Jim Boyd is an operations and engineering executive specializing in new business startups. Jim is currently Vice President of Manufacturing, Energy Materials Corporation.

Jim has held a variety of management roles in quality, engineering, operations, and research & development, and is recognized for building strong teams that develop robust products and processes. He previously held leadership roles in Kodak's printed electronics and consumer inkjet businesses, and was worldwide quality manager for Kodak's single use camera business.

Jim has a BS in mechanical engineering from MIT and an MS in mechanical engineering with a concentration in operations management from Northwestern University. He is a certified Six Sigma Black Belt Practitioner, a certified New Product Development Professional, and holds 22 patents for his inventions.

Trish started with Excellus Blue Cross Blue Shield in March, 2005, where she designed and implemented the Excellus Enterprise PMO. The Enterprise PMO is a centralized business unit that provides governance and guidance to projects and programs to promote efficiency and quality.

Today Trish is an Executive Director in the Operations Excellence Division, leading the System Business Process optimization department and the IT and Operations Departments of the Lifetime Benefit Solutions. Trish is responsible for the Lean Process Improvement portfolio management, process improvement project governance, mentoring methodology, and training, along with the operational and IT leadership within the Lifetime Benefit Solutions Company.

Trish is a graduate of Central Connecticut State University with a bachelor’s degree in Management Information Systems. She received her master’s degree in Business Administration from Webster University in St. Louis, Missouri. Trish is a certified Project Management Professional and Lean practitioner.

Trish lives in Fairport NY with her husband, son and two daughters. She enjoys spending time with her family, friends and outdoor activities.

Terry is a past Chair and Vice-Chair of GRQC. He currently sits on GRQC's Community Effectiveness Committee, helping to build community capability and excellence through knowledge sharing, training, and collaboration.

Terry has 35 plus years of experience driving process improvements at Kodak, Carestream and in the Greater Rochester community. While at Kodak, he was Director of Quality for Global Equipment Manufacturing and the first Six Sigma Program Manager of the Pilot Flow Division, where the organization’s quality improvement culture was recognized by the National Association of Manufacturers. Following Kodak, Terry served as Carestream’s Chief Quality Officer and then its Chief Culture Officer, focused on creating a culture of employee engagement and empowerment.

Today, Terry is the founder and owner of WalkOn Consulting, a training and consulting firm partnering with organizations to improve process efficiency, strengthen customer satisfaction, empower employees with quality skills, and create a culture of continuous improvement.

Terry has a Ph.D. and M.S. in Statistics from Iowa State University, a B.S. In Statistics (with a biology concentration) from Colorado State University, and a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt from Kodak. He is has served as a reviewer for the New York State "Empire State Advantage" Baldrige program, and has presented and published numerous papers through the American Statistical Association and other quality organizations.

Ken Wezelis is a process management professional with 17+ years of experience in process management program deployment at ESL Federal Credit Union.

As the Manager, Process Design, he is currently leading a team dedicated to transforming business process by designing processes using reusable modular design and integrated enterprise architecture.

In his prior role as Manager, Business Process Management, Ken led a team that supported the needs of ESL Federal Credit Union in the following areas: Process management and improvement; Project management; Project portfolio management; Procedure and process flow standardization, formatting and publishing.

Ken is a Six Sigma Black Belt and has a BS in Computer Science from SUNY Brockport.

Kiera Kuhn is a Registered Nurse with a Masters Degree in Healthcare Quality and Safety from Thomas Jefferson University School of Population Health. She is passionate and committed to transforming healthcare to a safe and seamless experience, avoiding preventable events and costs. She is experienced in quality improvements using, lean six sigma techniques, various process Improvement tools, root cause analysis and TeamSTEPPS communication. She has overseen the Quality of Care for hospitals in several local health systems. She has recently transitioned her skills to outpatient primary care practice. She is currently the Director of Quality, Performance Improvement and Corporate Compliance for Tri County Family Health Program, Inc., a Federal Qualified Health Center in the Finger Lakes with 19 medical providers and five health center sites.

