Alumni Spotlights

 

Darlene O'Connor

Kaizen Facilitator

St. Francis Hospital

   

Darlene O'Connor is an NGS DBA student and MSQSM alumna.  She is an internal Lean consultant at St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center (a 500 bed, acute care hospital, located in Hartford, CT).  There, she works as part of a team of three to lead the transition of Lean thinking throughout the organization.

 

She spoke recently with Kathy Malcolm, Director of Alumni Affairs about her experience in both degree programs, how she uses her degrees in her career, and balancing work, school and family. 

 

Read what Darlene had to say.

 

Richard Barner

Global Commodity  Quality Manager

Dell, Inc.

 

 

 

Richard Barner obtained his Master of Science degree in Quality Systems Management from the National Graduate School in 2003 in Austin, Texas.  Once completed, Richard was promoted internally to Dell's Supplier Quality Engineering Organization which allowed him to utilize his NGS training through building partnerships with suppliers located in China, Japan and Korea.   

 

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NGS is accredited by The New England Asociation of Schools and Colleges (NEAS&C).  They may be contacted at http://cihe.neasc.org/ or (781) 271-0022

 

NGS is a not-for-profit institution. 

 

 

 

 

FEATURED

 

NGS Alumni Projects Show the USCG Innovative Results

 

 

On November 2-4, 2010, the National Graduate School will attend  annual U.S. Coast Guard Innovation Expo in Tampa, Florida. The theme of this year's conference is "The Spirit of Innovation: Celebrating the Diversity of Ideas."  Click here for more information on the expo.

 

This will be the sixth year that NGS has partnered with the Coast Guard to display at the expo.  Each year the Coast Guard sponsors several NGS alumni to attend the expo and present their innovative process-improvement projects that provide a return-on-investment of at least 10 times the cost of tuition to be viewed by their colleagues and senior leaders. Many of the projects that have been selected have been implemented within the Coast Guard.  Past projects chosen to be displayed have even won the U.S. Coast Guard’s Outstanding Innovation Award.  Admiral Thad Allen, USCG [Ret.] has been the Senior Champion for all of the NGS USCG student projects.

 

If you plan on attending this year’s Innovation Expo, make sure you visit NGS at booth 418!

 

NGS will begin it's 10th Annual Nationwide Rollout for USCG students in March 2011.

 

Meet Your Professor

Dr. Kevin McCormack, MBA, DBA

President, DRK Research

 

Dr. Kevin McCormack is currently President of DRK Research, a global research network. He is also associated with several universities such as the National Graduate School, and Skema (an international graduate school in France).  He has taught at North Carolina State, Campbell University, University of Maryland, Keller Graduate School, Babson College and the University of Alabama at Birmingham and is the Master Instructor for Supply Chain Risk with the Supply Chain Council.  He has over 30 years of business leadership, engineering, teaching, research and consulting experience in the areas of business process management, information technology, operations management, and supply chain management.  Dr. McCormack is also a judge for the Manufacturer of the Year award for the state of Alabama, home of several international manufacturers’ locations (Honda, Mercedes, Lockheed, BASF, Nucor, U.S. Steel, and Siemens Automotive) as well as dozens of defense and automotive suppliers. Some of his clients have been Chrysler, Daimler, Texas Instruments, USMC, USAF, Chevron-Phillips, Shell, Exxon-Mobil, Dow Chemical, Standard Charter Bank, Microsoft, Intel, Wal-Mart, Campbell’s Soup, General Mills, PepsiCo, and several state governments.

 

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NGS Participates in Clean Energy Roundtable

 

 

Recently, the National Graduate School (NGS) was invited to participate in the Massachusetts Clean Energy Economic and Workforce Development Leadership Roundtable held in New Bedford, Massachusetts. The meeting was hosted by the New England Clean Energy Council and the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center and the purpose was to help develop state policy in the areas of energy conservation and workforce development funding.  NGS was invited to present its position as a thought leader in Environmental Quality Systems and a provider of workforce development training through the Cape & Islands Workforce Investment Board. 

 

The meeting was focused on “supporting and growing the clean energy sector in Massachusetts.”  Participants were divided into small groups and were asked to generate lists of solution-oriented recommendations for the following questions: 

1.    How can we grow a strong clean energy industry in Massachusetts?

2.    How can we assure a talented workforce ranging from energy-level positions to the most senior positions to support a strong clean energy industry in Massachusetts?   

The National Graduate School was represented by Jeff Treiber, Dean, Strategic Learning Partnerships who was selected to lead the panel discussion on Energy Conservation and presented the NGS position and that of its panel group at the conference.  The Roundtable brought together efficiency, demand response, smart grid, solar, wind, biofuel, biomass, geothermal, tidal, storage and other clean energy companies in southeastern Massachusetts. Along  with supporting stakeholders, policy and action recommendations were collected by the Massachusetts Clean Energy Council that will allow the Commonwealth to strengthen its position as a national leader in the clean energy industry and create a high quality workforce to meet the industry's growing demand.

 

Dean Treiber provided the following remarks at this conference:

 

“The climate in Massachusetts is clearly one of the best in the country for environmental and energy conservation issues.  Entities like the Massachusetts Renewable Energy Trust, the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, and recent legislation in the State of Massachusetts, including The Green Jobs Act and the Green Communities Act, clearly motivate investment in renewable technologies. There is a heightened sensitivity to environmental and energy issues on the Cape, thanks to the many organizations working those issues." 

 

To learn more about The National Graduate School's environmental initiatives, visit www.ngs.edu/GreenCampusU.