CJ Mace comes to Shakopee with a background in the trades, the arts and education. She has taught various levels, from elementary to college. She holds an MFA in Interdisciplinary Book and Paper Media from Columbia College Chicago, but post-graduate school she entered the trades as a millwright (precision industrial mechanic) in the United Brotherhood of Carpenters. As a millwright, she loved to lift really big equipment with cranes, drive all-terrain forklifts and fix very large machinery. She worked a lot in the energy industry on turbines, in the mining industry and built, maintained and installed machinery all over the upper Midwest like conveyors and other production equipment.  In her free time, she builds and welds contract commission work for artists, woodworks, camps with her family and gardens and raises quail in her urban back yard.

Because the shops are loud and she moves between a couple of them while teaching, the best way to communicate with CJ is through email. However, voicemails are welcome.