Jay Bakst, PMP, has been a project manager for over 25 years in areas of manufacturing, commerce and technology. Jay has taught project management at universities and community colleges since 1999. He is a certified expert in the Theory of Constraints (TOC) and incorporates its principles into his project management classes. Jay is a member of PMI, the Theory of Constraints International Certification Organization and is a TOC coach at The Boeing Company.
Bryce Brown, MBA, instructs and coaches strategic planning, program management and project management disciplines for The Boeing Company and its vendors domestically and internationally. He has a background in business planning, process development, project management, computing, change management, finance, human resources and education. Bryce has conducted over 350 seminars and workshops in these areas and has led, coached, and facilitated many planning and project teams. He has also taught courses at community colleges and universities in the Puget Sound area. Bryce has a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from Santa Clara University and an M.B.A. from Seattle University.
Bill Dow, PMP, is a published author and PMP Certified Project Management Professional. He has more than 18 years of experience in information technology, specializing in software development and project management. Bill has a strong passion for project management, project management offices and software development lifecycle methodologies. In addition to teaching at Bellevue College, he has taught technology courses at several Canadian colleges. Bill started his career in the late 1980s as a computer programming analyst, worked in the consulting field for many years, and then led a large project management office at AT&T Wireless/Cingular. He is currently working at Microsoft.
Leigh Gower, PMP, brings to her classes years of experience helping companies assess enterprise system capabilities to identify and plan for improvements. She has worked with numerous organizations to develop project management maturity organizationally through the use of program management offices and effective project management methodologies. Leigh has successfully managed projects in information technology and many other functional areas of business using a variety of software development lifecycle methods, including waterfall, SCLC, Rational Unified Process (RUP) and XP (Extreme Programming) Agile. Leigh has a Bachelor of Science in Economics and Spanish from the University of Puget Sound.
Gary Hills, PMP, is a project management professional with over 25 years of project management experience in business, acquisition, engineering and education. He has taught essential project management principles to over 1,800 students and corporate managers from around the world in assorted classroom, seminar and distance learning formats. Gary is a full-time employee of The Boeing Company and serves as a lead systems engineer for Derivative Airplane Programs. His diverse work experience spans a wide variety of career assignments that include program management, project management, aircraft acquisition, risk management, strategic and operational planning, systems engineering, flight test engineering, and test and evaluation management. Gary has served as a key member in many project and risk management teams and has played a major role in implementing government acquisition reform initiatives in several key government programs. He is well versed in government processes and understands the administrative and technical sides of business, project and program management.
Norm Keseric, PMP, is a senior manager, practitioner and thought leader in project and business process management. He is certified as both a project management professional and lean six sigma practitioner, and has experience in the medical systems, data collection and telecommunications industries. Norm has planned, implemented and directed an enterprise program management office (PMO), and is currently leading the development of a business process management office (BPMO) at T-Mobile USA. He is active in the local Project Management Institute chapter, serving on the board of directors and the corporate services committee. Norm credits systems thinking, a win-win collaborative approach and a good sense of humor as the key elements of successful program management.
Ralph Kliem, PMP, is a senior project manager for a Fortune 500 firm and a professional seminar leader. His 25 year background in project management spans both information technology and business management environments in the financial and aerospace industries. He is a frequent speaker at the Puget Sound Project Management Institute chapter and has conducted over 100 seminars, workshops and courses at local educational institutions such as Bellevue College and City University, as well as leading software development companies and governmental entities located throughout the Puget Sound region. Ralph also gives seminars and workshops for a national seminar firm specializing in project management certification. He is the author or co-author of fifteen books, including Effective Communications for Project Management Leading High Performance Projects, and Tools and Tips for Today's Project Manager. Ralph has also written over 200 articles that have appeared in publications that include Computerworld, Software Development and Project Management Journal.
Mike Klinicke, PMP, has over 25 years of combined experience with large and small firms in project management and information systems. He has managed information technology projects ranging in size from several hundred thousand dollars to millions of dollars across a variety of industries including service, manufacturing and consumer products.
Ashlyn Leahy, PMP, is a business consultant and entrepreneur who helps her clients deliver quality projects on time and within budget. Her experience includes releasing software worldwide for Microsoft, and managing the scalability and performance testing for the enterprise resource planning (ERP) software at The Boeing Company. Ashlyn has managed all phases of the software lifecycle including estimating, product development, quality assurance, user education and implementation.
Claudia Levi, PMP, is a business management faculty member at Edmonds Community College. She teaches business, finance, leadership and project management courses. Her experience includes business analysis, consulting and training in the area of project management. Claudia earned her M.B.A. at Seattle University, and her Bachelor of Science in Hospitality Management from California State Polytechnic University.
Joanne Nusser, PMP, is a senior program management professional with a wide range of expertise in project and program management, Systems Development Lifecycle (SDLC) process development, business process engineering, change management, and organizational analysis and restructuring. With over 25 years in project, program and general management, she has led, coached and mentored many project teams and managed large-scale, enterprise-wide projects and programs. Joanne has extensive experience in developing and implementing project management process and methodologies, SDLCs and project management office. As a senior consultant for over ten years. she manages projects in both large and small businesses and government organizations in the local area, including AT&T, T-Mobile, The Boeing Company, City of Seattle, City of Bellevue, XO Communications and the Department of the Navy. Joanne earned bachelor’s degrees in business management and journalism from Washington State University and the University of Maine, and a master's certificate in project management from George Washington University. She is a member and certified Project Management Professional (PMP) with the Project Management Institute (PMI).
Darrel Spayth, PMP, is the founder and president of SPAYTH Management Corporation, which provides project consulting services to large and mid-size companies, and management consulting to small businesses. He has over 25 years of experience in project management. Darrel is a former advisory board member and instructor for the University of Washington’s technology certificate programs, and was previously on the Industrial Advisory Board for the Computer Engineering Technology Program at DeVry University.
Sal Thompson, PMP, has over 19 years of information technology experience working for Fortune 500 companies in the financial, retail and healthcare sectors. She has led local and globally distributed teams in small to multi-million dollar initiatives in a range of areas, including software, human resource development and non-profit fundraising. Sal has taught courses in project management, application systems and technical tools. She received her Project Management Certificate and Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Washington and completed her M.B.A. at City University of Seattle.