Ravi Alluri is the Director of Quality and Continuous Improvement at Gorbel, Inc., leading the long-term continuous improvement roadmap for the company in an effort to further strengthen its position as market leader and improve the lives of its employees and customers.

Ravi has a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from India. He then graduated from University of Nebraska Lincoln with a Masters in Manufacturing Systems Engineering with a focus on Financial Engineering.

Prior to his current role he worked at Cummins Inc. for 12 years, working in Manufacturing Engineering, Quality Engineering, Operations and Operations Excellence. He also worked at Corning Inc. in a Business Strategy and Planning Manager role.

Ravi is passionate about continuous improvement of people, processes and products by leveraging and improving engagement of all employees in a organization. He is a trained Six Sigma belt, certified lean practitioner, Human Centered Design (HCD) practitioner and trained in the Shingo Business Excellence model.

Dr. Hiloni Bhavsar is a board-certified internal medicine physician working at Rochester General Hospital where currently serves as the Associate Director of Quality & Safety. In her role in Quality & Safety Institute, she works on hospital and health system level projects including improving clinical care processes, reducing variation, applying Lean principles and tools. She teaches the quality and safety curriculum to the incoming residents and also helps to support trainee quality improvement projects. Dr. Bhavsar partners with various parts of the organization and departments in quality assurance, safety assessment, root-cause analyses and process improvement.

Dr. Bhavsar also serves as the Associate Program Director for the Internal Medicine Residency Program and works as a Hospitalist in the division of Internal Medicine. She completed her medical school training at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio and her residency training at University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, Cleveland, Ohio where she also served as Chief Resident.

Hiloni is certified in TeamSTEPPS, Lean Six Sigma for Healthcare and as completed Quality & Safety Educators Academy through the Society of Hospital Medicine & Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine.

Chris is a results oriented, award-winning operations and process excellence leader. He is highly regarded for applying industry best practices and utilizing innovative methodologies to exponentially reduce costs, automate and streamline operations and increase productivity for industry leaders within the HR, payroll and healthcare sectors. Chris is currently Manager of Process Excellence at Paychex.

Chris has held many roles in operations management, consulting, and process excellence roles, focused on process improvements, process automations, and process reallocations to lower labor costs. He previously held leadership roles at UnitedHealthcare, Dell, and most recently, NTT Data Services.

Chris has a BA in Public Relations from Mount Saint Mary College, is a certified Six Sigma Black Belt, and hold various certifications in robotic process automation.

Michael Caceci enjoys a diverse, successful career as a business executive and entrepreneur. He is founder and owner of Excellerated Performance, LLC a consulting and professional development services firm based in Pittsford, New York. Mike’s expertise includes sales, management, marketing, business operations, strategic planning, leadership development, lean six sigma and driving change.

During his Xerox corporate career, Mike led sales teams in a highly competitive industry, consistently exceeding revenue and profit targets. He launched national marketing programs, and managed major projects. Mike led the project teams for two Xerox business units that applied for and won a Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award and Canada’s Award for Excellence. He also deployed lean six sigma to a 500 person business unit and led multiple projects as a Xerox Lean Six Sigma Black Belt.

Through Excellerated Performance, Mike helps clients in business, non-profit, health care and government sectors achieve their specific goals. Services include: strategic planning, business/executive coaching; professional training and development in sales, management, leadership, customer loyalty; and lean six sigma project management. To date, Mike has worked with over forty organizations in Greater Rochester including “Rochester Top 100” firms.

Mike has a BA in psychology and MBA in marketing management. He is part of an international association of consulting, human development and quality professionals. Mike is an adjunct professor at both Nazareth College School of Management and Saint John Fisher College School of Business.

