TLS Speaker Bios
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Jules Jones
... Current Role: 2nd Year of GE Gas Power's OMLP Rotation Jules Jones is a May 2021 graduate from Virginia Tech with a B.S. in Industrial and Systems Engineering and a minor in Business. Jules has internship experience at GE Gas Power, Walt Disney World Industrial Engineering, and Deloitte. She has culminated several awards and honors: Virginia Tech 2021 Undergraduate Student of the Year Award; the Grado Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering’s Don Taylor Leadership Award; and her naming as an Aspirations Fellow by Student Affairs. Jules is in her second rotation with GE Gas Power’s Operations Management Leadership Program. She is a Lean Line Operations Leader in Bangor, Maine. She also serves on the Grado Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering Emerging Leaders Board and is a lifetime member of the Girl Scouts. |
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Zachare Bonhoff
... Current Role: Manager of Diversity and Colleague Resource Group (CRG) Programs at CVS Health Zac (he/him) started his career at Rite Aid Corporation in 2015 as a data and reporting analyst and spent 3.5 years there in roles progressing in responsibility. While he wasn’t in an HR role at the time, he found ways to build a strong team culture through the way he engaged his colleagues in communications, training, and genuine connections. In late 2018, he moved into a similar data and reporting analyst role at CVS Health, continuing to bring his passion for team culture and engagement to his work there – where he was part of the founding group of his team’s engagement committee. After some successful self-advocacy, networking, and lots of hard work, Zac moved into a HR learning and development Program Manager role in late 2020. Only a few months later, the opportunity opened up to join CVS Health’s Workforce Initiatives and Strategic Diversity Management (WISDM) team as a Manager of Diversity and CRGs. Zac brings his authentic self to work every day and leverages his experience as both a gay man and someone on the Autism spectrum to advocate on behalf of the equitable treatment of everyone inside and outside of the CVS Health enterprise. Zac studied Environmental Management and Policy at Rocky Mountain College in Billings, Montana and International Business and Economics at the Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultaet Ingolstadt in Ingolstadt, Germany. Outside of work, Zac is a regularly practicing yogi and enjoys hiking, traveling, reading, and doing puzzles. People who know him would say, “He has three sisters, loves the zoo, and is a passionate volunteer in his community.” People who really know him would say, “Zac never shuts up about how amazing his sisters are, how important zoos are, and his newest volunteering experience.” |
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Gordon Quach
... Current Role: Northrop Grumman + UMBC Masters After graduating with a degree in Industrial and Systems Engineering, Gordon started his career with Herren Associates - a consulting firm in Washington, D.C. where his work focused on delivering strategic planning, digital transformation, and configurations management solutions to DoD clients. Recently, he returned to the aerospace/defense industry in Baltimore, MD with Northrop Grumman where he leads robotic implementation strategy and growth of industrial engineering business intelligence capabilities. Along with work, Gordon is pursuing a Masters in Systems Engineering at UMBC. In general, Gordon loves mentoring and coaching others. Outside of work, he participates in opportunities related to ad hoc career advice as well as volunteering in the ISE Technical Communications course. Please reach out to Gordon at QGordon8@vt.edu if you would like to chat or have questions!! |
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Rafael Patrick
... Current Role: VT ISE Assistant Professor RNCP is currently an Assistant Professor within the Grado Department of Industrial & Systems Engineering at Virginia Tech, the Director of the Human IMPAC-T Lab, and a Founder of Reimagining diVersiTy. He completed his Ph.D. in Industrial & Systems Engineering at North Carolina A&T State University with a concentration in Human-Computer Systems in 2018 under the advisement of Dr. Steven Jiang. He received his B.S. in Human Factors Psychology under the advisement of Dr. Maranda E. McBride and M.S. in Human Factors & Systems at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University under the advisement of Dr. Jason Kring (’08, ’12). During his student-athlete career, he served as a research assistant for the NC A&T Transportation Institute under the Center for Advanced Transportation Mobility (‘18) and a teaching and research assistant for the ISE department (’13 – ’17), Title III Historically Black Graduate Institutions – Dissertation Fellow (’17, ‘18), Dr. Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program – DB Research Supervisor (’13) and Scholar (’08), All-American Track & Field Athlete and Assistant Coach, and an active member of the ΞΒ Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi, Fraternity Inc., Alpha Pi Mu – Industrial Engineering Honor Society, Institute of Industrial & System Engineers, Human Factors and Ergonomics Society. During this time, he was recognized for his athleticism by the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) as a Long Jump National Runner-Up (’08), Sun Conference Field Athlete of the Year (’08), and by the ISE department at NC A&T for his commitment to education by being awarded the Teaching Assistant Award (’14), Humanitarian Award (’15), and Research Assistant Award (’18), and the Outstanding Alumnus Mentor Award (’12), Outstanding Research Scholar Award (’08) from the Dr. Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program – DB, and has been publishing scholarly artifacts within the domain. His research interest falls within the midpoint of cognitive psychology and systems engineering specializing in product design and implementation specific to usability engineering (UE), user experience (UX), and technology acceptance. To this end, the Human IMPAC-T Lab seeks to explore the effect of the human on technology and technology on the human, by utilizing the immersive multimodal perception and cognition research facilities located at the Virginia Tech Blacksburg campus. |
