Quality Texas Foundation
2021 – 2022 Board of Directors
Tommy Gonzalez – Chair of the Board
Tommy Gonzalez is the City Manager of El Paso, Texas, a position to which he was appointed in June 2014. Prior to working in El Paso, Mr. Gonzalez served as the City Manager for the City of Irving, Texas. He is a certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt and used Lean Six Sigma with the City of Irving to become the first city to use this system to identify process improvements that ultimately saved the city more than $74 million.
Mr. Gonzalez led his team in making history as the first municipality to win the Texas Award for Performance Excellence from the Quality Texas Foundation. Irving was named a 2012 recipient of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award.
Mr. Gonzalez is a member of the International Hispanic Group, Governing Texas Advisory Board and the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition Texas Advisory Committee. He retired as a Lieutenant Colonel after serving in the U.S. Army for 22 years.
Kevin Lyons – Vice Chair
Kevin Lyons is currently Chief Customer Officer of BlueSky Technology Partners and Chief Executive Officer of his own Consulting firm, Drive4Growth Partners in Austin. Kevin leads Digital and Business Transformation Strategy using much of the Baldrige Framework for both organizations guiding some of the top brands in Texas and across the US and Canada. Prior to this, Kevin served as President of Shop LC here in Austin.
Kevin has served in the retail industry for over 25 years with global brands such as Best Buy, Sears and hhgregg. He has driven innovation in B2C and B2B companies and holds several patents in the retail space. Some of his clients in Texas include HP, Contitech, and Ecolab to name a few.
Jason Peach – Teasurer
Jason Peach is the President/CEO of West Community Credit Union, a $300 million asset credit union serving 26,000 members and 7 counties from St. Louis to Columbia, Missouri. He has worked in the credit union industry for 24 years, serving in various senior roles prior to being named President/CEO of West Community in January 2016.
Jason serves on both charitable non-profit boards and business-focused boards, including most recently the board of the Midwest Excellence Institute (MEI). MEI administered the state-level Malcolm Baldrige assessment programs for Missouri and Kansas until 2020 when it partnered with the Quality Texas program. Since 2009, Jason has volunteered as an examiner on multiple occasions for the Missouri Quality Award (MQA). His organization, West Community, was a top tier award recipient in 2018 and submitted its first National Malcolm Baldrige Award application in 2020.
Jason earned his undergraduate degree in Business Administration from the University of Missouri-Columbia, and later completed an MBA with a concentration in finance at Georgia State University. Jason has been married to his wife, Amy, for 22 years and has two daughters, Avery (18) and Megan (14).
Kirk Kriegel – Secretary
Kirk and his wife, Laurie, have been married for 40 years and have two married children, two grandsons, and two granddaughters. He is a native of Austin and has served for over 27 years as an Executive Pastor for churches in Florida, Oklahoma, and Texas and is currently the Executive Vice President at Children At Heart Ministries in Round Rock. (It is a family of four direct-care ministries – www.childrenatheartministies.org.
He has served on numerous teams as an Examiner, Process Coach and Team Lead for the Quality of Texas Foundation TAPE Award, Kirk is Chair of the Board, and Subject Matter Expert for the Williamson County Institute of Excellence for Non-Profits.
Kirk has a BBA in Management from Baylor University in Waco and a Masters of Religious Education from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth.
Open – Chaplain
Amit Agarwal – Director
Amit Agarwal is the recently appointed President of Shop LC, Global Inc. in Austin, Texas. Mr. Agarwal is a long-standing employee of the VGL Group, parent company to Shop LC, in which he has proudly served for over 14 years. Prior to joining Shop LC, Mr. Agarwal served as the Managing Director of The Jewellery Channel, Shop LC’s sister channel operating in London, England.
Known for his strong P&L management, focused cost-control and building strategic teams, Mr. Agarwal is quickly embracing the Baldrige methods.
Mr. Agarwal holds a Bachelor of Commerce and MBA in Marketing. Mr. Agarwal, his wife and their two children have made their home in Round Rock, Texas.
Anali Alanis – Director
Anali Alanis has served the City of Pharr for almost twenty years. In her current role as Assistant City Manager, Ms. Alanis brings over ten years of Public Sector expertise, with skills in building cross-functional teams, leadership development, labor relations, strategic management, policy development, internal investigations, Human Resources management, and health and safety.
