Carol  A.  Wilke

Carol is the Chief Financial Officer for Winton Paving and Landscape. Prior experience includes Excellus BlueCross BlueShield and Eastman Kodak Company fulfilling various management positions within Finance, Quality, Information Technology, and Investor Relations.

Carol is a Six Sigma Black Belt, Lean Practitioner, and Change Agent. She is a Champion for Rapid Cycle projects in the Rochester community and Co-Lead for the Lean Consortium. Carol is a Rochester native and alumni of St. John Fisher College, BS Management; RIT, MBA Finance; Leadership Rochester; and Excellus BCBS, Beyond Leadership.

George    Hansen

George Hansen is President of Qualve$t and former Executive Director of the Empire State Advantage: Excellence at Work program. During that time he 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.

George 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.

Kathy    Grimes

Kathy Grimes is Administrator at The Highlands at Pittsford. Kathy is a Senior/Alumni Examiner for the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program and serves as Examiner/Mentor for the United States Army Communities of Excellence Program. Serving on the Visioning Board of the International Council on Active Aging provides Kathy with an opportunity to advance the mission and quality of Long Term Care as does her service on the Board of Master Examiners for the American Health Care Association.

Kathy holds a B.S. degree in Business Administration from SUNY, Empire State College, is a Licensed Nursing Home Administrator and Certified Aging Services Professional.

Roop    Hazarie

Roop Hazarie is the Senior Director of Lean Sigma (Process Improvement) and Senior Director of Imaging Services at Rochester General Health System. Roop is also co-leading the health system Patient Flow & Throughput initiative with Dr. Robbin Dick. Roop is also an adjunct graduate instructor at RIT.

Roop joined RGHS in mid 2006 after a 21 year career at the Eastman Kodak Company. Roop has 17+ Years of direct Lean Six Sigma Leadership experience and extensive Lean-Sigma training from recognized worldwide experts.

Roop holds an undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Rochester and a Masters Degree in Engineering Management. He is also the recipient of a US Patent.

Vince    Vezza

Vince is a contract Quality professional. He has over 25 years with Eastman Kodak and Johnson and Johnson as a Statistician, 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.

N. Cenette    Burdine

Cenette Burdine, President of Burdine & Company LLC., is an accomplished strategist, senior marketing executive and business consultant with a twenty (20+) year track record of success in the healthcare, insurance, information services, technology, small business, and not-for-profit sectors. Cenette has worked with and for organizations such as Humana (ChoiceCare), The Phoenix, MVP Health Care (Preferred Care), Thomson Reuters (Thomson Corp.), Excellus Health Plan, the Ad Council of Rochester, Huther Doyle, Humane Society of Rochester (Lollypop Farm), Catholic Charities, Educated Healthcare, Jorsek Software, and many others.

Cenette has an MBA from the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT); and serves as an adjunct professor for the RIT E. Philip Saunders College of Business teaching such subjects as strategic thinking, entrepreneurial marketing, and marketing research in the graduate, undergraduate and Entrepreneur’s Hall programs. She is an active board member for the Huther Doyle organization and a past board chair of the public relations and marketing committee for the National Association of Women Business Owners (Rochester Chapter). She volunteers regularly as a Strategic Round Table marketing and brand consultant and serves as an adjunct strategic planning consultant for non-profit organizations with the Ad Council of Rochester.

Michael    Caceci

Excellerated Performance, LLC

Terrance  P.  Callanan

Terry is the Chief Quality Officer at Carestream Health, headquartered in Rochester, NY.

Terry has a Ph.D. in Statistics from Iowa State University, and a Black Belt from Eastman Kodak Co. He has over 20 years of experience in driving organizational improvements at Kodak, Carestream Health and in the community through Rapid Cycle improvement projects. He has served as a reviewer for the New York State "Empire State Advantage" program, and has presented numerous papers through the American Statistical Association and other quality organizations.

Maria    Cristalli

Maria is the Chief Strategy and Quality Officer at Hillside Family of Agencies. She has over 15 years experience in planning and quality assurance in nonprofit social service organizations.

Maria is a certified Six Sigma Black Belt and holds a Masters in Public Health from the University of Rochester, School of Medicine and Dentistry.

Greg    Evershed

Greg Evershed is Director of Business Development for the RIT Kate Gleason College of Engineering. Prior to this position, he was a Senior Program Manager for the Center for Integrated Manufacturing Studies at RIT. Greg has 23 years of experience with developing productivity improvement solutions for organizational operations including manufacturing, distribution and customer service. He has extensive experience with assisting business and healthcare organizations increase productivity through improved work flow practices. Before joining RIT, Greg worked for leading IT consulting and document management companies.

Greg holds a BS degree in Business Administration and a Certificate in Telecommunications Technology from Rochester Institute of Technology.

