Michelle Dilley

CEO, AWESOME
Michelle Dilley joined AWESOME in mid-2020, becoming the organization’s first CEO. She most recently served as Chief Operating Officer of DSC Logistics, now CJ Logistics America. Michelle joined DSC Logistics in 2017 as Chief Supply Chain Transformation Officer, leading the vision for the DSC operating platform of the future and implementing strategic initiatives to deliver continuous improvement. Promoted to COO in 2019, Michelle continued to lead the transformation initiative and was directly responsible for leading DSC’s network of logistics centers and supply chain packaging operations throughout North America. Her prior experience spans the full spectrum of end-to-end supply chain, including strategic sourcing, operations, inventory management, logistics and transportation, technology and business/customer process harmonization for companies in multiple industries such LaSalle Bristol, Ascension Health, and Whirlpool Corporation. During her 16 years with Whirlpool, she served in a variety of roles, including General Manager, Global Indirect Goods & Services Sourcing, from 2005 to 2009. She received a bachelor’s degree in German studies and international business from the University of Michigan and also studied at Schiller International University in Heidelberg Germany.

David Copeland

CFO, AWESOME
David Copeland joined AWESOME in 2021. He most recently served as Chief Financial Officer of DSC Logistics, now CJ Logistics America. Dave joined DSC Logistics in 2007 as Vice President, Controller, took on responsibility for Finance in 2008, and was named CFO in 2010. Prior to joining DSC Logistics, he served as Market Controller for Equity Office Properties.  Dave has also served in various accounting and finance roles for the Chicago Housing Authority, Crate & Barrel, and Deloitte and is a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer, having served in Kazakhstan in their Economic Development program.  Dave was named Chicago CFO of the Year in the Mid-Size Private Company category by Financial Executives International (FEI) Chicago Chapter in 2017.  Dave holds a BS in Accountancy with High Honors from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and is a Certified Public Accountant.

Board of Advisors

Micaela Niven Bulich

Operating Advisor, Supply Chain & Procurement, Clayton Dubilier & Rice
Micaela Niven Bulich is the Operating Advisor, Supply Chain & Procurement of Clayton Dubilier & Rice. Previously, she served as the Vice President Global Supply Chain for GE Renewable Energy’s $8B Onshore Wind Business. Micaela spearheaded the advancement and transformation of women by serving as the executive co-creator of GE’s women in supply chain initiative. She received her undergraduate degree in electrical engineering from University of Hartford and master’s in electrical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Kelsey Carvell 

Partner / Principal, Deloitte
Kelsey Carvell is a Partner/Principal at Deloitte Consulting with a focus on growth, innovation, and operational excellence strategies in the digital age. 

Kelsey has over ten years of experience at the intersection of Technology and Operations across Consumer Products, Retail, Process Manufacturing, and Medical Technology industries. Kelsey has led large, complex programs to help companies achieve their supply chain objectives leveraging advanced digital technologies. Her specific areas of expertise include Network Strategy, Digital Supply Chain Enablement, Analytics, and Transportation. Prior to joining Deloitte, she held numerous global roles in the industry, including leading the creation of a new business unit in the Middle East and Asia. 

Kelsey has a Bachelor of Science in Physics and Master of Science in Electrical Engineering. 

Francesca DeBiase

EVP and Global Chief Supply Chain Officer, McDonald’s
Francesca DeBiase oversees McDonald’s Global Supply Chain and is responsible for developing and executing sustainable sourcing strategies across the company’s supply chain footprint. Francesca and her team ensure relationships with suppliers are based on transparency, inclusion and trust, leveraging the scale of $50 billion spend in food, packaging, logistics, toys, technology, equipment and other services while driving safety, quality and sustainability leadership. Since joining McDonald’s in 1991, Francesca has held numerous management roles in Supply Chain and Finance in the U.S. and internationally. As Chief Sustainability Officer, Francesca served as a champion for sustainability across the McDonald’s System, working with leaders to embed social and environmental goals into long-term plans to drive meaningful, industry-wide change. Francesca is a member of multiple professional boards, including The Chicago Council on Global Affairs, the Metropolitan Planning Council, Quinlan School of Business at Loyola University Chicago, AWESOME (Achieving Women’s Excellence in Supply Chain Operations, Management and Education), The Chicago Network and The Belizean Grove.

