About ASQ Philadelphia

A short history

About Us

In the Beginning:

Click here for information about our section's history as written by Charles A. Cianfrani, member.

The Growing Years:

There will be more information about the history of our section here.

Where we're going:

We have a rich library of archives. See a sample here.

Call for Nominations for Leadership Team Positions for 2012 -2013 Information

The Philadelphia Section of ASQ calls for nominations for the 2012 -2013 calendar year from section membership for the positions of:

Chair Elect
Vice Chair
Treasurer
Secretary

To be considered for one of these section leadership positions, please submit a letter of intent and a biography to the current ASQ 0505 Philadelphia section secretary, Alison Sudhalter, at asudhalter@hotmail.com by February 20, 2012.

Nominees will be listed on the ASQ Philadelphia website by early March.

For any office contested by more than one candidate, candidates will be balloted upon at the March program meeting. Announcement of the officers elect shall be made by the Section Chair.

2011 -2012 Leadership Team and Several Committee Chair Bios:

	The Chair ˗ Li-Chung Huang Li-Chung has been a member of ASQ since 2005 and is a process design/improvement expert with 17 years of experience in bio-pharmaceutical industry. He holds a Professional Engineer License, Six Sigma Black Belt in Design Excellence, CQE, CQA, CMQ/OE, and Regulatory Affairs (RAC) certification. His skills include Six Sigma DMAIC, Design Excellence DMADV, QbD, DOE, Root Cause Analysis, Problem Solving, CAPA, Risk Management, Lean Process, Metrics, Balanced Scorecards, Statistical Analysis and Process Control, Quality Systems, and Organizational Excellence. He received the Outstanding Service Award from the ASQ-Biomedical Division in 2008 for his leadership as the chair of Mid-Atlantic Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Discussion Group and numerous leadership awards from the ASQ-Philadelphia in 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010.
	The Chair Elect and Jobs Chair ˗ Dan Ely Dan is ASQ Philly's Chair-Elect for 2011-2012 and was the Chair in 2005-2006. An ASQ Certified Quality Manager 6714 with over ten years experience as a ASQ Certified Quality Engineer. Currently the Manager of Quality for Neapco in Pottstown, PA. ISO9001:2008. Previously as Director of Quality he led a local company to be 18th in the State of PA., and 188th in the USA to earn ISO 9000 and QS-9000 registration. RABQSA qualified by Exam as Certified Lead Auditor to ISO 9001 and TS 16946, GD&T professional with full knowledge of ASME Y14.5 (Drawing Interpretation), and progressive inspection automation leader.
	The Secretary and Website Coordinator ˗ Alison Sudhalter Alison Sudhalter has been a member of ASQ since 2009 and holds her ASQ certification as a Software Quality Engineer (CSQE). She has a B.S. in Special Education and a M.Ed. in Computer Science. Alison has over 13 years as a technical writer developing user documentation and online help for the software industry and 10 years as a Quality Assurance Analyst and Software Validation Engineer. She works in the pharmaceutical/biotechnology industry providing IT quality assurance and compliance consulting. She specializes in policy and procedural writing, computer systems validation and change management for IT applications and infrastructure. She received the ASQ Section 0505 Outstanding Service Award for 2009 - 2010.
	Treasurer and MAPBDG Chair ˗ Ray Lotfi Ray is currently a consultant for Teleflex (Arrow International) in Limerick, Pennsylvania. He serves as the Chair for ASQ's Section 0505 Mid-Atlantic Pharmaceutical/Biomedical Discussion Group and has been a past chair of the Section. He has been a Manager of Manufacturing Engineering Assembly and Packaging at Orthovita and Senior Principal Product Development Engineer at CertainTeed Corporation. He holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from University of Wisconsin and a M.S. in Engineering Management from the Milwaukee School of Engineering.
	Nominating and Past Chair ˗ Jeff Korsyn Jeff is an ASQ Philadelphia past section chair, programs chair, and currently the audit chair and nomination chair. As the Quality Assurance Manager for Airborne Systems North America in Pennsauken, New Jersey he is focused on driving improvements in processes, first time quality, cost of quality, procedures, and ISO 9001:2008 compliance. Jeff is an ASQ certified quality engineer, has been trained in Lean Six Sigma and Red X problem solving, and holds a B.S. degree in management from Philadelphia University.
