Presenter Biographies

The following is a collection of biographical information on the conference speakers, moderators, and conference chair arranged by session.

Keynote:

Jim Pauley, President and CEO, NFPA

NFPA is a global, non-profit organization devoted to eliminating death, injury, property and economic loss due to fire, electrical and related hazards. He also serves as Chairman of the Board of the NFPA Research Foundation. Prior to joining NFPA, Mr. Pauley concluded a 30-year career in the electrical and energy industry where he most recently served as Senior Vice President, External Affairs and Government Relations for Schneider Electric. Mr. Pauley has served in a number of past leadership positions including Chairman of the Board for the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and currently serves as a Director for the Center for Public Safety Excellence. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Kentucky and was a licensed professional engineer in Kentucky.

Session 1:

Megan A. Hayes

Megan A. Hayes is the technical director, operations for the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA). In that role, she is responsible for managing and improving NEMA standards development processes, participation in outside standards bodies and oversight of the NEMA Field Representative program. 

Ms. Hayes is the recipient of the ANSI Next Generation Award and the ANSI Meritorious Service Award. Ms. Hayes has served on the United States National Committee (USNC) to the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) Council, the Technical Management Committee (TMC) and as the chair of the ANSI Board of Standards Review (BSR). She also currently serves on the ANSI Executive Standards Council (ExSC). She is accredited by the Society for Standards Professionals as an Associate Standards Professional (AStd).

Bryan P. Holland

Bryan P. Holland is the Senior Field Representative, Southern Region for the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA). He is the principal voting member representing NEMA on the NFPA 780, NFPA 78 and NFPA 1078 Technical Committees and on the ICC Commercial Energy Code Development Committee. Bryan currently holds forty-one ICC Certifications including Master Code Professional, Electrical Code Official, and Energy Code Specialist. He also holds twenty-four FEMA Certifications and is AStd certified by the Society of Standards Professionals. Prior to his tenure with NEMA, Bryan worked for the City of North Port, Florida as Building Official and is a licensed Building Code Administrator, Plans Examiner and Inspector in the State of Florida. He also serves as an instructor and course developer for the Electrical Council of Florida and is a member of the Florida Electrical Technical Advisory Committee. Bryan is a member of the AFAA, NFPA, IAEI, ICC, and SES.

Session 2:

Erik Puskar, CStd

Erik Puskar is a senior standards specialist within the Standards Coordination Office (SCO) at the National Institute of Standards & Technology.   Erik supports Federal agencies by monitoring developments in standards and conformity assessment internationally and helps equip US industry with the standards-related tools and information necessary to effectively compete in the global marketplace.  He has supported several trade related negotiations and dialogues, lead the Office’s impact assessment efforts, and helped launch NIST’s initiative on standards education.  Erik received the Commerce Department’s Silver medal in 2012. Erik serves on the International Policy Committee of ANSI and was a vice-chair of the Committee on Education (COE), and board member of the International Committee for Education About Standardization (ICES).  Erik is active in the Society for Standards Professionals (SES) and currently serves as Chair of the Certification Committee. Previously Erik was a program manager with NIST’s Advanced Technology Program where he was responsible for managing a $25 million project portfolio.  He has also held positions with the IRS, international development organizations and private sector, and served as an examiner for Maryland Performance Excellence (Quality) Award Program. Erik holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics from Rutgers University and a Master’s in Public Management and Policy from Carnegie-Mellon University.