Ms. Alanis works closely with the City Manager, City Council, City departments, and various public and private organizations and citizen groups in program development, project management, and problem-solving. She completed a B.A. in Applied Technology Management from South Texas College in McAllen, TX, and a Master of Public Administration from The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley in Edinburg, TX. She holds several certifications and memberships across various professional organizations.
Diane Brockmeier – Director
Diane Brockmeier has over 34 years of progressive experience in the organ
& tissue donation community. She brings to her job an unwavering compassion for the families and communities Mid-America Transplant serves. As President and CEO of Mid-America Transplant, Brockmeier oversees strategic operations, including key partnerships with more than 120 hospitals and transplant centers located throughout Missouri, northeast Arkansas and southern Illinois.
Ms. Brockmeier was the driving force in implementing several innovative best practices over the past several years. Her accomplishments include overseeing the design, construction and use of a first-in-the-nation, on-site surgical suite for organ and tissue recovery and the first OPO to manage DMV offices. Adept at analyzing data and driving consensus for process improvement, Ms. Brockmeier was instrumental in performance improvement and organizational changes that resulted in Mid-America Transplant being the first OPO awarded the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in 2016. In addition, Mid-America Transplant is a three time winner of the Missouri Quality Award. Currently, she serves as the Association of Organ Procurement Organizations (AOPO) Immediate Past President as well as a member of several AOPO committees. In addition, she is a committee chair for the OPO Committee and board member of the United Network of Organ Sharing (UNOS) and a member of the Board of Directors for the Baldrige Foundation.
R. Jacob Cintron – Director
R. Jacob Cintron serves as President/CEO of the El Paso County Hospital District (EPCHD) which includes University Medical Center of El Paso, El Paso Health, El Paso Children’s Hospital, and University Medical Center Foundation of El Paso. Mr. Cintron has more than 35 years of healthcare management experience.
Mr. Cintron is a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives, member of the Americas Essential Hospitals, current board chair of the Teaching Hospitals of Texas, board member of the THA, committee member of the THA’s Council on Policy Development, member of the THA, past board chair of the Emergency Health Network, board member of the Greater El Paso Chamber of Commerce and United Way of El Paso, current board chair of the Paso Del Norte Health Information Exchange and serves on various other El Paso committees and boards.
Dale Crownover – Director
Dale Crownover is the President and CEO of Texas Nameplate. Texas Nameplate received the Texas Award for Performance Excellence in 1996.
They received the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in 1998 and again in 2004. He has served as the Board Chair of the Quality Texas Foundation twice and as a Judge for the national Baldrige Program.
Dale has also received the prestigious honor of being named a Quality Texas Foundation Fellow and Board Emeritus.
Dr. Ken Davis – Director
Dr. Ken Davis is the Chief Medical Officer for CHRISTUS Health South Texas Region serving South Texas San Antonio and Corpus Christi Region with 11 hospitals, 3 ambulatory surgery centers and a Medicare Accountable Health Organization (ACO).
Dr. Davis is a two-time national Baldrige Recipient with North Mississippi Medical Center in 2006 and again in 2012. He was also heavily involved in the 2014 QTF Award for San Antonio Methodist Healthcare.
He just finished a three-year tour as a member of the Panel of Judges for the National Malcolm Baldrige Program.
Bruce France – Director
Mr. Bruce France served as a Surface Warfare Officer and retired as a Commander with over 23 years in the US Navy. In addition, he has 20 years of combined federal and city government experience, primarily in Program and Organizational Change Management roles.
Bruce is currently teaching a master’s course at Tulane University’s School of Professional Advancement in IT Governance. Bruce holds a BA in History from Tulane University, a MS in Information Systems from the Naval Postgraduate School, and a MS in Management from Troy State University.
He is a Certified Project Management Professional (PMP-PMI), a Certified Quality Auditor (CQA-ASQ), and a certified Change Management Advanced Practitioner (Booz Allen-Georgetown University). He has completed 5 Malcolm Baldrige Examiner courses and participated in 2 site visits
Ricardo Hernández – Director
Mr. Ricardo Hernández is the new Chief Executive Officer of Sistema de Salud Menonita (Menonita or SSM) in Puerto Rico. Prior to his appointment as CEO, he was second in command at Menonita for many years in his position as Associate Chief Executive Officer. Ricardo has over 40 years of professional career with ample experience in varied sectors, including health care and banking and has been with SSM for over 13 years. He has been instrumental in the development, expansion and innovation of SSM since he joined Menonita in year 2007.
