How a ChemE Got into Mechanical Integrity (featuring Melanie Brewer)

Upon Further Inspection · Jul 9, 2026 · 1h 1m · transcript

In this episode of Upon Further Inspection, Branden and Greg sit down with Melanie Brewer, MI Authority at Third Coast and a 20-plus-year veteran of the mechanical integrity space. Melanie traces her unexpected path from aspiring aerospace engineer — inspired by the NASA programs of the 1980s — to chemical engineering at the University of Dayton, where a co-op program gave her real-world exposure to industrial plant environments. Her early career at an acrylonitrile plant quickly converted her initial skepticism about plant work into a genuine passion, and it was there that she built the…