Instructor Biographies

Larry Aft, P.E., was IISE's continuing education director. He currently serves as president of IISE's wholly owned subsidiary, IISE Solutions Business Consulting. Prior to joining IISE, he served for 31 years as a professor of industrial engineering technology at Southern Polytechnic State University (now Kennesaw State University). He has consulted for more than 195 organizations on productivity and quality-related activities. He has taught Six Sigma, work measurement, process analysis, statistical process control, problem-solving tools and data analysis courses, and he has helped countless organizations implement these methods. Aft has authored numerous articles, handbook chapters, and several books. His professional experience includes master black belt trainer, Six Sigma implementation, SPC implementation and expert witness and standards audits provider for labor disputes. He is a fellow of the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers and the American Society for Quality.

Tina Agustiady is a certified Six Sigma Master Black Belt and Continuous Improvement Leader.  Tina is a Production Systems Coach at Redzone. Prior to joining Redzone, Agustiady managed Lean Transformation and Business Reengineering programs across the enterprise at MetLife.   Being part of Lean and Continuous Improvement community of practice Tina is an accomplished professional with a track record of being a Subject Matter Expert on Lean, Six Sigma, Innovation, Design of Experiments and Business Process Management. As Director, Operations Master Black Belt at Philips Healthcare Agustiady drove all continuous improvement projects in the CT/ AMI Operations function, resulting in the highest efficiency and effectiveness levels within Philips Healthcare. She was the transformation leader for the two businesses providing coaching and leadership in the new methodology. She was recently a strategic change agent as a key member of the BASF Site Leadership Team responsible for infusing the use of Lean Six Sigma throughout the organization. Tina consistently improves cost, quality, and delivery by applying Lean and Six Sigma tools to achieve improvements through a simplification process. Tina is an experienced leader who has facilitated many Kaizen, 5s, and Root Cause Analysis events throughout her career in the healthcare, food, and chemical industries.  She has conducted six sigma training and improvement programs in the Baking industry at Dawn Foods and at Nestlé Prepared Foods where she held positions as a Six Sigma Product and Process Design Specialist responsible for driving optimum fit of product design and current manufacturing process capability, reducing total manufacturing cost and consumer complaints. 

Lynn Alters is project manager with Floyd Medical. Prior to that she was the productivity coordinator for the WellStar Health System. She is responsible for all productivity monitoring and benchmarking activities for the five hospitals within WellStar. Alters holds BIET and MSQA degrees and has a Six Sigma green belt certification. She has more than 20 years of experience in industrial engineering and financial analysis, primarily in the healthcare industry. Alters' experience includes performing process improvement studies, leading benchmarking teams, implementing productivity systems, and educating management and staff on using measurement tools to identify performance improvement opportunities and reduce expenses.

Brock Anderson is the owner of Ergo-ology Inc. His primary effort focuses on strategic alignment of consulting services with customer needs, managing Ergo-ology’s team of professional ergonomists, and assisting with a variety of technical consulting projects.

Before launching Ergo-ology in 2015, Brock worked as the human performance coach for the Atlanta Falcons and USA Weightlifting Team. He began his career as a corporate ergonomist at Gulfstream Aerosapce and also spent several years as the global head ergonomics program manager for Coca-Cola.

Brock’s doctoral study was in industrial engineering with a focus on supply chain efficiencies. He also has a dual master's degree in biomechanics and physiology from Auburn University, where his primary research focused on muscle fatigue and ergonomic design.

Brock is a board-certified professional ergonomist, certified industrial ergonomist, a strength and conditioning specialist, and certified Lean Six Sigma black belt.

Bob Atkins, P.E., has been a professor of industrial engineering technology at Southern Polytechnic State University since 1984. He has taught undergraduate courses in industrial engineering, quality assurance, marketing, statistics, facility design and work measurement, and he has taught master of science courses in quality assurance. He has a B.S. in industrial engineering and operations research from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and an M.B.A. in marketing from Georgia State University. Atkins has 13 years of factory engineering experience. His work experience includes insurance companies, apparel companies, glass and plastic manufacturing companies, medical device and pharmaceutical companies, and textile companies. He has taught hundreds of continuing education seminars and has done on-site consulting work for dozens of organizations throughout the Southeast.

Jerry Berlanga is a respected lean healthcare teacher, coach and author. Jerry has supported lean transformations with leading healthcare organizations across the US and Canada. Jerry co-authored Lean Daily Management for Healthcare Field Guide (CRC Press), which is key to lean transformation. Berlanga works closely with healthcare senior leadership, middle management and frontline staff to develop a daily cadence for improvement using lean daily management methods. His work includes emergency department (ED), operating room (OR) and discharge throughput work to optimize flow, reduce length of stay, improve quality and profitability. He works alongside clinicians and administrators in hospitals, clinics and long term care homes to bring lean methods to improve patient care as well as overall efficiencies. He founded the University of Texas at San Antonio's continuous improvement professionals (CIP) group several years ago to bring lean Six Sigma professionals together to share innovations, best practices and advances in lean six sigma as well as create mentorships, internships and job opportunities for junior lean coaches and engineers. Berlanga is a former US Naval Officer and holds an M.S. in systems and engineering management from Texas Tech University.  

