Michigan Lean Consortium Annual Conference Presenters + Sessions

Brian DeVries
Director, Global Continuous Improvement - opx @ StanleyBlack&Decker

Brian DeVries is the Director of Global Operational Excellence at StanleyBlack&Decker.   He is a global leader with over 13 years of experience in driving lean strategy and assessments within manufacturing, food processing, and distribution facilities. Industries served in his career include agriculture, office furniture, food & beverage, golf course maintenance, and insurance.  Brian is dedicated to improving lives through continuous improvement work and focuses on his core values of Happiness, Empathy and Hope.  He is married to his wife of 15 years Allison (a former MLC coordinator), and has 2 boys – Greyson (9) and William (4).  He is an avid golfer, bourbon enthusiast and an aspiring BBQ pitmaster.

Professionally, Brian has been recognized in the lean industry, having been featured on podcasts, was an elected member of the Board of Directors for the Michigan Lean Consortium from 2016-2020, and has spoken at various conferences, including the 2016 Lean Six Sigma World Conference where he won the Project of the Year award.  He prides himself on the people he has empowered to change their lives, and continues to look for opportunities to inspire.

Tracy Cleveland
Vice President Supply Chain @ Munson Healthcare

Tracy Cleveland, VP Supply Chain for Munson Healthcare, and the president of the Northern Michigan Supply Alliance. 30+ years in healthcare supply chain with experience in Research, Academic Medical Centers, a Children’s specialty hospital, Trinity Health and now Munson Healthcare. Married with 3 adult children and a newly planted Traverse City, tiny vineyard.

Enda McGonigle
System Director Supply Chain @ Munson Healthcare

System Director Supply Chain at Munson Healthcare / Northern Michigan Supply Alliance. Over 30 years of supply chain experience. Qualified management accountant. Married with 2 children, 1 dog, and 2 cats. Passionate about examining current systems and processes and identifying and implementing improvements using data and metrics to track improvement.

Brian Calkins
Manager, Continuous Improvement, Americas-Solutions Development, Lean Six Sigma Green Belt @ Dematic

Brian was a trainer and A3 and 5S plant focal for Howmet Whitehall and drove shop-wide initiatives, creating a culture of safety, process improvement, and waste elimination.

From there, he was site focal for coaching and training A3 methodology, leading Kaizen events and Action Work Outs at GE Aviation. Brian also played a key role in introducing and expanding the Kata mindset to the three GE plants in the Muskegon area. Kata was the primary method used to meet and exceed goals and objectives and played a large role in achieving “World Class” status (under 2% defects) in the area he supervised. Using Kata methods and practices, the team increased our First Pass Yield by 48% over 62 days.

Also, while at GE, Brian participated in two Shingi-Jutsu Kaizen events as a team lead. The team was able to set effective standard work practices to reach and exceed expectations and goals, implement KanBan with outside suppliers both up and downstream, and develop an effective mix-model process flow.

Lindsay Dewey
Sr. Continuous Improvement Specialist @ Munson Healthcare

Lindsay Dewey is a Senior Continuous Improvement Specialist for Munson Healthcare and has 17 years of healthcare experience. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Industrial and Operations Engineering from the University of Michigan. Prior to healthcare, she worked in manufacturing and consulting. She is also certified ASQ Six Sigma Green Belt and has had extensive Lean training. In her career at Munson Healthcare, Lindsay has been involved in many large facility expansion projects at Munson Medical Center (MMC), including the Cowell Family Cancer Center, the Cardiac Cath Lab, and the Surgical Services Expansion. She also facilitated 3P events for more recent and upcoming facility expansion projects around the Munson Healthcare system: the Family Birth and Children’s Center at MMC, the Regional Birthing Center at Otsego Memorial Hospital, and the Petoskey Community Health Center. She is passionate about engaging and involving staff to improve processes that optimize the patient experience. In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with her husband, Steve, and her 14-year-old son, Jack. She loves watching her son play baseball, football, and basketball. Her family enjoys the northern Michigan outdoors together with their Australian Shepherd hiking, boating, and skiing. 

Penny Cox
Sr. Continuous Improvement Specialist @ Munson Healthcare

A strong foundation in women's health nursing and a passion for continuous improvement have shaped Penny’s career. After earning her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of North Florida, she gained a decade of experience as an obstetrics nurse. Driven by excellence, Penny pursued a Master of Science in Nursing, specializing in Women's Healthcare Nurse Practitioner, at Frontier Nursing University. Returning to clinical practice as an Advanced Practice Nurse in the maternity unit, Penny led impactful process improvement initiatives to improve outcomes for patients experiencing postpartum hemorrhage, neonatal hypoglycemia, and maternal sepsis among others. Now, Penny leverages her skills on a broader scale. Since joining Munson Healthcare's Continuous Improvement team in 2022, she has supported system-wide improvements across various departments. Her focus areas have included fall reduction, enhancing stroke care in the emergency department, standardizing care for pregnant trauma patients, and community health center planning.

While her professional focus is broad, Penny's passion for maternal health remains constant. She actively contributes her leadership through AWHONN and serves on the MI Maternal Mortality Review Committee, fostering better pregnancy outcomes for mothers across Michigan. When she's not advocating for advancements in healthcare, you’ll likely find Penny and her husband, Mike, cheering on their three active kids at their various sporting events or enjoying summer boating on Glen Lake.

