Industrial Advisory Council

Brad Bishop leads the Manufacturing Emerging Technologies & Industrial Intelligence Organization at John Deere.  In his 18 years in industry, Brad has held numerous roles in manufacturing engineering, quality engineering, material flow operations and manufacturing operations. John Deere is a world leader in agriculture, forestry, and roadbuilding equipment with over 82,000 employees worldwide. For 185 years, John Deere has led the way in developing innovative solutions to help our customers become more productive.

In his current role, Brad leads the Manufacturing Emerging Technologies Team which focuses on prospecting and developing new and emerging technologies to make John Deere’s factories and operations around the world safer and more efficient.  In addition, he also leads the Industrial Intelligence Team with responsibility for manufacturing data across all manufacturing units.  This team manages, enables, and curates data for analytics use cases and overall factory performance improvements.

Brad graduated from Iowa State University in 2007 with a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering. He now lives in Le Claire, Iowa with his wife, Kristen, and their five children, Dayton, Colton, Declan, Karis, and Kaia. They enjoy an active lifestyle as a family playing sports and outdoor activities as well as in their church in the Quad Cities.

Valerie Boelman is the Vice President of Enterprise Enablement and Chief of Staff at Premier, Inc.

At Premier, Valerie is responsible for the development and deployment of strategic initiatives, including the artificial intelligence and process automation program for the Continuum of Care division. Valerie began working in healthcare fifteen years ago at UnityPoint Health – Des Moines, most recently serving as the organization’s Assistant Vice President of Process Improvement and Quality. She has also taught Lean Six Sigma and Innovation in Healthcare as an adjunct instructor at Nebraska Health System and Drake University, respectively.  She earned a Diplomate designation and is currently the President of the Society for Health Systems, a professional organization within the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers that supports industrial engineers involved in improving quality and efficiency of healthcare systems.

Valerie earned a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from Iowa State University and a master’s degree in healthcare engineering from Texas Tech University.  She is a certified Six Sigma Black Belt.

Melissa Kay Boom is a strategic and collaborative Operations Executive with experience designing successful operational and quality systems improvement programs implemented globally with hands-on experiences driving the necessary engineering, manufacturing, process and systems improvements, as well as guiding global digital transformation journeys for manufacturing and leading enterprise risk reduction in the areas of business continuity, project management and process excellence.

She has extensive background as a key leader, skilled teacher and coach in multiple improvement and problem-solving disciplines including 8D, Lean and Six Sigma DMAIC. Her work background includes multiple global businesses such as Eaton, Rockwell Semiconductor, Seagate Technology, MTS Systems, Protolabs and Winnebago Industries.

Melissa’s expertise areas include: Operational Improvement Framework Development and Leadership | Enterprise Risk Management & Reduction | Process Excellence | ISO-9001 & AS-9100 Quality Management Systems | Failure Mode and Effects Analysis | Program Management Office (PMO) | Manufacturing Engineering | Engineering Change Management | Communicating on Multiple Levels | Dealing with Ambiguity | Driving for Results | Influencing and Inspiring Others to Act | Simplifying Issues to Drive Actions

Melissa is now the President/Owner at Boom Consulting LLC, which she opened in 2025 to leverage her 30 years of experience across multiple dimensions of Operations, including Quality, Lean and Engineering.   Boom Consulting transforms manufacturing and engineering organizations through evidence-based, people-centered operational excellence projects.  Services include:  Discover & Diagnose, Capability Building and Sustain & Scale.

Prior to opening her own consulting business, Melissa was the Vice President of Business Excellence at Winnebago Industries, where she designed the Business Excellence Systems COE (Center of Excellence) framework with a purpose to enable the multiple businesses across the enterprise to partner together and to continually improve using techniques to drive value, reduce risks and increase synergies, as well as a Quality Center of Excellence to bring the same businesses together focused on a shared culture of quality.

Aside from driving and strengthening operational improvement programs, Melissa has a true passion in mentoring next generation leaders. She has experience on six (6) advisory boards, including industry, educational and volunteer-based. She is an active conference speaker with six (6) national engagements over the past few years, including Women in Manufacturing (WiM) and the Society of Women Engineers (SWE). For Melissa it is also important to spend time supporting STEM programming for young students in high school, where she has volunteered as a high school pre-engineering classroom speaker.

During her time at Winnebago Industries, she was the founding leader of the company’s 1st ERG, Women’s Inclusion Network, which included all business locations nationally and grew to over 400 members within a couple of years.

Melissa was recognized by the Manufacturing Institute as a 2024 Women MAKE Awards Honoree at the National Association of Manufacturers, Manufacturing Institute Women MAKE awards and conference in Washington D.C. in 2024.