Gary Cokins is an internationally recognized expert, speaker and author in advanced cost management and performance improvement systems. He is the founder of Analytics-Based Performance Management, an advisory firm located in Cary, N.C. Cokins, who is certified in production and inventory management, received a B.S. degree with honors in industrial engineering/operations research from Cornell University and earned his MBA from Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management. Cokins began his career with FMC's Link-Belt Division as a strategic planner, financial controller and operations manager, and then served as a management consultant with Deloitte and KPMG. Later, he was head of the National Cost Management Consulting Services for Electronic Data Systems (now part of HP). From 1997 until recently, Cokins was in business development with SAS. His two most recent books are Performance Management: Finding the Missing Pieces to Close the Intelligence Gap and Performance Management: Integrating Strategy Execution, Methodologies, Risk, and Analytics. His next book is Predictive Business Analytics, published by John Wiley & Sons.

Dr. Elizabeth Cudney is an Associate Professor of Business Data Analytics in the John E. Simon School of Business at Maryville University. She received her B.S. in Industrial Engineering from North Carolina State University, Master of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering and MBA from the University of Hartford, and doctorate in Engineering Management from the University of Missouri – Rolla. She received the 2020 Walter E. Masing Book Prize from the International Academy for Quality for her book on Lean Six Sigma. In 2018, Dr. Cudney received the ASQ Crosby Medal for her book on Design for Six Sigma. Dr. Cudney received the 2018 IISE Fellow Award. She also received the 2017 Yoshio Kondo Academic Research Prize from the International Academy for Quality for sustained performance in exceptional published works. In 2014, Dr. Cudney was elected as an ASEM Fellow. In 2013, Dr. Cudney was elected as an ASQ Fellow. In 2010, Dr. Cudney was inducted into the International Academy for Quality. She received the 2008 ASQ A.V. Feigenbaum Medal and the 2006 SME Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineering Award. She has published nine books and over 95 journal papers. Dr. Cudney is a certified Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt. She holds eight ASQ certifications, which include ASQ Certified Quality Engineer, Manager of Quality/Operational Excellence, and Certified Six Sigma Black Belt, amongst others. 

Adrienne Dickerson is president of Cadence Health Inc., a healthcare process improvement consulting company. She graduated with honors from the Georgia Institute of Technology with a bachelor's degree in industrial engineering and a master's degree in health systems. Throughout her career, Dickerson has focused on working with hospitals and other organizations to expand the use of proven industrial and systems engineering tools for continuous process improvement. She has extensive experience in hospital operations, including patient throughput, managed care contracting, revenue cycle, technology implementation, decision support and facility-wide process improvement.

Ed is a member of the Board of Director’s for the Institute of Industrial and System Engineers Work Systems Division, and 2018-2019 president.  He is president of Eisbrenner Productivity Group and teaches the Basic MODAPTS Practitioner Training course at client’s facilities. A member of the International MODAPTS^® Association, a board-certified MODAPTS^®instructor, Ed has trained hundreds of students across the U.S. and internationally in the Basic MODAPTS^® Practitioner course and is currently in the training program with the IMA for Master Black Belt Instructor certification.  Ed has Master’s Degree in Operations Management from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, N.Y., and 25 years industrial engineering experience with the Ford Motor Company. 

Dr. Edgardo J. Escalante is a Professor Emeritus in industrial engineering at Tecnológico de Monterrey. He has also been a consultant in applied statistics, Six Sigma, problem solving, and quality and productivity improvement for 36 years, in México, North, South and Central América. Some of the companies he has worked as a consultant or instructor are General Motors, Carplastic, Rassini, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Xerox, Cummins, Nemak, General Electric Lighting, FEMSA and John Deere.

Dr. Escalante has a Ph.D. in management science from Lancaster University, a Master of Science degree in industrial engineering from the Ohio State University, the Diploma of Higher Studies in Sciences from L’Université de Rennes, and a BSc in Electronics and Communications Engineering from ITESM. He is also a Certified Six Sigma Black Belt from the ASQ, and a Certified Six Sigma Master Black Belt from SigmaPro. He has written the books in Spanish: Six-Sigma, Design of Experiments, SPC and The Analysis and Improvement of Quality.