Prior to joining SSM, he occupied the position of Chief Financial Officer in a prestigious financial institution in Puerto Rico with over $17 billion in total assets, was the President and CEO of a nonprofit foundation in the health service sector with a hospital and multiple health related programs like home care and housing projects for the elderly or handicapped. He started his professional career with one of the US big eights audit firms where he worked for over 13 years and was senior manager and directed one of their office in Puerto Rico.
Ricardo specializes in strategic planning, business development and acquisitions and throughout his professional career has always been involved in innovation projects, where he draws from his varied knowledge of different economic sectors and vast experience. He is very technology oriented and has directed the efforts at SSM to a full integration model to accomplish the mission of providing integrated health services and creating a seamless health delivery model. He has a bachelor’s degree in business administration, is a licensed CPA and has numerous continued education courses in prestigious programs at top US Universities.
Cary Hill – Director
Mr. Hill has nearly 25 years of leadership experience focused on building organizational capacity and maximizing performance for the benefit of customers, employees and stakeholders.
Before joining Shoppa’s Material Handling as its Chief Operating Officer, Cary served in the roles of CFO, COO and ultimately CEO of MESA, a leading provider of products and services for corrosion prevention and integrity of the nation’s pipeline infrastructure, and a 3-time recipient of the prestigious Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, the nation’s highest presidential award for organizational performance excellence.
Along the way, Cary served the state of Oklahoma as the Executive Director of the Oklahoma Quality Foundation, supporting other driven leaders across Oklahoma to build better organizations using the Baldrige Framework for Performance Excellence, and is a Master Examiner for the national Baldrige Award program.
Barrie Laing, Esq. – Director
Barrie Laing, President of Radiation Detection Company (“RDC”), Inc. since 1995 has led this founder based niche company to prominence in the radiation safety community with significant domestic and international business.
He has over twenty years of practicing law where he represented business and non-profit organizations both locally and nationally.
Barrie is active within the community and currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors for multiple non-profit organizations both locally and globally.
Dr. Adena Loston – Director
Dr. Adena Loston is the President and Chief Executive Officer of St. Philip’s College. She is responsible for providing strategic leadership, developing collaborative partnerships, implementing a performance budgeting model, implementing district priorities, and establishing and maintaining institutional effectiveness measures with an operating budget over $60M and $20M in grant funds; over 13,000 credit students, over 3,000 dual credit students; 4 Early College High Schools, and 3 military installations and over 700 full-time employees.
Manuel E. Maldonado Cotto – Director
Professor Manuel E. Maldonado Cotto is the Founder, President and CEO of Intelligence Forecasting, Corp located in San Juan, Puerto Rico since 2006.
He is responsible for market research, intelligence research, symbolic analysis along with training and development, change management, organizational development. He has taught for the University of Phoenix and the University of the Sacred Heart. He also serves as a Director on the Board for Leonardo’s.
Dr. Clay McDonald – Member
Dr. Clay McDonald, holds DC from Logan University, an MBA from St. Ambrose University, and a JD from Valparaiso University School of Law. He is the seventh president of Logan University with over 20 years of experience as a senior administrator at chiropractic institutions. Dr. McDonald co-owned a multidisciplinary clinic that linked medical, chiropractic, physical therapy and mental health. He has participated in numerous accreditation activities through the Council on Chiropractic Education and was a CCE board/council member from 2005 to 2013. Currently, Dr. McDonald serves on the executive committee of the Association of Chiropractic Colleges and is a board member for the Spine Institute for Quality.
Richard McDonald – Director
Richard McDonald is the Vice President of Finance at Santanna Energy Services. Previously the company’s Controller, a position he held since July 2009, Mr. McDonald served as the Accounting Manager for Santanna. He currently oversees and leads the company’s financial vision and performance excellence program.
Mr. McDonald holds a BBA in Accounting and is currently pursuing his MBA.
Jim Parisi – Director
Jim Parisi is the President of CHI St. Luke’s Woodlands and Lakeside Hospitals as well as the Springwoods Village facility. Jim has held a variety of positions increasing in responsibility and scope in various healthcare organizations. Most recently, he served as Chief Executive Officer for Memorial Hermann Health System’s Katy Hospital.
Under Jim’s leadership, the hospital received the Quality Texas Foundation’s 2017 Award for Performance Excellence and attained a top two percent patient safety score from Truven. Further, the facility was one of only 72 hospitals in the United States to achieve Leapfrog Straight A’s since 2012 and was named on Becker’s Top 49 Hospitals.
Jim has also serves on numerous national, state and local boards and professional organizations.
