Shane Hoeper Awarded with 2025 Emory R. Rodgers Leadership in Building Safety Fellowship

Shane Hoeper, Plans Examiner for the City of Dubuque, Iowa, has always had a passion for renewable energy and cool technology, but he never dreamed that he’d connect his passion to building safety. 

He’s grateful that he did – after joining the industry in 2018, Hoeper found that he can use building codes to shape a safer and more efficient world. 

“I know we typically put a hard dollars and cents [number on it],” said Hoeper. “For example, code proposal XYZ saves X amount of dollars. But there is a greater cost to that and I think it’s important to educate the community and make these energy improvements just as common as 16-inch on-center studs. They’re just there, invisible, part of the building.” 

As a rental inspector (his first role in building safety), Hoeper found another passion: a desire to help others. 

“When you’re in somebody’s house day after day, you get a certain amount of emotional IQ, awareness and layers upon layers of empathy that you didn’t have before,” Hoeper explained. “It’s been really eye-opening, especially when you get to know tenants on a first name basis because you keep going back. That’s what I like about this job. And even as Plans Examiner, I’m not giving up all that. It’s rewarding. We’re in a small enough group where I can still hang on to a few of these little side projects.” 

Hoeper’s commitment to helping people – which is at the heart of building safety – inspired him to consider what he might be able to achieve in a leadership position in public service. As the recipient of the International Code Council’s (ICC) 2025 Emory R. Rodgers Leadership in Building Safety Fellowship, he is well on his way to finding out. 

Developing Leadership Skills

The Emory R. Rodgers Leadership in Building Safety Fellowship was created to commemorate its namesake, an influential leader, mentor and advisor who spent more than four decades devoting himself to building safety. The Fellowship is awarded annually to an ICC member pursuing an executive-level career path and provides up to $20,000 to cover educational program costs and travel expenses for the recipient. 

Hoeper will use the Fellowship to attend the Senior Executives in State and Local Government program at the Harvard Kennedy School. This is the same program that previous 2023 Fellowship recipient Andy Higgins attended.  

“It’s an opportunity to develop leadership skills, develop a broader sense of local and state government,” Hoeper said of the Fellowship. “One of my favorite things in this job is dealing with people, builders and maintenance folks.” 

His overall favorite part of the job is mentoring and teaching others. He was inspired to apply for the 2025 Fellowship after seeing JC Hudgison receive the 2022 Fellowship award. 

“I don’t think of myself as particularly good at any one thing, but I have a lot to share about a lot of things,” Hoeper continued. “I have very broad and deep construction experience, and it’s fun to help people be better than me. That’s mainly what I want out of this program, just more opportunities to mentor and teach and train.” 

In addition to the Senior Executives in State and Local Government program, Hoeper is enrolled in the Master of Public Administration program at Drake University. He has also served on and has chaired a number of committees and commissions. He currently chairs the ICC Energy Conservation Consensus Committee – Residential and is a member of the ICC Sustainability Membership Council Governing Committee. Hoeper also submitted code proposals for the ICC code development process. 

Committed to Building Safety, Determined to Make a Difference 

The City of Dubuque has a rental licensing and inspection program that covers nearly 11,000 rental units. Each unit is inspected every two years using the International Property Maintenance Code® (IPMC). Hoeper worked on this program as a rental inspector and said that while some inspections are more technical and challenging than others, inspecting rentals is emotionally taxing work. 

“Rental inspectors and the people who enforce the International Property Maintenance Code have a really tough job mentally,” he said. “There’s a lot of emotional weight to some of these inspections. They’re doing hard work.” 

The work may be difficult but it’s also incredibly important. The goal is to make sure that every tenant has a minimum standard of living with no water leaks, electrical hazards, broken windows or other notable issues. 

Having worked in construction and building safety, Hoeper understands both sides of a failed inspection. He knows the challenges, and the internal anguish that can follow when a mistake is made. He takes no pleasure in telling a renter, homeowner or property owner that they failed inspection or that they are in violation of the code. More often than not, he just feels their pain. 

To that end, Hoeper has two pieces of advice. First, if a property owner doesn’t know something, they should not hesitate to call their local building inspector or building official. He happily answers questions whenever someone calls the City of Dubuque and will frequently have consultations with people to ensure they understand what they can and cannot do, and that they are ultimately on the right track. 

Second, instead of getting upset when mistakes are made, Hoeper wants people to realize that building inspectors are there to help. 

“Sometimes when you’re building, you don’t see the forest for the trees,” said Hoeper. “You make a simple mistake. You missed a TPR valve extension or something you’ve done a thousand times, and for whatever reason, it just didn’t happen [this time].” 

From the Doldrums of Inventory Management to the Excitement of Building Safety 

While some building safety professionals discover their love of the built environment at a young age, Hoeper found his true calling later in life. Armed with a BS in Business Administration and Finance from the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, he initially embarked on an entirely different career. 

He worked in inventory management for retailers, including Lands’ End, right out of college. He bounced around between various dot-com newcomers at the dawn of the Internet age and subsequent dot-com bust before joining his dad’s construction business, which offered greater flexibility while raising a young family. 

“I could coach the baseball games, go to school events,” said Hoeper. “It just fit. And it struck a tone with me.” 

Hoeper helped build small single-family homes before opening his own company, Hoeper Green Power, to focus on renewable energy and high-efficiency homes. He installed solar panels and energy storage solutions but wanted to do more to reduce carbon. He was particularly interested in designing and building high-performance homes and proudly worked on Iowa’s most energy-efficient home. The work was rewarding but eventually ran its course as both the physical and emotional stresses took their toll. 

It was around this time that the City of Dubuque opened a job for a rental inspector. This sounded like a great opportunity to Hoeper, who was serving on the City of Dubuque Housing Commission at the time. 

“It was definitely a change of speed from owning my own business, working generally with a handful of people at any given time, to working for the City of Dubuque as a rental inspector,” recalled Hoeper. “You’re meeting the folks, seeing how they live, identifying code, writing reports – it’s a very different pace. Sometimes when people are having issues with their unit or house, temperatures can be high, so it’s a lot of people management, [which is] the greatest difference between [building safety] and construction.” 

Learn more about the Emory R. Rodgers Leadership in Building Safety Fellowship and future application deadlines, here.