students for employment as operations technicians in the process industry such as the HOVENSA Oil Refinery. The process industry includes oil production and refining, chemical manufacturing, pharmaceutical manufacturing, power generation, utilities, wastewater treatment facilities maintenance and food processing. He teaches “Introduction to Process Technology” course and “Industrial Processes”. Topics covered include a wide range of technical subjects on pumps, steam turbines, furnaces, boilers, heat exchangers, distillation towers, compressors, valves, piping, storage tanks, instrumentation and control, as well as the various processing units in an oil refinery.
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Mr. Cedric Facison – Instructor for PRT 231 (Systems)
Mr. Facison attended Palm Beach Community College for 1-year completing course work in both math and science in 1988. He attended Tuskegee University from 1989 to 1994, majoring in Mechanical Engineering. He completed his Bachelor of Science Degree in Mechanical Engineering in May 1994. During his college years, he worked as a teaching assistant in both the Math Department and the Mechanical Engineering Department for several years.
Mr. Facison has acquired 15 years of engineering work experience. He is the instructor for the “Systems” course in Process Technology and has been a part-time instructor at the University of the Virgin Islands for the last 2 years.
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Mr. Gino LaPointe – Instructor for PRT 121 and PRT122 (Instrumentation)
Mr. LaPointe has been with the refining and petrochemical industry since 1974. He received both a Bachelors and a Masters in Chemical Engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago and worked for UOP, for 28 years, a company that designs and licenses refinery and petrochemical processes. He has worked for HOVENSA LLC for 5 years.
His extensive experience include working as a lab analyst, process field operator, process control operator, field inspection engineer, startup team chief, design engineer, process engineer, dynamic simulation engineer, process trainer, process instructor trainer, Process Technology instructor, high school physics & chemistry instructor, simulations manager, and operations training manager. The high school classes were taught during the lunch time, at a nearby high school, while I worked at UOP outside Chicago.
Mr. LaPointe has been a part-time instructor at UVI since the Fall 2004. He teaches Instrumentation I (PRT 121) and Instrumentation II (PRT-122). Then he has had the privilege and pleasure to help instruct the graduates from the process technology program again when they are hired by HOVENSA LLC in HOVENSA’s Core Refinery Training (CRT) program.
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Mr. Jeffery D. Lund – Instructor for PRT 130 – Equipment
Mr. Lund holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of North Dakota and has 28 years experience as a Rotating Equipment Engineer in refineries and chemical plants. His expertise includes sizing and specifying new equipment, troubleshooting rotating equipment and repairing equipment deficiencies. He has over four years on St. Croix working for HOVENSA, LLC in the Technical Services Department.
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Mr. Ted Mills – Instructor for PRT 110 - Basic Electricity Theory
Ted Mills is a registered professional Engineer with extensive experience in Electrical Power Distribution and Project Management, National Electric Code Calculation, Installation and Inspection, practical field experience in Residential, Commercial and Petrochemical Industry electrical and power maintenance and distribution.
He has been employed at Hovensa LLC for the past 15 years, and holds the position of Staff Maintenance Engineer. He is married to Jacqueline W. Mills, an attorney, and they are together parents of 5 grown children.
Ted received his engineering degree in Electrical Engineering at Prairie View A&M University, Prairie View, Texas. He believes that any student who is willing to achieve, can be guided in a similar manner as the control operator in Sputnik 1, and be successful.
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Mr. Andy Yuhas – Instructor for PRT 225 – Safety Health and the Environment
Mr. Yuhas began his college career at the College of the Virgin Islands St.Croix campus in 1975, transferring to Oklahoma State University to pursue studies in Fire Protection and Safety Engineering. He graduated from OSU in 1980 with an Associates Degree in Fire Protection and a Bachelors of Science Degree in Safety Engineering Technology. Mr. Yuhas successfully passed Certified Safety Professional (CSP) examination in 1990 and was designated an Engineering Technologist by the Society of Fire Protection Engineers in 1991. He is a member of the American Association of Safety Professionals and the National Fire Protection Association.
Mr. Yuhas began his career with Hess Oil Virgin Islands Corporation, later leaving St.Croix to accept a position with SmithKline as their Safety and Training Manager at their grassroots fine chemical facility in The Bahamas. After the birth of his first two children, Mr. Yuhas left that position in 1998 to move closer to family, working as a consulting engineer for a major Insurance broker.
After 2 years consulting, he accepted a corporate position with Caltex Corporation in Dallas Texas. During his 10 year tenure with Caltex, he traveled to Africa, Middle East, Asia and Australia and New Zealand, Mr. Yuhas assisting affiliate companies improve operations through risk management surveys, Fire Protection systems design, and development of safety management systems and training programs.
Later, Mr. Yuhas accepted a position with a local Dallas Cement manufacturer as their Safety Manager, developing programs and training that helped this company reduce its recordable injury rate by 93% over a 3 year period.
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Ms. Jasna Zekic – Instructor for PRT 240 (Troubleshooting)
Ms. Zekic earned her engineering degree from Arizona State University and her Master’s degree in Education from the University of the Virgin Islands. She has over 11 year of experience in the engineering profession and has been a party-time instructor at UVI for the past 4 years. Her experience include working on DCS TDC3000 and Experion by Honeywell, DMC and IQ by AspenTech, alarm management, and project management on development of process simulators.
Ms. Jasna Zekic teaches the process troubleshooting course (PRT-240). The course content and workbook exercises are similar to the type of work that operators do in the refinery (troubleshoot equipment, process, and instrumentation). One of the class tools that she uses is the simulator DSS-100 by Simtronics. It gives the students the opportunity to determine the cause(s) of the process upset so they can correct the problem by bring it back to normal process conditions.
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Mr. Anthony Bhola – Instructor for PRT 232 (Operations) and PRT275 (Internship)
(no profile on file)