Chris Bailey-Smith

Senior Manager, Agile Practices, Disney

Chris Bailey-Smith is an IT Project and Product Management professional with more than 25 years experience working across multiple industries. A former performer, Chris has translated that ability into process engineering, working with people to turn constraints into opportunities. He has worked on exciting projects such as Guitar Center’s Project 250, merging the business processes of six separate inventory, forecasting and allocation departments into a single process organization to implement into a consolidated platform.

At Activision, he launched the Quarterly deployment process for Activision’s Core IT Services to release 150-300 enhancements to 21 Enterprise Business systems each quarter before building the first ever Agile PMO in the Consumer Tech department to launch the foundational CRM tech stack that generated $25 million in incremental revenue in the first year. Before departing Activision, Chris launched the Central Tech Agile Operations & PMO department and the Production and Project Community of Practice, hosting the first ever PPC summit at the GDC conference in San Francisco, bringing together experts from over 50 companies to drive efficiencies in video game production and development.

Now at Disney, Chris heads up the Agile Practice for the Enterprise Technology Department, delivering high-quality products and services for all segments of the Walt Disney Company and guests. The Agile Practice goal is to ensure consistent and reliable delivery of business objectives on time, on budget and on function by leveraging consistent agile techniques across Enterprise Technology.

Adrienne Berry

MSIM Support Coach, The Information School

Adrienne began her career in higher education after graduating with her Master’s Degree in Professional Counseling for College Student Affairs from the University of West Georgia. Her experiences in various functional areas such as orientation, online student programming, and transition programs fueled her passion for helping students succeed, and she is excited to pursue that passion even further with the MSIM program. When she is not working, you can often find her running, spending time with her family or at her favorite place in the world- Disney World!

Heather Champion

SEO Manager, Nordstrom

Heather works in digital marketing where she marries her extensive knowledge of SEO and information management to help develop and optimize CMSs, databases and frontend experiences that champion data integrity and content excellence. She enjoys working with product and marketing partners to help innovative ideas come to life in search-friendly ways.  

After graduating from the UW MSIM program in 2015, Heather spent several years managing digital portfolios like People, Allrecipes, Instyle and more. Prior to working in house, Heather was a marketing consultant, developing personas, information architectures, content strategies, and technical audits for companies like Intuit and Microsoft. She currently helps lead SEO at Nordstrom.

Sarijana Clark

Career Services Advisor, The Information School

Sarijana is a Career Advisor with the iSchool. She has been working in this role for 4 months.   She can assist you with anything job-related such as resume, cover letter, and LinkedIn profile review; job searching, interview prep, interviewing, and navigating job placement. Sarijana gained exposure to the field of college and career advising by becoming involved in Dream Project, assisting first-generation low-income high school students throughout the college application process. A fun fact is that she owns a school bus that she is planning on turning into a tiny house.

Cameron Cramer

MSIM Academic Advisor, The Information School

Cameron is the MSIM Program Academic Advisor. He recently received his Master's Degree in Higher Education from the University of Michigan with a focus on management and student access, and holds a bachelor of religious education from Grace Christian University as well as a BBA from Davenport University, both in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Cameron has a professional background in higher education as an Academic Advisor, student accounts specialist, resident director, and athletic coach. He is really looking forward to engaging with and cultivating a community within the MSIM student population. Outside of work Cameron enjoys running, doing triathlons, spending time in the woods, and obsessing over coffee.

Leslie Folsom

Senior Director, Slalom Consulting, Microsoft Center of Excellence Business Applications

Leslie is a proven analytics professional with expertise in data and business analytics, business intelligence and data warehousing. She can effectively bring together cross-functional teams together to integrate analytics into business and IT processes which influence strategic and tactical business decisions.  

She has 20+ years of experience, in a variety of industries, dealing with disparate data across many different platforms to solve different types of business problems. She is considered a thought leader for Microsoft Power Platform, Dynamics 365 CE, Dynamics 365 CI and teaches classes to Microsoft employees and other clients.

Mónica Guzman

Senior Fellow at Braver Angles and author of I Never Thought of it That Way

Mónica Guzman is a journalist and entrepreneur who lives for good conversation sparked by challenging questions. She’s the cofounder of The Evergrey, an award-winning newsletter and community in Seattle, and serves as an adviser to Braver Angels, a national organization out to depolarize America, and Together Washington, an organization building collaborative local relationships among leaders in Washington state. Mónica is a former columnist at The Seattle Times, GeekWire, and the Columbia Journalism Review. She studied social and political division as a 2019 Henry M. Jackson leadership fellow and spent the 2015-2016 academic year studying how journalists can evolve to better meet the needs of a participatory public as a Nieman Fellow at Harvard. She is an immigrant, a Latina, a dual US-Mexico citizen, and the mom of two bilingual kids.

