Agility Live! 2025 Speakers

UA Football Head Coach

Kalen DeBoer – Football Coach – Alabama Athletics

Jennifer Clark serves as the Compliance Operations Director in the Office of Compliance, Ethics, and Regulatory Affairs.

With over 15 years of dedicated service to the institution, she oversees the University’s compliance and ethics training programs, policy management, record retention program, and departmental communications, with a strong focus on process improvement.

Her innovative initiatives have been recognized twice by the Southern Association of College and University Business Officers as a Best Practice Finalist, in 2018 and 2022. Jennifer’s commitment to excellence was further acknowledged with the Professional Staff Assembly’s Outstanding Professional Award in 2024. She holds a Master of Science in Human Environmental Sciences, specializing in Interactive Technology, from The University of Alabama, and is a Certified Compliance & Ethics Professional (CCEP)®.

Dr. Angela D. Benson is a professor of Instructional Technology in the Department of Educational Leadership, Policy, and Technology Studies (ELPTS) at the University of Alabama and the Head of the Department. Her research addresses the role of culture in technology-mediated learning environments. She has given more than 50 presentations and authored more than 50 academic publications related to distance and online learning. Her current research explores the role of culture in technology-mediated instruction.  In addition, Dr. Benson has taught a variety of educational technology courses delivered in a variety of formats. Her professional experience includes thirteen years as a systems engineer in the telecommunications industry. She holds undergraduate degrees in Math and Industrial Engineering, Master’s degrees in Operations Research and Human Resource Development, and a Doctorate in Instructional Technology.

Dr. Kimberly Wilson is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Capstone College of Nursing where she teaches in the graduate program.

She has extensive experience caring for the people of West Alabama as a Family Nurse Practitioner.

Dr. Wilson serves as Chair of the CCN Agility Committee where her goal is to implement process improvement projects that make day-to-day work better!

Dr. Michele Montgomery has been at the Capstone College of Nursing since 2009.

She recently returned to the faculty role after serving in administrative positions within the college, including her most recent position as Senior Associate Dean. In that role, she led quality improvement initiatives designed to increase efficiency within the college.

Dr. Susan Welch, a nationally and internationally recognized expert in curriculum development and program evaluation, is also a dedicated nursing faculty mentor, demonstrating her commitment to developing future nursing professionals. As a nationally certified nurse educator (CNE), Dr. Welch has rich experience teaching prelicensure BSN and graduate students.

Her past leadership roles include serving as an inaugural doctoral program director and associate dean for graduate nursing programs for over a decade. Over the past 20 years, Dr. Welch has actively contributed to education through numerous research studies, presentations, and publications.

Donna Blackburn is the Director for the Manderson Graduate School of Business Executive MBA Program in the Culverhouse College of Business at The University of Alabama. During her 19 years at UA she has overseen marketing, admissions, recruitment, and operations teams for EMBA. She currently is a part of the Culverhouse College of Business Graduate Task Force, and the Athletics and Culverhouse Partnership Planning Committee. She also served on the College’s Culture Task Force.  

Prior to working at UA, she directed the Executive MBA Program and Executive Education programs at Georgia State University. She also served as part of the executive administrative team on the first Global e-Commerce Program, a consortium of six international universities in The Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Greece, Denmark, and the U.S., offering a joint M.B.A. for e-commerce entrepreneurs.

Donna has served on the Executive MBA Council Board of Directors, an academic association that represents the executive degree industry of over 170 programs worldwide. Donna received a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism, and a Master of Science in Educational Psychology from Georgia State University.

Dr. Jennifer L. Roth-Burnette is the Director of First Year Compass Course programs and leads the Quality Enhancement Plan at The University of Alabama—both are data-driven initiatives grounded in continuous improvement and student success.

She previously directed the Learning Commons and holds a PhD from New York University. Alongside her administrative leadership, she is a scholar of the medieval music of Notre Dame of Paris and a collaborator on an NEH-funded project, where she develops metadata models to refine understandings of medieval music composition and the ars memoria through the lens of data comparison and aggregation.

Kristen Hargreaves has worked in University Recreation for 25 years, beginning her career in the fitness field and currently working with Membership Services, Marketing, and Student Development.

