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Ascend Webinars

Engage and Advance


Ascend Webinars deliver learnings exclusively for member contacts and linked employees of ASQ Organizational Member companies. Quality subject matter experts from ASQ’s Technical Communities will engage and discuss key topics within the quality community and use relevant data to advance understanding of methodologies or tools to address quality challenges.

These webinars are free to attend, and invites will be emailed to active member contacts and linked employees. Event resources, including presentation recordings and curated Quality Body of Knowledge materials for each webinar topic, will often be made available in the ASQE Events portal for member reference.

Interested in sponsoring an ASQE event? Contact us for more information.

2025 Ascend Webinar Schedule and Topics

Wednesday, January 22, 2025: 1:00pm - 2:00pm CT – Score Your Resilience to Design a Robust Supply Chain
Presented by Russ Snyder, Intel Corporation – Retired

When it comes to supply chain, the only certainty is that both supply and demand are uncertain. Join subject matter expert Russ Snyder as he explores how incorporating business continuity risks into supply chain design can create a more resilient network.

This session will help you understand key risks, assess the resilience of your current "as is" supply value chain, and design a future-ready "to be" supply network to better withstand uncertainty and safeguard your organization’s financial stability. 

Tuesday, March 18, 2025: 10:00am - 11:00am CT – Technical Skills and Trends for Today’s Quality Workforce
Presented by Dr. Mike Mladjenovic, P. Eng.; MBB, Lean Sensei, ASQ Fellow

Are you looking to future-proof your career in quality and continuous improvement? Want to leverage data-driven insights to make informed career decisions and elevate your professional growth? Join Dr. Mike Mladjenovic as he explores valuable insights from ASQE’s Insights on Excellence® (IoE) research on how to stay ahead of emerging workforce trends.

In this session, you will:

  • Discover the most in-demand technical skills for today’s workforce.
  • Understand future opportunities and challenges in quality and operational excellence.
  • Anticipate the effects of upcoming changes in industry standards and practices.
  • Learn how to develop a personalized career development plan to enhance your skills and stay competitive.
Wednesday, April 16, 2025: 1:00pm - 2:00pm CT – Lean and Sustainability Framework to Enhance Continuous Improvement Efforts
Presented by Sandy Furterer, Ohio State University & Elizabeth Cudney, Maryville University

While organizations may desire to improve their impact on the environment, many lack a methodology for integrating Sustainability into their continuous improvement efforts. Join Beth Cudney, PhD and Sandy Furterer as they showcase the critical connection between Lean practices and Sustainability principles and introduce an integrated Lean Green Sustainability Framework.

This framework optimizes Lean and Green Sustainability principles, tools, and methodologies from the quality improvement Plan-Do-Check-Act phases, integrated with the circular economy 5 Rs of refuse, reflect, reduce, reuse, and recycle. Learn a simple yet powerful way to navigate Lean improvements that support Sustainability.

Thursday, June 12, 2025: 10:00am - 11:00am CT – TBD

Details coming soon.

Thursday, August 7, 2025: 1:00pm - 2:00pm CT – Leadership for Organizational Excellence
Presented by Dr. Yvonne Simmons Howze, CYA Consulting Group, Inc. and Dental Leadership Academy, LLC

Details coming soon.

Wednesday, September 10, 2025: 1:00pm - 2:00pm CT – You got a problem? How to beef up your problem-solving system
Presented by Richard Uphoff, The Vanguard Group

Problem-solving is a critical and fundamental skill of any lean or continuous improvement program. The Oxford English Dictionary defines "problem" as, "a doubtful or difficult matter requiring a solution." We all encounter problems every day, but we don't all think about them methodically.

As quality professionals, we have evolved and mastered the tools of problem-solving, but do we know how to create systems of problem-solving for our teams or our organizations? Without a system or framework for problem-solving, the effort to fix things amounts to simply a collection of projects or tools. In this session, Richard Uphoff will show you how a vital function within a large financial services company sought to organize and speed up its problem-solving efforts.

Ascend Webinar Benefits

Each Ascend Webinar is designed to connect organizational best practices with real-world benchmarking results, providing thought leadership for ASQ Organizational Member companies and their employees.

“Here is a great opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of how ASQE and ASQ members can collaborate to increase member value. By attending Ascend Workshops, you can share thoughts and ideas on topics like focusing our technological tools to obtain the results we want. Your inputs will also be summarized and shared with ASQ technical communities. I have participated in three workshops this year, and they are wonderful opportunities for thought leadership and networking.”


“ASQE provides valuable resources that help us to serve our customers more effectively.”