Calendar of Events

Here's the schedule:

8:30am - 8:45am   Welcome

8:45 - 9:45  Keynote

 Public Safety and Leadership

Pete Kassetas, Chief of Police, New Mexico State Police

Chief Kassetas joined the New Mexico State Police (NMSP) in 1992. His first duty station was Grants, New Mexico as a patrol officer. On August 1, 2013, he was appointed as the 21st New Mexico State Police Chief and Deputy Secretary of the Department of Public Safety, Law Enforcement Program. Chief Kassetas is the past President of the Four States Peace Officer Association, which represents officers from New Mexico, Colorado, Utah and Arizona. He is a member of the New Mexico Law Enforcement Board, Office of the Medical Investigator’s Board, the New Mexico Search and Rescue Board, and the Executive Board of the New Mexico High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA). Chief Kassetas is a graduate of the Northwestern University Center for Public Safety, School of Police Staff and Command #161 and the International Association of Chiefs of Police, Leadership in Police Organization course. He obtained his Bachelor of Criminal Justice and Bachelor of Arts – Sociology degrees from New Mexico State University in 1992.

9:45 - 10:45

Root Causes And Corrective And Preventive Actions

Lena Isaacs, Process QM

Lena Isaacs is a quality management professional who specializes in organizational excellence, quality management systems and process improvement. She has a reputation for building strong teams, developing both nuclear and non-nuclear quality assurance programs, and maintaining various requirements. She is currently serving as a President and Owner of ProcessQM LLC, based out of Northern New Mexico, overseeing all daily operations and business activities.

Lena Isaacs earned her Bachelor of Arts in Philology at Mari State University and her Associate’s Degree in International Business at the Technical Vocational Institute. Lena puts in the time and effort necessary to stay abreast of all the latest developments in the field. She has successfully completed extensive training including ISO 9001:2015 Quality Lead Auditor – Certified, NQA-1 Quality Assurance Lead Auditor Certification Training Course, BSC Balanced Scorecard Certification Boot Camp and CMQ/OE Certified Manager of Quality/Organizational Excellence.

10:45 - 11:00  Break

11:00 - 12:00

Information Security Awareness

Brian O'Connor, RiskSense

Mr. O’Connor has broad experience that includes holding management positions in a variety of businesses. Mr. O’Connor has provided leadership at a number of different levels of responsibility within these organizations at the department, division and executive levels. 

Mr. O’Connor also brings an extensive background in specific technical and operational experience spanning areas from Information Technologies, Operations, Business Development and Contract Administration. Within these areas Mr. O’Connor has lent his experience to organizations and customers such as Honeywell, Wells Fargo Bank, United Healthcare, Fiserv, Sandia National Laboratories, U.S Department of Homeland Security.

Currently, Mr. O’Connor is Project Manager for RiskSense’s Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) group. This work includes work with clients nationally and includes work in Government, Finance, Healthcare, Manufacturing and Information Technology sectors.  Mr. O’Connor’s team provides services with security and compliance framework assessments that include HIPAA, COBIT, NIST and PCI-DSS.  

12:00 - 12:45  Lunch

12:45 - 1:45

Overcoming Barriers

Jenna Casias, LANL Program Manager for Weapons Program

Jenna Casias is a Weapons Program Manager for Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) with 23 years of project/program management experience in both capital projects and weapons programs. Jenna has a Bachelor of Business Administration from the College of Santa Fe and will be receiving an Executive Master of Business Administration from UNM Anderson School of Management in August 2018.

In 2015, Jenna formed LANL’s first Project Management Women’s Group and was recognized as one of LANL’s Inspiring Women for her contributions to the field of Project Management at LANL.  Today, Jenna supports the Weapons Engineering Division heading the first-of-its kind Weapons Program Integration Schedule.

Jenna is passionate about the project management field and role that women have in the fields of project management, construction, maintenance and operations.

1:45 - 2:45

5 Dysfunctions of a Team and Key Considerations on How to  Implement "Overcoming 5 Dysfunctions of a Team"

Annie Irizari, VP board officer and member of PMI-Rio Grande Chapter and USADance

Currently a VP board officer and member of PMI-Rio Grande Chapter and USADance. 

She is PMP and CSM certified (collecting her alphabet soup acronyms - LOL) with over 20 years experiences in leadership and information technology technical roles in consulting, software development, network infrastructure and technical support.  

Her leadership and technical prowess is complemented by her business acumen in marketing,data statistical analysis, accounting, taxation and compliance audits in multiple vertical industries.

Her professional focus and expertise is in Ethics, governance, audit and compliance, turnaround project management of challenged projects and PMOs,Six Sigma quality process improvements, complex integration and implementation.

She is here to give us an overview of the 5 dysfunctions of a team and the key considerations on how to  implement Overcoming 5 Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni.

2:45 - 3:00  Break

3:00 - 4:00

 The Anderson School of Business Masters and Doctoral Programs on Project Management and Project Controls

Steve Walsh

Dr. Walsh received his Ph.D. in Strategic Management from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1995 and joined the faculty at UNM in 1998. Professor Walsh has published in a number of Management and Engineering journals. Professor Walsh has been a Special Issue editor for a number of journals such as Journal of Business Ethics, Technovation, Creativity and Innovation Management Journal and Technological Forecasting and Social Change.

In 2017, Professor Walsh is spearheading the "Project Management" Program at Anderson in conjunction with Los Alamos Laboratories.
He teaches a number of entrepreneurship courses, including Technology Forecasting and Assessment, Projects in Technology Management, Technology Commercialization and the Global Environment, among other courses.

4:00pm - 5:00pm Closing Keynote

 Coping Skills For Stress

James Barber, EAP LANL

James is a licensed clinical mental health therapist. He's been at LANL for 32 years. He has extensive training and experience working with stress and  trauma. He teaches stress management and coping skills to groups across the Lab and to individuals in his office.  He's currently working on a project outside of the Lab to provide therapeutic recreational activities using fly-fishing and equine assisted therapy for military related PTSD, MST, TBI and mobility issues.

A full day of Superhero speakers you won't want to miss! The topics range from public safety and leadership to risk and stress management. Plus we are honored to have Steve Walsh from UNM describe the new degreed programs from the Anderson School of Business.

Registration includes: Access to all presentations; Continental breakfast/snacks/lunch; up to 7 PDU's.

Courtyard Marriott, Santa Fe, NM

8am - 5pm

Total PDU's: 7

Big thank-you to our sponsors: