29th Annual TNCPE Excellence Conference and Celebration

Allyson Young is the Chief People Officer for Sport Clips.  In this role, she leads a strong HR Team responsible for driving positive outcomes in the areas of talent acquisition, talent management and engagement.

Prior to joining SC in March 2021, Allyson was the Human Resources & Brand Director for over 23 years for K&N Management, owners and operators of the Austin-area Rudy’s “Country Store & BBQ” and Mighty Fine Burgers, Fries and Shakes restaurants. There she focused on increasing internal and external engagement with team members and guests.  

Allyson wrote the award-winning applications for the Texas Award for Performance Excellence Award and the Malcolm Baldrige Award. She developed and conducted organizational learning sessions to teach over 2,000 people from 100 different organizations about the Malcolm Baldrige Criteria and performance excellence. In 2019 she was awarded the Baldrige Foundation Leadership Excellence Award. She holds a BA in English from Texas A&M University and Senior Professional Human Resources designation through the Human Resources Certification Institute.

Edwin Boon is a GE Certified Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt and is the CEO of the Lean Six Sigma Company USA.

Edwin is a former Vice President Lean Six Sigma and Customer Experience for Sleep Number in the USA. Prior to Sleep Number he worked at GE as a Master Black Belt and as CFO for Hertz Leasing in Europe.

Edwin has executed hundreds of projects in improving customer experience, services, manufacturing, sales, supply chain, product design, warranties, and technology.

His experience spans a variety of industries including financial services, healthcare, government, manufacturing, and retail.

Edwin holds a Dutch Finance and Accounting degree and has global work experience in the Netherlands, UK, Germany, Switzerland, France, and the USA.

John Kueven is SVP and president of Wellstar Cobb Hospital and interim president of Wellstar Paulding Hospital. John has fostered a collaborative culture focused on high reliability and led Wellstar Paulding Hospital to achieve an “A” rating from The Leapfrog Group. Under his leadership, the hospital was recognized with the Georgia Oglethorpe Award and, in 2020, became the first and only hospital in Georgia to receive the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award.

Prior to joining Wellstar in 2018, John was chief operating officer of Memorial Hermann Katy, where he helped to drive a culture of patient safety, escalating the hospital to top decile performance, and achieve the Texas Award for Performance Excellence, the Texas State Baldrige Award, as well as facilitating a $120 million expansion. 

Before joining Memorial Hermann Katy, he worked for Boston Children’s Hospital as director of transplant and utilization management, overseeing the transplant department, case management, utilization review, and the international office. He previously served in leadership roles at North Mississippi Medical Center.

John received a master’s degree in health care administration management and a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Alabama at Birmingham; a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Millsaps College; and an associate degree in nursing from Itawamba Community College.

An active member of the healthcare community and his local community, he currently serves as vice president and incoming president of the Georgia Association of Healthcare Executives. John is treasurer and incoming President of the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Graduate Program of Hospital Administration Board, a member of the Sterling Board of Directors, a member of the International Hospital Federation Young Executive Leaders, and the Paulding County Chamber Board of Directors. He is also a deacon in his church and an active member of the Paulding County Rotary Club.

He is currently a Fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives.

Ms. Riner holds a Bachelor’s degree in Occupational Therapy from G.S. Medical College in Bombay, India, and has a Master’s degree in Healthcare Administration. She has served Nexion Health since its inception and currently serves as the company’s Chief Operations Officer.

With more than 25 years of long-term care experience as a highly-skilled executive, clinician, and innovator, Ms. Riner is well-known among her peers as a dedicated patient advocate and a leader for culture change in long-term care. Her leadership style of example and empowerment, found in her P.U.R.P.O.S.E. Driven Mentoring program, is reflected in the talent and performance of her operations team and healthcare facilities. She has established Nexion as a leader in LTC innovation, diversity, and inclusion.

