Bill    Self

Bill Self is President of the North American Division of The Leadership Factor, Inc., which provides clients with business direction, driven by high-level customer and employee satisfaction and loyalty measurement and market analysis. In addition to satisfaction research, he actively helps his clients deploy breakthrough improvements by removing performance barriers and aligning organizational processes with stakeholder expectations.

Bill has presented a variety of topics, including loyalty and change management, at numerous conferences and has published articles on performance improvement and strengthening customer relationships. He is a co-author of the book, Customer Satisfaction Measurement for ISO 9000:2000, The Leadership Factor is the exclusive Employee Satisfaction Measurement training provider for the American Society for Quality and Bill has presented many workshops for ASQ. Bill has served in a variety of roles with the Greater Rochester Quality Council and he has previously received GRQC’s Award of Excellence for his work with the organization.

Bill is a graduate of the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, VA. Before moving into research, he held the position of Distribution Manager for two manufacturing companies and Director of Operations in the service sector. He is currently Chairman of the Greater Rochester Quality Council and is an active member of Toastmasters International.

Carol  A.  Wilke

Carol is a Functional Business Process Manager at Excellus BlueCross BlueShield. She is a Rochester native and a graduate from St John Fisher College with BS degree in Management and of RIT with MBA in Finance. She is the Controller for Michael A. Wilke, DBA Winton Paving and Landscape. Her experience include over 25 years with Eastman Kodak fulfilling various management positions within Finance, Global Quality, and Investor Relations. She is a champion for Rapid Cycle project in the Rochester community.

Vince    Vezza

Vince is a contract Quality professional. He has over 25 years with Eastman Kodak and Johnson and Johnson as a Statistician, as a Quality Engineer, Process Engineer and Chemist. Vince holds a M. S. degree in Applied and Mathematical Statistics and a B. S. degree in Chemistry from Rochester Institute of Technology. He is a member of the American Society for Quality and is past Chair of the Rochester Section, a member of American Statistical Association, and a former member of the adjunct faculty at Monroe Community College. He is presently Treasurer of the Greater Quality Council

Robert    Panzer, M.D.

Robert Panzer, M.D. is Chief Quality Officer for the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC), Strong Memorial Hospital, and the Strong Health system. He is also Associate Vice President for Patient Care Quality and Safety for URMC and Associate Medical Director of Strong Memorial Hospital. In these roles, he is responsible for overseeing and supporting quality, patient safety, and clinical improvement activities.

He is also Professor of Medicine, and of Community & Preventive Medicine at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. Based in the General Medicine Division, he practices part-time as a board-certified general internist. He is an editor of the book “Diagnostic Strategies for Common Medical Problems”, published by the American College of Physicians.

Dr. Panzer actively collaborates with national organizations working to improve the state of the art of quality improvement. He also chaired a statewide work group to redesign hospital incident reporting that developed the New York Patient Occurrence Reporting and Tracking System (NYPORTS).

Thomas  F.  Toole

Mr. Toole currently serves St. John Fisher College in two capacities: Director of MBA Programs and Executive Director of the Center for Community Engagement, hosted by the college. He is also active as a consultant in nonprofit governance and management and has worked with more than 20 nonprofits in such areas as board development, strategic planning, and business process improvement.

Mr. Toole’s consulting career began four years ago when he retired, after more than 20 years, from United Way of Greater Rochester as senior vice president. At that time he also began his association with Howard Berman in establishing the Partnership for Nonprofit Enterprise Excellence, which today offers board education programs in Rochester, Syracuse, and Utica. Mr. Toole’s seminars and workshops focus on the areas of Planning and Performance Management and the Business Side of the Social Enterprise. Mr. Toole also teaches in the University of Rochester’s Dept. of Community Preventive Medicine.

