Energy Team

Leadership Team

William Keffer, Director
Legal

Before joining the faculty in 2014, Bill Keffer was in practice for thirty years. After obtaining his BA in History from SMU in 1981 and his JD from the University of Texas in 1984, Mr. Keffer's first position was with the Dallas law firm of Vial, Hamilton, Koch & Knox, where he had a general litigation practice. His next position was as in-house litigation-management counsel with ARCO Oil & Gas Company, where he presided over a national docket of over 120 cases. While at ARCO, he began specializing in oilfield-pollution cases and handled all kinds of environmental claims in Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, California, Kansas, and offshore Gulf of Mexico. After leaving ARCO and joining the Dallas law firm now known as Foley Gardere, Mr. Keffer's practice focused exclusively on oilfield-pollution litigation, and he represented various energy companies, such as ARCO, ConocoPhillips, Chevron, and Vastar. Mr. Keffer also, on occasion, successfully represented various landowners in prosecuting their oilfield-pollution claims, including ranch families in the Permian Basin and South Texas, as well as rural landowners in the Barnett shale in North Texas. After leaving Gardere, Mr. Keffer had his own practice in Dallas for thirteen years, where he continued to focus on environmental matters involving the oil-and-gas industry. During that time, he also served in the Texas legislature for two terms from 2003 to 2007, representing House District 107 in Northeast Dallas County

Mr. Keffer is a charter member and former president of the Dallas Chapter of the Federalist Society. He is a member of the Board of Advisors for the Maguire Energy Institute, which is part of the Cox School of Business at SMU. He is an appointed member of the Texas delegation to the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission (IOGCC). 

 

Nikki Kantelis, MS
Energy Commerce

Nikki Kantelis, is area coordinator and assistant professor of practice, for the area of Energy Commerce and Business Economics. She joined the Rawls Faculty in 2014. She earned both a Bachelor and Master of Science in Economics from Colorado State University and an MBA in Quantitative Analysis from the Carlson School at the University of Minnesota. She was recruited by BP, and upon graduation, joined its U.S. subsidiary as a planning analyst within the oil supply, trading and transportation organization. During her tenure at BP, Kantelis moved upward through the company, holding positions of increasing responsibility and scope across the downstream in the oil supply and trading, retail marketing and pipelines business units. In what was then a male dominated industry, Kantelis set a number of firsts for BP including being the first women manager of energy futures trading, the first American woman to hold a seat on the international oil trading desk in London and the first woman vice president of BP's pipeline company.

With a growing family and wanting a more accommodating work/life balance, she decided to leave BP and focus her attention on a number of different projects in the non-profit sector. She served on a number of boards and advisory councils, where she was able to bring her business acumen in support of causes in education, social services and conservation.

Nikki has led the creation of a new concentration within the Energy Commerce program which focuses primarily on commercial operations and strategic analysis within the midstream and downstream sectors of the oil and gas industry.

Her uncommon blend of experiences in the academic, business and social arenas creates a rich mixture of theoretical and practical considerations in the classroom.

 

Marshall Watson, PhD, PE
Petroleum Engineering

Dr. Marshall C. Watson, Roy Butler Chair and Chair of the Texas Tech Bob L. Herd Department of Petroleum Engineering, has been a professor at Texas Tech since 2006. He is a registered professional engineer in Texas, Louisiana, New Mexico and Wyoming. Marshall has authored and co-authored several presentations, technical papers, and courses including SPEE Monograph 3, "Guidelines for the Practical Evaluation of Undeveloped Reserves in Resource Plays". As the recipient of multiple teaching awards, he teaches undergraduate introduction level, senior level design and graduate courses in Property Evaluation and Production.

Prior to arriving at Tech, his 30 year industry experience was with both major and independent oil companies, beginning with Shell Oil Company working as a production and reservoir engineer in the Wasson San Andres Denver Unit CO2 flood. Marshall received a BS from Cornell University and his MS and PhD from Texas Tech. Marshall has two patents and one pending for horizontal drilling, artificial lift and hydraulic fracturing.

Marshall is a member of the Society of Petroleum Evaluation Engineers (SPEE), Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), and the West Texas Geological Society. He was the SPEE 2012 President and still serves as advisor and on various committees.

 

Suhas Pol, Ph.D
Renewables

Dr. Pol is a researcher and innovator in the field of fluid dynamics and associated measurement science technology. His research is applied to understand complex flow processes around wind turbines, strategic petroleum reserves (SPR), and recently has been utilized to develop healthcare diagnostics. Dr. Pol has a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Arizona State University (ASU) and postdoctoral training from the Los Alamos National Laboratories (LANL). He is an Instructor at the Texas Tech University (TTU) National Wind Institute (NWI) and the Wind Energy Program.