Karen Reczek, CStd

Karen Reczek is a Social Scientist within the Standards Coordination Office (SCO) at the National Institute of Standards & Technology. Karen provides strategic and tactical support to the NIST-administered, Organization of Scientific Area Committees for Forensic Science (OSAC) and its next iteration. Karen works with high level Federal, State, Local & private sector officials to coordinate standards development to identify and support development of standard activities and programs to meet Federal needs. Karen is a member of ASTM International’s E30 Forensic Science Executive Committee serving as Membership Secretary and a member of ISO Technical Committee (TC) 272 Forensic Science and the US Technical Advisory Group. Karen serves as the NIST Ex-Officio on the Organization of Scientific Area Committee for Forensic Science (OSAC) Forensic Science Standards Board. Karen served at the Education Council Director for the SES Board of Directors from August 2016- August 2019 and the Chair of the SES Education Committee from August 2012- July 2016. Karen is currently Vice President of SES. Previously Karen worked at Bureau Veritas as Senior Manager, Information Resources Center for 14 years and prior to that at Bristol-Myers Squibb in Scientific and Information Resources and Services.  Karen has over 22 years’ experience in standards and conformity assessment activities and research. Karen holds a Master’s Degree in Library and Information Science from the State University of NY at Buffalo and a BS Double Major in Social Sciences and Humanities from Clarkson University. Lisa Spellman, MBA, AStd is the Executive Director of Exchangewell Global Digital Consortia with SAE Industry Technologies Consortia (SAE ITC®).  Lisa is a broadly skilled executive w/20+ years of global experience in international business, operations, education and standards development.  Lisa has done extensive work in international and domestic standards development, adoption and assessment working with a range of SDOs including ISO, IEEE, ITU, DICOM, SAE, and many others.  She has worked with a wide range of entity types worldwide including for-profit, non-profit, NGOs, associations and governmental, ranging from small-medium-sized entities (SMEs) to Fortune 100 multi-nationals in over 25 nations.  She is on the SES Board of Directors and served on United States National Committee (USNC/ANSI) for Rules & Procedures and Finance Committees.   Lisa completed her undergraduate studies with highest honors including Phi Beta Kappa and Magna Cum Laude and holds an MBA in International Relations and Marketing and is certified as a Standards Professional (AStd) from the International Society for Standards Professionals and is Board Chair of the Global SES Education Committee.

Session 3:

Karin Athanas

Karin Athanas is a standards and conformity assessment expert with over ten years of experience working with industry and government agencies on issues of conformance, quality, and reliability.

Karin currently serves as the Acting Executive Director of the TIC Council Americas and Executive Officer and Board President of the Women in Standards. Karin is a current Board member of the Society of Standards Professionals (SES), Board member of the Forensic Specialties Accreditation Board (FSAB), and committee member on several ASTM committees, the ISO TC 272 working group 5, Joint Strategic Advisory Group (JSAG) on gender responsive standards, and is a member of the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE), Association of Forensic Quality Assurance Managers (AFQAM), International Association for Identification (IAI), and the International Association for Identification (IAI), Chesapeake Bay Division (CBD).

An experienced lead auditor to international standards such as ISO/IEC 17025 and ISO/IEC 17020, Karin’s past accomplishments includes participation on the working group that developed International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC) Guide 19 Modules in a Forensic Science Process, on the Maryland Forensic Laboratory Advisory Committee (FLAC) that developed COMAR 10.51 Forensic Laboratories, requirements for licensure, and on the National Commission on Forensic Science subcommittee on Accreditation and Proficiency Testing to develop recommendations for forensic science including Views of the Commission on Proficiency Testing in Forensic Science and Views on Critical Steps to Accreditation.

Karin has a Bachelor of Science in Biology from Arizona State University and a Master in Forensic Science from George Washington University.

Session 4:

Lisa J. Carnahan

Pat Baird

Pat Baird works at Philips as the Head of Global Software Standards. Pat likes to think of his job as “Policy Engineering” – understanding the unmet needs (and frustrations) of regulators and  developers, and developing standards, whitepapers, and training to meet those needs. His current passion is related to artificial intelligence in healthcare; he is co-chair of a CTA committee on healthcare AI, co-chair of a WHO AI quality management committee, is active on ISO/IEC SC42 AI standard committees, is active in trade associations related to AI, etc. Past roles have included software developer, engineering manager, project manager, lead engineer, and most recently he was the Director of Risk Management at Baxter Healthcare. Drawing on 20 years’ experience in product development, he has published and presented over 50 papers regarding product development. He has an MBA from Marquette and a Masters in Healthcare Quality and Patient Safety from Northwestern University.

Anju Sharma

Anju Sharma has been leading global teams and high-impact technology programs for over 15 years, from concept to delivery. Currently Anju is Product Manager for HP Inc.’s Customer Support AI conversational platform (Virtual Agent chatbot) which engages with millions of customers each month. This relatively new AI platform has pushed the boundaries of existing software quality and software management practices within HP Inc. which has led to a collection of learnings. Anju presented a paper on “Reducing chatbot abandon rates” at the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) conference in 2019.

Prior efforts include implementation of HP’s centralized Digital Asset Management system, contact center software for Social Media Customer Care and enhancements for HP.com web technologies. Anju has a BSEE from Rice University and PMP, CSM certifications.  She is a recipient of 2 CIO Operational Excellence Awards.

