Connecting the Dots

Emily Lantz is an industrial engineer who has a passion for all things people, process and systems! Receiving her undergraduate degree in Industrial Engineering from the University of Dayton, she put her degree to use in manufacturing, distribution and 3PL. Working as a consultant, she was able to see different industries and how processes vary but have so many commonalities. With a pass...

Mike Martyn is the Founder and President of SISU Consulting Group, and international consultancy supporting more than 500 organizations in 22 countries.  Over the past 20 years, Mike has also contributed hugely to the development of the Shingo Model and Assessment Framework, is Director Emeritus of the Shingo Institute, a 3x Shingo Prize winning author and Lifetime Member of the Shingo A...

Chris McChesney is the co-author of the best-selling book in the world on strategy execution. He is the Global Practice Leader of Execution for FranklinCovey Co. and one of the primary developers of The 4 Disciplines of Execution. For 15 years, he has led FranklinCovey’s ongoing design and development of these principles, as well as the consulting organization that has achieved extraordi...

Dr. Paul F. DeChant, MD, MBA, FAAFP is a family physician and healthcare leader who advises C-level executives on reducing physician burnout. As CEO of the Sutter Gould Medical Foundation he led a transformation that improved physician satisfaction from the 45th to 87th percentile on AMGA’s Provider Satisfaction Survey and achieved recognition for the group as the hig...

Morgan has over 30 years' experience in Lean and 20 years in Six Sigma, a pragmatic and experienced improvement Leader, delivering over $2.1.Bn in hard savings to organisation , improving customer, staff experiences and improved Health and Safety. The legacy capabilities of Business Improvement have resulted in over 23 international awards and chairing 27 international conferences around Busi...

John Grout is the David C. Garrett Jr. Professor, former dean, and award-winning teacher in the Campbell School of Business. Dr. Grout has researched lean supply chain management and mistake-proofing (a.k.a. Poka-Yoke) extensively and published numerous articles on the topic.  In 2004, John was awarded the Shingo Prize for his paper, “The Human Side of Mistake-Proofing” with Douglas Stewart.&...

Shane D. Lewis, MD FACS, a general surgeon in Salt Lake City, Utah, serves as the Medical Director of High Reliability at Intermountain Healthcare overseeing safety, quality, experience, and clinical risk across a multi-state footprint. Dr. Lewis started his first business at the early age of five, Shane’s Shoe Shine Shack, and has been working to buff the scuffs and scrapes of others ever since....

Dr. Ko joined Stanford Medicine in 2012 and serves as Director and Chief of Medical Dermatology for Stanford Health Care (SHC) while also spearheading the dermatology department's efforts around network development, digital health, quality/safety/performance improvement, and value-based care. He is active in a number of leadership roles within the organization including as an Associate Chief Quali...

Joshua Howell is president and executive team leader at the Lean Enterprise Institute (LEI). For over a decade, he has supported individuals and organizations with lean transformations for improved business performance. As a coach, he helps people become lean thinkers and practitioners through experiential learning, believing such an approach can lead to enterprise-wide improvement. Regular e...

John Dyer is an author, coach, and trainer with 38 years of experience in the field of improving processes. His recently published book “the Façade of Excellence; Defining a New Normal of Leadership” examines the four leadership styles required to move an organization’s culture to one of trust, collaboration, and teamwork.  John started his career with General Electric and then worked for Ing...

Christopher Longhurst MD, MS, is the chief medical officer (CMO) and chief digital officer (CDO) at UC San Diego Health. This dual, complementary role provides leadership to medical staff, ensuring that standards and protocols are in place to provide the highest quality of care to patients. He also serves as an associate dean at the School of Medicine, overseeing and aligning our education an...

Dr. Billi serves as Professor Emeritus in Internal Medicine and Learning Health Sciences (Medical School), Health Management and Policy (Public Health), and Integrated Systems and Design (Engineering) at the University of Michigan. Dr. Billi's management and research interests are in health services delivery, especially the use of lean thinking to improve quality and efficiency, the use of communi...

Dr Mohamed Saleh is a thought leader in shifting cultural mindsets by redesigning business systems. Dr. Saleh has a successful track record anchored in two decades of hands-on transformations with a strong interest in making a global difference by providing distinctive leading-edge Lean-inspired education and advisory services aimed at helping organizations in an array of industries achieve the hi...