Dr. Michelle    Kavanaugh

Michelle Kavanaugh is Superintendent of Honeoye Falls-Lima Central School District. She has served as a chief school officer for ten years and as a school administrator for an additional 22 years.

Michelle received her Doctorate in Organization, Administration and Policy from the State University of New York at Buffalo, and completed a Certificate of Advanced Studies at SUNY Oswego.

Michelle served as a 2011 Baldrige Examiner and is leading an Education Team Excellence Award contingent in the 2011 National Quality Education Council. She is also leading her organization as a member of the North Star Project of the American Productivity and Quality Center.

Honeoye Falls-Lima Central School District was identified in 2011 as #1 in Administrative Efficiency by Business First and received the highest possible ratings for Return on Investment by the Center for American Progress. The District has received a number of additional awards and top ranking at the national and state levels.

Robert    Lebman

Robert Lebman is President and Chief Executive Officer of Huther-Doyle, where he has been CEO for twenty-one years. Huther-Doyle is the largest licensed outpatient addiction treatment program in western New York State.

Bob received a B.A., cum laude, in political science from Harpur College at Binghamton University and a MA in Public Administration from Pennsylvania State University. He has done post-graduate studies at the State University of New York Colleges at Brockport and Geneseo. Following four-year tenure with the US Peace Corps and the Agency For International Development in Afghanistan, Bob located in Rochester, where he taught at the high school and university levels.

Bob has served on more than 20 local and state non-profit Boards over the past three decades and received the Binghamton University Distinguished Alumni award in 1994. He has been listed in Who’s Who in the East since 1983 and Who’s Who in the United States since 2000.

Heidi    Mix

Rochester General Health System

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).

Nancy    Plews

Nancy Plews is Chairman 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 is the leader of GRQC’s Business sector.

Aqua  Y.  Porter

Aqua holds the position of Vice-President, Strategy and Business Excellence and Corporate Lean Six Sigma Operations at Xerox Corporation. She has been with Xerox since 1984 and has held a variety of positions including Engineering, Marketing, Product Development, Purchasing, and Manufacturing and Supply Chain Management.

Aqua grew up in Dayton, Ohio and currently resides in Rochester, New York. She is the proud mother of one son, Jordan. She is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc. and the Rochester Chapter of Jack & Jill Inc. She sits on the Keuka College Board of Trustees and Camp Stella Maris Board. She is a strong advocate for increasing the participation of women in Corporate America and has served as an advisor to organizations including Xerox’s Black Women’s Leadership Council and The Women’s Alliance.

In 1984, Aqua earned a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Kettering University (formerly General Motors Institute). Aqua graduated with honors in 1996 from the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) Executive MBA program.

Darlene    Ryan

Darlene is the Director of Quality and Risk Management at Hillside Family of Agencies. Prior to this, she was an Operational Process Improvement Manager at Unity Health System. She also has many years of process improvement experience at Eastman Kodak Company and Carestream Health, Inc.

Darlene is a Certified Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt and an ASQ Certified Quality Manager. As part of GRQC, Darlene has volunteered on 7 Rapid Cycle improvement projects in the Rochester community.

Darlene has a BS in Industrial Engineering from the University of Rhode Island and an MBA from the University of Rochester.

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 an active member of Toastmasters International.

Jennifer    Sommers

Jennifer M. Sommers is counsel to the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office, the largest sheriff’s office in New York State. As counsel, she confidentially advises the sheriff and performs legal work on matters affecting the nearly 1,200 members of the office. Prior to assuming that position, she was an assistant district attorney for eleven years. The first seven years were spent prosecuting cases in a rural, upstate New York community. She spent the final four years in the Monroe County District Attorney’s Office. She was assigned to the Major Felony Bureau where she prosecuted violent felonies exclusively.

Prior to law school (SUNY Buffalo), Ms. Sommers received a bachelor’s degree in biology with a minor in chemistry (Le Moyne College) followed by a master’s degree in toxicology (University of Rochester). She has lectured extensively at the national level relative to forensics and the law.

Drew    Turner

Elaine    Vanderland

Elaine Vanderland is the Manager of Business Efficiency and Process Improvement for Lifetime Health Medical Group located in both the Rochester and Buffalo, NY regions. Elaine has experience in several industries including manufacturing, sales and education, with the majority of her background in healthcare delivery and insurance. Her professional roles have incorporated clinical quality and process improvement oversight.

Elaine is a Project Management Professional (PMP) and is currently working on a Lean Six Sigma certification. Elaine also serves as a Board Member for America World Adoption Agency, New York Affiliate Board. Elaine holds a BS in Communications from the University of Tennessee, an MBA in Technology Management from the University of Phoenix, and is a Registered Nurse.