Mike currently serves as Chair on GRQC’s board. He is also a reviewer and judge for GRQC’s performance excellence award program. Mike is a member of the Small Business Council of Rochester, Rochester Rotary Club, Greater Rochester Chamber of Commerce, and National Human Resources Association Rochester Chapter.

Carrie Carl has been serving youth and families in behavioral health services for over 25 years at Villa of Hope. She joined the field as a residential counselor and teaching assistant in 1994, and since then she has helped usher the Villa through decades of growth and change. Carrie moved into Social Work in 1998, followed by clinical administration, operational leadership of residential programs, and strategic leadership of psychiatry, psychology, and medical services and Villa of Hope School. Presently, Carrie supports agency-wide operations and strategy work as the Chief Operating Officer (COO) and is responsible for the compliance program as Chief Compliance Officer. Carrie’s practice includes Villa of Hope youth, families, staff, and the community through her talents in project management and business intelligence/quality improvement. She is also trainer of the Sanctuary Model – a trauma responsive organizational culture model.

Carrie has a Bachelor of Arts from University of Buffalo and a Master of Social Work from Roberts Wesleyan College. She is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in New York State. Carrie graduated in November 2016 from the Northstar Network Healthcare Business Academy Fellowship Program, earned a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt in 2018, and completed a Project Management Body Knowledge Best Practices Course in December 2020. Carrie resides in Fairport with her husband and is a proud mom to 2 adult sons - a computer engineer in Pittsburgh, PA and a Midshipman at the United States Naval Academy. Carrie regularly volunteers in the Lollypop Farm “Doggy Day Out” program.

Therese Costich is President and Managing Partner of The Costich Group. She has 25+ years experience in Digital Transformation, Lean Six Sigma and Continuous Improvement, working for companies including General Electric, Ford Motor, DuPont, Dominion Energies, L3-Harris Corporation, Lenovo, Merck Pharmaceuticals, Bausch & Lomb, Salient Management Company and Syracuse University. Therese uses her expertise in operational excellence, business analytics and digital transformation to guide organizations to be leaders in their industries while sustaining continuous improvement and transforming their businesses to world class.

Therese is the author of "Excelling on a Digital Transformation Journey - A Field Guide That Will Help You Define Your Success", and co-author and project manager of "The Black Belt Memory Jogger - A Pocket Guide for Six Sigma Success, First Edition".

Therese has a Bachelor of Science degree in Microelectronic Engineering from Rochester Institute of Technology, and a Masters of Business Administration in Finance and International Business from the University of Rochester, Simon School of Business.

Kristin has a great mix of people, process and technology experience that has driven her career for over 20 years. She holds a BS in Psychology and a MS in Human Resource Development as well as a Black Belt in Lean Six Sigma. She spent 18 years at Xerox in various roles focused on customer service delivery excellence, global remote service and enjoyed leading teams and developing people.

She is currently Director of the Enterprise Program Management Office at Rochester Regional Health where Project Management, Lean and Change Management methodologies come together to drive value for the organization.

Kristin’s passion is people and is a believer that organizations don’t change, people do. She works hard to drive this passion into everything she does.

Jim Gertner is Director of Workforce Projects and Operations at Monroe Community College’s Economic & Workforce Development Center/Corporate College.

Jim leads the development and direction of the Corporate College Business Services catalog of learning and development courses and workshops targeted for area incumbent workers. In his role, he manages the Corporate College Lean Six Sigma and project management programs that have helped more than 100 companies realize $30 million-plus in savings from completed projects. The program has graduated 98 Black Belts and 72 Green Belts. Jim also directs the operations team at Corporate College and leads new program initiatives.

Prior to joining MCC, Jim was Senior Training Manager at the Paychex Learning and Development Center leading a multi-function team serving the company-wide operations employees. He is a former award-winning newspaper editor and publisher.

Jim is a graduate of St. Bonaventure University with a B.A. in journalism and mass communication.

Melinda is the Director of the Council of Agency Executives (COAE), a membership association of nonprofit agencies and organizations in the Greater Rochester area.