Paula Duell Northern 

Vice President of Global Supply Chain, Microsoft
Paula Duell Northern is the vice president of global supply chain for cloud operations and innovation. She brings more than 20 years of technical and business experience to this role. 

Prior to joining Microsoft, she was the first chief inclusion and diversity officer at Baker Hughes Company, where she was focused on the development and execution of inclusion strategies focused on improving diversity. 

Prior to this role, she was vice president of sourcing and supply chain excellence at Baker Hughes Company at the corporate level. In this role, she was responsible for taking a holistic approach to maximize the efficiency of the supply chain by developing global sourcing strategies to drive competitive product and services cost positions while also developing manufacturing capabilities across the enterprise. In addition, she was responsible for optimizing the global footprint, including its investment and facility maintenance strategy. Lastly, she was responsible for developing the next generation supply chain leaders by leading the ASPIRE supply chain track for entry level employees. 

She brings strong supply chain leadership given her senior executive level experiences in both Baker Hughes Company and General Electric in the overall Global Supply Chain. She is a certified Six Sigma Black Belt. 

Paula earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Southern University and A&M College in Baton Rouge, LA, and an MBA from Mercer University in Atlanta. She is an active member of the Houston community. She and her husband have two children and reside in Houston, TX. 

Lillian A. Dukes

SVP Technical Operations, Atlas Air Worldwide
Lillian Dukes joined Atlas Air Worldwide in 2020 with more than 25 years of executive, technical operations, and supply management experience in the aviation industry. Throughout her career, she has held global operations leadership positions at American Airlines, American Eagle Airlines, Spirit AeroSystems, Beechcraft Corp., and General Electric. In 2020, the University of Tennessee’s Haslam School of Business appointed Lillian to the position of lecturer in the University’s Aerospace and Defense MBA program. 

Lillian earned her undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering and Mathematics from Carnegie Mellon University and her Masters in Electrical Engineering from Villanova University.

Lillian is a committed humanitarian leader for the Haitian charity Fondation Enfant Jesus. In both professional and social leadership roles, Lillian has been widely recognized as someone making a difference in society and in aerospace and engineering enterprises. As a result of her commitment and successes in these areas, she has been recognized and personally featured in industry leading magazines. In addition to speaking on issues facing professionals in the aerospace and engineering industries, she also works to pay it forward by mentoring students and employees in their professional growth.

Kristin French 

Dep. Director, Logistics Operations, Defense Logistics Agency, Department of Defense
Deputy Director of Logistics Operations (J3) at the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), a $42B Dept of Defense combat logistics support agency. Responsible for end-to-end supply chain management of DLA’s eight supply chains, providing process management policy, oversight and monitoring of supply chain performance. 

Debbie Lentz

President of Global Supply Chain, Electrocomponents
Debbie Lentz is the President of Global Supply Chain and member of the Executive Management Team of Electrocomponents. Previously, she served as the SVP, Chief Supply Chain Officer for Toys “R” Us, Inc. and spent 13 years at Kraft Foods Group as the SVP of Customer Service and Logistics as well as the VP of Manufacturing Operations for Kraft Europe’s $3.5B coffee business. Debbie has been recognized through numerous industry awards, including the Robert D. Pashek award for significant contributions to the practice and development of supply chain by Penn State University in 2008, DSC Logistics “Thinkers & Movers” award in 2013 and the AWESOME Legendary Leadership Award in 2015. She earned an undergraduate degree from Penn State and MBA from University of Scranton.

