We turn to a group of highly successful statisticians, scientists and engineers to help us infuse Discovery Summit with valuable content.
Every year, we welcome new members to the Discovery Summit Americas steering committee. And every year we say goodbye and thank you to members whose terms have come to end. We value their expertise, passion for JMP, and willingness to help us design and deliver the best conference possible.
(A complete list of all US Steering Committee Members, Past and Present can be found here.)
In February, we asked for nominations. At Discovery Summit Americas 2022, we'll publicly announce who will join the committee to plan future conferences and who has completed the term.
Incoming DSA steering committee members
Michael Akerman, Novozymes
Michael Akerman is a data science manager at Novozymes, where he supports laboratory scientists in biology and biochemistry by developing software tools for scientific data capture, analysis, and data automation. A JMP user for over 13 years, he enthusiastically helps scientists access the knowledge and tools they need to bring the very best of data science to their fingertips and drive forward the future of biotechnology.
After graduating from North Carolina State University with a BS in Chemical Engineering, Michael began using JMP 7 to explore and understand statistical concepts and has since trained dozens of colleagues in experimental design, statistical analysis, and visualization. In his current role, he serves as the senior developer on a team that combines the visual accessibility and guaranteed quality of JMP with distributed and open-source tools. He also serves as the lead developer on an automated toolkit which allows any colleague, regardless of coding skill, to contribute JSL scripts to a community-sourced add-in package, currently measuring more than 300 individual scripts.
In his free time Michael enjoys cooking, playing tabletop roleplaying games, and video gaming.
Melisa Buie, 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.
Steve Hampton, PCC Structurals
Steve Hampton has over 17 years of casting experience, most of which has been in large structural titanium casting at PCC Structurals. During his time with PCC, Steve has worked in Engineering, Product Development, Operations Management, Lean Implementation and most recently, Process Control.
Through his engineering and process control roles, Steve discovered the immense value of being able to understand data, decipher meaning from it with statistics, and then take actions from those insights to improve business outcomes. During this analysis journey Steve discovered the power of JMP and its ability to speed up analysis efficiency and show results in a way that anyone across the organization can understand. To help spread this value, Steve incorporated JMP’s free online statistics class into a new Technical Rotation Program training process that allows new engineers to hit the ground running with JMP in their toolkit. The program has also helped JMP spread across the organization. Steve continues to push the boundaries of how the corporation uses statistics by showing users the benefits of modeling past ANOVA and bivariate regression such as neural nets and random forests, using custom DOE’s, and developing scripts to add flexibility and time savings in repeatable analysis.
Erica Heipertz, 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.
Mia Stephens, 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.
Margaret Young, Kemin Nutrisurance
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.
Outgoing DSA steering committee members
Dan Valente, JMP
Tanya Davis, Zoetis
Trish Roth, Abbott Laboratories
Sarah Gilyard, Texas Instruments
Ted Ellefson, Seagate Technology
Matt Kedzierski, Aera Energy
Thank you
Finally, we thank those of you who submitted nominations for this year's committee members. If you have any questions about the committee or the selection process, please contact Kathy Walker.