Lucas Apol
Continuous Improvement Specialist @ Grand River Aseptic

Over the past three years at Grand River Aseptic Manufacturing, Lucas Apol has coached 100+ individuals through impactful quality culture and departmental changes. Functioning as a Lean Champion and Senior Continuous Improvement Specialist for the organization, Lucas’s focus on innovation, safety, quality, and efficiency has successfully implemented a belted lean certification system that systemically drives cultural change. Lucas’s ability to implement key solutions in highly regulated environments, coupled with a commitment to Lean principles, positions him as a catalyst for positive change and measurable results.

Emily Miner
Continuous Improvement Specialist @ Grand River Aseptic

Emily has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in environmental science, and her master’s thesis explored the application of lean management strategies to the environmental services sector. She has a strong interest in adapting lean methodology to non-traditional settings and in the dual benefits of combining lean and “green.

Kristy Rennick
Sr. Interconnection Engineer, Distribution Agreements and Programs @ consumers energy

Kristy is currently a Senior Interconnection Engineer at Consumers Energy in the Electric Supply Operations organization; her prior experience at Consumers Energy is as a Risk Engineer in the Gas System Integrity group, Supply Chain Strategic Sourcing Analysts, Regulatory Compliance Analyst, and Lean Coach. Kristy has spent several years leading and implementing “Management of Change” systems inside Consumers Energy from a regulatory and Continuous Improvement standpoint.

Additionally, Kristy has led efforts to improve Regulatory Compliance Processes, Quality Assurance, Damage Prevention, and implementing systems for Threat and Risk Mitigation.

Kristy is certified as a Six Sigma Green Belt and continues to practice Lean and Continuous Improvement Coaching inside of Consumers Energy, even without “the practitioner title!” Kristy additionally brings experiences from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Eaton Aerospace, and other manufacturing engineering experiences and has also served 4 years of active duty in the US Air Force as a Civil Engineering Assistant and holds a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management; Kristy is pursuing her MBA from Western Michigan University and is a FIRST Robotics (FRC) Mentor for Team 5674, which her teenage sons have taken an active programming role.

Mark Graban
Consultant, Author (“The Mistakes That Make Us"), Speaker, Coach, Podcaster, Senior Advisor to KaiNexus

Mark Graban is an internationally-recognized consultant, published author, professional speaker, blogger, podcaster, and entrepreneur.

He builds upon a deep education in engineering and management with practical experience working with executives and frontline employees in multiple industries. He synthesizes and practices approaches, including Lean management, continuous improvement, statistical methods, and people-centered leadership to cultivate psychological safety and employee engagement.

Mark helps others learn how to improve and sustain performance. In his healthcare work, this means improving the quality of care and patient safety while reducing cost and improving the workplace experience. Across multiple sectors, goals also include improving the customer (or patient) experience, helping develop leaders and employees, and building more robust, adaptive organizations for the long term.

He has learned, practiced, and taught these methodologies in settings including manufacturing, healthcare, and technology startups, working independently since 2010. Mark often works in partnership with other consulting groups on larger engagements. Mark is also a Senior Advisor to the technology and software company KaiNexus and has a small equity stake.

Lisa Eshbach, PhD
Professor, College of Business, Ferris State University

Lisa Eshbach is a faculty member at Ferris State University (FSU), where she teaches Leadership, Lean Systems, and Strategic Management. She has facilitated over 160 student team experiential lean projects, partnering with both profit and non-profit organizations through her Lean Systems courses. Her teaching focuses on equipping students with the essential tools and skill sets needed to navigate the diverse challenges of the modern workplace.

Before joining FSU, Lisa amassed 13 years of industry experience at Ford Motor Company and Visteon Corporation. In these roles, she served as a coach, project manager, and senior manufacturing engineer, implementing lean principles to boost productivity and profitability in both office and manufacturing settings through targeted process improvement initiatives.

Dennis L. Wade
Director, Pawley Lean Institute, Adjunct Professor, Oakland University

As director of the Pawley Lean Institute at Oakland University, Dennis oversees the sharing of lean thinking concepts and practices to create leaders and learners in the university, public and private sectors, and the community. He also teaches as an adjunct professor in Oakland University’s Human Resource Development program. Previously, he was a director at AT&T for nearly 35 years in sales and service positions. He graduated from Central Michigan University with a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration (including journalism as a double major). In addition, he was corporately sponsored as a candidate for the Michigan State University Advanced Management Program, for which he received his Master of Business Administration as the youngest graduate in his class.

Toni Racco Benner
Chief Difference Maker, Racco + Associates Inc.

Toni Benner has been teaching with Nexus as a Lean Healthcare and Kata for Daily Improvement instructor since 2009. Throughout her career, Toni has studied, developed, and explored an interest in Lean systems improvement and human development. She has leveraged Kata in her work across various industries, including non-profit, healthcare, and automotive.

As a scholar-practitioner in the Doctorate of Organizational Development and Change program at Bowling Green State University, Toni’s research focuses on approaches to foster engagement, inclusivity, and widespread change within teams. Through the Fowler Center for Business as an Agent of World Benefit, she serves as Director of Creativity and Partnership in the Just Conversations program, aimed at actualizing social justice within public service industries to enhance well-being and ignite growth within individuals, organizations, and communities.