Mary Long

Managing Director of Global Supply Chain Institute’s Supply Chain Forum, University of Tennessee, Knoxville’s Haslam College of Business
Mary Long is the Managing Director of Global Supply Chain Institute’s Supply Chain Forum at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville’s Haslam College of Business. In 2019 she co-authored the whitepaper “Young Women’s Perspectives on Supply Chain Diversity and Inclusion.” Previously, Mary served as Managing Director of the Supply Chain Management Institute at the University of San Diego’s School of Business as well as leadership positions at Campbell’s Soup, General Mills, Pillsbury, Quaker Oats/Gatorade and Domino’s. Mary was named by the Bio Supply Management Alliance (BSMA) to “Who’s Who Women in Life Sciences.” She earned her undergraduate degree in Quantitative Business Analysis from Cleveland State University and MBA in Operations and Logistics from Ohio State University.

Alexandria P. Marren

President of Aviation Industry Group, ABM
With more than 25 years of aviation experience, Alex Marren leads and is responsible for all aspects of ABM’s global aviation business, which includes aircraft cleaning services, janitorial, parking and transportation, passenger services, facilities maintenance, electrical and lighting, ground handling, and travel retail to airlines and 75+ airports across the U.S., U.K., Ireland and the Middle East. Alex has extensive experience leading large, complex and distributed operating organizations, including People Express, United and ExpressJet. Prior to joining ABM, Alex was the Executive Vice President of Rent-A-Car Operations in North America for Hertz Corp. She has served on the board of the Chicago and Atlanta Chapters of the American Red Cross. Alex is a graduate of Harvard University and Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, certificate program.

Jennifer McKeehan 

Senior Vice President, Head of Global Operations & Supply Chain, Peloton
Jennifer McKeehan is a global operations and supply chain executive with 15+ years’ experience across retail and e-commerce channels. 

She is currently the SVP and Global Head of Supply Chain for Peloton Interactive– the world’s largest interactive fitness platform. Jennifer and her team are leading the Supply Chain Transformation to scale and support an incredible growth trajectory across people, process and technology. In this role, Jennifer is responsible for the full Operational strategy from manufacturing to final mile. She oversees sales and operations planning, distribution, transportation, inventory allocation, technology and final mile across all channels including connected fitness, accessories and apparel. 

Prior to this role, Jennifer was Vice President, Supply Chain for The Home Depot leading the Inventory Planning and Replenishment Supply Chain functions for all fulfillment channels across stores and online, managing $15B+ of inventory. Featured on Atlanta Business Journal’s 40 Under 40, Georgia Tech 40 under 40, Wall Street Journal and Harvard Business School guest speaker. Jennifer is also a member of Leadership Atlanta Class of 2020. 

In her personal time, Jennifer serves on the Emerging Leaders Committee for Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, cheering on Georgia Tech football and spending time with her husband and four children. 

Jennifer has a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from Georgia Tech and lives in Midtown. 

Maria Nieradka

Head of Operations for Repligen and Founder of Three Lions Consulting
As an accomplished executive and board member, Maria has extensive experience in life sciences supply chain and mergers and acquisitions. Prior to joining Repligen, she was SVP, Business Development Integration, for Biogen, after leading supply chain strategy, procurement, planning, manufacturing, and distribution as Biogen’s SVP, Global Supply Chain. She held earlier leadership roles as VP, Supply Chain at Johnson and Johnson and VP, Global Logistics at Bristol-Myers Squibb and at Merck. Maria serves on the Executive Advisory Board (EAB) for SCM World, on the Harvard Kennedy Women’s Leadership Board (WLB), and on the Advisory Board of Cloudleaf,, an IOT innovator. Her lifelong passion for art and engineering inspired her to create Three Lions Consulting, LLC, a service for life science companies who need to build supply chain or business management capability. Maria holds Bachelor’s Degrees in Industrial Engineering and English from Rutgers College of Engineering and Douglass College, and an MBA in Pharmaceutical Studies from Fairleigh Dickinson University.

