This meeting will feature a panel discussion on the ways that organizations are using and benefitting from agile development methodology. Panel members are:

David Richards is an IT Project Manager in the Office of the Nevada Secretary of State, and President of the PMI-NNV chapter. He has several decades of experience as a software development director and software and IT program/project manager, mostly in higher education and associated not-for-profit organizations.

David discovered agile development in 2011 when his organization decided to utilize Scrum for the development of a highly strategic new product by several geographically distributed development teams. Initially a skeptic, he became convinced that agile methods are the best way to develop nearly all software.

He has a Ph.D. and M.S. in physics from the University of Michigan, a B.S. in physics from Alma College, and holds PMP and PMI-ACP certifications.

Heather Lucchesi is an Agile Coach, Scrum Master, SAFe Agilist, and Program Manager at Eyefinity/VSP with proven experience coaching and leading scrum teams using agile software development methodologies including Scrum and SAFe.

Heather enjoys helping teams improve performance and get things done. Having been a developer in a waterfall environment, she has seen the benefits to teams, companies, and product delivery timelines when development teams can self-organize, course correct, make a plan, and deliver using agile techniques. Six years ago, she fell into agile development as a project manager who joined a company that decided to move to Scrum and utilize the Scaled Agile Framework to synchronize teams.

She has a B.S. in Strategic Management from California State University, Sacramento, and holds several certifications including Agile Coach, Scrum Master, SAFe Agilist, Project Management Professional and Certified Paraoptometric.

Karen Michael is Business Portal Administrator in the Office of the Nevada Secretary of State. In this role, she oversees the Business Portal Division to establish through cooperative efforts with state agencies, local governments, health districts and businesses, the standards and requirements necessary to design, build and implement SilverFlume, Nevada’s Business Portal.

Karen has an M.S. in Software Engineering from the University of Saint Thomas and a B.A. from the University of Virginia. Prior to her public service, she consulted for Fortune 500 organizations and operated her own business. She started her career in technology and management more than 20 years ago at Andersen Consulting in Minneapolis, MN.

Her industry certifications include PMI-ACP, CSP, CSM, CPSO, ITIL Foundation Certificate in IT Service Management, Nevada Information Security Professional, Nevada Certified Contract Manager, and NV Office of Project Management Change Ambassador. She is a member of the Society of Women Engineers and InfraGard.

Location: Napa Sonoma Plumgate - 550 W Plumb Ln, Reno, NV 89509

Register (Registration closes on 1/18 at 6PM)

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