Founders of EMMS

EMMS is the brainchild of Mark and Elizabeth Jones. Originally from central Illinois, where they were raised amidst the corn and soybean fields, they transplanted to New Mexico in 2015 and fell hard into the Land of Entrapment. Having always enjoyed outdoor activities and the peace and solitude of the countryside, they settled into the East Mountains like two peas in a pod.

Mark joined the Infantry soon after high-school and served for 5 years, including two tours of duty in Iraq. Using the GI Bill, he earned an Associate degree in auto-collision repair from Parkland Community College in Champaign, IL, and continued taking classes in machining to fully leverage his military benefits. While Elizabeth finished her graduate studies, Mark gained experience making custom fiber-glass airplane and helicopter cockpits for flight simulators with Frasca International. After moving to New Mexico, Mark excelled at Jaguar Precision Machining as a prototype machinist, focusing on complex, 5-axis parts. In 2021, he became an instructor at Central New Mexico Community College (CNM) in their Machine Tool Technology program, bringing his wealth of knowledge to students, young and mature alike, as they start careers as machinists or learn a new hobby. Through EMMS, Mark seeks to combine his skills for machining with his passion for teaching, opening the door for other DIY’ers, veterans and students to realize their creativity.

Elizabeth went to school at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for a solid decade (plus a sabbatical year teaching English at a high-school in France), earning her BS, MS, and PhD in Theoretical and Applied Mechanics in the College of Engineering. In 2015, she moved the family to New Mexico for a postdoctoral research position at Sandia National Laboratories, where she is currently a research staff member focusing on Digital Image Correlation (DIC) for material characterization in extreme environments. Regarding EMMS, she is excited to bring her detailed analytical and organizational skills to the table.

Aside from career activities, Mark enjoys woodworking—building customized cabinets, baby cribs, and guitars—as well as networking with other woodworkers and machinists to brainstorm ideas and share projects. Elizabeth is building up a small homestead with chickens, a vegetable garden, and cheese-making, and also enjoys hand quilting, knitting, and photography. The family is completed by their two dogs—Sandr and Althea—and tomcat The Fool, along with the cherished memories of Bailey, Cheech, Fitz, and Hercules. When not too busy with work and hobbies, the family loves to go camping and hiking together.