Ms. Riner is actively involved in multiple state nursing home associations and other leadership collaborations committed to supporting the promotion of sustained high-quality, compassionate elder care. She frequently testifies before the Texas Legislature advocating for strong reimbursement reform for the long-term care industry. She also lends her evacuation and emergency planning expertise while serving on the Louisiana Nursing Home Association evacuation study group. A nationally sought-after expert and guest speaker, Ms. Riner most recently co-presented at the virtual NAHQnext conference alongside Nexion’s Vice President of Quality on “The New PTSD: Post Traumatic Strategic Disorder”.

As a devoted and visionary leader, in 2020, Ms. Riner launched Nexion’s diversity and inclusion initiative. Impassioned about diversity and inclusion in the workplace, she developed and launched a strategic framework and mobilized a leadership group and more than 100 associate volunteers to successfully guide Nexion’s diversity and inclusion efforts. Meaningful involvement along with genuine appreciation/recognition of Nexion Health associates are hallmarks of Ms. Riner’s empowering leadership.

Ms. Riner is distinguished as the only Malcolm Baldrige Fellowship Program graduate in long-term care. She has successfully embedded the Baldrige Excellence Framework into the operations model at Nexion Health. These efforts have resulted in multi-facility recognition to include McKnight's Technology awards and an abundance of Bronze and Silver AHCA Quality Award wins. She is a past AHCA Silver Examiner and a consistent member of many AHCA committees to include Quality and Workforce.

In 2020, Ms. Riner was awarded the prestigious McKnight’s Women of Distinction honor, and she currently serves on The George Washington University School of Business “Women in Leadership” Program Advisory Council.

Danette Scudder is executive vice president of member services and strategic relations for the Tennessee Valley Public Power Association (TVPPA), which serves 153 consumer-owned electric utilities that purchase wholesale electric power from the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and distribute it in Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, Georgia, Virginia and North Carolina.

As executive vice president, Scudder ensures TVPPA delivers exceptional member value by advocating for members’ interests with the public, in the political arena, and with TVA, and by providing competitive industry-specific business services. Scudder has served in her current role since 2017, and has oversight of TVPPA’s strategic partnerships, government relations, communications, conferences, and nationally-recognized education and training programs.

In addition, Scudder serves as vice president of Distributors Insurance Company (DIC), a wholly owned subsidiary of TVPPA. DIC provides utility-specific loss control, insurance, and employee safety products to utilities in the Tennessee Valley and nationwide.

Scudder’s began her career with TVPPA in 2001, working for more than 9 years in the association’s education and training department before gaining increasing levels of responsibility as manager of member services and then vice president. Prior to joining TVPPA, Danette worked in industry, staffing and university administration.

A leader in the industry, Scudder is a past president of the Women’s International Network of Utility Professionals (WiNUP). She served on the American Public Power Association (APPA) Reliable Public Power Provider (RP3) Review Panel and later as the first chair of APPA’s Mutual Aid Working Group. Today, she is a member of the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Regional Resource Stewardship Council.  Scudder also serves on the board of the Tennessee Center for Performance Excellence.

Scudder’s national awards and recognitions include APPA’s 2012 Robert E. Roundtree Rising Star Award and WiNUP’s 2011 POWER Award.

Scudder received a Bachelor of Science degree in Political Science from the University of Evansville (Indiana), where she later served as the president of the Alumni Association Board of Directors.  She was the 2009 recipient of the university’s Young Alumna Award.  Scudder also holds a Master of Public Administration degree from Texas Tech University. 

Michael Hubbard serves as the Director of Performance Excellence for Kingsport City Schools. He has also served as an elementary principal, associate principal, the Director of Accountability, and an elementary teacher. Michael currently serves on the Tennessee Center for Performance Excellence Panel of Judges and has continued work as an examiner and Master Examiner. Michael developed two educational crosswalks for the Tennessee Center for Performance Excellence, helped redesign the Level One process, and led efforts for Kingsport City Schools being named a recipient of the Achievement Level Award on two occasions, the only K-12 Tennessee public school district to obtain this honor. Michael was awarded the Champion of Excellence Award in 2016.