Brian Galli holds a doctoral degree in Engineering Management from Old Dominion University, earned December 2013. He also holds a Bachelor of Science in industrial engineering from Binghamton University (SUNY Binghamton), earned May 2007, and a Masters of Science in engineering management, earned July 2009, from Missouri University of Science & Technology. He is a licensed professional engineer in New York State and holds a certification as a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt. The author's major field of study is continuous improvement in healthcare settings as well as deployment of continuous improvement and project management. He works as an Assistant Professor of Engineering at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York. He also owns Apex Strategies, Ltd, a company that specializes in continuous improvement consulting and training initiatives. He more than nine years of experience in applying industrial engineering and continuous improvement tools and concepts in a wide variety of arenas, including healthcare, manufacturing, transactional, and service environments. He has spent more than six years working for Northwell Health (formerly known as North Shore LIJ Health System) in New York and one year in Health Plan at EmblemHealth Service Company.

Elizabeth Gentry, Ph.D. is a Solution Value Analyst at Philips. She received her black belt in Six Sigma from the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers and teaches yellow, green, and black belt Six Sigma classes. She previously worked for the University of Louisville as an assistant professor of industrial engineering and CHRISTUS Health as an industrial engineer working on healthcare process improvement. Her interests lie in decision analysis, healthcare process improvement and engineering education. She was awarded a B.S., M.Eng, and Ph.D. all in industrial engineering, from the University of Louisville, J.B. Speed School of Engineering. Her doctoral work focused on the decision analysis area of problem structuring where she created a hybrid decision-making method for generating quality objectives. Dr. Gentry is a member of the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers, Society for Health Systems, Society of Women Engineers, and Alpha Pi Mu. She serves on the board of directors for the Society for Health Systems.

Asish Ghosh is a Professor of Practice in Mechanical, Aerospace and Nuclear Engineering, at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY. He is a certified Master Black Belt from General Electric where he has mentored more than 100 Green Belts in Six Sigma, Design for Six Sigma and Lean methodologies. Asish is a co-founder of AAAO Genopex LLC, where he consults for manufacturing companies and healthcare operations, on topics such as Lean Six Sigma for manufacturing, Design for Six Sigma, Project Management, and technology & product innovation. He in a co-author of more than 50 publications, 8 US patents, and co-editor of 10 books on topics such as mechanical properties, product / process design, design for manufacturability, & manufacturing etc. Asish has been part of leadership teams to get Fortune 500 companies and its P&Ls, get ISO certification, and 510K certification from FDA for class 2 product.

David Goldsman, Ph.D., is a professor of industrial and systems engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Goldsman's research interests lie in computer simulation with an emphasis on statistical output analysis, applied probability and statistics, ranking and selection, time series analysis, and reliability and life testing. Application areas include health systems, airline safety and the automotive industry.

Timothy J. Greene, Ph.D., is a professor of industrial and entrepreneurial engineering and engineering management at Western Michigan University. He has over 31 years of experience as an engineering leader and manager in various roles.  He has taught over 50 short courses and consulted with industry for over 40 years assisting large and small companies in their operations, management and strategic planning. His expertise is in leadership, change management, strategic planning and operations management. He has managed research totaling over $15,000,000, graduated 30 M.S. and nine Ph.D. students, and teaches courses on leadership and management. As an author, he has written or co-written over 50 articles or book chapters and has given technical presentations in 10 different countries.

Greene was president of the Institute of Industrial & Systems Engineers from 1997 to 1998 and served on the IISE Board of Trustees for eight years holding several senior vice president positions. He is editor of the ANSI Standards for Industrial Engineering Terminology. He was IISE director of conference program coordination for over six years, recipient of the SME Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer Award, and the IISE Outstanding Young Industrial Engineer Award. In 1999, Greene was elected Fellow of the Institute. Greene received his bachelor's degree in Astronautical and Aeronautical Engineering from Purdue University. He also has a master's degree and a Ph.D. from Purdue University in Industrial Engineering.

Lee Hales is the president of Richard Muther & Associates and a recognized authority on industrial facilities planning and design.  Hundreds of assignments as a consultant and planner have taken him to more than 20 countries on six continents.  His project experience includes: site selection and planning; factory and warehouse layout; material handling analysis; and office space planning.

Mr. Hales is author and co-author of several texts, including: Systematic Layout Planning (SLP) 4^th ed. and Systematic Planning of Industrial Facilities (both with Richard Muther); Computer-Aided Facilities Planning, and Planning Manufacturing Cells.  Mr. Hales has also contributed chapters on material handling and facilities planning to such leading references as McGraw-Hill’s Management Handbook for Plant Engineers, The Manufacturing Engineering Handbook, and Maynard’s Industrial Engineering Handbook.

A Senior Member of the Institute of Industrial Engineers, Mr. Hales is a past Director of the Facilities Planning & Design Division and has also served on the College-Industry Council for Material Handling Education.  He is a senior member of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers, and a member of the Warehousing Education and Research Council.