Tony Passamano – Member
Tony T. Passamano is a Director of Quality and Mission Success efforts for Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control.
He has over 25 years’ experience in planning and implementing strategic Quality Assurance objectives and has been recognized by multiple US Army Customers (Patriot Lower Tier Project Office, Aviation and Missiles Research Development and Engineering Directorate, Aviation and Missile Command) as a results-oriented, strategic and tactical Quality leader.
He has an Associates of Applied Science in Avionics & Aircraft Electrical System from the US Air Force University and has a BLS degree from the University of Oklahoma.
Lysa Ross – Director
Lysa Ross serves as the Chief Operating Officer at the Oklahoma City Indian Clinic (OKCIC), a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization serving the health care needs of the American Indian population. Mrs. Ross has proudly served this organization since 2001 and is excited about the growth that OKCIC has experienced, now serving more than 21,000 patients. Prior to beginning her current role in 2009, Mrs. Ross was the Assistant Finance Director at OKCIC.
Mrs. Ross has a Master’s in Business Administration from the University of Central Oklahoma, is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and Certified in Healthcare Compliance (CHC). She has participated as an Examiner for Oklahoma Quality Foundation and Quality Texas Foundation. Mrs. Ross also serves on the Oklahoma Area IHS Director’s Awards Committee, which covers Indian Health Service facilities in the states of Oklahoma, Kansas, and Texas.
Michael Saiphoo – Director
Michael Saiphoo is the Vice President and General Manager of OMNI Flow Computers, Inc. in Sugarland, TX. He is a driven and entrepreneurial executive with 20 years of leading domestic and international organizations in establishing/delivering best practices and profitability. He is a facilitator and builder of world-class technological, industrial, and operational teams with specialty in sustaining install base legacy systems, scaling up, and new product launches. Michael has also been responsible for proven customer and account management growth strategies, networking with quality, regulatory, and standards organizations; building partnerships, joint ventures, and acquisitions to deliver multi-million bottom line growth year over year.
Ron Schulingkamp – Director
Dr. Ron Schulingkamp has over 25 years’ experience and proven results in creating high-performing, sustainable, resilient organizations in numerous industries. Ron is a Quality Improvement Project Manager at University Medical Center New Orleans and serves as VP of Louisiana Quality Foundation. He is a Visiting Assistant Professor Loyola University of New Orleans, College of Business, where he teaches future leaders in the MBA program the theories, philosophy, and ethics to design an organization that can achieve sustainable excellence using the Baldrige Excellence Framework.
As the Senior Strategic Consultant for the U.S. Department of Energy, Strategic Petroleum Reserve Management and Operations Contractor from 2000 through 2016, Ron led the organizational transformation, resulting in the first federal government contractor to receive the Malcolm Baldrige Performance Excellence Award in 2005 and the Robert W. Campbell Award for Safety, Health, and Environment Performance Excellence in 2006.
Ron earned his Doctor of Science degree from Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. He earned a Master of Quality Management, and Master of Business Administration degrees from Loyola University in New Orleans and an undergraduate degree in engineering from Louisiana State University.
Christopher Shutts – Director
Christopher Shutts serves as the Vice President Value-Based Health Care Improvement Implementation for Baylor Scott & White Health in Dallas, Texas.
In this role, he oversees the delivery of process improvement methodologies such as Lean, Six-Sigma, and Kaizen, leads and facilitates performance improvement teams at the hospital and corporate, and is responsible for improvement training program growth, development, and coordination of consulting services to entities outside of BSWH.
He is a Certified Six Sigma Black Belt, and holds Lean certification from the Juran Institute. He is a TeamSTEPPS Master Trainer for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and is a graduate of the 20-day Advance Training Program through Intermountain Healthcare.
Dr. Cade Smith – Director
Cade Smith serves as the Superintendent of Schools for the Brock Independent School District. Prior to his role as superintendent, Mr. Smith has held various leadership roles in public education including executive director, high school principal, campus administrator, teacher, and coach. Most recently, Mr. Smith was awarded the Educational Administration Award by the American Association of School Administrators.
Mr. Smith is a member of the Texas Association of School Administrators, serves as an examiner for the Quality Texas Foundation, and received his Ph.D. in School Improvement from Texas State University.
Eric Stockton – Director
Eric Stockton is the Building Services Officer for the City of Austin. He is responsible for Facilities Management to include a Strategic Facilities Assessment reported to the City Council.
