Hi all, my name is Rowena aka Chona. Glad to be part of the Health Care Division. I work as a director for performance excellence in a community hospital (part of a Houston-based health care system). Just like Sue, I have been busy with our incident command during this time while continuing to work on performance improvement initiatives of the hospital/system and maintaining program certifications (stroke, joint, chest pain and diabetes programs). Outside of work, I go to school (yeah), do gardening and play with our two dachshund-pug mix puppies (they're 7 years old but will forever be called puppies). I hope to get back to walking again. 

I’ve been an ASQ member since 1984, and a Fellow since 2004. I joined the ASQ Healthcare Division around 2006. I have never worked in healthcare, but was motivated to apply what I knew of industrial quality improvement methods to healthcare. I worked at IBM as a reliability / quality engineer for 17 years and taught statistics to future engineers and nurses at Winona State University in Minnesota for 16 years. I retired in 2014 and continue my professional interest in healthcare quality through ASQ membership. I have served in various roles with the ASQ Healthcare Division, all pertaining to education, webinars, and division operations. I have lived with my wife Chris in Rochester, Minnesota for 40+ years. We enjoy a summer home in northern Wisconsin, and have traveled to Arizona for an increasing portion of the winter since retirement. We have two sons and one grandson.
 

I am Grace Duffy. I co-chair the joint QMD/HCD Healthcare and Quality Improvement committee with Pierce Story. This committee has evolved over the past 12 years from public health, to generalized healthcare scope. With 22 members, this team is an impressive mix of PhDs, Nurses, executives, and service providers across many healthcare channels. I also serve on the Nightingale Scholarship Committee and the HCD Audit Committee. I am a past Chair of ASQ Section 1509, past Chair of the Quality Management Division, and past ASQ Board member and ASQ Vice President. I enjoy writing papers, books and providing content to both the HBoK and the Quality Management BoK. I have my MBA, LSSMBB, CMQ/OE. CQA, CQIA, and SSGB

Hi all,

My name is Debbie Meeks and the current Healthcare Division Chair. I am a Senior member of ASQ and have held various positions in both the Healthcare Division and the local ASQ section (Tidewater - 1128).  I am the Quality Manager of Laboratory Services for a growing healthcare system in Virginia/NC. I have acquired a Masters degree in Quality Management (EMU), CQA and CMQ/OE (ASQ), and CPCO (AAPC). I am a life long learner and one reason why I appreciate ASQ - I am both amazed and humbled by the amount of experience and knowledge that I am surrounded with at ASQ.
This week I have celebrated my 30th wedding anniversary. Thanks to COVID, celebrating at home vs on a River Cruise on the Columbian River (there's always next year...right?). I have two adult children and an old dachshund forever puppy. Before COVID and the closing of gyms, I discovered a new appreciation for circuit training...I have a long way to go to be in shape but looking forward to the day the gym re-opens their doors.

Hello! My name is Jessica Tracy and I am a Senior Quality Analyst at a clinical genetics laboratory based in Houston, TX. I am fairly new to quality management but have 5+ years experience in QA/QC within various laboratories (clinical and veterinarian). I am currently elbow deep in getting our lab's SARS-CoV2 testing launched. At the same time, I am working to review and update our quality indicators, keep all our licensing up-to-date and lead our NCI/CAPA investigations. I am looking forward to learning more about QM with my involvement with ASQ.

I am Luigi Sille, Quality Manager of the Curaçao Red Cross Blood Bank Foundation. I'm from Curaçao.  
Working in Healthcare is just amazing
I am a senior member,  member of the Management, audit, Health and Lean Division.

ASQ activities I participate in: 

ASQ Influential Voices Blogger
ASQ Technical Reviewer QP Magazine
TPC member
Reviewer QP Magazine
Member Editorial Review Board of the Quality Management Forum (QMD)
Chair ASQ Content Management Committee: Section Management Elements and Methods
Committee Member Lean Enterprise Division E-Zine Newsletter

I am a PROUD member, and lovint it every single day.

Great to be part of this Division.