Mr. Hales received B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of Kansas, where he studied Urban and Regional Planning. He holds an M.S. in Management from the Sloan School, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Rich Halstead-Nussloch, Ph.D., CPE is Professor of Information Technology (IT) in the College of Computing and Software Engineering at Kennesaw State University in Marietta, Georgia. He is a Certified Professional Ergonomist, has a Ph.D. in experimental psychology from the University of Michigan and a B.A. in psychology from Macalester College. He was an early adopter of computer-based instructional technology, having developed instructional computer simulations while learning and teaching in the 1960s and 1970s at Macalester College, the University of Michigan and Stevens Tech. In the 1970s he was also a research scientist at the Highway Safety Research Institute of the University of Michigan, where he solved problems associated with motorcycle safety and public highway policy. In the 1980s and early 1990s he was a senior research scientist/engineer for IBM, concentrating on the design and continuous improvement of IBM products and services with a focus on research, human-computer interaction and the human factors engineering of hardware, software, documentation, and user interfaces. Over his career, he has contributed numerous publications, computer applications and inventions. He now teaches IT and computing courses at Kennesaw State, is active in electronic citizenship and community outreach initiatives, serves as a master black belt trainer for Six Sigma at the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers, and is a Georgia Governor’s Teaching Fellow. He advises industry, education, non-profits and government in research, quality, business processes, project management, cultural change, ergonomics, IT, digital identity and security and all aspects of managing continuous improvement.                      

Jeffrey W. Herrmann is a professor at the University of Maryland, where he holds a joint appointment with the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Institute for Systems Research. He is a senior member of IISE. In 2012 he and Gino Lim were the conference chairs for the Industrial and Systems Engineering Research Conference. Dr. Herrmann earned his B.S. in applied mathematics from Georgia Institute of Technology. As a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow, he studied industrial and systems engineering at the University of Florida and received his Ph.D. in 1993. Dr. Herrmann's research, service, and teaching activities have established him as a leader in the following two interdisciplinary areas: (1) developing novel mathematical models to improve public health preparedness and (2) defining engineering decision-making systems and using separations to model engineering design processes. He has authored the textbook Engineering Decision Making and Risk Management (published by Wiley in 2015), published 100 journal papers and refereed conference papers  and 13 book chapters, co-authored an engineering design textbook, and edited two handbooks.

In 2003, Dr. Herrmann received the Society of Manufacturing Engineers Jiri Tlusty Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer Award; in 2013, he was named a Diplomate of the Society for Health Systems.  

Brock Husby, Ph.D., is a certified Lean healthcare coach and consultant, author (including "Lean Daily Management for Healthcare Fieldbook" by CRC/Productivity Press, another upcoming book from the same publisher on applying Hoshin Planning for Healthcare, as well as multiple past and upcoming IISE Magazine articles), instructor, speaker and researcher. Brock was an Associate Vice President (AVP), executive coach and Senior Operations Excellence Consultant at Baylor Scott & White Health, where he was an integral part of the deployment of a holistic lean approach throughout the 13-hospital, 13,000 employee system. A case study from Brock's Ph.D. Dissertation (based on Brock's consulting work) was recently featured in Prof. Jeff Liker's new book "The Toyota Way to Service Excellence".

Brock was one of first three Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) grant-funded Industrial Engineers at Denver Health & Hospital System who trained and mentored their initial class of "Lean Black-Belts", helped create the foundational structure for their Lean program, and facilitated the initial Rapid Improvement (Kaizen) Events throughout the integrated safety-net health system. The results of these initial efforts at Denver Health were demonstrated operational expense savings of $124,000,000 (as of June 5th, 2013), as well as Denver Health becoming the first healthcare delivery organization to win the coveted Shingo Prize for Operational Excellence (March 2011). Brock has worked as a Lean facilitator at a variety of different healthcare facilities, as well as an instructor for the University of Michigan Practicum in Healthcare Systems Engineering Senior Design Course (IOE 481).

Prior to his work in healthcare, Brock worked as a Process Assurance Engineer/Corrective Actions Engineer for the Space Shuttle Program at the Kennedy Space Center (Cape Canaveral, FL), and as a Technical Assistant at Car and Driver Magazine. Brock is also the sole founder and manager of the 3,300 member LinkedIn "Lean & Toyota Production System Healthcare Professionals" group.

Roman Hlutkowsky is the founder and principal at The Hlutkowsky Group, a consultancy that specializes in business process, technology and automation, and enterprise transformation. He has more than 27 years of experience in the transportation industry, mostly focused on applying technology to improve operations. Roman and his team take great pride in being on the cutting edge of emerging technologies and integrating it in ways that are beneficial to their customers.

