Scott Grimes is a Software Engineer with over 20 years of experience on DoD Projects.

Working in the Omaha area as a Software Engineer and Product Owner, he is an experienced Agile software developer. Scott is a Co-Organizer of the Agile for Defense group in Bellevue, NE, and an advocate for Agile practices. Scott works as the Chief Product Owner for the Global Adaptive Planning project at USSTRATCOM, and is a ScrumAlliance Certified Scrum Professional (CSP-SM and CSP-PO), as well as a PMI-Agile Certified Professional. Scott has a MS in Computer Science from University of Nebraska, Omaha, and a BS in Computer Science from Iowa State University.

Allison Pollard helps people discover their agile instincts.

As an agile coach with Improving in Dallas, Allison enjoys enabling others to become trusted leaders for change in their organization. In her experience, applying agile methods improves delivery, strengthens relationships, and builds trust between business and IT. Allison is also a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach, a foodie, and proud glasses wearer.

Melissa Boggs is the Chief ScrumMaster for the Scrum Alliance.

Together with the Chief Product Owner and the exceptional staff, Melissa seeks to fulfill the Scrum Alliance’s vision of transforming the world of work. Since 2001, Melissa has embraced experiences in leadership, business, and product development. Her experience with applying, consulting, coaching, and training agile values and principles spans executive teams, software teams, marketers, and educators in domains such as healthcare, public education, e-learning, security software, government agencies, and communication technology. As a consultant and as an executive, she has consistently embodied the Scrum values, and additionally holds dear her personal values of Courage, Empathy, and Creativity. Melissa is a Certified Enterprise Coach (CEC), Certified Team Coach (CTC), Certified Agile Leader 1 (CAL1), Certified LeSS Practitioner (CLP), Kanban Management Professional (KMP I), and a Project Management Professional (PMP). She holds an MBA in IT Management and a B.S. in Information Technology from Western Governors University. In addition to her experience and education, Melissa possesses a deep understanding of agile values and principles, organizational change, leadership agility, and proven expertise in enabling organizations to reach their full potential. She is a regular on the speaking circuit, sharing stories and experiences about culture, sustainable pace, and supporting organizational change. She is a member of the Agile Denver Board of Directors. Melissa lives in Denver, CO, with her husband Wendell; two children, Avery and JP; and five energetic pets. They embrace agile values and principles as a family, seeking continuous improvement of their household and relationships using Scrum.

Christine works as a full stack Ruby on Rails engineer at Flywheel, Delightful WordPress Hosting for Creatives.

Located in Omaha, Nebraska, she has 12 years experience as a Java engineer with a focus on APIs, testing, and micro-services (before they were cool). Then to change it up, she took the plunge into Ruby in 2018. In her spare time she is an avid reader, huge Rush fan, and is attempting to work through the primary Ashtanga yoga series.

Zuzana “Zuzi” Šochová is an independent Agile coach and trainer and a Certified Scrum Trainer (CST)

She has more than fifteen years of experience in the IT industry. Zuzi started with agile and Scrum back in 2005, when she was implementing agile methods in the USA. From that time, she has been credited with agile transformation and implementation for many companies and teams around the world. By creating and sustaining agile leadership, Zuzi believes the worlds of work and life can be made happier and more successful. Zuzi is a founder of the Czech Agile Association and the world famous AgilePrague conference. Zuzi was elected to the Scrum Alliance Board of Directors in 2017. She is an author of The Great Scrum Master: #ScrumMasterWay book.

Jeff is a Professional Scrum Trainer (PST) with Scrum.org, Agile coach and speaker.

He has been a Product Owner, Scrum Master and Development Team member and has worked with companies ranging from enterprise to small start-ups. While working with many teams across many companies Jeff has found that most problems are not technology problems, but are organizational structure, process, and people problems. Jeff brings storytelling, a broad array of experience, along with a collaborative approach to teaching and speaking.

Chad works with all levels of the organization to optimize your business to respond to change.

He is passionate about moving organizations and people closer to agility. His first experience with “agile”, Scrum specifically, was in 2005 on a global transformation team responsible for software customizations driven by a global consolidation of accounting software. He ran into typical implementation challenges and organizational impediments. Around 2012, his passion for lean, agile, and continuous improvement grew. He left his traditional business analyst and project manager roles behind and evolved into an internal change agent kickstarting an agile transformation. Now in an advising role as an external change agent across many organizations, he promotes organizational agility and positive pressure for change.

Richard is co-owner of Agile For All.

He trains and coaches people to collaborate more effectively with other people to solve complex, meaningful problems. He draws on a diverse background in software development, engineering, anthropology, and political science. Richard is a Scrum Alliance Certified Enterprise Coach and Certified Scrum Trainer, as well as a certified trainer of the accelerated learning method, Training from the Back of the Room. He authored the book, Behavior-Driven Development with Cucumber.

Tricia has more than 20 years of experience in software development.