She is passionate about the work that University Recreation does to positively impact the lives of our students and campus community. 

Denny Savage is a seasoned higher education professional with over 18 years of experience in the Office of the University Registrar at The University of Alabama, where he currently serves as University Registrar.

With a Master’s degree in Management and a Bachelor’s in Commerce and Business Administration from UA, he has excelled in managing large-scale technology implementations, student data systems, and policy development, enhancing services for thousands of students. Denny is a recognized leader in data-driven decision-making and has presented over 50 times at numerous regional and national conferences on topics like student information systems and operational efficiency. 

Shane Dorrill serves as the Director of Public Safety Communications for The University of Alabama, where he is dedicated to enhancing emergency communications and sharing vital public safety information. 

Prior to his current role, Shane worked for more than 20 years in UA’s Division of Strategic Communications, where he focused on media relations. His experience in strategic communications has equipped him with a comprehensive understanding of effective public information dissemination.

Shane holds both a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Science from UA. His expertise is further demonstrated through his numerous certifications, including the Executive Public Information Officer certification from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Master Public Information Officer certifications from FBI-LEEDA and the University of Tennessee Law Enforcement Innovation Center, and a Public Information Officer credential from the Center for Public Safety Excellence. 

Rainey Way is in charge of the Enterprise Continuous Innovation team that steers Agility, UA’s continuous improvement program; develops enterprise business analytics; and institutionalizes University data governance. She also facilitates process improvement projects and trains employees on Psychological Safety, Process Improvement, Change Management, Problem Solving, Lean Higher Education principles, and other topics.

She holds a B.S. in Mathematics and French from Vanderbilt University and an M.B.A. with a concentration in Finance from the Owen School of Management at Vanderbilt University. Before working at The University of Alabama, she was a Senior Vice President at Bank of America in Charlotte, NC, as a Senior Program Manager for commercial and corporate lending systems. Her career started at Andersen Consulting (now Accenture). She is a Certified Lean Six Sigma.

Carolina Vega is part of the Continuous Improvement Department at The University of Alabama, where she facilitates process improvement projects, supports Agility, the UA’s continuous improvement program, coaches and trains employees on different topics related to Lean and Continuous Improvement, Lean applied to Higher Education, Psychological Safety, Change Management, Problem Solving, Process Improvement, PDCA and other Lean principles and methodologies.

Carolina is an Industrial Engineer from Universidad de los Andes, Colombia, and holds an MBA. Before working at The University of Alabama, she was the Quality and Continuous Improvement Manager for a company in the logistics and automotive industry, she was the Regional Head of Internal Audit and Process Improvement for an international services company. She also worked for Ernst & Young and KPMG. She is a Certified Lean Six Sigma and Certified Internal Auditor.

André Taylor came to the Capstone in 2023 from AT&T with 18 years of experience in data operations, analytics, and governance.  With his time in the telecommunications industry, André specialized in data visualization, process automation, and data analytics for executive-level strategies. 

As the Data Governance Administrator, Andre began leading the Align program to ensure UA’s data operations consistently support its data strategy.  André is a 2004 UA graduate where he studied statistical mathematics and computer science.

Robert Baxter – Robert Baxter is a Business Analytics Specialist II with the department of Business Analytics in Enterprise Continuous Innovation.  We offer consultation and facilitation services for academic and administrative units throughout The University of Alabama. Services include: Analytic dashboard creation and collaboration, concept and data modeling, and data analysis and needs assessment.

Robert holds a B.S. in Management Information Systems from the Culverhouse College of Business at The University of Alabama. Robert has worked at UA for 22 years in The College of Continuing Studies, The Office of the University Registrar, and Finance and Operations, twice serving as the President of The Professional Staff Assembly. 

Jeff Townsand – Jeff Townsend is the Business Analyst Specialist in the Department of Enterprise Continuous Innovation, where he assists in enterprise analytics, data visualizations, analytics and software training, and co-runs the University’s Business Analytics Community of Practice.

Jeff received a BA in Psychology and an MS in Business Analytics both from the College of William & Mary. He joined UA in August of 2018 as an Assessment Specialist in Student Life Assessment and Planning, where he helped other Student Life departments with their data, processes, and research needs prior to joining the ECI team.