During his time at TTU, Dr. Pol has actively participated in novel technology development that improves wind farm power production and reduce turbine loads. He is currently pursuing the development of a patent-pending thrust-based wake steering technology that has received the National Science Foundation's Innovation Corps (NSF I-Corps) award. He has an active collaboration with Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) to study Wind Turbine Rotor wakes at the NWI's labs at the REESE technology center and the SNL's Scaled Wind Farm Technology (SWiFT) facility. Additionally, Dr. Pol collaborates with private industry, most notably, he is assisting with AeroMINE Power's novel distributed wind energy source wind tunnel and field validation.

Faculty Profiles

Petroleum Engineering

Glenda S. Wylie
Ms. Glenda S. Wylie joined the Bob L. Herd Department of Petroleum Engineering in 2019 as an Instructor. Currently, she is supporting Field Developments, Petroleum Methods, and Production engineering courses undergraduate classes. Also, she collaborates with the Department of Energy (DOE) on various energy-related challenges. Glenda has authored and co-authored many presentations, technical papers and books predominately focused on unconventional resource developments. Glenda received a Professional Chemistry BS Degree: Murray State University (1975), Chemical Engineering BS: Texas AM University (1979) and Master's in Engineering Management University of Alaska (1991).

Her 35+ year Oil and Gas career included working for both an oil company (ARCO) and service company (Halliburton). In her last corporate position, she held a global Halliburton position assisting all disciplines to collaborate with IOCs, NOCs, and independent operating companies in developing unconventional and unique challenging oilfields. Glenda is currently a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, American Petroleum Institute organizations and active in the International Association of Drilling Contractors organization.

 

Steven Henderson, PhD
Steven Henderson is a native of Wichita Falls, Texas who completed a BS in geological sciences (minor in petroleum engineering) at the University of Texas in 1990. His PhD research included developing a geologic model for a producing San Andres field in the Midland Basin which serves as a foundation for flow-unit characterization, clay mineralogy of sands in the Delaware Basin, and petrophysical characteristics of a Pennsylvanian sand on the Eastern Shelf. After completing graduate studies in geosciences at Texas Tech (MS 1992, PhD 1995), he began his career as an open hole wireline "engineer" for Halliburton Wireline and Perforating in the Permian Basin, logging wells throughout west Texas and southeastern New Mexico. He went on to serve as a technical instructor at Halliburton's global wireline training center, developing and teaching courses to Halliburton employees and clients. Those courses covered a broad range of topics, including petroleum geology, downhole tool measurement physics, wellsite operations, log quality control, software applications, and formation evaluation.

In 2016 he joined Bob L. Herd Department of Petroleum Engineering at Texas Tech faculty. He has authored several technical papers on carbonate reservoir characterization and clay mineralogy, and was a contributing author to "Basic Well Log Analysis" by Asquith and Krygowski (2004). His current research interests include reservoir characterization in the San Andres Horizontal play, permeability prediction in carbonates, slice mapping applications in carbonates, and petrophysics studies. He is a member of SPWLA, SPE, and AAPG.

 

Law School

Brie Sherwin
Brie graduated from the University of New Mexico with a B.S. in Biology and was one of the first law students at Texas Tech to graduate with a J.D./M.S. in Environmental Toxicology. After graduating, she moved to Dallas to practice environmental law, where she represented blue-collar workers and communities in toxic tort litigation. In 2008, Dr. Sherwin moved back to Lubbock to teach and complete her Ph.D. in Environmental Toxicology. Her research has focused on endangered species, environmental health, and environmental justice issues, including the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, and the environmental impact of coal ash waste ponds. She has been published in the top environmental law journals in the country, including the Stanford Environmental Law Journal and the N.Y.U. Environmental Law Journal. In addition to teaching Legal Practice at the law school, she teaches Environmental Health in the Texas Tech University Dept. of Public Health

Rod Wetsel
Rod Wetsel is the senior partner at Wetsel, Carmichael, Allen, & Lederle, LLP in Sweetwater, Texas, where he has practiced law for over forty years. He is a 1975 graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, where he received a B.A. with high honors and special honors in History and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa in 1974. He received his J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law in 1977. He is board certified in oil, gas and mineral law and has served as an assistant editor of the Title Standard Joint Editorial Board since 1991. He was an adjunct professor at the University of Texas School of Law from 2012 to 2018, where he taught popular courses in wind energy. During this time, he also co-taught a wind law writing seminar with the late Steven K. De Wolf and a wind law class for three years with Professor Ernest E. Smith. In 2014, he was named a charter member of the Advisory Council of the Kay Bailey Hutchinson Center for Energy Law and Business. He is now an adjunct professor at Texas Tech University School of Law, where he teaches both wind law and Texas mineral titles. Along with Ernest E. Smith and Becky H. Diffen, he is a co-author of the treatise, Wind Law, which was first published in 2011. In 2019, Professor Wetsel was
the recipient of the University of Texas Ernest E. Smith Lifetime Achievement Award in Energy Law. He is a frequent author and speaker on wind and solar energy and oil and gas topics throughout the United States.

