Case Studies July 2026

On a humid South Carolina afternoon, Stephen Taylor sat in a school board meeting and watched a group of high schoolers take the stage to be recognized for their accomplishments. To most in the room, it was simply a nice moment on the agenda. To Taylor, it was the entire point of his job. As […]

Cal Dueck does not talk about custom homebuilding as a transaction. He talks about it as a relationship, one that begins long before ground is broken and continues well after a family moves in. As president and co-owner of Dueck Builders, he has given life to a company rooted in the belief that the most […]

On a raw February afternoon over three decades ago, a young student trainer stood on the sideline of a Waynesburg University practice field, taping ankles and wondering if he could picture himself doing the same job at fifty. The answer, quietly and without fanfare, was no. That small moment of self-reflection would end up rerouting […]

Joshua Hamby spent nearly a decade believing he was going to spend his life fighting cancer. From the time he was 14, the path seemed clear: medical school, oncology, a career devoted to the hardest disease in the room. Then one of his best friends was diagnosed with cancer in high school. He passed away […]

Cole Murray didn’t set out to build water parks. He set out to build himself. Growing up in a family of educators—both parents retired teachers, his sister a kindergarten instructor—Murray followed what felt like an inevitable path toward education at Stephen F. Austin State University, where he eventually graduated with a degree in history. But […]

When one superintendent joked that he wanted his building back after seeing how Acceleration Academies transformed one of the district’s former facilities, Dan Miller knew he had done something right. The space, which used to house a previous district partnership, now boasts inviting, brightly colored walls, comfortable seating arrangements and modern finishes, making the facility […]

Aaron DiBucci did not begin his professional life in public education. His early career was built in the private sector, where sales targets, international travel, and operational scale defined success. Today, as director of facilities and properties for Port Clinton City School District, his focus is measured differently. It is seen in clean hallways before […]

When Petu Kummala was a university student in Turku, Finland, he spent summers working at a shipyard—not yet designing the vessels that passed through, but installing their interiors, hands deep in the craft of making floating spaces feel like somewhere worth being. He studied naval architecture, never quite imagining that the same shipyard where he […]

Keri Steers has spent much of her life solving practical problems. Long before she entered the professional world of facilities management, she was learning firsthand how buildings worked, spending time on sites, handling tools, and seeing how quickly things could break and be fixed again and ultimately improve people’s lives. Those early experiences built a […]

Before Daniel Derrick ever managed a stadium project or supervised a synthetic turf conversion, he was the guy behind the drum kit. He has been playing for more than 20 years, gigging with a cover band that swings between Hank Williams Jr. and Charlie Daniels and anywhere else the setlist takes them. It is an […]