Steering Committee
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Michael Akerman
Senior Data Scientist, Novozymes
Michael Akerman is a data scientist with more than a decade of experience working at the junction of laboratory biochemistry research and data programming. His particular interests include data visualization, design of experiments, data workflow automation, data structuring and contextualization, and Python programming. Akerman lives in Wake Forest, NC.
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Lucas Beverlin
Data Scientist, Intel
Lucas Beverlin is a data scientist at Intel, where he works with engineers in semiconductor process development and manufacturing. He actively engages in consulting projects and teaches statistics and machine learning techniques to engineers. He assists with designing experiments, writing scripts to perform various tasks, and solving various manufacturing issues. Beverlin first used JMP in graduate school at Iowa State University, teaching industrial engineers how to fit simple linear regression models in JMP 7. He has served as president of the Willamette Valley JMP Users Group and given multiple talks about JMP and its scripting language.
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Tom Bidwell
Statistician, INEOS Composites
Tom Bidwell has 30 years of experience in the chemical industry, working first as an electrical engineer and then statistician. While working as an engineer at Eastman Kodak in manufacturing control system design and applications, he found that he lacked the knowledge of how to apply statistical methods to analyze and improve a process. This experience led him to get his master’s degree in statistics from UW-Madison. In his current role as a statistician at INEOS Composites, he uses JMP to analyze data from a variety of sources (manufacturing, R&D, product development and financial databases) to uncover relationships that improve the business. Bidwell also hosts the Central Ohio JMP Users Group (COJUG) at his company.
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Melisa Buie
Senior Director, Lam Research
Melisa Buie makes high tech stuff and solves problems. Currently, Melisa is a Sr. Director with Lam Research, a semiconductor equipment manufacturer. Melisa has extensive experience in operations and engineering leadership, lean manufacturing, and experimentation. Prior to joining Lam, Melisa was the Global Director for Lean Operational Excellence at Coherent, Inc., a global photonics solutions company. She was also a Member of the Technical Staff and an Engineering Manager at Applied Materials, Inc., a manager with Advanced Energy and a researcher with the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C. She lectured and advised M.S. level students for 10 years at San Jose State University in the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering. Melisa’s first book, Problem Solving for New Engineers: What Every Engineering Manager Wants You to Know, was published in 2017 by CRC Press. Melisa has co-authored more than 40 journal publications, holds six patents and speaks regularly at conferences. Melisa’s degrees include a PhD in Nuclear Engineering/Plasma Physics from the University of Michigan, a MS in Physics from Auburn University and a BS in mathematics. Melisa currently serves on the Southwest Regional Board of Directors for the Association for Manufacturing Excellence and the Board of Directors for the Diocese of California. She is a member of the Association for Manufacturing Excellence, Women in Manufacturing, and the Society of Women Engineers.
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Stacey Cofield
Associate Dean for Recruitment, Retention, & Diversity, UAB Graduate School
Stacey Cofield is the Associate Dean for Recruitment, Retention, & Diversity at the UAB Graduate School and an Associate Professor in the School of Public Health, Department of Biostatistics. Cofield has been using JMP to teach introductory biostatistics courses for more than 20 years in the face-to-face, blended, and online environment, and was a recipient of the 2018 UAB President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching and 2019 Graduate Dean’s Award for Excellence in Mentoring. She has been using JMP in her research for multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, and vaccines in immunocompromised populations and in her role as senior biostatistician UAB Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCTS), where she continues to introduce JMP to health science researchers.
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Stephen Czupryna
Consultant and Lead Instructor, Objective Experiments
Stephen Czupryna has more than 25 years of hands‐on process engineering, quality control and technical sales experience in the fiber optic and energy cable, heavy truck and technical rope industries. This includes 15 years working overseas, endless satisfying hours working with shop floor personnel on the improvement of complex industrial processes and five years as a Sales & Field Engineer in Southeast Asia. He is a dedicated lifelong learner with extensive experience in Lean implementation, small- and large-scale Six Sigma project management, MSA, SPC and DOE. At present, he teaches online DOE, MSA and other courses to clients in the USA and Asia for Objective Experiments in Bellingham, WA. His formal education includes a BS in Economics from Central Connecticut State University, an AS in Laser Electro‐optics from Springfield Technical Community College, a Six Sigma Green Belt from Newman University and a Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt from the Pyzdek Institute.
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Tracy Desch
Scientist, Procter & Gamble
Tracy Desch has been with Procter & Gamble for 31 years. She currently uses her JMP expertise to support the Hair Care category in understanding consumer tensions and desired product benefits. In addition to helping drive the Hair Care business, Desch trains and coaches her colleagues across the company to help them develop and improve their quantitative analysis skills so that they can activate their data to drive business decisions.
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Jennifer Eigo
Instructor In-Residence, University of Connecticut
Jennifer Eigo is an Instructor In-Residence at the University of Connecticut, where she teaches predominantly in the Master of Business Analytics and Project Management program. She’s been using JMP for eight years, first as a student and now as the tool of choice to teach predictive modeling to her students. Students carry these skills forward into their final capstone project, where they work on real-world data analytics projects under her guidance and instruction. In addition to her teaching, Eigo is also the Associate Director of UConn’s Center for the Advancement of Business Analytics, partnering with companies to help them advance their analytics capabilities.