With a vision for our region to be a stronger, more vibrant and caring community, the mission of the COAE is to inform, inspire and support nonprofit executives who strive to lead with excellence.

Melinda began her position with the COAE in 2015 after previously serving in development and marketing positions at several nonprofit organizations. As the sole staff, Melinda is the point-person and connector for members and community leaders. She oversees day-to-day operations, including member programs, articulating issues relevant to improving the quality of life for Rochester area residents, and serving as a resource to members and other community leaders.

In addition to serving on the GRQC Board, Melinda also currently is a Board Member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals, Genesee Valley Chapter, and also the Breast Cancer Coalition of Rochester.

Melinda holds a Certificate in Nonprofit Leadership from St. John Fisher College and received a BA from the University of New Hampshire.

David Grome is a sales and marketing executive. He currently serves as a senior staffer for Greater Rochester Enterprise (GRE), a public-private partnership for regional economic development.

As managing director, business development, David fosters collaboration on behalf of companies to secure private investment, advance technology innovation, and achieve strategic growth across the nine-county Greater Rochester, NY economy. He previously managed marketing communications and go-to-market plans on behalf of corporate brands in telecom, technology, and healthcare. Past clients include CenturyLink, Daimler, Healthfirst, and Kodak. Expertise includes media and advertising, brand strategy, and public relations.

David graduated from Hobart College with a dual degree in political science and public policy studies.

Sharon is a Quality Manager in the Practice and Performance Excellence Group at Hillside. Hillside has been a staple in the human service world in Rochester for over 185 years. In her role as Quality manager, Sharon works with HIPAA, and subpoenas. Sharon also manages the agency’s Council on Accreditation process while also being a Peer Review for C.O.A.

Sharon has a masters in Social Work from Spring Arbor University with a concentration on administration. In addition, Sharon is Lean Six Sigma Green belt certified through Hillside’s program and has completed several projects across Hillside.

Ryan Lammela is a marketing and advertising leader, specializing in digital marketing that produces meaningful business outcomes. Ryan is currently Group Director of Channel Activation for Butler/Till, a results-driven, women-owned, 100% employee-owned, and Certified B Corporation marketing agency.

Prior to joining Butler/Till, Ryan had twice enjoyed working with startups (<10 employees) and scaling them to become established and successful organizations with 50+ employees and corresponding financial growth. Now, as a proud employee-owner of Butler/Till, Ryan has again enjoyed participating in substantial growth of an independent organization. Whether he’s working within Real Estate, Higher Education, Pharma, Healthcare, or Financial Services verticals, Ryan is always focused on process improvement, ethical practices, and quality campaign management that delivers results.

Ryan has a BS in Information Technology from Nazareth College and MA in Strategic Communication from American University.

Amber Lingenfelter serves as an Organization Development Consultant for Totem Consulting, based out of DC. Lingenfelter thrives when helping organizations reach new levels of performance through a focus on engagement, leadership development, innovation, partnership, and commitment to creating systemic community change.

Before joining Totem, her nonprofit career included administrative services and program management at United Way of Greater Rochester and the Finger Lakes, Willow Domestic Violence Center and the Institute for Veterans and Military Families. Lingenfelter holds an MS in Organization Development from American University and a BS in Hospitality Management and Entrepreneurship from Syracuse University.

Lingenfelter serves on the Board of the NYS Hugh O’Brien Youth Leadership Program and the Board of the Greater Rochester Quality Council. She also serves on multiple committees for the International Society for Organization Development and Change.

Michael Lookup is a quality and continuous improvement focused leader. Michael is currently the Quality Assurance Supplier and Systems Manager at Wegmans Food Markets, Inc. Wegmans is a family-owned regional supermarket chain with stores across eight states. As one of the largest private companies in the US, Wegmans consistently ranks as one of the best places to work.