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Walter Barnes III
... Current Role: President of PM Consulting Group LLC PM Consulting Group LLC is a professional services firm that serves Federal Government clients in the areas of International Development, Military Healthcare, and Information Technology. He obtained his Bachelors of Science in Industrial and Systems Engineering from Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia and his Master of Business Administration with a concentration in Finance from The George Washington University in Washington, DC. Mr. Barnes has 21 years of experience providing Federal Government consulting support at KPMG Consulting, BearingPoint, Booz Allen Hamilton, and SRA International. Mr. Barnes is the board chair for the Capital Youth Empowerment Program (CYEP), which is focused on addressing issues with the fatherless home and teen pregnancy prevention and Power52 Foundation, which provides workforce development and employment opportunities in the renewable energy sector for underserved Baltimore area residents. In addition, Mr. Barnes is a Board Member of Trees for the Future, a non-profit focused on economic sustainability and the elimination of poverty by growing trees across the continent of Africa. Mr. Barnes is also a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc and the Virginia Tech Industrial and Systems Engineering Advisory Board. In his downtime, Mr. Barnes enjoys watching his kids play soccer, reading, and working with small business start-ups. |
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Michael Foss
... Current Role: Founder & CEO of CoachFoss LLC Michael is the Founder & CEO for CoachFoss LLC and passionate about Finding Optimal Solutions for Success. As a speaker, trainer, coach, and author, he thrives on inspiring and motivating leaders to achieve and sustain transformational success! He leads large global teams to be enthusiastic, embrace innovation and disruption, seek relentless improvement, never give up, & never settle for mediocrity! Michael is a strategic logistics & supply chain operations leader with extensive global experience and success in cutting costs and improving performance, processes, and people for premier companies including Flexport, Caterpillar, Amazon, Cameron, Weir, and FedEx. He is a dynamic and energetic change agent, recognized for driving business transformations and optimizing operations. He is a skilled relationship builder, well-known for inspiring and empowering high performance Teams. Michael holds a BS degree in Industrial Engineering from Texas Tech University (TTU) and earned his Lean /Six Sigma Black Belt from the University of Villanova. Michael is a Past President & CEO, Fellow, and current IAB chairman of the Institute of Industrial & Systems Engineers (IISE). Michael is a member of the Texas Tech University Industrial Engineering Academy, is the current President of the TTU Whitacre College of Engineering Dean’s Council, and was awarded the Texas Tech Whitacre College of Engineering Distinguished Engineer’s award, the highest award given from Texas Tech. Michael is one of 230 Engineers, one of only 27 Industrial Engineers ever awarded. Michael is certified to train the Power of Positive Leadership by Jon Gordon and is an active Executive Director John Maxwell Certified Coach, Teacher, Trainer, and Speaker. |
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Thomas Davis
... Current Role: Director, Hospital Operations - Performance Services at Duke Health Thomas began his career in health care and at DUHS in 2007 working as a Management Engineer. In his time with DUHS, Thomas has provided decision support tools and services to a variety of areas including: Primary Care, Urgent Care, and Specialty clinics, along with Perioperative Services. Thomas’ work in the Ambulatory division included several Six Sigma and Lean projects focused on medical records flow, improving patient satisfaction scores, and improving patient throughput in both primary and specialty care clinic settings. In the Perioperative arena Thomas has focused on OR utilization, dashboard development, and installing a consistent measurement approach to OR performance measurement across the six OR platforms at Duke Health. Work has also been focused on data staging and report development in partnership with Epic. In his role as a Director with Performance Services, Thomas leads teams of Management Engineers at the two community hospitals within the DUHS network along with a team of Management Engineers focused on supporting operationally focused clinical service units. Thomas serves as a liaison to the Duke University Hospital Senior Leadership team to support data driven decision making and process improvement projects. Thomas has served a lead role in developing training programs for the health system centered around performance improvement including serving as an instructor for Duke’s Rapid Improvement Event training class. In addition to being trained as a Six Sigma Blackbelt, Thomas holds a B.S. degree from Virginia Tech in Industrial and Systems Engineering and an M.B.A. from Elon University’s Love School of Business. Thomas is licensed as a professional engineer (PE) in the state of North Carolina. Thomas was elected to serve on the Virginia Tech Industrial and Systems Engineering Advisory Board in 2018 where he will serve a five year term. Currently, Thomas serves as the past-Chair of the Advisory Board. Thomas is also an active IISE member and currently serves on the IISE Council of Industrial and Systems Engineers (CISE). Outside of work Thomas enjoys running half-marathons, participating in a variety of outdoor activities, and coaching youth soccer. |
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Elizabeth Greer
... Current Role: VP of Customer Experience Operations at TriNet Elizabeth is an experienced and powerful leader in CX that strives to work with leadership teams at growing companies to help them strategically build their resources to ensure long-term business growth and success. She has specialized in productivity systems, team efficiency, workplace communication, analytics, data science, process improvement, change management, organizational development, and human capital consulting. |