I am an ASQ Fellow, past Chair of the ASQ Board of Directors, Past Chair of the Healthcare Division, Chair of the Awards Board, and a member of the editorial review board of Quality Progress magazine. I have published numerous papers on quality, risk assessment and reliability engineering methods and was a guest editor of the IEEE Transactions on Reliability special issue on chemical process safety. I am an ASQ-Certified Biomedical Auditor, Certified Food Safety and Quality Auditor, Certified Manager of Quality and Organizational Excellence, Certified Quality Auditor, Certified Quality Engineer, Certified Quality Technician, Certified Quality Improvement Associate, Certified Reliability Engineer, and Certified Six Sigma Green Belt.
I am the Director, Training Services, at the Safety, Risk, and Compliance Division of ABS Group with 40 years of experience in lean six sigma, reliability engineering, risk assessment, process safety management, and total quality management. I have broad experience in applying techniques such as fault tree analysis, failure modes and effects analysis, root cause analysis, and hazard and operability analysis.
 

Amazing how much time COVID care, planning, and all of the reporting takes, isn't it? Thanks for sharing a little about yourself!!

Thanks for sharing a little about you, Dan! I have known you all this time and did not know you worked at IBM first.

Thanks for sharing how you serve the HCD and a little about yourself! Great work from those committees.

Thanks for sharing about yourself, Debbie! Love the old forever puppy. Hoping you can take your anniversary cruise next year for sure!

Hi Jessica. So nice to virtually meet you!! Wonderful that you are working on the SARS CoV2 testing. We need more capacity for sure (and high quality tests!). Thanks for all you are doing!!

Hi Luigi, Thanks for introducing yourself and some of your activities! So happy to hear from you and looking forward to hearing more.

Thanks for sharing a bit about yourself, Jim! Really happy to have the HCD leaders join in. I had no idea you had all of those certifications! Knew you are a risk and safety guy, but wow!

Hi there - This is Eileen Chase, I am a CQE and working on my recertification at the moment. I am a Sr. Performance Excellence Coach with Legacy Health in Portland, Oregon. Our group works on problem-solving and process improvement. I have been an ASQ member off and on for the last 10 years. I appreciate the knowledge and collaboration ASQ has to offer. I am currently charged with creating internal problem-solving curriculum and coaching models for leaders to help problem-solvers. ASQ is my go-to source for facts and methods. I look forward to collaborating with this group.
E.C.

Hi Eileen Chase. Excellent goal! There was an excellent presentation related to problem-solving offered by Peter Merrill at the 2020 World Conference entitled Collaboration and Creativity to Solve Complex Problems. Hope you were able to view it.

Welcome Johnievic Valdez. I wish you the best helping to decrease transmission of COVID and care for the ill! It seems CoV-2 will be with us for a while.

Hello!
My name is Sabrina Nunez. I work for Trustbridge Hospice in South Florida, in the Operational Excellence department, where I'm the OPEX Analyst. I manage all the performance improvement projects within the organization, regulatory reporting, and pave the way for a problem solving culture by training all employees on lean six sigma tools. I obtained my MBA from Florida Atlantic University, hold a Green Belt, and am currently studying for the CPHQ. Like many others, my job has changed a bit due to the pandemic. I am part of a COVID19 Command Center, charged with contact tracing, education, and more. You can read more about what my command center does here: https://goleansixsigma.com/5-ways-lean-six-sigma-heroes-are-solving-problems-caused-by-covid-19/

For fun, I love biking near the ocean, reading a good book on my hammock, traveling, and snorkeling! What can I say - i’m a Florida native all the way!

This is a wonderful group of friends and colleagues who have already introduced themselves. I am Grace Duffy. I co-chair the joint Healthcare and Quality Management Division Healthcare Quality and Improvement Committee. We have published two monographs defining a healthcare quality management system and an assessment process for continuous improvement in healthcare quality and safety for exceptional patient care. I am not a clinician. I am a specialist in organizational design and process improvement. I work with healthcare executives to assess their effectiveness and build indicators that drive Best Practice processes. I have over 45 years’ experience in successful business and process management in corporate, government, education, and healthcare. I use my experience as President, CEO and senior manager to help organizations improve. I have authored 15 texts, additional book chapters, and many articles on quality, leadership and organizational performance. I am a frequent speaker and trainer. I hold an MBA from Georgia State University.  I am an ASQ CMQ/OE, CQIA, SSGB, and CQA. Also a LSS Master Black Belt, ASQ Fellow and Distinguished Service Medalist. I was the 2014 Quality Magazine Quality Person of the year and the 2016 recipient of the Asia-Pacific Quality Organization Miflora M. Gatchalian International Woman in Quality Medal.

Hi Sabrina Nunez, Thanks for introducing yourself. Wow - working on tracing! That is tough but rewarding detective work. Best of luck to you!