Michael has proudly spent his entire post-graduate career with Wegmans and has served in a variety of roles within Store Operations, Supply Chain, Manufacturing and Food Safety & Quality Assurance. In those roles at Wegmans, Michael has led various projects focusing on continuous improvement, strategy, technology and the development of people-first processes.

Michael has a BS in Industrial and Management Systems Engineering from West Virginia University. He also holds a Green Belt for Lean Six Sigma. In addition to GRQC, Michael also serves on the Board of Advisors for the American Cancer Society in Rochester.

Anne McNelis is currently a product portfolio and innovation manager at Excellus Health Plan, with a focus on subsidiary and ancillary products.

Anne started her career in IT and shifted from there into process analysis. She previously worked in IT consulting, IT operations, and operational excellence, with expertise in business analysis, communications, and process assessment and improvement.

Anne has a BA from Mercyhurst University. She is a certified Six Sigma Green Belt.

Margi Ochs holds a BA degree from Georgetown University and an MBA from University of Rochester. Now at RIT, she teaches Lean Six Sigma courses and assists students to apply and implement their studies through consultation, assessments and workshops to deepen their own knowledge and experience. Margi joined the Center after teaching Marketing and Organizational Leadership courses at both the Simon School of Management at the University of Rochester and the Saunders School of Business at Rochester Institute of Technology. Margi trained as a Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt at Xerox where she led over 60 projects in the areas of marketing, product development, strategic planning, customer service and manufacturing, totaling over $350M in revenue generation and cost savings.

After completion of her in-program training, Margi carried her LSS expertise into a variety of positions, including Worldwide Vice President, Office Products Launch, Consumables Marketing and Strategy, and Competitive Consumables Market Development. She served as a Lean Six Sigma loaned executive, consulting with over 80 Xerox customers on LSS implementation in their organizations and lead external projects to solve business problems in areas as diverse as supply chain optimization, medical lean process improvement, and product design and launch optimization. She also has extensive experience mentoring other executives who were first-time project sponsors and working with cross functional teams dealing with formation and strategic integration of LSS into business and organizational planning. Margi has spoken at a number of conferences and events on the incorporation of LSS into strategic planning.

Robert Panzer, M.D. is Chief Quality Officer for the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) and Strong Memorial Hospital. 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 Public Health Sciences at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. In October 2012 he was designated the first Georgia & Thomas Gosnell Professor in Quality and Safety. Based in the General Medicine Division, he practices part-time as a board-certified general internist.

He graduated from Harvard College with a BA degree and from Albany Medical College with a MD degree Magna Cum Laude. He then completed a 3 year Medicine Residency and a 2 year Fellowship in General Internal Medicine at Strong Memorial Hospital, before joining the faculty of the University of Rochester School of Medicine & Dentistry.

Dr. Panzer actively collaborates with national organizations and networks working to improve the state of the art of quality improvement. He was first author of the article “Increasing Demands for Quality Measurement” published in a special edition of JAMA in November 2013.

Jan Schriefer is the Director of Quality Improvement and the Quality Assurance Liaison (QAL) for the Department of Pediatrics at University of Rochester Medical Center and Golisano Children’s Hospital. Jan is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. Jan is integrally involved in quality assurance efforts, helping to facilitate case reviews, serve on Root Cause Analysis teams, manage the daily event reporting system and better connects QA and QI efforts. She has supported many quality improvement efforts including the community based obesity prevention and management projects, the inpatient multidisciplinary pediatric asthma care team (IMPACT) and the acquiring diagnostics at patient-centric times (ADAPT) initiative. The IMPACT team won the 2014 URMC Board Quality Award and the 2015 Health Care Association of New York Award for Patient Safety and Quality.

Dr. Schriefer works with pediatric surgical colleagues to help reduce surgical complications. She is the coach for the Pediatric Surgery Pursuing Excellence Initiative team that is expanding resident involvement in quality and safety. Dr. Schriefer participates on many of the children's hospital Solutions for Patient Safety (SPS) teams and coaches most of the Pediatric Unit Based Performance Program (UPP) teams. She is a Tutor in the Mastering Medical Information course for 1st year Medical Students in the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. She teaches QI to resident, fellows and attendings in various courses throughout the year.