Roman is a former officer of FedEx Ground. He held the positions of senior vice president, human resources and vice president, operations technology. In his HR role, Roman oversaw human resources administration, compensation, benefits, employee information systems, recruitment and EEO/diversity initiatives for the company's workforce of more than 50,000 employees.

In his operations technology role, Roman oversaw all business processes and technology that supported the day-to-day pick-up, delivery, sortation and linehaul operation. He led that team that introduced handheld scanning and data transmission into the operations. He developed and executed the operations technology strategy for FedEx Ground addressing the areas of handheld and fixed position scanning, WLAN and WWAN, and sortation, dimensioning and image capture. Roman developed and introduced key processes and methodologies for FedEx Ground focused on technology lifecycle planning, business process lifecycle planning, organizational change management and total cost of ownership.

A native of Pittsburgh, Pa., Roman earned his BSIE from the University of Pittsburgh in 1980 and his MSIE in 1983. He was recognized as the Outstanding IE Alumnus by the University of Pittsburgh in 2003. Roman began working for what would become the FedEx family of companies in 1983. He has experience in the nationwide LTL (less than truck load), regional LTL and small package transportation. Roman is a fellow and past president of the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers.

Jasbir Kumar has extensive general management and project management experience. He has managed large plants and complex industrial projects spanning more than 45 years while applying lean Six Sigma practices for maximum productivity and efficiencies. Through his work, he was able to improve the operations at several organizations, including major Fortune 500 companies, and he has helped bring a variety of well-known consumer products to the marketplace. His work includes creating team-based, high performance cultures in "Greenfield" plants and managing kaizen offices. Kumar has earned a master's degree in chemical engineering and Six Sigma Black Belt, Lean Six Master Black Belt, and Lean Agile Project Management certifications. Today he spends his time as a consultant and trainer in lean Six Sigma culture and practices.

Doug Long is currently the Global Director of Strategic Alliances at the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers. Prior to joining IISE, he served for over 25 years in quality, operations, supply chain & logistics, and service leadership capacities. Prior positions include Vice President Professional Consulting Services, Vice President Global Sourcing and Logistics, Vice President of Quality, General Manager Commercial Operations, Senior Management Consultant, GM Manufacturing Operations, and Engineering & Quality Manager at companies ranging from Fortune 500 firms to privately held venture capital start ups.

Doug has extensive experience in deployment of continuous improvement methodologies including Six Sigma, Lean (TPS), and Statistical Process Control, APQP, and ISO registration across a wide range of markets. He specializes in rapid breakthrough improvements in a broad range of product and service businesses including manufacturing, healthcare, transactional / service industries, global sourcing and supply chain management among others.

He holds degrees in both Industrial Engineering and Industrial Management. He is a Six Sigma Black Belt, an ASQ Certified Quality Manager, Certified Quality Auditor and Certified Quality Engineer, He has served on the ASQ Atlanta section Board of Directors for over 15 years.

Javier has more than 20 years of experience in value engineering (VE), tear-down analysis, Lean Manufacturing, and Six Sigma for the manufacturing and construction industries. He has successfully led VE workshops across the globe for a range of products, specialized equipment and tools, processes, and facilities. Since 2000, Javier has trained more than 2000 professional engineers in Lean Six Sigma systems and VE. He designed the Lean and Six Sigma public training for the Jalisco State Government, which focused on training regional industries to implement and improve their productivity. He also created the first value engineering university course in Latin America that was granted official certification from SAVE International. As a result, engineering graduates were able to receive the Associate Value Specialist Certification. 

Javier has specialized training in company-wide quality and productivity management from Central Japan Industries Association in Nagoya, Japan. Javier also has training in industrial engineering and quality control from Kitakyushu International Techno-Cooperative Agency in Kitakyushu, Japan. 

Stephen R. Mayfield is chief quality officer for the Gulf Coast Health Ministry of Ascension/Sacred Heart. He previously served as senior vice president at the American Hospital Association where he created the AHA Quality Center, a resource for 5,000 member hospitals. Mayfield has 25 years of experience working with hospitals and health systems across the country to bring together the triad of boards, physician leaders and hospital administration in order to improve the delivery of care in communities while enhancing patient outcomes and safety. Mayfield has directed the National Patient Safety Leaders Fellowship program and serves as faculty. He has served on several AHRQ Technical Expert Panels, including the just released Quality Improvement Toolkit. Mayfield completed his doctorate in health administration at the Medical University of South Carolina, earned an MBA from Emory University's Goizueta Business School and a B.S. from Georgia State University. He is a master black belt, certified in lean and Six Sigma. He serves on the board for the California Hospital Patient Safety Organization (CHPSO) and is a member of the Quality Committee. He also is a board member for the Baldrige Award Alliance and the Improvement Science Research Network. Prior to his career in healthcare, Mayfield worked at the Georgia Tech Research Institute in the Human Factors division of the Systems Engineering Laboratory.  

