Speaker Biographies

Biography & Qualifications:
Over 18 months ago, Coleen and a peer were asked to develop and implement a global Lean Six Sigma initiative throughout their company in both the manufacturing and non-manufacturing business processes.While her partner’s focus has been on implementing Lean in manufacturing, Bentley’s has been on all other business process areas. She is responsible for both short term results/implementation as well as long-term sustainability of the initiative into the company’s culture.

Prior to her current position as Vice President, she has over 27 years of experience in varying roles in Human Resources and Organization Development. The experience she gained in those roles in the areas of strategy, development and culture assessment were critical for success in her current role.

Biography & Qualifications:
Christine Brown is the Consulting Skills Development Manager for the Workflow Consulting group in Abbott Diagnostics. She has more than seven years experience as a Six Sigma Black Belt, leading projects to reduce defects and cycle time in the healthcare industry in the areas of marketing, billing, research and laboratory diagnostics. She has more than 20 years experience in Clinical and Laboratory Diagnostics in large hospitals and reference laboratories as a Medical Technologist in Chemistry, Special Chemistry, Flow Cytometry and Hematology.

Brown’s role at Abbott is to support and mentor customers, Black Belts and Green Belts in ongoing process improvement efforts. Over the last few years, she and the team of Workflow Specialists have helped over 250 customers with a variety of consulting services. Brown earned her bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry from Arizona State University and holds a certification as a Six Sigma Black Belt by the American Society for Quality.

Christopher has an engineering degree from Palm Beach College and an MBA from Winthrop University. His passion is finding or creating solutions that improve the operational efficiencies of the clinical lab.

He has held progressive leadership positions in a variety of laboratory settings which include the private, regulatory and public sectors. Throughout his career, he has successfully integrated operations, implemented leading edge technology that have resulted in measurable outcomes related to improved efficiencies, effectiveness and patient care services. D’Mello obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry from the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. He also holds certification from the Canadian Society of Medical Laboratory Science and holds Executive Management training certification from the University of Notre Dame and the Schulich School of Business, York University.

Ellis received a Bachelor and Masters Degree from Ohio State University and an MBA from Bryant College. He holds numerous patents for laboratory productivity improvement and immunoassay and is the author of numerous scientific publications. Ellis is Master Black Belt Certified in Process Excellence tools and methodologies and has completed numerous projects in operations within Johnson and Johnson companies, and hospitals and reference labs in the U.S.

Emanuel’s work encompasses a multitude of tasks including day to day operations, troubleshooting instrument/quality control issues, implementation/training of new employees and med tech students. The UTMB laboratory was a beta site for Cellavision with their very first instrument, the Cellavision IMI, and was also a beta site for Sysmex with the Molis/WAM middleware project.

English moved to Canberra, Australia to take a position as CEO of a private Radiology group and during this time, he was also involved in the medical training industry as Vice President of the Australian Diagnostic Imaging Association. After five years in Imaging, he moved to the commercial sector as the National Business Area Manager with responsibilities in sales marketing and support for diagnostic and applied science products for a large global organization.

Additionally, Fasse is a member of ARUP’s quality and process improvement oversight committee. Prior to ARUP Laboratories, he worked in the manufacturing and material handling industry conducting Logistic Studies and implementing world class Lean principles and tools. Fasse received a BS in both Mechanical Engineering and Business from Michigan Technological University.

Prior to CLSI, Fine has 30 years of experience in the clinical laboratory field with technical and operations management at major academic, community and commercial laboratory settings. He holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in Clinical Laboratory Sciences, as well as a master’s degree in Business Administration.

Finley will share her experiences as a manager in the lab’s LEAN evolution and automation selection.

In 2001 she accepted her first role in management as the Clinical Coordinator of Surgical Services. In addition to her responsibilities as a Clinical Coordinator, Genovesi also assumed the responsibility of an Administrative Supervisor. In 2004, she left her role as Supervisor and returned to the Emergency Department and embraced the role of Assistant Nurse Manager, where she facilitated patient flow and care through the department. She assisted with quality improvement and was a liaison between the Emergency Department, the Community and the Pre-Hospital Emergency Personnel. Two years later, Christine assumed the role of Nurse Manager of the Emergency Department.