Terry Platchek, MD  serves as Vice President for Performance Improvement and Associate Chief Quality Officer at Stanford Medicine Children’sHealth, as Co-Executive Director of the StanfordMedicine Center for Improvement and as a Clinical Professor of Pediatrics and Medicine at Stanford.  Dr. Platchek’s career focuses on healthcare improvement with an emphasis on using Lean management to...

Paul Helgerson, MD is the Associate Chief Medical Officer of Acute Care at the University of Virginia.  He is a hospital medicine physician and also serves as the Vice Chair of the Department of Medicine at UVA.  Dr. Helgerson has previously served in various positions in quality and performance improvement as well as hospital medicine leadership.   He is a member of the Societ...

Michael Timms believes that everyone deserves to be inspired and uplifted by their leaders at work. A best-selling author and sought-after speaker and consultant, Michael teaches leaders how to inspire greatness in those they lead. Michael is the author of the book How Leaders Can Inspire Accountability which the world’s #1 leadership coach, Marshall Goldsmith, called “the ultimate guide for embra...

Her clients describe Emily Elrod as energetic, wise beyond her years, and the person that gets things done. Her husband describes her as a blonde, good momma, and animal philanthropist.   But if you ask her, she is just a lover of humanity, dark chocolate, and nouns as she will gladly nerd out with you on ways people, places, and things (aka nouns) go from stressed to strategic as she helps t...

Dr. David Zaas joined the Medical University of South Carolina in June 2020 as the Chief Executive Officer for the Charleston Division and the Chief Clinical Officer for MUSC Health. In addition, he is an Professor at the MUSC School of Medicine with a clinical practice in pulmonary medicine and lung transplantation at MUSC. Dr. Zaas was the President of Duke Raleigh Hospital f...

Richard P. Shannon, MD  serves as the Chief Quality Officer for Duke Health. He is responsible for the overall direction, leadership and operational management of the quality and safety programs of Duke Health and provides leadership in strengthening a quality culture where everyone is engaged and respected. Shannon received his BA from Princeton University and his MD from the Unive...

Tilo supports organizations and managers in successfully leading change and empowering their teams for improvement, adaptiveness, and superior results. He was a plant manager at a renowned German power-tool manufacturer, where he and his management team started practicing Toyota Kata as part of Mike Rother's groundbreaking research in 2006. By doing so, Tilo and his team established...

Tracy A. Defoe Kata Coach, Consultant, Community Builder, Researcher, Program Developer, Educator specializing in learning at work. Tracy Defoe is co-founder of Kata School Cascadia and Kata Girl Geeks. Both are growing coaches and building the kata community world-wide. Tracy helps Tilo Schwarz with the Kata Dojo Masterclass, too. Her consulting company is called TLFI The Learning Factor. She aim...

Mark Rosenthal has been learning on the front lines of Lean implementation, quality improvement, and leader development in manufacturing, engineering design, service sector and health care for over 30 years.  His experience includes working on lean and quality systems implementation in companies such as Boeing and Boeing suppliers, Genie Industries, Eastman Kodak and Terex at sites...

Gemma started her career studying Mechanical Engineering. She quickly discovered the world of Continuous Improvement and spent 20 years working to improve processes and systems within various manufacturing industries including Automotive, Pharmaceutical, Dairy, Cosmetics & Toiletries, Food, and Medical Devices. She has been a CI Manager numerous times and an Operations Manager running a factor...

Kevin Monroe  grows gratitude globally and generationally. For him, it’s more of a crusade than a mission. He truly believes that gratitude changes everything. He also believes  gratitude experienced is better than gratitude explained.  And it is best experienced in community. To that end, he  creates environments, hosts encounters, and curates experiences  allowing p...

Steve is responsible for Gemba Academy's lean coaching and certifications. Prior to Gemba Academy, Steve had a diverse career ranging from being responsible for a large medical device sales territory, plant manager where he leveraged lean methods to drive improvement, and VP Operations at Specialty Silicone Fabricators, where he led the lean efforts of the company. He has served on...