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Chris Foran
Senior R&D Specialist, Regeneron
Chris Foran designs and executes in vitro and in silico studies to characterize the biophysical properties of therapeutic proteins and nucleic acids. He has held previous roles in biopharmaceutical formulation development and process development analytics. Prior to his time at Regeneron, Foran worked as an IT administrator, software developer, and private academic tutor and admissions counselor. He is an enthusiastic advocate for continuous learning of data science and statistics principles for bioscience professionals. First introduced to JMP with version 9, Foran has championed the software for the past eight years as a valuable teaching tool while consistently utilizing it in his own professional work.
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Gwen Hallberg
Principal Engineer, Alkermes
Gwen Hallberg has nearly 20 years of experience in pharmaceutical manufacturing. She was first exposed to JMP in an undergraduate engineering statistics course at Purdue University in 2000. In her current role with Alkermes, she designed a federated database to aggregate manufacturing, laboratory and raw materials information stored in disparate systems. She also created a custom JSL user interface so scientists and engineers across the company could easily access and analyze this curated data within JMP. Hallberg is active in the Central Ohio JMP Users Group and teaches internal courses on several industrial statistics concepts as well.
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Steve Hampton
Process Control Manager, PCC Structurals
Steve Hampton has been in the casting industry since 2005. Throughout his career he has used the power of data and statistics to create otherwise missed business value. Hampton started with Minitab and moved on to using JMP in 2015 and then JMP Pro in 2019.
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Erica Heipertz
Staff Scientist, Thermo Fisher Scientific
Erica Heipertz is a successful research immunologist with extensive experience in innate and adaptive immunity. Since 2017 she’s served as a Staff Scientist at Thermo Fisher Scientific, working in the Cell Biology Division. Currently, Erica is charged with developing new products for cell and gene therapy applications. Throughout her time at Thermo Fisher, Erica has contributed to the growth of the JMP/Design Excellence Program at the company, training colleagues how to utilize JMP and Design Excellence principles to enable proactive design that improves product development and manufacturing processes. Prior to joining Thermo Fisher, Erica performed postdoctoral research at the National Institutes of Health and Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center. Erica received her PhD in Microbiology and Immunology from Penn State University College of Medicine and a BS in Microbiology from North Carolina State University. Her research has appeared in a number of publications, including The Journal of Immunology, Shock, The Journal of Biological Chemistry, PLOS Pathogens, and the Journal of Virology.
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Ruth Hummel
Senior Manager of Analytical Education, JMP
Ruth M. Hummel, PhD, is a Senior Manager of Analytical Education at JMP. She develops curricula, teaches, and consults to help researchers and practitioners apply statistical methods and analytics to solving problems, predominantly in health and life sciences. Prior to joining JMP in 2016, she worked at the Environmental Protection Agency as the statistical expert for the Risk Assessment Division of the Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics, and she taught and consulted at the Pennsylvania State University and at the University of Florida. Hummel is a co-author of “Business Statistics and Analytics in Practice,” 9th edition, a business statistics textbook that emphasizes introducing simple data mining techniques earlier in the standard curriculum. She has a PhD in statistics from the Pennsylvania State University.
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Supriya Satwah
Senior Project Scientist, Unilever
Supriya Satwah has worked in the FMCG industry for 12 years, and is currently a Senior Project Scientist on the Modeling & Analytics team in Digital R&D at Unilever. Prior to this she worked in academia for six years in biostatistics and consulting. Satwah started working with JMP when she joined Unilever and has used it extensively for data management, modeling and visualization, and has taught in several lunch and learn sessions on campus. Satwah uses her expertise with advanced analytics to deliver critical results for business decision making. She works with product development to find insights using advanced holistic multivariate analytics and leads statistical training sessions for a global audience of colleagues. Satwah has designed clinical studies related to skin care and collaborates with many people across teams, including leaders in product formulation and technical development, to develop winning products in global markets. She has a master’s in applied statistics from Wright State University and an MBA in marketing and organization behavior from Shivaji University.
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Mia Stephens
Advisory Product Manager, JMP
Mia Stephens is an Advisory Product Manager for JMP Statistical Discovery LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of SAS which creates interactive and highly visual statistical discovery software designed for scientists and engineers. Prior to joining JMP, she was an adjunct professor of statistics at the University of New Hampshire and a founding member, statistical trainer and consultant with the North Haven Group. Stephens has taught and consulted within a variety of industries, and is an author of four books, including Data Mining for Business Analytics and Building Better Models. She is also the instructor of the free online course, Statistical Thinking for Industrial Problem Solving.
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Margaret Young
R&D Manager for North America, Kemin
Margaret Young is a leader, scientist, collaborator, mentor, and skilled problem solver. Currently, Margaret is the R&D Manager for North America at Kemin Nutrisurance, a leader in biotechnology science. In this role, she directs a team of scientists responsible for developing palatability enhancers to improve the acceptance of pet food for dogs and cats. During her 12-year career at Kemin, Margaret has launched more than 100 products, accounting for more than $200M in revenue, or 44% of global palatant or palatability enhancer sales. Margaret holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry (with a Biology emphasis) from Iowa State University and is currently pursuing a Master of Business Administration degree from the Tippie College of Business at the University of Iowa. Margaret has won a number of awards during her academic and professional career, including the Merck Index Award for Achievement in Chemistry Research; the Plagens Award for Undergraduate Chemistry Research; and the Nellie Naylor Award for Excellence in Chemistry and Research. She’s also presented at numerous biotechnology conferences and scientific meetings and has been a Kemin Ambassador since 2011. In her free time, Margaret enjoys reading, getting outdoors, and spending time with her family.