Graban earned a bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering from Northwestern University and was a fellow in the Leaders for Manufacturing program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, earning dual masters degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Business Administration. He is the author of a book entitled “Lean Hospitals: Improving Quality, Patient Safety, and Patient Satisfaction” and is a member of IIE/SHS, the Association of Manufacturing Excellence, and the American College of Healthcare Executives.

Gruben is a certified Medical Technologist through the American Society for Clinical Pathology. She is also a member of the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE), the American Society for Quality (ASQ), and has been both a Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award Examiner and an Arizona Quality Alliance (AQA) State Quality Award Lead Examiner for two years.

Haines is also responsible for process improvement initiatives using Lean methodology and oversees all proficiency testing and performs audits. She has a bachelor’s degree from Radford University in Radford, Virginia and received her Medical Technology accreditation from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia. She is Green and Black Belt certified from Villanova University in Villanova, Pennsylvania.

Haines is also responsible for process improvement initiatives using Lean methodology and oversees all proficiency testing and performs audits. She has a bachelor’s degree from Radford University in Radford, Virginia and received her Medical Technology accreditation from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia. She is Green and Black Belt certified from Villanova University in Villanova, Pennsylvania.

Under Hassett’s leadership, the Carolinas Laboratory Network was created in 1999, unifying four hospital laboratories under one management structure. That restructuring led to a national award from the VHA for organizational management. The network now produces some five million tests and serves over 300 outreach clients in the service area. Tom received an undergraduate degree in Industrial
Management from Georgia Tech followed by a master’s degree in Health Care Administration from Georgia State.

Henwick is currently the Clinical Director of Microbiology at BC Biomedical Laboratories, a physician-owned community laboratory with a daily volume of nearly 2000 microbiology specimens. He also shares a hospital-based practice with four other medical microbiologists.

Biography & Qualifications:
Ruth Jaeger is the General Manager of the Eastern Ontario Regional Laboratory
Association, Inc. (EORLA). She was contracted in late 2005 to manage the implementation of EORLA, an integrated system of hospital based laboratories within the Champlain LHIN of Ontario. Prior to her role with EORLA, Jaeger enjoyed the role of General Manager and led the integration of theWindsor Essex hospital based Laboratories. She was privileged to present the successes of that initiative during the Insight Conference held in Toronto in March 2005.

Jaeger is an accomplished manager, a qualified MLT with an ART in Microbiology and is passionate about contributing to the thriving future of Laboratory Medicine. She is also an active member of the Ontario Laboratory Accreditation (OLA) Advisory Committee, a certified OLA Assessor and is serving as an elected member of the Board of Directors for the Clinical Laboratory Management Association (CLMA), Trillium Chapter.

Krenc is very involved in Risk Management internal and external to Abbott and serves as the U.S. Technical Advisory Group delegate to ISO TC212 for the IVD annex of ISO 14971 (Risk Management) standard. She has presented risk management to the FDA and at National and International meetings and is an instructor for the AAMI Risk Management and Design Control classes. Krenc instructs on the use of risk management for manufacturers and the clinical laboratories. She received a Master of Science in Product Development from Northwestern University Robert R. McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science.

Lang has also served as an examiner for the Florida Governor’s Sterling Council and has been a guest lecturer at the Irish Management Institute in Dublin, Ireland.

Biography & Qualifications:
Mark LaVoie, an ASCP certified chemist, is the Director of Billing Operations for Billing and Collections at Pathology Associates Medical Laboratories (PAML). He has a BS in Chemistry and a BA in Biology from EasternWashington University as well as a Masters of Divinity from Talbot Theological Seminary.

His 20 years of laboratory experience at PAML began as a medical technologist. Since then, his titles have included QA Consultant, Technical Advisor (to rural hospital labs across eastern Washington), Project Manager (overseeing the design, construction and furnishing of PAML’s current 70,000 sq ft facility), Operations Analyst, and AR Manager. LaVoie brings to his current position an eye for process improvement, bolstered by training in Lean and Six Sigma principles, and experience in facilitating a broad range of Kaizen events across analytical
and non-analytical processes.

Biography & Qualifications:
In January 2007, Patricia Macholan assumed the role of Quest Diagnostics’ Six Sigma Managing Master Black Belt for Laboratory Operations. She and her team support the national process owners for both Clinical and Anatomical Testing Operations by assisting in the identification, prioritization, development
and implementation of improved standard processes.