Before United Way, Mr. Toole was for many years Head of the Upper School at The Harley School in Brighton. He is a graduate of the University of Toronto and holds an MBA from the University of Rochester. Active with numerous community groups, Mr. Toole currently serves on the board of the Greater Rochester Quality Council, where he was involved in the development of the Rapid Cycle program, a collaboration of GRQC, United Way, Eastman Kodak, and Xerox, providing support to nonprofits in improving efficiency and outcomes

Nancy    Plews

Nancy Plews is Worldwide Director, Kodak Lean Six Sigma, for the Graphic Communications, Eastman Kodak Company.

In this role, Mrs. Plews is responsible for implementing Lean Six Sigma across Kodak operations worldwide, as well as with Kodak Suppliers and Kodak Customers. This role also includes responsibilities for the Lean Six Sigma training program for Eastman Kodak.

Mrs. Plews is a member of the Board of Lakeside Memorial Health System with membership on a number of committees and is chair of the Quality Improvement Committee for the Health System. She is also a Reviewer and Judge for the New York State “Empire State Advantage” Program. Nancy Plews is the Kodak Representative for the Greater Rochester Quality Council (GRQC) and is the leader of GRQC’s Business sector.

Reginald  P.  Stewart

Reg is Assistant Quality Officer at the University of Rochester’s Strong Memorial Hospital, focused on deploying Lean and Six Sigma in Health Care. His experiences include over 25 years with Eastman Kodak Company in various executive levels of Quality Assurance and Customer Satisfaction. He is a certified Six Sigma Master Black Belt and holds a Masters Degree in Quality Management from Loyola University, New Orleans. Reg is Past Chairman of the Greater Rochester Quality Council and co-developer of the Rapid Cycle Improvement Initiatives focused on Community-Wide Quality Improvement Concepts using Lean Six Sigma methodology.

George    Maszle

George Maszle is Director, Lean Six Sigma at Xerox Corporation. Joining Xerox in 1969, he has had various opportunities to lead initiatives aimed at improving organizational effectiveness, the systematic use of quality concepts, Lean Six Sigma engagements and business process process improvement. Prior to leading the Lean Six Sigma deployment, George’s responsibilities included line management positions in engineering, customer service, program launch and business support roles.

In addition to serving on the board of the Greater Rochester Quality Council, George is an active member of the Conference Board - US Quality Council and a member of International Society of Six Sigma Professionals (ISSSP). He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical/Electronic Engineering from Rochester Institute of Technology and an MBA from the University of Rochester’s Simon School

George    Hansen

George Hansen has been the Executive Director of the Empire State Advantage: Excellence at Work program since May of 2001. During that time he has worked with dozens of organizations in business, education, government and healthcare that are seeking to improve their performance and earn state-wide recognition.

Before that, he spent a 32 year career with the Eastman Kodak Company, retiring as Director and Vice President of Corporate Quality. He has acted as a change agent in a wide variety of organizations seeking to improve quality and performance and served as a Senior Examiner for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. He holds a degree in physics and mathematics from the University of Minnesota, an MS degree in optics from the University of Rochester and has completed the Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Program.

Darlene    Ryan

Darlene is a Lean Six Sigma Manager at Carestream Health, Incorporated. She has 28 years of process improvement experience at Eastman Kodak Company, where she has worked across the film, paper, chemicals, professional digital cameras, finance, customer service and health businesses. Darlene is a Six Sigma Black Belt, a Lean practitioner, and an ASQ Certified Quality Manager. As part of the Rapid Cycle program, Darlene has volunteered on 5 projects in the Rochester community. Darlene has an Industrial Engineering degree from the University of Rhode Island and an MBA from the University of Rochester. She resides in Irondequoit with her husband and 3 children.

Lorraine    Gibbs

Lori is the Director of NA Quality at Sutherland Global Services. Her experience includes over 9 years with Sutherland with reponsibilities for Certification Compliance, Quality Assurance and Customer Satisfaction. She is a certified COPC Coordinator and ISO Lead Internal Auditor. She holds a Bachelors Degree in Organization Management from Roberts Wesleyan College. Lori is the Marketing Chair on the Board of Director for the Greater Rochester Quality Council.