Regenia Sanders

Principal/Partner, EY Business Consulting
Regenia leads EY’s Americas supply chain practice for the Central Region of the United States. She has more than 20 years of experience driving supply chain assessment and transformation projects, spanning sourcing, procurement and planning to fulfillment for Fortune 500 and private equity portfolio companies in multiple industries, including Communications & High Tech, Public Service, Retail, Industrial Manufacturing, and Utilities. Prior to joining EY in 2017, Regenia was Vice President of SSA & Company, where she led the Business Technology and Supply Chain practices. Before that, she spent 14 years at Accenture and, as a Senior Manager in both the Management & Technology Consulting practices, she served in the role of Solution Architect. Recently she was named a finalist for the 2020 Atlanta Technical Professionals Awards.  She is a National Advisory Board Member for the National Society of Black Engineers. Regenia holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering and a master’s degree in Materials Engineering from Auburn University and serves as President of the Auburn Alumni Board of Directors.

Stephanie Powell Thomas, PhD

Stephanie Thomas, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Practice of Supply Chain Management in the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas.
She teaches the Integrated Supply Chain Management course which is designed to give Walton students a broad overview of the exciting world of supply chain management and logistics. She enjoys incorporating her previous work experience with Lowe’s Companies, IBM, and Stanley Tools in her class discussions, and she pursues a variety of research interests. Stephanie is actively engaged with students, especially undergraduate supply chain majors as the Executive Director for Women Impacting Supply Chain Excellence (WISE). She is the founder of the WISE Future Leaders Symposium, which this year brought together supply chain students and faculty from 50 U.S. universities and 9 international schools. Prior to coming to the University of Arkansas, she was an Assistant Professor at Texas Tech University. In 2019, Stephanie was globally recognized as one of the Top 100 Most Influential Women in Supply Chain Management by B2G Consulting. She earned a B.A. and M.B.A. from the University of Tennessee and her PhD in Logistics/Supply Chain Management with a Marketing support area from Georgia Southern University.

Kathy E. Wengel

Executive Vice President & Chief Global Supply Chain Officer, Johnson & Johnson
Kathy Wengel is the EVP & Chief Global Supply Chain Officer for Johnson & Johnson and across its Consumer, Medical Devices and Pharmaceuticals businesses. She is also a member of the company’s Executive Committee. Kathy has held various positions with more than 30 year tenure with Johnson & Johnson, including VP of Quality & Compliance (Q&C) and its first Chief Quality Officer and co-led the design of J&J’s enterprise Supply Chain operating model where she also still leads the J&J Supply Chain Leadership Team. She is also the executive sponsor for J&J’s Women’s Leadership & Inclusion initiative and for J&J’s Women in Science Technology, Engineering, Math, Manufacturing and Design (WiSTEM²D) program. Kathy has been recognized through various awards, including the Women of Excellence Award from the National Association of Female Executives (NAFE) and the AWESOME Legendary Leadership (ALL) Award. In 2019, she became the third woman in more than 50 years to receive the Distinguished Service Award (DSA) from the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP). She earned an undergraduate degree in civil engineering and operations research from Princeton University.

Amy White

Chief Operations Planning Officer, NIKE, Inc.
In addition to serving as leader of Nike’s Global Demand and Supply Chain Management (DSM) team, Amy led the activation of DSM at Nike in 2017, integrating the functions of business planning, retail and supply chain planning and inventory management, and marketplace and supply chain analytics. In over 25 years at Nike, Amy’s leadership positions include VP roles for Global Planning, Global Category Operations, and North America Running. She began her career at Nike as a Corporate Audit Director and was previously an Audit Director for Harcourt General and an Audit Manager for Deloitte. Over the past 12 years, Amy has been awarded Nike’s Global Maxim Award twice. She is also the founder and executive sponsor of Nike’s Women of Global Operations employee network, representing over 8,000 female operations professionals worldwide. Amy earned her undergraduate degree from the University of New Hampshire and completed an Executive Education program at Harvard Business School.