He has been a major supporter of QTF with many Examiners coming from his office and he has been an Examiner and Team Leader for QTF as well. His office will receive the Progress Recipient Recognition this year (2017). He has a BA and MPA from the University of Texas.
Wes Tidwell – Director
Wes Tidwell is a Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for Ascension Healthcare Texas/Seton Family of Hospitals. He is responsible for strategy development and operational oversight for all aspects of healthcare delivery at Seton Medical Center Williamson, in Round Rock, TX.
Wes has more than 10 years of experience in health care leadership. Prior to joining the Seton Family, he served as the Chief Operating Officer for Memorial Hermann Greater Heights Hospital in Houston. He is a motivational change leader with proven ability to lead teams in achieving operational targets, improving clinical indicators and enhancing overall performance.
Wes holds an MBA, MHA, is a Fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives and is board certified in health care management. He currently serves as a member of Texas Hospital Association’s Council on Policy Development.
Cary Westin – Director
Cary Westin is the Deputy City Manager of the City of El Paso specifically focused on Economic Development and Tourism.
Cary is a retired Army Colonel with over 30 years of military, private sector and municipal government leadership experience developing business, building teams, managing resources and directing large, complex projects to successful completion.
He has special expertise in strategic planning and organizational execution. Cary has a BA from the Virginia Military Institute and a MSS from the US Army War College.
Steffani Webb – Director
Steffani Webb has been involved in administration and operations in Academic Medicine for over thirty years (first at Duke University Medical Center and now at the University of Kansas Medical Center). She enjoys working in support of the education, research, clinical, and outreach missions while instilling a focus on possibilities and a mindset of service, high performance, and innovation in her colleagues. She has a passion for excellence, so when she took on the role of Vice Chancellor for Administration at KUMC in 2011, she began with a vision of transforming the organization by employing the principles of the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program. She branded this initiative “The Jayhawk Way”, invited others to join her on the Baldrige journey, and found that positive change began to happen almost immediately. That positive change continues to this day, because the workforce has embraced a new way of thinking and working. Steffani loves sharing the story of the journey and the progress as KUMC transforms itself into a high performing organization with a vibrant culture that calls forth the best in everyone in support of the organization’s missions.
Liz Youngblood – Director
Liz serves as the Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for the Texas Division of CommonSpirit Health, the largest not for profit health system in the US. She ensures the effective and efficient operations of the 17 hospitals and multiple outpatient cares sites within the Texas Division. Liz has an extensive healthcare background having worked with Baylor Scott & White Health and most recently with the University of Mississippi Medical Center. She is a registered nurse and has an MBA from Southern Methodist University’s Cox School of Business. Liz has been involved with the Quality Texas Foundation for over 12 years. She has been an examiner and was the team lead for the first health care recipient of the Texas Governor’s Award for Performance Excellence. She has also been a member of the Board of Overseers and has served as the QTF Chair of the Board of Directors.
Dr. Cynthia St. John – Fellows Representative
Dr. Cynthia St. John is a management professor and associate director for the healthcare administration program at the University Texas at Arlington, in addition to being a practicing leadership consultant and owner of Chiefology. She works with students as well as senior executives to improve individual leadership and organizational results. She previously served as the Chief Learning Officer for Texas Health Resources and led the 14-hospital system to become the largest recipient of the Texas Award for Performance Excellence.
For over fifteen years, Dr. St. John has served on the Board of Examiners for state and national Baldrige programs. Her involvement with the Quality Texas Foundation has included the roles of examiner, senior examiner, team leader, process coach, training faculty, judge, and as a member of both the board of overseers and board of directors. Cynthia has also received the prestigious honor of being named a Quality Texas Foundation Fellow.
Dr. Mac McGuire – Chief Executive Officer
Dr. Mac McGuire served over 30 years in the US Army retiring as a Lieutenant Colonel. He commanded a high priority unit as a Company Commander and Commanded two battalions – one combat and one academic. He served as the Superintendent of Schools (Tactical Training) for nine states. He was the principal staff officer/writer for the 2000 Chief of Staff, Army Communities of Excellence Gold Award (international competition; highest Army Award) for the Texas National Guard.
Dr. Mac has been an adjunct professor for UT, Austin, UMHB, SMU and lectured at Texas A&M and Texas State in leadership focused classes and has three books published.
At QTF, Dr. Mac has served over 11 years as a Board Member and six years as a Judge. He became the CEO of the QTF in October 2014 leading QTF to explosive growth and the national recognition of being one of the best state programs in the nation. Dr. Mac is also a Master Examiner for the National Baldrige Program.