Melissa earned her Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering from Iowa State University (1994) and a Master of Science in Management of Technology from the University of Minnesota – Institute of Technology (2006).

Now retired, David Corbin previously served as Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Vermeer Corporation, a global industrial and agricultural equipment company. His responsibilities included information technology, environmental health and safety, continuous improvement and facilities management.

David joined Vermeer in 1998 as a plant manager after starting his career at Dynamics Corporation and Ford New Holland. Since joining Vermeer, he has held leadership positions in manufacturing, procurement, engineering, continuous improvement and business segment management and has provided leadership to subsidiary organizations through board roles at Vermeer Freeman and Lely Vermeer Maschinenfabrik.

David serves on Iowa State University’s IMSE Industrial Advisory Council and is also involved in the Iowa Advanced Manufacturing Council, Technology Association of Iowa, Rotary International, the Institute of Industrial Engineers and the Society of Manufacturing Engineers.

He is a native of Cherry Hill, New Jersey and graduated from Iowa State University with a bachelor of science degree in industrial engineering. David and his wife, Joan, have eight children and eleven grandchildren.

Greg Doonan leads Geospatial, Environmental, and Agronomic Data Science at Corteva Agriscience. He is based at the Johnston, Iowa campus. His team develops and applies data science solutions to enhance internal R&D decision‑making and deliver actionable insights that improve grower outcomes.

Before joining Corteva, Greg served as Head of Advanced Analytics and Field Analytics at Syngenta. While at Syngenta, Greg held multiple R&D roles spanning high‑throughput platform development, soybean trait development and leadership of global genetic projects in oilseeds.

Earlier in his career, Greg worked at the University of Iowa supporting the Human Genome Project which sparked his interest in platform development and process improvement. He later joined Garst Seed Company where he established the company’s first sequencing lab and soybean genetic marker platform. He subsequently led Syngenta’s Soybean Trait Introgression program, overseeing the planning and delivery of the company’s soybean trait development pipeline. His modeling and simulation work contributed to Syngenta’s 2015 Franz Edelman Award for Achievement in Operations Research—the first time an agriculture company was named a finalist and winner.

Greg holds a B.S. in Biology and an M.S. in Plant Breeding from Iowa State University.

Shelley Finnestad is a financial advisor at Edward Jones. As an Edward Jones financial advisor, I believe it’s important to invest my time in understanding what you’re working toward before you invest your money. Working closely with you and your CPA, attorney and other professionals, I can help determine the most appropriate financial strategy so you have more options when you retire, regardless of what you decide to do.

I hold insurance licenses and securities registrations in various states. My educational background also includes a bachelor’s degree from Iowa State University in industrial engineering. While attending, I enjoyed the experience of being a Big Eight Golf Champion, was on the Academic All-American team three times, and earned a spot in the University Athletic Hall of Fame. After college, I toured the nation playing golf competitively for six years, qualifying and competing in the 1998 U.S. Open. I am a lover of outdoor activities and have hiked the Grand Canyon and Half Dome in Yosemite twice.

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Heather Gatto is the senior director of Operations and Strategy at Collins Aerospace, a business of RTX, where she leads a global manufacturing team supporting Commercial Avionics. Gatto is responsible for the daily execution of manufacturing operations, strategic development of the overall avionics footprint and maintaining the business’s high standards of quality and performance.

Gatto has over 20 years of operations experience within Collins Aerospace, including a diverse background in the complexities and challenges of aerospace manufacturing and strategy.  Prior to her current role, she held numerous positions of increasing responsibility, including manufacturing, lean six sigma, new product introduction, work transfer, strategy, and quality.

Gatto is a certified Six Sigma Black Belt.  She holds an MBA from the University of Iowa and a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering and manufacturing systems from Iowa State University.

Dave Gardner is Vice President, Business Improvement & New Capabilities at HNI Corporation, a leading provider of Office Furniture and Hearth Appliances. His responsibilities include continuous improvement activities, new manufacturing capabilities and technology, and facilities. He joined HNI in 1983 as an Industrial Engineer and has held several executive and leadership roles in operations and continuous improvement, including President of one of their operating divisions.

Dave has served on various church and civic organization during his career. He joined the IMSE board in June of 2018. He is a native of Muscatine, Iowa and graduated from Iowa State University with a degree in Industrial Engineering. Dave and his wife Judene have 3 children and 2 grandchildren.

Spencer Geisler serves in the role of Director, Quality at Garmin with leadership responsibility for a diverse set of quality and operational functions that work to identify customer and internal process issues, develop a deep understanding of problems, and resolve them. He joined Garmin in the Kansas City area in 2008. With more than 19,000 associates in 34 countries, Garmin brings GPS navigation and wearable technology products that fuel people’s passions to the automotive, aviation, marine, outdoor and fitness markets.