Richard Kozel

Taxonomist and SEO, Freelance consultant

Richard is a proud graduate of the University of Washington Information School. He has spent his career in the world of digital publishing focused on SEO and information architecture for high-traffic food, lifestyle, and entertainment brands. Some of the many brands he has worked with include Allrecipes, People, Martha Stewart, Entertainment Weekly, Real Simple, and Eating Well. Richard believes strongly that well-designed, robust data management systems are foundational to the success of any digital brand and that the core concepts of information science must persist through any format of human communication and record keeping.

Andrew Reifers

Associate Teaching Professor, The Information School

Andrew Reifers is an Associate Teaching Professor at the University of Washington Information School where he teaches both undergraduate and graduate level courses in cybersecurity and information management. Reifers uses his previous experience as a network security engineer, principle application security consultant and chief technology officer to teach students about how cybersecurity will tangibly impact the world we live in via technology. He received his doctorate in information sciences and technology from Pennsylvania State University.

Richard Starnes

Principal, Deloitte Consulting LLP

Richard Starnes is a principal in Deloitte’s Strategy & Analytics offering with over 25 years of experience focused on delivering analytics solutions with measurable value for his clients. He advises many of the largest and most influential technology sector companies on approaches and programs around data governance, data platforms, cloud migrations, MDM, business intelligence, AI/ML, and CDO/COE organizational structure and operations.

Richard serves as the Global Leader for Tableau and Salesforce Analytics, leads the Semiconductor sub-sector for Analytics, and has served in many other leadership roles in his 15 years with Deloitte.

He has a Bachelor of Science in Management Science from Loughborough University in the UK. He lives with his wife and five children in Bellevue. He is an avid soccer fan, coach and player, and is on the board of the Queen Anne Soccer club.

Mike Teodorescu

Assistant Professor, The Information School

Heather Whiteman

Assistant Teaching Professor, The Information School

Assistant Teaching Professor Heather Whiteman is a people data enthusiast. Heather brings an academic background focused on studying the art, the science, and the impact of measuring people at work. Her master’s degree work in industrial organizational psychology centered on the use of data and statistics to identify and mitigate the harm caused by discrimination in the workplace. Heather’s Ph.D. in the field of Human Capital Management focused on human performance and capability with an emphasis on identifying measurement techniques less susceptible to societal biases. Heather is an experienced educator, having taught statistics, data analysis, and management previously at universities based in the US, UK, and Guatemala. In addition to her role as assistant teaching professor at the University of Washington Information School, Heather will continue to offer a specialized course on People Analytics as an adjunct at UC Berkeley Haas School of Business.
 
Heather comes with years of applied, strategic leadership in preparing organizations for the future of work, digital talent transformation, and enabling a new future driven by fair data and people analytics insights. Her practitioner experience has spanned roles such as researcher, consultant, manager and executive and has stretched across areas such as equal employment opportunity, talent management, and strategic organizational planning; all with a focus on applying the power of data and analysis to drive outcomes for businesses as well as for individuals.
 
Heather serves as a Future Workplace Executive Fellow, a board and tech advisor to organizations focused on people data for good and has been selected as a Fulbright Scholar to Guatemala for 2022-2023. She also serves as a U.S. representative for the International Organization for Standards (ISO) Technical Advisory Group TC 260 focused on the creation of global standards for human capital measurement, reporting and public disclosure. Most recently having served as a registered expert in the creation of ISO 30415:2021 Diversity and inclusion, which provides the fundamentals for organizations wishing to create an inclusive workplace through actions, principles, measures, and the associated accountabilities and responsibilities.

Mandar Zope

Senior Principal, Slalom Consulting, Microsoft Center of Excellence Business Applications

Mandar is a technology leader with more than 13 years of experience partnering with clients to deliver Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Power Platform solutions. He has worked across all areas of the project lifecycle—pre-sales, demonstrations, architecture, customization, and development. He has been recognized by Microsoft’s Power Platform Product Engineering Team as a FastTrack Recognized Solution Architect for consistently exhibiting deep architecture expertise and creating high quality solutions during customer engagements. Apart from leading the Seattle Power Platform User Group, Mandar leads and nurtures Slalom's Power Platform Center of Excellence.