Meet the Plastics Training Academy Faculty and Instructors
Brad Johnson
Mr. Bradley Johnson is a lecturer in engineering at Penn State Behrend. He received an A.S. in 1980 in engineering science from Alfred State College; a B.S. in 1983 and an M.E. in 1984 in chemical engineering from Virginia Tech; and an M.B.A. in 1993 from Gannon University. Mr. Johnson is a member of the American Society of Engineering Education (A.S.E.E.) and the Society of Plastics Engineers (S.P.E.). He serves on the board of directors for the Injection Molding Division of S.P.E.
Mr. Johnson came to Penn State Behrend with eleven years of industry experience: as a project engineer in manufacturing and then design/development at Osram Sylvania Incorporated, located in Warren, Pennsylvania; and, earlier, as a lab technician at Chemical Process and Supply Company, Dunkirk, NY; and as a plating engineering for Torpedo Wire & Strip, Inc., located in Pittsfield, Pennsylvania.
Mr. Johnson is the director of the Plastics Training Academy at Penn State Behrend. He organizes and chairs the Innovation and Emerging Plastics Technology Conferences held at Penn State Behrend.
Mr. Johnson has been awarded Honored Service Member of the Society of Plastics Engineers, 2023; Member of the Year Award, presented by the Northwest Pennsylvania section of the Society of Plastics Engineers, 2011; Engineer of the Year Award, 2010, Society of Plastics Engineer Injection Molding Division; and Division Chair Award, Society of Plastics Engineers Annual Technical Conference (ANTEC), May 2007. Mr. Johnson has authored several papers on injection molding process control, which he has presented at ANTEC, winning a best paper award in 2013.
Sean Tucker
Sean Tucker is a graduate of Penn State Behrend with a B.S. in Plastics Engineering Technology. Sean has worked in the medical device industry for more than twenty years in roles from process engineering, including design and development, to maintenance management, production management, and quality/regulatory affairs.
Sean has worked with various plastic processes, including injection molding, injection blow molding, injection stretch blow molding, extrusion, and thermoforming. He also has experience working with metal forming processes, casting processes, high-speed assembly, manual assembly, and bio-processing.
Sean has been working as a Senior Quality Manager for Intuitive since 2018. Prior to that, Sean worked as Corporate Validation Manager for Becton Dickinson, a leading international medical device company. In this capacity, Sean was responsible for the worldwide implementation of molding validation throughout the corporation, as well as ongoing improvements in both process and molding validation for internal and external processes. He taught courses internally on process and molding validation, as well as externally being the lead facilitator for validation for AdvaMed. Sean is certified Master Molder III and a seasoned Six Sigma Black Belt.
He has been teaching courses internally on process and molding validation, as well as externally being the lead facilitator for validation for AdvaMed. Sean is a certified Master Molder III and a seasoned Six Sigma Black Belt.
Brian Young
Mr. Brian Young is an associate professor of engineering in the Plastics Engineering Technology department at Penn State Behrend. He received both a B.S. in Plastics Engineering Technology in 1995 and an MFGSE, Master's in Manufacturing Engineering in 2005, from Penn State Behrend. Prior to his employment at Penn State Behrend, he worked for Omni Plastics and as an adjunct faculty member in our plastics program from 1996-2001. Mr. Young came to Penn State Behrend with sixteen years of industry experience.
Mr. Young is a member of the Society of Plastics Engineers (S.P.E.) and the American Society for Engineering Education. He was awarded the College Teaching Workshop Certificate from Penn State Behrend's Center for Teaching and Educational Technologies in 2006. Mr. Young also received the Council of Fellows Excellence in Teaching Award in 2007.
Jason Williams
Mr. Jason Williams is an associate teaching professor of engineering in the Plastics Engineering Technology department at Penn State Behrend. He received both an A.S. in Mechanical Engineering Technology in 1990 and a B.S. in Plastics Engineering Technology in 1992 from Penn State Behrend. Prior to his full-time employment at Penn State Behrend, he worked as an adjunct instructor at Penn State Behrend and also at Kent State University's Ashtabula campus.
Mr. Williams was employed as a CAD Operator at Knox Western from 1989-1991 and as a senior research associate at the Plastics Technology Deployment Center PTDC at Penn State Behrend from 1991-1996. He founded K Development, Inc., a design company focused on plastic product design and development, in 1996. He was responsible for technical sales, program management, and technical oversight. His projects ranged from simple reverse engineering to complete program and supply chain management. Mr. Williams has 16 years of industry experience.
Mr. Williams received the IDEA Gold Award and the Medical Design Excellence Silver Award, and has five patents credited to him. Mr. Williams is head of the Medical Plastics Center of Excellence.
Nick Vitelli
Mr. Nicholas Vitelli is a lecturer in engineering in the Plastics Engineering Technology and Polymer Engineering Science programs at Penn State Behrend. He received his B.S. in Plastics Engineering Technology in 2005 from Behrend. Prior to his full-time employment at Penn State, he worked as an adjunct instructor at Behrend for several years. He came to Behrend with 18 years of experience in mold design and project management, working with customers in the automotive industry, consumer products, medical, and industrial markets. He has experience in tool design and manufacture for thermoplastics and thermosets, as well as die casting.
Stacey Payne
Stacey has five years of experience at iMFLUX. The last year, she worked on the education team, developing training materials and doing workforce training both at iMFLUX and at customer manufacturing facilities. Prior to that, she served a year as an application engineer and three years as a process engineer. She traveled extensively in the U.S. and internationally to various manufacturing sites to help customers set up processes with a wide variety of materials and mold geometries.
Stacey is a 2018 graduate of Penn State Behrend's Plastics Engineering Technology program. During her time at Behrend, she was a teaching assistant for some of the undergraduate injection molding labs, as well as for numerous industry workshops, in which she guided attendees through the setup of traditional molding processes using injection velocity-controlled fill.