The quality team partners with design, manufacturing, and the supply chain to ensure Garmin continues to deliver products that are sought after for their compelling design, superior quality, and best value. His teams have responsibility for configuration management, calibration, reliability, solving customer product issues, and quality management system functions. These include Garmin’s external quality system certifications to ISO 9001 (Consumer Products), AS 9100 (Aerospace), and IATF 16949 (Automotive OEM).

Spencer graduated from Iowa State University in 2006 with a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering and lives in the Kansas City area with his wife (Erin) and daughters (Elizabeth and London).

Shane Gydesen is the System Controls Engineering Leader for Trane Technologies. Current responsibilities include Product Growth Team leadership for a $100M business, focused on: Building Controls, Wireless Connectivity, Enabling Sub-systems, and Service and Commissioning Tools. In his 29 years with Trane Technologies, Shane has held a variety of roles. He started his career with Trane as part of the Graduate Training Program for Sales Engineers. Other roles include Marketing Engineer, Applications Engineer, Project Manager, Program Manager, and Building Controls Platform Leader. He holds multiple patents in Building Automation and has received company awards for process and product lifecycle tool development and deployment.

Shane and his wife, Sherry, reside in White Bear Township, MN. They are the proud parents of two adult children.

Shane has a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering from Iowa State University (1991).

Kara Hobart works for General Mills as an Associate Principal Research & Development Engineer. She started with the company in 2005. She currently works at the global R&D center in Minneapolis, MN, developing global baking products. You may also find her developing new technologies in the lab, running DOEs to test new ingredients in the pilot plant, analyzing data to create manufacturing efficiencies across baking platform plant locations, or interacting with consumers about all kinds of baking products. Prior to her current role, Kara held positions supporting the quality and regulatory organization in General Mills’ Grain Lab in Minneapolis, MN, and plant operations in Lodi, CA, and Cedar Rapids, IA. In addition to R&D work at General Mills, Kara spends much of her time supporting Partners in Food Solutions (PFS), which connects expertise with opportunity. PFS connects small and growing businesses in African countries to learn from experts around the world to create improved business models and processing efficiencies.

Kara received her bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering from Iowa State in 2003.  She earned her master’s degree also in Industrial Engineering from Pennsylvania State University in 2005.  Kara is also an ASQ Certified Quality Engineer.

Emily Knight is a Production and Industrial Engineering Manager for Boeing Commercial Airplanes (BCA). Her main responsibility is a functional leader in Industrial Engineering on the 777 program. In this role she is focused on leading a team that stabilizes and improves the production system. Previously, Emily was the lead Industrial Engineer across multiple teams in Commercial Airplanes. Her responsibilities have included leading diverse engineering teams across different value streams. She started at Boeing in 2016 as an Industrial Engineering Intern.

Emily earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering from Iowa State University in 2017. She is currently pursuing a Masters of Engineering Management through Kansas State University.

Douglas Mettenburg finished his BS in Industrial Engineering at Iowa State University in 1998 and pursued a MS degree in Industrial Engineering at University of Arkansas after 6 years of industry work. He graduated from the U of A in 2007. Mr. Mettenburg has over 20 years of Transportation and Supply Chain experience in developing transportation and supply chain solutions. Doug’s work experience includes software development, third party logistics, and supply chain consulting. As part of J.B. Hunt Transport he is responsible for the Operation research Team, Data Science team, Data Modeling, Data Engineering, and Business Intelligence. Doug serves as the current Chair of the IAC.

Jaclyn Townsend is the Business Leader and Launch Director for Procter & Gamble – Iowa City Oral Care. In her 18 years in the industry, Jaclyn has held numerous roles in supply network operations, human resources, manufacturing operations, initiative management, and business strategy. P&G is an American multinational consumer goods company with over 108,000 employees worldwide. For over 185 years, P&G has led the way in developing innovative solutions to help make people’s lives better in small but meaningful ways.

In her current role, Jaclyn leads an organization that delivers new initiatives and business strategies for the P&G Oral-B North American toothbrush business.  This covers both the Manual and Power Toothbrush Manufacturing sites located in Iowa City. The group is focused on launching new initiatives quickly with high value, while supporting the manufacturing operations as they strive for consistency and productivity in a highly cost-competitive market.

Jaclyn graduated from Iowa State University in 2007 with a Bachelor of Science in Operations and Supply Chain Management. She now lives in Iowa City, Iowa with her husband, Joe, and their two children, Nash and Colt. They enjoy playing and watching sports, boating and playing at the lake, as well as time with family and friends.