PNSQC is managed by a seven-member board elected by the voting members at the annual meeting in November. Board members serve a three-year term. The terms are staggered so that only 2-3 board members are elected in any given year. The board elects officers at a meeting subsequent to the annual meeting. The board and other active volunteers conduct their business at monthly business meetings that generally occur on the second Wednesday of the month. See the events calendar for specifics. The current board members are:

• Phil Lew, President & Treasurer
• Moss Drake, Vice President & Program Chair
• Dr. Gwen Avington, Board Member
• Ying Ki Kwong, Secretary
• John Cvetko, Board Member
• Heather Wilcox, Board Member
• Kathleen Hess, Board Member

In addition to the board, there are a number of committees that are responsible for defining and running various aspects of PNSQC.

Board Biographies

Philip Lew

President & Treasurer
 

After working in various management and technical positions in software development and product management, Philip Lew leads XBOSoft‘s (xbosoft.com) direction and strategy as CEO. His Ph.D. research in software quality and usability resulted in several IEEE and ACM journal publications and in various trade journals as well. A speaker at numerous trade and academic conferences, he has worked with hundreds of organizations to assess the quality of their software, examine software quality processes, and set forth measurement plans to improve software quality using systematic methods. Find out more about Philip at xbosoft.com.

Email the PNSQC President, connect with Phil on LinkedIn, or Twitter @philiplew

Moss Drake

Vice President & Program Chair

Moss Drake has over three decades of experience developing professional software with a focus on healthcare and insurance. He has a passion for discovering innovative ways to deliver software, using agile methodologies, and improving team communication. Moss has been attending and volunteering with PNSQC since the 90s. In his spare time, Moss enjoys playing music, travel, and drawing.

Dr. Gwen Avington

Board Member

Dr. Gwendolyn Avington-Founder/CEO of CLATAK Consulting has honed her ability to work with diverse groups and individuals. She helps organizations and individuals see and remove barriers to effective communication. Dr. Avington started her own business after enjoying 32 years as a healthcare professional. She is adept at using her transformative leadership style to help others grow and reach their full potential. She has worked as a volunteer for the last two years with the Pacific Northwest Software Quality Conference (PNSQC). She is thrilled to join the PNSQC Board of Directors.

Dr. Avington brings a robust educational background that compliments the work at PNSQC from the end user software quality perspective. She has a Doctor of Health Administration, Master of Business Administration with a concentration in Healthcare Management, Bachelor of Science in Business Communications, and Bachelor of Science in Medical Technology.

Ying Ki Kwong

Secretary

Ying Ki Kwong is the E-Government Program Manager in the Office of the State CIO in Oregon state government. Prior to this role, he was Statewide QA Program Manager, IT Investment Oversight Coordinator, and Project Office Manager of the Medicaid Management Information System Project.

In the private sector, Dr. Kwong was CEO of a Hong Kong-based internet B2B portal for trading commodities futures and metals. He was a program manager in the Video & Networking Division of Tektronix, responsible for worldwide applications & channels marketing for a line of video servers in broadcast television applications. In these roles, he managed software-based systems/applications, products, and business process improvements.

He received the doctorate from the School of Applied & Engineering Physics at Cornell University and was adjunct faculty in the School of Business Administration at Portland State University. He holds certifications in project management (PMP), ITIL, and IT Service Management.

Email the PNSQC Secretary

John Cvetko

Board Member

As a Principal at TEK, John Cvetko works with companies and government agencies to improve their organizations by helping them manage the IT challenges they face. He focuses on applying state of the art solutions that support business goals and objectives. For the last 12 years he has primarily worked with state governments assessing and modernizing large enterprise software systems. He has worked with the state governments of Washington, Oregon, Colorado, North Carolina, North Dakota, and Utah. He has consulted for firms such as Gartner, Boeing, and MAXIMUS, and earlier in his career he has held program and systems engineering management positions at Tektronix, PGE/Enron and ASCOM.

Heather Wilcox

Board Member

After leaving a potential career in Anthropology in1994, Heather Wilcox has spent over 25 years working and learning in the software industry, choosing to focus primarily on start-up and small companies. As a result, she has had a broad range of job descriptions which include, but are not limited to: Technical Support Engineer, IS Manager, Technical Writer, QA Engineer, Staff Quality Engineer, QA Manager, and Configuration Management Engineer.

More recently, Heather has moved into a more permanent relationship with NWEA - a mid-sized educational company where she’s been for the last 11 years. This has given Heather a wide range of experiences to draw from in her current role as Engineering Manager, QA and Reliability. In her spare time, Heather enjoys fiber arts, equestrian sports, and training donkeys.

Kathleen Hess

Board Member

Kathleen Hess is an experienced Software Development Engineer in Test (SDET) at Act-On Software in Portland, OR. With a proven track record in quality assurance, test automation, and security testing, she combines technical expertise with a forward-thinking approach to problem-solving. Kathleen is highly skilled in agile methodologies and excels in driving robust software testing processes to ensure product excellence.
Beyond her professional accomplishments, Kathleen is an active volunteer, serving as the photography superintendent at the Clackamas County Fair. She is also a passionate hobby farmer and enjoys sharing stories about her flock of chickens, turkeys, and more.

Kathleen’s technical skill set includes proficiency in C#, SQL, Java, Oracle, REST API testing, and JSON. She is adept with tools such as Selenium, SoapUI, Ranorex, Burp Suite, and Postman. Her expertise encompasses test planning, manual and automated testing, regression testing, and comprehensive quality assurance processes.