	Membership Chair ˗ Chris Connors Dr. Chris Connors is a Director in the PwC's Connected Thinking for Excellence, an internal Lean Six Sigma program. Chris is a business process improvement expert and Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt with over $150 MM saved leading cross-functional business improvements in variety of industries. He is an ASQ certified Six-Sigma Black Belt. Over the past 20 years, Chris has implemented Lean Six Sigma at Hercules, Aetna, Tunnell Consulting clients, and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. He has a Ph.D. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology. His skills include Six Sigma DMAIC Coaching, Design of Experiments, Design for Six Sigma, Root Cause Analysis, Kepner-Tregoe Problem Solving, Lean Manufacturing, Kaizen, Corporate Metrics and Dashboards, Balanced Scorecards, Executive Coaching, Survey Instrument Design and Analysis, Statistical Analysis, Instructional Design, Leadership Development, and Organizational Assessments.
	Membership Database Chair ˗ Sam Couchara Sam has been a member since 1983. He is currently a Senior Member and has previously served as Membership Chair, Treasurer and Symposium Chair. He is currently a Quality Assurance Manager for the Advanced Informatics Group of Information International Associates, Inc., Oak Ridge, TN
	K-12 Education and KAPE Liaison Chair ˗ Dave Gondak Dave is the Director of Educational Services at Strategic Source, Inc. He has also served as Chief Executive Officer of Pennsylvania's largest teachers' union and led the strategic organizational and management development of the Pennsylvania State Education Association (PSEA). He currently serves as the Treasurer and a member of the Board of Directors for the Keystone Alliance for Performance Excellence (KAPE) – Pennsylvania’s Baldrige Quality improvement organization - and as K-12 Education Chair for the Philadelphia Section 0505 of the American Society for Quality. Dave has a B.S. in Education from the Pennsylvania State University. and a M. Ed. in Secondary Education. He taught chemistry and science at Central Bucks High School West. He also received his Principal's Certification from Lehigh University.
	Publicity and Vice Chair Elect - Carl Vogel Carl has been a member of the ASQ since 1991 and holds ASQ CQE and CSQE certifications. He has been on the Program Committee since 1995, and in 2001 received the Outstanding Member Award for providing needed continuity and support when the Committee Chairman was unavailable. In 2003, the Section 0505 Executive Committee identified a need for more consistent communications among the membership and thus, Carl founded the Publicity Committee. Today, he is the one responsible for emails and other publicity promoting Section events. Carl works as a Quality Systems Engineer in the precious metals industry supporting medical device companies.
	Programs Chair - Mark Klutchka Mark has been a member of ASQ since 2006 and holds an ASQ certification as a Quality Manager/Organizational Excellence (CMQ/OE). He works in manufacturing as a Quality Manager, having experience applying quality disciplines in manufacturing and program/project management. Mark received the Outstanding Service Award for 2010 - 2011.
	Education Chair - Bob Wittendorf Bob Wittendorf has been a member of ASQ since 1995 and held ASQ certifications as Quality Manager and Quality Auditor. He is presently the Education Committee Chair and Vice-Chair of the Mid-Atlantic Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Discussion Group. He was Program Committee Chair in 2001 and rose in the section’s leadership succession process to Section Chair in 2006-07. He received the ASQ Outstanding Service Award for 2008- 2009. He retired from the pharmaceutical industry in 2001 after 35 years as scientist, environmental Quality Control supervisor, environmental testing contract manager and Quality Assurance manager in a world-wide corporate level Environment, Health and Safety department. He is president of a pharmaceutical and medical device consulting business specializing in FDA compliance issues.