Workshop Speaker Bios
Don Wiesenforth
Assistant Director for Innovation, Albany Medical Center
Don joined Albany Medical Center (AMC) in 2013 as the Assistant Director of Innovation to help implement a continuous improvement program throughout the medical center.  He created a three-tiered training platform CREW (Core Resources to Eliminate Waste) encompassing Lean, Training Within Industry (TWI) and Innovation. To date he has trained over 500 colleagues leading to over 50 improvement projects throughout the hospital and college.
Prior to joining AMC, Don spent seven years as Lean and Innovation specialist for the Center for Economic Growth (CEG) where he worked with dozens of manufacturing, healthcare and government clients.  For 10 years prior to CEG Don owned and operated an Albany-based manufacturing company.
Don is a certified TWI Job Instruction, Job Relations and Job Method Improvement Instructor and a certified Innovation Engineering blackbelt through the NIST Manufacturing Extension Partnership.
A native of the Capital Region, he is a graduate of Bentley College and a MBA graduate of the State University of New York – Albany.
Deborah A. Seeley
Program Manager/Senior Consultant Organization & Leadership Development, Governor's Office of Employee Relations
Deborah’s expertise in Organization and Leadership Development is based on 25+ years in the private sector in financial services, insurance, telecommunications and education.
As Program Manager for Organization and Leadership Development in the Governor’s Office of Employee Relations since 2009, Deborah is responsible for  statewide initiatives that include Strategic Planning and Organizational Change , the NYS Facilitators Exchange, NYS Leadership Institute, Leadership Forums, Navigating Transitions in the Workplace, and Myers-Briggs, to name a few.
Deborah’s educational background includes a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the College of St. Rose and completion of the Advanced Graduate Certificate Program in Organization Development from Columbia University. 
Tom Jones
Assistant Manager, Toyota Production System Support Center
Tom is a TSSC Assistant Manager at Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Inc. (TEMA), located near Cincinnati in Erlanger, Kentucky. TEMA supports Toyota’s engineering and manufacturing operations in North America. TSSC is a not-for-profit corporation affiliated with TEMA, which share’s Toyota Production System (TPS) know-how with North American organizations that have a true desire to learn and adopt TPS as a way to strengthen the quality and efficiency of their production system. In his role, Tom supports nonprofits and general industries in their efforts to improve operations.
Mike LaChapelle
Access GE Team Leader, GE Capital

Mike is an Access GE Team Leader, leading a team of Customer Growth Leaders who support Sponsor Finance, Healthcare Financial Services, GE Equity, and Bank Loan Group clients.
Ashley Porubcan
Deployment Manager, New York State Energy Research and Development Authority
Ashley  is the Deployment Manager for the New York State Energy Research & Development Authority (NYSERDA). Ashley began working at NYSERDA in April 2008 and in her tenure at NYSERDA she has worked on several programs and on operational tasks such as database management, reporting, streamlining, and analytics. She currently is a Business Analyst for the Operational Transformation & Lean group focusing on Authority-wide operational improvements. Ashley holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration from SUNY Albany and a Bachelor’s degree of Science in Business and Technology Management from Clarkson University.
Cheryl Glanton
Director of Contract Management, NYSERDA
Cheryl  is the Director of Contract Management at NYSERDA.  Ms. Glanton is responsible for transforming NYSERDA contracting to be more impactful, easier for department staff and NYSERDA customers to work with, while adhering to NYSERDA’s procurement policies and procedures.  Prior to joining NYSERDA in 2008, Ms. Glanton worked at GE for 17 years, in the Lighting, Quartz and Plastic businesses, she has a breadth of experience including being a Six Sigma Master Black Belt for GE Lighting.
Drew Hanchett
Director of Performance Management, NYS Lean
 Drew has over 14 years of management and analytics experience in the public sector. Prior to joining the NYPerforms effort he, most recently, spent 3 ½ years leading the performance management and quality improvement initiative in the Office of Public Health at the NYS Department of Health. Before coming to New York he led the Office of Data Analytics and Decision Support in the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. There he managed a technical group responsible for database development, data integration and analytics to drive programmatic and policy decision support around the delivery of substance used disorder treatment. Mr. Hanchett began his career in mental health research at Harvard University and received his Masters in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from the Boston University School of Public Health.  
 
Edward R. Schwartz
Lean Coordinator, Department of Tax and Finance
Ed is an attorney, who is currently the Lean Coordinator for the Department of Taxation and Finance (DTF).  Ed was named to this position in April 2015.  Prior to that, he was the Assistant Director of Field Operations for the Civil Enforcement Division of DTF.  Ed, who previously was a trainer in the State’s TQ initiative, is an enthusiastic supporter of Lean.  According to Ed, “Kaizen is where the magic happens”.
Matthew Price
Senior Director of Oracle Customer Experience Strategy and Design
Matthew has over 20 years experience in software product management and general management, spanning enterprise SaaS, online services, and consumer software.  Matthew works with Oracle customers around the globe to help them develop strategies and tools to drive customer centric change in their organizations so they can deliver breakthrough customer experiences.