She is passionately focused on facilitating high-performance software development environments. Her leadership at all levels of an organization helped lay the groundwork to shift teams from one-year product cycles to feasible, daily delivery of quality software and services. Tricia openly shares stories from her firsthand experience to inspire people to reach new heights through continuous reflection and growth. As a principle in the Agile For All team, she is dedicated to making a difference in the workplace. She is an exceptional leader, coach, mentor, facilitator, trainer, and popular speaker at national conferences.

Dr. Trace Pickering was on the design team that created Iowa BIG.

He is the administrator of record for the school, advises students, and acquires resources to ensure student project success.Trace has a passion for transforming education and building human-centered systems that help every learner realize their full potential. Trace founded Iowa BIG with his colleague and friend, Shawn Cornally, and two courageous and forward-thinking Board of Education members. He is the administrator of record for the school, ensures BIG staff have the room necessary to exercise their professional expertise and drive the shared Iowa BIG vision forward, and enjoys engaging and interacting with the amazing kids who honor us by choosing to be a part of the learning at BIG. Trace and his wife, Kim, live on a 5 acre “ranch” with their German Shepherd, Stella, where they aspire to become “zero carbon” and grow most of their own food. They have two grown daughters, Samie, a recruiting and office coordinator with New York Life in Hiawatha and Shelby, a senior electrical engineering major at Iowa State.

Charlie is a science and mathematics educator at Iowa BIG. He has been an educator for nine years in the Cedar Rapids Community School District. Charlie has served on the Board of Directors for The Iowa Children’s Museum, Caring Corner Christian Daycare/Preschool, and CR netWORK.. In addition, Charlie has served on numerous educational advisory boards including the University of Iowa and Coe College Teacher Education Programs. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Physics from Coe College and a master’s degree in Educational Leadership from the University of Northern Iowa. Charlie lives in Cedar Rapids with his wife, Rachel, and two boys, Gannon and Brooks. Charlie has a passion for sports, building things, constantly learning, and being outdoors.

Ayn Thoreson has been teaching in a traditional high school setting for 9 years.

This year she is co-facilitating a new student-centered, passion- and project-based venture called No Boundaries based on Iowa BIG in Cedar Rapids. This progressive model is in collaboration with two other northwest Iowa school districts and students manage projects using Modern Agile strategies. Prior to entering the classroom, Ayn worked for 9 years in the business fields of manufacturing and corporate training.

As Spencer School’s Director of School Improvement, Will is obsessed with innovation in education.

He received his B.A. and M.A. from the University of Iowa. Starting his career as a teacher in a rural Iowa school, he realized the need for change and began initiating unique practices. As a lifelong learner, Will has spread his innovation at conferences, workshops, and the National AP Conference. His passion for education reform guided him to administration where he now aims for systemic reform. Presently, Will develops personalized structures and programs through collaboration for the betterment of the student experience. In the No Boundaries program, an innovative learning experience for high schoolers, AGILE is an integral part of the learning process and is the mindset utilized and taught to each and every learner in the program.

Nate has worked professionally in the IT industry for over 20 years developing software and mentoring and leading teams in a wide range of environments from small companies with dozens of employees to large global enterprises.

Nate is especially passionate about applying an Agile mindset across industries and specializations, helping teams continuously improve how they work and solve problems together. To this end, Nate acts as an advocate for team members, striving to make their work less stressful by pushing for a sustainable pace and establishing methodologies and practices that emphasize quality, experimentation, and transparency.

Dion Stewart is a coach, mentor, developer, author, and international speaker. He helps organizations improve their product delivery, addressing practices from product discovery through DevOps. For the last few years he has helped multiple organizations create dojos and has lead project-to-product organizational model transformations, often combining the two.

A long-time proponent of agile methods, he was first exposed to the values, principles, and practices that were eventually codified into the Extreme Programming methodology as a Smalltalk developer in the late 1990s. He’s been learning better ways of building digital products and helping organizations improve their product delivery ever since. He recently co-authored the book”Creating Your Dojo: Upskill Your Organization for Digital Evolution”. The book guides organizations in how to become learning organizations through the use of immersive learning centers called dojos.

He enjoys working in situations where he is able to combine his interests in learning models, organizational change, and product development. Outside of work, Dion enjoys playing and recording music, meditation, and tai chi. For more information, visit dojoandco.com.

Eric Engelmann founded Geonetric, Inc in Cedar Rapids, Iowa in 1999. The company builds advanced web applications for hospitals nationwide. As its CEO, Eric led Geonetric until 2016, and during that time the company was listed on the Inc. 5000 list of fastest growing companies in America 7 times, and received national accolades for its aggressive agile-based cultural transformation.

Today, Eric leads the non-profit New Bohemian Innovation Collaborative (NewBoCo), which operates Iowa Startup Accelerator, DeltaV Code School, Corridor Angel Investors, and numerous other programs focused on entrepreneurship, innovation and STEAM education. NewBoCo started with an agile mindset from the beginning, and its team of 19 operates without traditional hierarchy, supervisors or performance reviews, and has been recognized for nonprofit excellence and community impact.

Eric is Chairman of the Board at Geonetric, Inc, and is a Board Member of Scrum Alliance.

He lives in Cedar Rapids with his wife, Amy; two children, Mallory and Kepler; and two dogs, Jewel and Jasper.