Macholan began her Six Sigma Training in May of 2000 as aWave I Black Belt and was executing projects touching all aspects of the business from specimen collection through testing and billing. Prior to her Six Sigma training, she worked nearly 20 years in various roles overseeing operations in the Grand Rapids laboratory, including Manager of Whole Blood Analysis and Lab Manager, where she directed operations for Client Services Specimen Processing and all Laboratory Technical areas. She received her Bachelor of Science from the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s School of Medical Technology.

In the last two years, the hospital has undergone a complete transformation of the quality of care provided to its patients. The improvements include staffed 24/7 Board Certified/Board Eligible Emergency and Pediatric Physicians, a dramatic increase in patient satisfaction scores and a Service Standard which assures all patients are seen by an MD, PA or NP within 30 minutes of arrival in the Emergency Department.Marcilla would like to share how Lean Six Sigma helped them achieve their goals and what they learned from their successes and failures.

Biography & Qualifications:
Peter Marone is responsible for general administrative and technical functions of the Department of Laboratory Medicine at Yale- New Haven Hospital, a 944-bed teaching hospital affiliated with Yale School of Medicine. The department has 263 FTEs and performs approximately 5.5 million tests per year.Marone has recently been involved with the planning and design of new, open laboratory space for his department, which will replace the current compartmentalized laboratories.

He has over 25 years of experience in the clinical laboratory profession and began his career as a clinical microbiologist before holding various management and administrative positions at Yale-New Haven.Marone holds a Bachelor’s degree in Medical Technology and a Masters in Business Administration from Quinnipiac University, where he also serves as an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences.

To enhance the development of expanding laboratories, he has successfully conducted programs of staff redesign, multi-hospital consolidation, laboratory construction, serving as an American Red Cross Advisory Member and Committee Chairman for the Greater Cleveland Hospital Laboratory Purchasing Association. He is a registered Medical Technologist and an associate member of the American Society of Clinical Pathologists.

Mercer is also certified in Lean Healthcare Applications through the University of Michigan and has over 35 year of experience in laboratory strategic planning, operational improvement, outreach program development and management. He has participated in or directed several dozen design, strategic planning, and/or construction management projects during his career.

She is certified as a Healthcare Quality Professional and is an active member of the Clinical Laboratory Management Association and the National Association for Healthcare Quality and its local chapter.

Michel’s expertise is strategic analysis, corporate planning and market trend assessment. Formerly he was Director of Strategic Analysis and Special Projects for the regional laboratory division of Nichols Institute prior to and through its merger with Corning Clinical Laboratories (now Quest Diagnostics Incorporated). His corporate experience includes executive positions with Proctor & Gamble Distributing Company, Financial Corp. of America and Centex Corporation. In addition, he is a winner of the Newsletter and Electronic Publisher Association’s prestigious “Best Investigative Reporting” Award and is listed in Marquis Who’s Who in Healthcare and Medicine. Michel earned a B.A. in Economics from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA).

Nicolaou has received numerous recommendations and awards for his designs including two awards from the American Institute of Architects. He was also co-author of “Evolutionary Lab Design”, published in ADVANCE for Administrators of the Laboratory as well as “Contemporary Considerations for Laboratory Benchmarking, Planning and Design” and “Integrating Lean Thinking into Laboratory Planning and Design”, published in Clinical Leadership & Management Review.

As Medical Director for Quality in a community- based medical laboratory network, Noble sees “real world” advantages and opportunities in implementing quality management and effective proficiency testing. After 25 years of directing proficiency testing, he has seen first-hand that it is hyper-endowed with regulation and requirements, to the detriment of accreditation bodies, PT schemes and laboratories, and that simple change can have a major positive impact.

Previously he served as the Vice President and CEO of Clini Tech Services, Inc., a multi-hospital joint venture commercial laboratory that he was instrumental in starting. He designed, developed and engineered the MAST (Management Accountability, Staffing & Service Tracker) reporting system, a management middleware solution.

Previously, Overa was the Vice President of Clinical Services for Group Practice Services Corporation, a national leader in the provision of laboratory and diagnostic center development and management for large multi-specialty physician groups. Through a dedicated staff, he helped manage all aspects of physician-owned laboratories. He also served as a Manager at the Laboratory and Director of the School of Medical Technology at Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia.

She holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration from Keller Graduate School and a Bachelor of Science degree in Medical Technology from the University of Illinois-Chicago. Panick is also a certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt and is a practicing member of the American Society of Quality (ASQ), AACC and CLMA, where she serves on the Chicago Chapter Board of Directors.