Session 5:

Priscilla Magee

Priscilla Magee is the Consumer Outreach Manager at the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). Priscilla received her Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. Priscilla’s responsibilities at ANSI include working with ANSI-accredited Standards Development Organizations and U.S. Technical Advisory Groups to determine where consumer input is needed, serving as a resource to the Consumer Product Safety Commission on standardization matters of interest or impacting consumers, and conducting outreach to consumer advocacy and public interests groups to inform and foster engagement on standardization initiatives.

Patricia (Patty) Edwards

Patricia (Patty) Edwards is the Voluntary Standards Coordinator for the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). Patty received her B.S. degree in Materials Engineering from VA Tech and her M.S. in Materials Science and Engineering from Johns Hopkins University. Prior to her career with the CPSC, she spent 15 years in private industry working as a litigation technical expert and project manager for a forensic engineering firm. After joining the CPSC, Patty focused on juvenile products and served as the agency’s engineering expert for children’s products, assisting the Office of Compliance with cases involving juvenile products. Starting in 2009, Patty served as the program manager for the CPSIA (Section 104) regulatory program to promulgate over 20 regulations for durable nursery products. Since February 2016, Patty has been serving as the CPSC Voluntary Standards Coordinator, where she oversees the activity and participation of the CPSC staff that pertains to voluntary standards development.

Karyn Ferguson

Karyn Ferguson is Manager of Member Education & Committee Services, Canadian Standards Association and has been with CSA Group since 2008.  Karyn is responsible for developing and delivering standards development-related educational and training programs and services for CSA members, standards development staff and key external stakeholder groups. Karyn is also responsible for managing the CSA Consumer Program and Young Professionals Member Program. Membership and Operations team members focus on initiatives intended to meet strategic objectives associated with member recruitment and enriching our member’s experience.  Prior to joining CSA Group, Karyn served as Program Director with the Canadian Professional Logistics Institute and has also worked in financial services and telecommunications industries.  She has a Masters in Distance Education from Athabasca University and a BA in Sociology and Applied Studies from the University of Waterloo.

Business Meeting

Mili Washington

Mili Washington has been The Institute of Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration Certification (IICRC) Standards Director since 2011. Her focus has been to streamline the standards development process and strategy at the IICRC, work toward American National Standards Institute (ANSI) approval for new and revised ANSI/IICRC standards and work towards international adoption of IICRC standards.

For the past fifteen years, Washington has focused her work in the area of standards development and management. In her previous role as manager of standards and guidelines for the American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA), she oversaw the develop of several ANSI standards for the occupational health and safety profession.Washington is a member of The Society for Standards Professionals (SES) and currently serves on the SES Board of Directors as President. Mili is certified by SES as a Certified Standards Professional (CStd). She graduated with a Masters degree from George Washington University in Environmental and Resource Policy after completing a bachelor’s degree in Economics from Delhi University in New Delhi, India.

Session 6:

Jennifer Teague

Jennifer Teague completed a PhD in biomechanics in 2004. She began her career as an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Waterloo and then spent many years using her broad interests, research and science communication skills to develop, launch and manage large, multi-stakeholder academic research projects at universities in the Toronto, Canada area. Currently, Jennifer works as Director of Standards Research at CSA Group, helping to manage research projects and activities on a wide range of topics.

Closing Keynote

Amy Lestition Burke, MA, CAE

Amy Lestition Burke serves as Senior Vice President of Engagement, Association Solutions for MCI USA. Amy is the go-to expert for member and community engagement strategies, plus  work in areas ranging from strategic communications and marketing to organizational development and change. She concurrently serves as Executive Director of the Special Libraries Association (SLA), a nonprofit international organization for information professionals and their strategic partners, working collaboratively to position SLA for long-term growth and renewal.

During her time with MCI USA, Amy has also served as Chief Operating Officer for the Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association (PRA) and Psychiatric Rehabilitation Foundation (PRF), implementing aggressive stakeholder-engagement strategies for both professional and trade-association members, and as Executive Vice President of Photo Marketing Association International (PMA), managing enterprise-wide operations across four international offices; and managed a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention grant awarded to the Interstitial Cystitis Association (ICA). From 2006 to 2012, she served as Executive Director of Association Media & Publishing (AM&P), where she oversaw a complete name-change, rebranding, and membership restructuring. In addition, Amy served as Associate Professor at the Northern Virginia Community College where she instructed the course, Introduction to Non-Profit Management.