Garner Palenske Joins WJE

WJE is pleased to announce that Garner A. Palenske, P.E., has joined the firm as an associate principal. Mr. Palenske will be located in San Diego.

Mr. Palenske brings more than thirty-two years of experience in the fire protection and life safety consulting field. His vast experience includes building and fire code analysis, performance-based design, fire protection/detection system design, fire modeling, fire testing, wildland fire analysis, origin and cause, and other forensic work. His publications include numerous fire research projects exploring ESFR sprinkler performance, high-piled storage fire behavior, and lithium-ion Energy Storage System fire hazard analysis.

Carl Baldassarra, principal and Fire Protection unit manager, said, "We are pleased to have Garner join the WJE team. His technical expertise and considerable experience will fortify the notable depth and talent in our practice. He is committed to delivering exceptional client service -- a core WJE value."

Prior to joining WJE, Mr. Palenske was a vice president for Jensen Hughes in San Diego, where he provided fire protection and life safety services to clients throughout the United States. He also held several senior leadership positions within Aon Fire Protection Engineering and as the City of San Diego's first fire protection engineer.

Mr. Palenske holds a bachelor of science in structural engineering and a bachelor of arts in business. He is also a spring 2019 graduation candidate of the master of science in the fire protection engineering program at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo.

Garner is a licensed engineer in the states of Arizona, California, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah. His committee work includes membership in the National Fire Protection Association's Automatic Sprinkler System Committee, NFPA 13.

Garner can be reached at gpalenske@wje.com or at 858.735.1077.