W. Tim McGlothlin is the executive director for The Ergonomics Center of North Carolina. Reporting to North Carolina State University, the center provides occupational ergonomics consulting, training programs and cost-effective ergonomic solutions to corporate clients worldwide. McGlothlin holds a bachelor's degree in industrial engineering from Virginia Tech and a master's degree in industrial engineering from the University of Tennessee. He also is certified by the Board of Certification in Professional Ergonomics (CPE).

McGlothlin formerly worked for two Malcolm Baldrige Quality Award-winning companies. First, he spent nine years at Motorola Inc., where he served in various technical and manufacturing leadership positions within the Communications Group. Then he worked 14 years with Eastman Chemical Co. As principal ergonomist, he coordinated corporate ergonomics activities and was responsible for developing and implementing the company's ergonomics process. McGlothlin serves on the faculty of the North Carolina Occupational Safety and Health Education and Research Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is a frequent speaker on successful ergonomic process implementation. As a member of the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (IISE), he served four years as the co-chair for IISE's annual Applied Ergonomics Conference and currently serves as senior vice president for technical networking on IISE's board of trustees.

Kevin McManus has 19 years of progressively responsible supervisory and leadership development experience, with staff sizes ranging between two and 25 people and team sizes as large as 200 people. He spent eight years designing systems, leading people, improving quality and managing costs to support company growth rates of between 10 percent and 40 percent per year. He has designed performance measurement systems, which included the application of balanced scorecard, SPC, Six Sigma and activity-based costing tools, for four different organizations. He has a bachelor's degree in industrial engineering and a master's degree in business. McManus has been an Industrial Engineer magazine columnist for many years.

Merwan Mehta, Ph.D., is a professor in the Department of Technology Systems at East Carolina University in Greenville, N.C. He coordinates four programs in the department: Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering Technology, Master of Technology Systems in Manufacturing Systems concentration, Master of Technology Systems in Quality Systems concentration, and Graduate Certificate in Lean Six Sigma Black Belt. Prior to joining academia in 2004, he acquired more than 20 years of experience in business and industry as the owner of two businesses, vice president, manufacturing manager, project director, industrial engineer, machine tool design engineer, and manufacturing engineer. He also works as a lean Six Sigma process improvement consultant. Mehta has been an examiner for the Missouri Quality Award based on the Baldrige criteria for three seasons. He is a certified manufacturing engineer and a certified Six Sigma black belt.

Amanda Mewborn is an industrial engineer and registered nurse specializing in healthcare improvement. She earned an M.S. in health systems and a B.S. in industrial and systems engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology, as well as a B.S. in nursing from Georgia State University. Mewborn is a certified professional of healthcare information management systems, lean black belt, diplomate in the Society for Health Systems, senior member of the Institute for Industrial Engineers, certified pediatric nurse, fellow in the Healthcare Information Management Systems Society, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Green Associate, and pragmatic marketing certified in product management. Mewborn's experience is in working at hospitals, technology firms and consulting firms. She currently works as executive director, project management at Piedmont Healthcare in Atlanta. Mewborn has written many articles and book chapters and presented at conferences nationwide.

Mark Milward is an engineer, photojournalist and educator. He is a trainer in workforce development and has more than 25 years of experience. His field of expertise includes the manufacturing, aerospace, maintenance, logistics, electronics and service industries. He serves the U. S. Department of Defense as a Critical Chain Program Manager at the U.S. Naval Submarine Base New London Connecticut. The Base is a submarine maintenance hub for nuclear attack submarines where he is the technical authority responsible for developing and sustaining their Lean Six Sigma program and training military and civilian personnel in workforce development utilizing LSS business strategies.

Mr. Milward is also president & CEO of Milward and Associates International. He has a B.S. in manufacturing engineering and an MBA. Mark is a certified Six Sigma Black Belt from Southern Polytechnic State University and a certified Master Black Belt from the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers. Mark is also the national public relations officer for the National Association of Jamaican and Supportive Organizations.

