Dr. Secord is currently an associate professor at the University of St. Thomas. Prior to joining the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of St. Thomas, he spent six years at Medtronic working on the development and testing of bio-prosthetic transcatheter heart valves. His work at Medtronic encompassed many aspects of structural design, accelerated testing, and regulatory approval for implantable devices. Dr. Secord was a member of a six-person team that received the 2014 Technical Contributor of the Year Award and was individually nominated for the Preclinical Research Excellence Award in the same year. Bolstered by his industry experience, Dr. Secord is also a licensed professional engineer in the state of Minnesota. 

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Dr. Secord completed his graduate studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, MA. His doctoral research focused on the design of smart material actuators and artificial muscles for robotics. He is the author of several peer reviewed publications, a book chapter, and numerous conference papers. He received the Best Paper Award from the IFAC Symposium on Mechatronic Systems and was a Best Automation Paper Award finalist at the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.