Stephanie Norling has been Executive Director of Communities of Excellence 2026 since 2014. In this role Stephanie has participated in the development of the Communities of Excellence Criteria, adapted from the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence and launched a National Learning Collaborative of communities to support their use of the framework. She also serves as a Learning Collaborative faculty and mentors several of the 22 communities currently participating. After graduating with a BA in Anthropology from Tufts University in 1999, Stephanie joined the Institute for Healthcare Improvement in Boston as a Project Coordinator. In 2001 Stephanie moved to San Diego, CA and worked for 12 years at the San Diego Zoo and Safari Park, first in the Operations Department and later taking a lead role in the Elephant Department at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. In 2012 Stephanie graduated from the University of San Diego with a Master’s in Business Administration and a Certificate in Nonprofit Management. Stephanie serves on the board of the Alliance for Performance Excellence and participated as a National Baldrige Examiner for three years.

Will Schoch, Group Director, Leadership and Organizational Development  

Will Schoch (shock) serves as the Group Director of Leadership and Organizational Development (L&OD) for the Integrated Lines of Business (ILOB), the Human Resources Group (HRG), Parallon, HealthTrust, and Corporate departments within the L&OD Center of Excellence (COE) of HRG at HCA Healthcare.  In this role, Will leads a team that partners with internal stakeholders to identify strategies, solutions, and tools that will foster enhanced leadership development, improved organizational alignment and effectiveness, increased engagement and improved results impacting the overall business strategy. This includes partnership for talent review and succession planning, colleague engagement action planning, leadership assessment, team performance, change management, coaching, skill development, and strategic planning.

Will is a Senior Professional of Human Resources (SPHR). He holds a B.S. in Economics from Vanderbilt University and a M.Ed. in Organizational Leadership and Communication from Belmont University.

Rebecca Stout has over fifteen years’ experience in talent development, facilitation, and curriculum design in the healthcare and financial services industries.

In her current role in Leadership & Organizational Development for HCA Healthcare, which includes the Leadership Institute, she is responsible for deploying programs that build leadership capacity within the organization. Rebecca joined HCA Healthcare in 2018 on the HealthTrust Supply Chain Communications & Education team. Previously, she led new hire training and leadership development programs as an Assistant Vice President in Learning & Development for Regions Bank.

Rebecca holds a Master of Science in Instructional Design and Technology from Trevecca Nazarene University and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Tennessee Technological University.

In her free time, she enjoys baking, reading, hiking, and mountain biking. Rebecca lives in Nashville with her husband, Will, and dog, Barley.

After joining the City’s recreation department in 2004 as the special events and marketing coordinator, Stacey was quickly recruited to City Hall to lead overall City marketing and communications. She now serves as the City’s senior communications strategist which includes responsibility for customer service, communication, marketing, engagement and grant writing. She also oversees special projects including strategic planning. Stacey earned a master’s degree from the University of Memphis is a certified public manager through the University of Tennessee Naifeh Center for Effective Leadership and has served as an examiner for the Tennessee Center for Performance Excellence.

Adrienne has 15 years of budgeting and finance experience with the City of Germantown. In addition to a Master’s in Public Administration, she is a Certified Six Sigma Black Belt and has received the Certified Public Manager and Certified Municipal Finance Officer designations from the University of Tennessee Municipal Technical Advisory Service. She has served as an examiner for the Tennessee Center for Performance Excellence. 

Kent is the co-author of the new book “The 3 Keys of Execution. Simple Ideas. Extraordinary Results.”  Which was just listed #6 on INC’s Summer Must-Read Books list.   

Kent has lived all over America and in Europe He graduated from  the University of Alabama; where he completed a B.S. in Business Administration/Finance and an MBA (all in four years) graduating with Honors.

Kent’s work experience has varied tremendously. Prior to Co-Founding BPS he spent nearly 24 years at an international consulting firm (in multiple roles) including as a Managing Director leading a large Sales and Consulting Team.  He also spent three years in Europe as a Soviet Military Intelligence Analyst for the U.S. Army, and over a decade as a Financial Manager and Operations Leader with a Fortune 100 company and smaller organizations as well.