For the past 40 years, Paul has been involved in several careers spanning academia, engineering and development, manufacturing, corporate executive leadership, consulting and entrepreneurship. In his "first career," he taught mathematics and computer science at all levels of learning, from preschool to Post-Ph.D. He was even involved in designing graduate level curriculum at the University of South Carolina as an adjunct professor. His second career began in 1985 with NCR (National Cash Register). Beginning as a senior programmer analyst, he was promoted to manager - software development, product manager, manager – product management, corporate strategic planner for banking, director – retail systems product integration, retail systems manufacturing, director of quality and customer satisfaction, and corporate coach. During his stint in corporate America, he was involved in the NCR/AT&T merger, and was responsible, as a director of quality, for the cultural transformation and change leadership for the Retail Systems Division Organization in Duluth, Georgia, and the Lean Manufacturing Plant.  Leveraging his involvement with Bell Labs Organization Effectiveness Group and Harvard Business School T.E.A.M. Research Study, he left NCR/AT&T in 1995 to pursue a consulting career, in the areas of Leadership, Strategy, and Performance Improvement. Over the past 22 years, he has worked with more than 100 organizations on over 200 performance improvement projects and programs.  His past clients include Anixter, AT&T, Motorola, GM, Harland, and Sodexo Services.  Most recently he has provided lean assistance to Northrop Grumman, LXE, Crosby Tools, CNA Insurance, Fibervisions, DeLaval, Perkins and Will, The Department of Defense, Care Logistics, Medivators, Med America, Sparton, Emory Hospital, Grady, Hi Oscar Insurance, Health First, El Paso Medical, Illini Healthcare, ASAA Insurance, The Georgia Hospital Association and many others encompassing several markets and industries including; engineering, manufacturing, healthcare, aerospace, telecommunications, government, defense, supply chain, energy, retail, banking, distribution, academics and higher learning.  He released the book, Affordability: Integration of Value, Customer and Cost for Continuous Improvement, in December 2016.  His new book, Healthcare Affordability: Motivate People, Improve Processes, and Increase Performance, was released in 2018. 

Eddie Pérez-Ruberté is a Lean and Six Sigma consultant, trainer, author, speaker and blogger. He helps organizations implement Lean Six Sigma programs through his consulting company: Areito Group. He is a former Operational Excellence Manager at Honeywell in Phoenix, Arizona, and more recently he was Lean Healthcare Consultant (Health Systems Engineer) at Mayo Clinic.He has taught, deployed and implemented Lean and Six Sigma concepts in healthcare, manufacturing, aerospace and nonprofits. He is fully bilingual (Spanish & English). Eddie has held an appointment as Instructor of Health Care Systems Engineering for the College of Medicine at Mayo Clinic, where he taught courses on Change Management, Lean, Six Sigma and other Quality Improvement Methodologies. He obtained a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Puerto Rico and MS in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Purdue University. He is a Certified Lean Expert (Lean Black Belt) from Honeywell and a Certified Six Sigma Black Belt (CSSBB) from the American Society for Quality (ASQ). He is currently the chairman of the Board of Directors for the Jacksonville Lean Consortium. He is a member of the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE).

David Reid is a business-minded IE manager for the Restaurant Experience Team at Chick-fil-A Inc. David has the heart of a teacher and a passion to share Lean concepts and skills with the next generation of business leaders. He is available to teach introductory to advanced Lean training for all levels of organizations. He earned his bachelor of mechanical engineering at Georgia Tech in 1995. He worked in industrial engineering at Michelin Tire Corp. beginning in 1996 and later for Chick-fil-A Inc. starting in 2014.

Rudy has dedicated more than 25 years as a professional industrial and systems engineer and management consultant, currently serving as a senior vice president at Blue Cottage of CannonDesign. He has depth of expertise in strategic and operational planning, including healthcare service line strategy, Lean Six Sigma process improvement, healthcare operations and supply chain logistics.  As a respected thought leader, Rudy has authored numerous articles and industry publications, presented at national conferences, and has held adjunct faculty positions at the University of Florida, College of Public Health & Health Professions and College of Engineering. In addition, Rudy has served as the treasurer and on the board of directors for the Society for Health Systems, and vice president of technical operations for IISE.

Neal Schmeidler is a practicing industrial engineer with more than 35 years of experience consulting for private industry and the federal government. His technical expertise includes human capital planning, productivity/work measurement, management and operational analysis, work breakdown structure development, computer modeling, and statistical analysis. He has applied his skills to the planning, management, and hands-on participation in the study and analysis of workforces ranging from less than 20 to 6,000 employees. Schmeidler has studied myriad functions, including facilities operation and maintenance, equipment, and systems in the National Airspace System; oil spill response system testing, preventive medicine; telecommunications services management; electrical power systems acquisition; construction waste recycling; and space shuttle orbiter maintenance. His work in measuring and developing staffing forecast models for the U.S. air traffic controller workforce has been reviewed by the National Academy of Sciences. Schmeidler is an IISE fellow and past regional vice president. He is a frequent speaker at various conferences on the topic of work measurement and staffing model development.

Joyce T. Siegele is the productivity improvement manager at Northside Hospital in Atlanta. She has a B.S. in industrial and systems engineering and an M.S. in industrial and systems engineering with a specialization in engineering management from the University of Florida. Siegele recently achieved fellow status with ACHE (American College of Healthcare Executives). She also is a diplomate and on the board of directors of the Society for Health Systems. She has held several conference positions, including conference chair within SHS over the past several years. Siegele enjoys the ever-changing challenge of working on productivity and operations improvement in healthcare.

