Kari Sebern

About Kari Sebern

Kari is the founder and principal of Vector Collaborative. With 20 years of design experience, Kari thrives when collaboratively arriving at solutions that are cost-effective, practical, innovative, and technically sound. She loves merging math and science into art and seeing her clients\' visions come to life.Kari founded Vector Collaborative, formerly called s-cube, in 2010 as an opportunity to provide local structural engineering support central and western Iowa and, in 2018, expanded to Colorado. She has expertise in steel, concrete, masonry and timber design, and uses the latest building technologies to serve her clients: Revit, Risa and RAM Structural System. Highly involved in the engineering industry, Kari serves as a voting member of the ASCE 7-22 Dead and Live Loads Subcommittee, sits on the Iowa State Building Code Advisory Council, and is a Past President of the Iowa Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers, an international society with 800+ members within the Iowa Section. In 2020 she started The Unboxing Project, an interview series with the goals of promoting diversity, breaking down stereotypes in STEM and exposing kids to STEM (science, technology, engineering and math). In 2022 the focus of this podcast shifted and was renamed to Unstruct. This new version of the podcast explores fascinating buildings around the world and the structural engineers behind them. Kari is most energized when she is connecting with and learning from inspiring people and expelling stereotypes in the engineering world. She is an entrepreneur, mom, Christian, certified yoga instructor, STEM advocate, and equal rights voice.

Experience

1. Founder and Principal

   Vector Collaborative

   Feb 2010 — Present · Des Moines, IA, US

   A regional leader in steel-framed building design and creative custom homes, we use state-of-the-art design and modeling software to create economical, structurally sound, and visually pleasing spaces. Involved from project inception to construction completion, we focus on collaborative design to arrive at a finished structure that meets and ideally exceeds the client’s expectations.Founded in 2010 by Kari Sebern, P.E, Vector Collaborative is proud to build long-lasting relationships and wants to be your ongoing structural engineering resource. Our team brings a unique perspective to each project, with experience ranging from complex high-rise lateral designs to deck designs. We take pleasure in a beautiful built environment, and if we can have a hand in creating that, even better. Merging math and science into art—that’s what we do.We are licensed to practice structural engineering in Iowa, Colorado, Florida, Nebraska, Minnesota and Utah.

Education

• South Dakota State University

  BS, Civil Engineering

  1998 — 2002

Skills

• Autocad
• Steel Design
• Timber Design
• Concrete
• Revit
• Structural Analysis
• Structural Engineering
• Concrete Design