Kent and his wife (the love of his life) have been married for over 30 years and have three amazing children. He loves swimming, running, cycling, Marital Arts, working out, and hanging out with his family. Kent continues to be goal oriented earning a black belt on his 40^th birthday, running a marathon for his 45^th birthday, completing a mile swim for his 50^th and recently completing multiple Sprint Triathalons.

Kent’s books “Everyone Can Lead” and “The 3 Keys of Execution” are also available on Amazon.

David is an achievement-oriented professional with extensive experience in organizational development, operations management, and human resources.  He has served as a Business Owner, Executive and Leader at some of the world’s best organizations.  He received his undergraduate and Masters degrees in Human Resources Management from Liberty University and also has a Masters in Philosophy.

David is the co-author of the new book “The 3 Keys of Execution. Simple Ideas. Extraordinary Results.”  Which was just listed #6 on INC’s Summer Must-Read Books list.   He has worked in the Execution space for 15 years with organizations as diverse as Wal-Mart, Toyota, Samsung, Marriott, Clayton Homes and HCA. Thousands of people have been touched by David’s ability to help them grow and improve their results. 

David maintains a close relationship with virtually all of the clients he was worked with over the years. Organizations when engaging David will see immediate results.  

David will be quick to tell you, there is no such thing as a former Marine.  David overcame a life threatening spinal injury while serving in the Marines and he has a love for the veteran which is motivating and contagious. He is always going out of his way to serve those who have served and spends a lot of his free time volunteering in Veteran’s homes and in the local VA Hospital.

Another thing you will find when working with David is his contagious laugh. David has an innate ability to connect with all levels in an organization and it all begins with his smile. He gets people and he is a master at getting results.

Dr. Mitchell (Mitch) B. Owen is the Chief Operating Officer of Mitchen Incorporate, an innovative
training and organizational development company celebrating over thirty years of service to its
clients. Dr. Owen has also served as the Deputy Director for Performance and Organization
Development with the North Carolina Department of Public Safety and as the Director of
Personal and Organizational Development at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, N.C.,
USA.

Dr. Owen is the creator of the Elusive LeadershipTM model for high performance team
development and the Mitchen Organization Re-Envisioning SystemTM. Dr. Owen’s expertise
and reputation has enabled him to work with a wide variety of groups, including universities,
public agencies, non-profits, as well as business and industry. Most recently, facilitating
strategic change efforts at University of Hawaii, University of Connecticut, University of
Maryland, University of Kentucky, University of Georgia, University of Tennessee, The Ohio
State University and for the National Association of University Forest Resource Programs. Dr.
Owen has also worked with Volvo Car Finance, BioGen, HardCo, N.B. Handy, Sassool, and
other companies.

Dr. Owen completed his Doctorate of Education at North Carolina State University in Adult
Education and Development while focusing his research on technology adoption and the
psychology change management. He is internationally respected as a leader in programs on
leadership, performance, strategic positioning, facilitation, organizational development,
branding, technology, cultural agility, collaboration, and organizational change.

Elijah Ward serves as a Financial Analyst at RPM Pizza, the largest domestic franchise of Domino’s Pizza. In this role, Elijah utilizes his Baldrige training and access to financial and statistical data to produce useful results measures that drive organizational performance. In addition to managing financial and statistical analysis, Elijah has spent the last 3 years working cross-departmentally with the support of executive leaders to align the organization with the Baldrige Excellence Framework. TNCPE is recognizing RPM Pizza this Spring with the Achievement Level Award (Level 3). He served as examiner in the 2020 award cycle and loves to share his Baldrige passion with friends and colleagues.

Elijah lives in Mobile, Alabama with his beautiful wife, Macie, and their two daughters. Elijah and Macie have a passion for getting involved in their community, serving as youth pastors at their church and owning a boutique, local real estate brokerage called Wellhouse Real Estate.