Mark Silvestri is an insurance executive specializing in cyber risk. For the past 15 years while at CNA and The Hartford, his work focused on cyber insurance product and service development, underwriting, pricing, and portfolio risk management. During the prior 24 years, Mark’s work focused on cryptographic system applications for computer and information security. He has held numerous technical and executive positions in the defense and intelligence sector, financial services, technology, and risk and strategy consulting. Mark has been a speaker at the RSA Security Conference, several continuing legal education conferences and has been a guest lecturer on cyber insurance and payment systems at Northeastern University and Suffolk University Law School. He also served on an advisory board for cyber-risk economics and risk information sharing initiatives at the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Science and Technology.

Robert J. Smillie is a retired senior expert consultant to the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR) Office of the Chief Engineer. Shortly, after receiving his Ph.D. in human factors/psychology from North Carolina State University in 1977, Dr. Smillie went to work for the U.S. Navy in San Diego and worked there for over 30 years.

Dr. Smillie has been responsible for research efforts in visualization of information, innovative interfaces to access information, assessment and application of collaborative technologies to command-and-control planning, design and development of a computerized aid for satellite communications, test and evaluation of a computerized, portable delivery device for aircraft maintenance information, and workload analysis and assessment of various Navy systems.

Dr. Smillie is a Certified Professional Ergonomist. He is also a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors and a member of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society. He has authored over 50 technical reports and publications including one book and two book chapters on information design and performance aids.

Dr. Prashanth H Southekal is the Founder of DBP Institute a Data and Analytics Consulting, Research, and Education firm based on Calgary, Canada. He is an author, keynote speaker, board member, and professor of data and analytics. Dr. Southekal has advised for over 80 organizations including P&G, GE, Shell, Apple, FedEx, and McDonalds. He is the author of three books — Data for Business Performance, Analytics Best Practices, and Data Quality and writes regularly on data, analytics, and machine learning in Forbes and CFO University.

He serves on the Editorial Board of MIT CDOIQ Symposium, and is an Advisory board member at BGV (Benhamou Global Ventures), Grihasoft (IN), Evalueserve (CH), and Astral Insights (US). Apart from his consulting and advisory pursuits, he has trained over 3,500 professionals worldwide in Data and Analytics. Dr. Southekal is also an Adjunct Professor of Data and Analytics at IE Business School (Madrid, Spain) and CDO Magazine included him in the top 75 global academic data leaders of 2022. In addition, CIOLook, listed Dr.Southekal as the “Ten Most influential leaders in Tech to Follow in 2023”.

He holds a Ph.D. from ESC Lille (FR), an MBA from Kellogg School of Management (US), MS from IIITB (IN) and an ICD.D designation from the Institute of Corporate Directors (CA). He lives between Calgary (CA), Madrid (ES) & San Francisco (US) with his wife, two children, and a high-energy Goldendoodle dog. Outside work, he loves juggling, golf, and cricket.

With more than 20 years of leadership, engineering, and performance improvement experience, James Swisher is known as a collaborative problem solver. With experience in diverse industries like health care, defense, and call centers, James has led both large scale projects and focused improvement efforts. His passion is helping others maximize their potential through a rigorous understanding of problems, an inclusive solution development process, and improvement implementation plans that ensures success. James is a proud graduate of Virginia Tech with B.S. and M.S. degrees in Industrial & Systems Engineering. James also holds a MBA from Mary Washington College, where he graduated at the top of his class. He is a licensed Professional Engineer (PE), Project Management Professional (PMP), and Lean Six Sigma Black Belt.

Steven Thompson worked for UPS as an industrial engineer for 32 years. In addition to assignments in operations, he conducted and managed time study groups and work measurement development groups. Thompson has also served as automation systems testing manager for UPS, corporate ergonomics manager and process redesign manager for the Corporate Service Call Centers. He has served as the program chair for the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers Annual Conference & Expo. Thompson is also active in the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers as a continuing education trainer and has served as senior vice president for continuing education. He also served as founding president for the Society of Work Science. He is a recipient of IISE's Work Measurement Division's Outstanding Service Certificate. In 2002, he was the recipient of IISE's M.M. Ayoub Award, which recognizes those who have made outstanding contributions in the field of ergonomics. The award is the foremost recognition for those involved in this field of industrial engineering. He is also a member of the ANSI Z94 Industrial Engineering Terminology Standard serving as chair of the work measurement chapter. Since his retirement from UPS, he has worked on similar projects at organizations including Nokia, BellSouth, Golden Rule Insurance, Taylor Gifts, United Healthcare and MASCO Services.