OUR NEXT EVENT
Women in Quality
A panel event: FOUR professional women from various backgrounds will share their experiences in the quality fields.
31 March 19h00
Networking event starts at 18h30
Veronica Marquez, M. Sc., CSSBB of Aristeío Consulting and member of the ASQ Section Leadership Team will moderate this panel discussion and networking event.
Nowadays, an increasing number of incredible women work in a wide range of quality fields. As managers, academic leaders and decision makers, women in quality are all hardworking, smart, and professional focused on making our products flawless, establishing the highest standards of quality, and optimizing the manufacturing and industries’ processes. Our three invited high caliber panelists will share their background, work experience-challenges and general feelings about being a woman in the quality field.
Attendance will be worth 0.5 RU (Recertification Units) for ASQ.
La participation vaut 0.5 RU (Recertification Units) de l’ASQ.
Dr. Farnoosh Naderkhani is Assistant Professor with the Concordia Institute for Information System Engineering (CIISE) at Concordia University. Prior to joining CIISE, she was a Post-doctoral Fellow at H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Georgia Tech and has been actively involved in different areas of quality control and maintenance management. In particular, her main research domain is Quality Control and Maintenance Management with special focus on stochastic modeling; Condition-based Maintenance (CBM); Quality Assurance; Optimal Control of Partially Observable Processes-Systems; Advanced Machine Learning (ML) for Fault Diagnostic and Prognostics in Manufacturing and Industries; Quality assurance in Supply Chain Management; and, Reliability and Residual Life Prediction. Her contributions have been published in International Journals and Conferences of high caliber in industrial and quality engineering venues including but not limited to International Journal of Production Economics (IJPE); International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology (IJAMT); Journal of Quality in Maintenance Engineering (JQME).
Dr. Carolee Rigsbee is Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois at Springfield and a senior member of the ASQ. She holds a PhD in Business Administration (strategic management) and has extensive prior leadership experience in quality assurance and project/program management in software-based systems gained in the nuclear R&D, food manufacturing, consulting, telecom, and aerospace and defense industries. Carolee helped develop the first and several subsequent ASQ CSQE exams, was technical Program Chair/Co-chair for the 9th to 11th ASQ International Conferences on Software Quality, and at one point was a member of the IEEE Software Engineering Standards Council Executive as the ASQ Software Division Liaison. These experiences and her deep interest in corporate social responsibility, collectively inform her teaching and her research around social and environmental goal achievement. Her research is currently focused on benefit corporations in the U.S., supply chain contribution to performance, and on the design of vertically integrated value chains enabled by blockchain technology and stakeholder driven governance structures to more effectively deliver goods and services in support of the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals. Carolee believes the quality assurance function has an important role to play in driving the social and environmental responsibility agenda.
Marsha Pourmand is a Lean Sigma practitioner with Quality Engineering background with an extensive experience with large, medium and small organizations (Aerospace, Telecom, and Healthcare) to leverage use of best practices and standards to improve capability and safety across entire operation and supply chain. She has done hundreds of projects and coached teams to improve processes from Business Development and Sales to Procurement, Manufacturing, and Customer support, as well as support functions of HR, IT, and Finance. Her success is mostly due to a balanced approach, i.e. good project management combined with risk management, change management, and stakeholder management, and her superior systematic view and execution.Marsha has over 20 years of industry experience and supports organizations to deliver value through 7S Knowledge Express Inc., her consulting firm.
Véronique Boucher has been an independent Quality System Consultant since mid-2019 and is an ASQ Certified Auditor. She has twenty years of experience in quality assurance with medical devices (ISO 13485), manufacturing (ISO 9001) and pharmaceutical (GLP, GCP) sectors. She graduated from the CEGEP de Lévis-Lauzon in Chemistry-Biology Techniques. Working in quality is not easy and her goal as a consultant is to help companies, but especially her colleagues in quality, to be a resource available to support them during the implementation of a quality system, to analyze with them the potential gaps, to support them with new regulations (e.g. EU MDR 2017/745), and also during projects to optimize their quality processes.
Thank you to our institutional members
Shawn Bruno
Jon U. Schafer 
Canada & Greenland News
They have been nominated and will collaborate with the various Sections and their leaders to accomplish the Geographic Council (GCC) objectives:
- Ruth Stanley, Ottawa Valley and Montreal (past Regional Director)
- Chaitanya Baliga, Toronto
- Michael Mladjenovic, London, Hamilton, Kitchener and Windsor
- Gary Gehring, Manitoba and Saskatchewan
- Akhilesh Manchanda, Calgary and Edmonton
- Ken Sadler, Maritimes Section
- Michel Guenette, DRD at Large
2021 Upcoming Webinars
Bilingual Region Webinar:
Lean as a Lever for a Sustainable Supply Chain, by Veronica Marquez, ASQ Certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt and Certified Sustainable Supply Chain Professional from ISCEA
ASQ Canada/Greenland Region Webinar.