Jeremy Martin
Jeremy joined Texas Tech University as an Assistant Professor of Practice in 2018 after almost 10 years in the energy industry, all of which he spent at Southwestern Energy Company. While at SWN, he oversaw assets in Arkansas, Colorado, West Virginia and Pennsylvania. A 2009 graduate of the Texas Tech Energy Commerce program Jeremy also received his law degree in 2014 from the University of Houston where he graduated Magna Cum Laude. Jeremy is a member of the State Bar of Texas, AAPL and RMMLF.

 

 

 

Energy Commerce

Brad Ewing
Brad currently holds the C.T. McLaughlin Chair of Free Enterprise in the Rawls College of Business. Brad specializes in the study of energy economics, operations, macroeconomics, forecasting and econometrics. He has published over 150 peer reviewed research articles, received grants from the National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Commerce/National Institute of Standards and Technology, the U.S. Department of Energy, and numerous other sources, and is regularly engaged in consulting as a principal of the Ph.D. Resource Group, LLC. His articles have appeared in prestigious academic journals such as The Energy Journal, Energy Economics, Energy Policy, Review of Economics and Statistics, Energy Sources, and the Journal of Risk and Insurance. Brad received his doctorate in economics from Purdue University.

Kassandra McQuillen, JD
Mrs. McQuillen earned a Juris Doctor degree in law from Ventura College of Law in 2003. She worked for an international business law firm specializing in business law and intellectual property rights for corporations doing business with China and Taiwan for two years, then opened her own law practice in Kern County, California in 2006.

Mrs. McQuillen's law practice specialized in real estate and business matters with a focus on wind energy development lease negotiation and zoning and permitting laws. She participated in amending and drafting wind energy regulations and was involved in the development of the Tehachapi Wind Resource Area in Kern County, California. Mrs. McQuillen also successfully litigated one of the few cases involving wind rights and an easement by prescription for the right to wind as a resource in California.

Mrs. McQuillen has worked with many of the world's largest wind turbine manufacturers and developers securing wind energy land rights and litigating personal injury matters arising from wind energy projects. Her knowledge of the technological aspects of wind energy combined with her experience in land use laws led her to be the top wind energy lawyer in California for more than a decade.

Mrs. McQuillen moved to Lubbock in 2016 when her husband, Mark McQuillen took a new position as project manager for prototype wind turbines for GE Renewables in Lubbock. She has published several legal articles relating to landowner, regulatory, and liability issues in wind energy and brings real-world experience in the industry to our program.

Mrs. McQuillen is a licensed attorney in Texas and California and a member of the Energy Law, Natural Resources, and Women in Law sections of the State Bar of Texas.

 

Renewables

Michael Giesselmann, PE
Dr. Michael Giesselmann, PE received his doctoral degree in Electrical Engineering in 1986 from the Technical University in Darmstadt, Germany. At present he holds the rank of Professor and is the Chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Texas Tech University. Dr. Giesselmann is a Senior Member of the IEEE and a licensed Professional Engineer in Texas. Dr. Michael Giesselmann has been a principal faculty member and key researcher in the Pulsed Power Laboratory since 1986. During his 30 years in the Laboratory, Dr. Giesselmann educated a new generation of leaders in the field of Pulsed Power which are in decision-making positions in National and Department of Defense (DOD) Laboratories. Since the early 1990's Dr. Giesselmann worked on solid state Power Electronics for Pulsed Power Applications. Dr. Giesselmann worked on high power density designs for continuous operation at the 500 kW level for 60 kV DC as well as 13.8 kV AC 60 Hz output for ship borne & airborne applications.

Dr. Giesselmann has extensive experience with Wind Power and renewable energy systems in both teaching & research capacity. He was the lead in procuring a 1MW – 1MWhr battery storage system to complement a wind farm at Reese Technology Center in Lubbock Texas and install a Synchro-Phasor Network to monitor the SPP grid in the Texas Panhandle. He is currently a Co-PI on the $13 Mio GLEAMM project at Reese Technology Center, He was the committee chair of 34 graduate students and served on the committees of 66 others. To date Dr. Giesselmann has published more than 160 articles in the form of journal papers, conference proceedings and book chapters. He has participated in funded research totaling over $33 Mio.

Jeff Allen
Jeffrey L. Allen graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. degree from Texas A&M University in December 2003 before pursuing his legal education at Texas Tech University where he earned his J.D. as well as his M.B.A. in 2007. He has been with the law firm of Wetsel, Carmichael, Allen, & Lederle, L.L.P. in Sweetwater, Texas since graduation with a practice focusing primarily on oil and gas title examination as well as wind and other renewable energy law focusing primarily on landowner representation. Other practice areas also include civil litigation and other matters inherent in a small town practice. Licensed to practice in both Texas and New Mexico, he has served as the President of the Nolan County Bar Association and is a member of the College of the State Bar of Texas. He recently co-authored, "Avoid Voidance - How to Draft Oil and Gas Legal Descriptions in Compliance with the Texas Statute of Frauds," presented at the Mineral Title Course for the Center for American and International Law, May 2, 2013, and May 14, 2015, in Houston, Texas, as well as participating as speaker on other renewable energy topics.