He is currently serving on the board as Past President and is also the Chair of the Minnesota Licensure Coalition. Panning will begin a term on the board of CLSI starting in October 2008.

Pate was trained as one of the first Black Belts in Florida at Quest Diagnostics and has since completed over 25 Black Belt projects spanning all departments, technical and non-technical. In her role as Master Black Belt, she works closely with senior leadership and aligns Black Belts to projects and departments. Pate’s jurisdiction encompasses three major testing facilities (Tampa, Deerfield Beach and Miramar) and includes managing five to six Black Belts.

Pettersson initiated the focus on process development within the laboratory as well as the integration of laboratory services and healthcare. He then stepped to full-scale introduction of Lean/Six Sigma management principles and is now driving the synchronization of Lean/Six Sigma with traditional ISO-regulated quality assessment. Pettersson received basic training in General Chemistry, Analytical Chemistry, Physical Chemistry, Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry from the University of Åbo Akademi, Finland. He received his specialty training at Turun Yliopisto, Finland from the Department of Laboratory Medicine, earning a MSc degree in Clinical Biochemistry.

While at Accenture and divine, Ritzenthaler secured, sourced, led and managed cost management, revenue enhancement, Information Technology and regulatory compliance consulting engagements for the health services industry, primarily focusing on large national Blue Cross/Blue Shield and for-profit managed care organizations. Additionally, he spent five years with Roche Diagnostics as the Director of their healthcare consulting business. Ritzenthaler has a Bachelor of Science degree in Information Technology from DePauw University in
Indiana.

Saldaña has deployed the Process Excellence philosophy and improvement methodologies across different departments within Johnson & Johnson. She has also developed and delivered training on Six Sigma Black Belt, Green Belt, Yellow Belt, Lean, 5 S, Change Integration, Six Sigma Awareness, Project Sponsorship and Analytical Primer in the U.S., Europe and Puerto Rico. She has a PhD degree and MSE degree in Industrial and Operations Engineering from the University of Michigan and a BS degree in Industrial Engineering from the University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez as well as a BS degree in Natural Sciences from the University of Puerto Rico-Rio Piedras.

Through his work in GI/Liver Pathology and in the Histology Laboratory that he became involved in RFID technology. Anatomic Pathology handles approximately twenty thousand GI biopsy cases per year and these specimens range in complexity from single component cases to multiple biopsies from multiple sites in medically complicated patients. The Division of Anatomic Pathology has pursued RFID technology to help improve operational efficiencies that are realized by using a semiautomated system to facilitate specimen labeling and data transfer. Successful implementation of RFID technology has allowed for significant practice improvements in terms of safety, quality, and efficiency.

Sprick has extensive managerial experience in outreach laboratory sales and support services, strategic marketing and communications, managed care contracting and laboratory operations. She is a national speaker and resource on the application of Lean/Six Sigma principles in the laboratory arena, as well as laboratory operations and facility design. Sprick earned her Bachelor in Health Sciences from the University of Missouri-Columbia and is a registered medical technologist. She is also Lean and Green Belt Six Sigma certified.

During Stone’s tenure with Argent, he has shown his diversity for clients through his many assignments worldwide.Working with industry leaders in the distribution and healthcare sectors, he has had the opportunity to work on projects throughout North America, Europe and Asia. He received his BBA in Management from the University of Central Oklahoma and is a NIST/MEP certified Lean instructor and Six Sigma Green Belt.

Thompson is a certified pediatric critical care nurse who has focused the majority of her career in this area, most recently at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC in the cardiac intensive care unit where she was employed as the Advanced Practice Nurse.

Worth is also a key driver of Quality Improvement projects throughout PaLMS and has taught and led many teams from different labs. Several of these projects have won quality awards and received recognition for their achievements. He is continuing his quality pioneering efforts with the introduction of Lean Six Sigma tools and philosophies to keep PaLMS at the forefront of quality management
in Australia.

Biography & Qualifications:
AllenWozniak is currently the Senior Laboratory Solutions Consultant for Sysmex America, Inc. He has a career background of laboratory operations, sales and marketing, consulting and business development. He has worked in all disciplines within the laboratory including positions from bench level to Administrative Director of Laboratory Services at The University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. He has worked in rural as well as metropolitan hospitals, reference laboratories and university hospitals.