May 19, 2021 — 12:00 p.m. ET/ 11:00 a.m. CT/ 10:00 a.m. MT/ 9:00 a.m. PT
Attendance will be worth 0.5 RU (Recertification Units) for ASQ. Certificate will be sent by email after the event to the participants.
ASQ Canadian Conference 2021
Chantale Simard, Montreal Section chair, announced that the Montreal Section will host the 2021 ASQ Canadian Conference, which will take place later this year, in virtual mode. To get further information on its evolution, check our Local News page.
Stay tuned for further developments.
ASQ News
QUALITY PROGRESS ENHANCEMENTS
Kristen L. Spriggs, ASQ Chief Member Services Officer, announced that the ASQ Quality Progress magazine has a new and improved publication design and digital format!
The refreshed design and a new column covering Quality 4.0 topics, “The Download,” were included in the February 2021 edition. ASQ’s digital edition of Quality Progress features improved readability and access to even more resources through linked online content.
Log in today with your ASQ membership credentials at www.qualityprogress.com for a better mobile device experience, content searchability plus access to the digital archive.
This is part of ASQ’s own digital transformation and commitment to sustainability effective April 2021. Digital access to Quality Progress will continue to be included with membership, but there will be an additional fee to receive print delivery.
Many publications have gone fully digital in response to rising costs and digital advancements. Quality Progress digital-only readers will be making an impactful contribution to environmental improvements estimated at a staggering 34.6 million printed pages annually – the equivalent of 37 acres of forest (that’s 28 football fields!) — an important part of ASQ’s member value proposition but recognizing efforts toward digital transformation and sustainability. This change also refrains an membership dues increase at this time.
CELEBRATING 75 YEARS OF EXCELLENCE THROUGH QUALITY
2021-02-16 – On February 16, 1946, an alliance of distinguished professionals gathered in New York City to form a membership society dedicated to the advancement of the theory and practice of quality and the allied arts and sciences. Now known as ASQ, members have been delivering solutions to meet the world’s challenges ever since.
From our origins in World War II statistical control methodology to modern-day best practices for leveraging artificial intelligence, ASQ and the quality industry have always been at the forefront of change, disruption, and progress. We are excited to launch a year-long celebration to recognize the 75th year of this great Society and the remarkable contributions of its members, subject matter experts, and communities to advance the quality profession.
Building on the foresight of its founding members and drawing inspiration from the quality profession we serve, ASQ continues to improve the value of membership. In the coming months, I look forward to sharing a roadmap of projects to further the ASQ mission and position the Society for its next 75 years of growth and success. New initiatives such as the digital edition of Quality Progress, a digital transformation field guide from Quality Press, and the member-led COVID-19 Quality Response are detailed in the issue of The Insider. We are committed to enhancing the member benefits and offerings that are valuable to you and next-generation members.
As we embark on this milestone year, thank you for your continued ASQ membership and dedication to achieving excellence through quality.
Sincerely,
Ann Jordan, CEO, ASQ
ASQ Announces new CEO
2021-01-14 – ASQ announced that Ann Jordan has been named the next CEO of ASQ. She assumes this role after serving as Interim CEO of the Society since January 2020.
When the CEO position became vacant in October 2019, the ASQ Board had an opportunity to re-envision how the leadership role could be better defined to guide the Society through its next phase of organizational and cultural growth. We are confident that we have found in Ann a partner dedicated to delivering heightened value for current and next-generation members, evolving our offerings to reflect digital transformation and other industry changes, and advancing the quality mission around the world.
Congratulations.
Lean and Six Sigma Conference Celebrates 20th, Goes Virtual
ASQ’s 20th Lean and Six Sigma Conference will be virtual in 2021 allowing us to offer a safe event, accessible to all, in a convenient format. Join colleagues in the quality community to learn vital tools and tactics to affect change, increase value and drive your organizations toward quality goals.
Benchmarking Report
Get informed with ASQE’s (American Society for Quality Excellence) first 2020 Insights on Excellence (IoE) Annual Research Report. This new benchmarking report allows you to leverage findings to positively impact your organization. Find what you need to:
- Eliminate barriers to implementing digital transformation.
- Address challenges in adapting quality programs in global workforces.
