Our Team

Jeff Kaper 

Owner & Principal

For more than 25 years, Jeff has helped clients rethink how their homes function and feel—solving their pain points and shaping homes around how people actually live.

The work centers on design, but Jeff will tell you it’s always been about people. A lot of those clients and collaborators are now close friends.

His path to design wasn’t conventional. After earning a business management degree from Taylor University, he went to work in his family’s business—part strategist, part builder. That background still shapes how he leads SDG today: with a clear head for project execution and a genuine respect for the craft. He takes good design seriously and himself less so.

Jeff and his wife, Sarah, live in Champaign-Urbana. With four kids now through college, he has, for perhaps the first time, something resembling actual hobbies. He runs, works in his yard, travels when he can, and gathers people around the fire pit for good conversation that leads to the kind of evening that goes longer than anyone planned.

Dawn Bane

Design & Color Strategist

Dawn has always noticed the details other people might overlook. As a kid, that meant taking far too long to choose the right color golf ball at the mini-golf park. Today, it shows up in the way she sees possibilities in a room, works through a difficult floor plan, and finds unexpected solutions that make a space feel right.

A graduate of Iowa State University, Dawn also spent a semester studying in Italy, where she developed an appreciation for older spaces and the character that comes with them. In her 15 years at Spectrum Design Group, she has designed everything from individual rooms to extensive home renovations, finding solutions that improve how a home functions while respecting what makes it distinctive.

Dawn approaches each project as a whole, considering how layout, light, color, texture, materials, and daily life work together. She enjoys mixing materials and textures in ways that feel right for both the client and the home. Wellness is an important part of that thinking. She pays attention to how a space can affect the way people feel and function throughout the day, from energy and focus to rest and a sense of calm. For Dawn, a well-designed home isn't only about how it looks, but how it supports the people living there.

Outside of work, Dawn enjoys life with her husband and two boys, from weekends spent at the baseball field to the creative pursuits they share at home. She finds balance and inspiration in time outdoors, where a simple walk often creates space for fresh ideas.

Cory Rodeheaver

Designer & Director of Safety

Cory built his first treehouse when he was eight years old. Many tents and structures later, that early instinct for shaping space grew into a career in design spanning more than two decades.

For over 20 years, alongside his professional work, Cory has worked as a freelance scenic designer, collaborating with the Champaign-Urbana Ballet Company, Parkland College, and the University of Illinois Theatre Department. He also spent nine years as a senior exhibit designer and art director in the museum and themed entertainment industry, designing award-winning exhibits and immersive environments across the country. He holds an MFA in Scenic Design from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

At Spectrum Design Group, Cory brings a depth of spatial thinking that goes well beyond residential interior design. Working in theater teaches you that a space has to do something to the person standing in it. Museum work teaches you flow, scale, and how people move through an environment. And a genuine appreciation for older homes — their architecture, their history, the intent behind how they were built — shapes how he approaches every project. Clients working with Cory get a designer who has spent decades solving hard problems in demanding environments. That breadth is uncommon, and it shows in the work.

Outside of work, Cory enjoys photography, time outdoors, fighting with his pool, and being with his three children.

Renee Beere

Project Manager

Renee has been guiding clients through design and renovation projects since 2021. Her role is to make sure nothing falls through the cracks, from the first design meeting through construction and final walkthrough.

There is real structure behind the scenes. Renee holds both PMP and Scrum Master certifications, which is rare in an interior design firm. Those credentials shape how she runs a project, with enough administration that nothing slips, and enough flexibility that clients aren’t buried in process. She’s the one person involved in the renovation who understands both the design decisions and the construction realities, and who is accountable when those two worlds come together.

She takes the relationship side of the work just as seriously. Renee has built strong connections with the tradespeople who bring projects to life, and she pays close attention to how the process feels for the people living through it. She understands the disruption and works to keep things moving as smoothly and efficiently as possible.

Her connection to renovation started early. Growing up in Ohio in a family of DIYers, she learned to see a home as something that can always be improved. That perspective still shows up in her own house, which is usually in the middle of some kind of project. Living through renovations herself gives her a practical understanding of what clients experience and what it takes to keep a project moving forward.

Kara Vanskike

Marketing Director & Office Manager

Kara develops SDG's marketing framework while overseeing daily operations. Her work focuses on helping homeowners understand what it's actually like to work with SDG. Rather than focusing on trends or surface-level inspiration, she helps clients understand what to expect, how decisions are made, and what it takes to execute a well-planned renovation.

Kara’s perspective comes from not being a designer, which means she naturally asks the same questions clients do. With a strong interest in analytics and strategy, she plays a key role in shaping the overall client experience for those new to interior design.

Growing up in a home her parents built and maintained, she spent much of her time in home improvement stores collecting samples for her own interior design firm. At nine, she had quite the business. Once she realized she lacked any real design ability, she gravitated toward opportunities to work with truly creative people.

Outside of work, Kara spends most of her time with her two boys — usually at a hockey rink or out on their next adventure. Her youngest is rockin’ an extra chromosome, so she’s actively involved in the Down syndrome and Special Olympics communities.