Dr. Schriefer has been a faculty member and a Quality Leader for the Vermont Oxford Network (VON) Quality Improvement collaborative since 2002. She is currently the Quality Leader for a group of NICUs focused on improving the care for the micro-premature infant. Dr. Schriefer works remotely for the Burlington Vermont based Vermont Oxford Network and has been instrumental in VON's Quality Improvement efforts internationally.

Dr. Schriefer has won numerous regional and national quality awards including the The USA Today / Rochester Institute of Technology Quality Cup for the UVM Early Extubation project, The Mosby Patient Safety and Quality Award, the URMC Board Quality Award, the Health Care Association of New York State Pinnacle Award for Patient Safety, the American College of Surgeons National Surgical QI Program Abstract Award, the Greater Rochester Quality Council Performance Award, the URMC Team Based Care Summit Award, the URMC Operations Excellence Lean Award and Quality and the Get Well Network Clinical Quality Innovation Award. She has a long list of peer reviewed publications and has presented at many national quality meetings.

Most recently, Dr. Schriefer was nominated to join the URMC Senior Leadership Education and Development (SLED) Program. The SLED Program brings together Medical School faculty through evidenced-based, collaborative learning to develop transformational academic leaders. The goals of the program are to lead by developing others, set direction and vision, develop organizational efficiencies and implement strategic plans. Jan has a green belt in Lean Six Sigma.

Dick retired in 2015 after 40 years at Eastman Kodak, and is enjoying applying the knowledge gained during his career to serve organizations in the not-for-profit sector as a volunteer. At Kodak, he worked for 20 years as an engineer, team leader and supervisor in new product development and manufacturing, mostly in the Consumer Products and Photofinishing Equipment divisions. In the second half of his career at Kodak, he served as a commercialization manager, leading cross-functional teams in bringing new products to market in several lines of business, including Photofinishing Equipment, Document Imaging and Brand Protection Solutions.

Since retiring, Dick has served as a meeting facilitator with ROC the Future (under the auspices of GRQC), as treasurer of a downtown church, and as an income tax preparer and quality reviewer with the CASH program. In these roles, he has focused on applying business and quality principles to make these organizations more effective and efficient. His work with ROC the Future has earned him (and GRQC) several awards for his contributions to the organization. Dick currently manages the GRQC website.

Carol Wilke is a visionary leader who believes in leveraging people’s strengths to achieve operational excellence, strategic growth, and outstanding financial results. She is a Certified Leadership Coach, a Six Sigma Black Belt, a Lean Practitioner, and a Change Agent. She has championed multiple Rapid Cycle and Day of Quality projects in the Rochester community. Carol worked with the original GRQC Showcase and Performance Excellence Awards committee and remains committed to recognizing and celebrating teams / organizations.

Over the past twenty years, Carol has served the GRQC organization as Secretary, Vice Chair, Chair, and Treasurer. Professionally, she has excelled in roles as Finance Director, Controller, Investor Relations Manager, and Business Process Excellence Manager. Carol is a Rochester native and alumna of St. John Fisher College, BS Management; RIT, MBA Finance; and Leadership Rochester.

Tracy Williams is the Chief Operating Officer for the Rochester Economic Development Corporation (REDCO). REDCO is a 501(c)(3) set up to stimulate and increase business investment in the City of Rochester, NY. He builds relationships with local businesses and attracts new businesses to the City of Rochester.

He is the founder of The Wealth in Real Estate Seminar, WGW Publishing and The Charleston House restaurant. Each company was created to add value to the community.

He is a social entrepreneur and author of seven books. In 2019, Tracy rode his bicycle across the country to raise awareness about urban living conditions, educational and health disparities. He is a graduate of RIT, with a BA in Marketing and Economics.