Vice President of Administration and Finance – Aaron Whittenberger, CBAP, CSPO, AAC, CPOA

Aaron Whittenberger has over 30 years of Business and Information Technology experience, including 19 years of business analysis and 15 years as a Consultant. He earned his Certified Business Analyst Professional^TM (CBAP^®) certification in 2008, his Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO^®) in 2018, his IIBA^® Agile Analysis Certification (IIBA^®-AAC) in 2019, and his Certificate in Product Ownership Analysis (IIBA^®-CPOA) in June 2021. Aaron is the Founding President of Bluegrass IIBA Chapter, as well as has served the IIBA^® as Regional Director of the Americas Eastern Region and the Chairperson of the Role Delineation Committee, responsible for the relevancy and validity of the IIBA^® certification program. He is a 2016 Inductee into the Bluegrass Business Analysis Hall of Fame.

Aaron lives in Independence, KY and has four children. He recently retired from umpiring high school baseball, but still enjoys watching his kids play soccer, football and baseball. Just a few years ago he participated in his first ever game of cricket with his co-workers. For himself, Aaron enjoys a good round of golf, we’ll see if he ever has one.

Aaron hopes that the Bluegrass IIBA Chapter brings a business analysis educational program to the area to spark innovation and creative thinking and raise the level of business analysis performed for organizations in the Bluegrass area. This will raise the awareness of the value of business analysts as change agents to allow organizations to gain competitive advantage in the marketplace.

Email: Finance@bluegrass.iiba.org

Stephanie Hawkins has over 25 years of experience in the Information Technology field focusing on enterprise IT transformation, business analysis, project management, data governance, IT risk, and controls. She holds a Master's degree in Information Assurance (MSIA) from Walsh College and is a Certified Information Security Auditor (CISA).

Email:  Community@bluegrass.iiba.org

Vice President of Marketing and Communication – Bill Powers, CBAP, AAC

Bill Powers, CBAP, AAC is a Business Analyst in the Enterprise Business Consulting Group at Republic Bank & Trust. He is a highly accomplished, innovative and team spirited professional with several years of experience in Business Analysis, Project Management, Client Service Management, Operations and Benefit Administration. Bill has experience in Data Analytics, Operation Efficiency, Project Implementation, UAT and QA testing efforts. Bill was born and raised in the Northern Illinois suburbs and relocated to Louisville, KY with wife Andrea, son William and daughter Alison. Bill obtained his Certified Business Analysis Professional™ (CBAP®) certification in October 2018; and his Agile Analysis Certification (IIBA®-AAC) in March 2021. Bill would like to see Bluegrass IIBA Chapter continue to advocate for the consistent use of the IIBA techniques and for our practitioners to always challenge the status quo.  

Email: Marketing@bluegrass.iiba.org

Vice President of Membership - Lori Son, CBAP

Lori Son, CBAP is a Process Advisor at a gas company in Canada.  Her career as a Business Analyst started seven years ago when she took a chance and applied for a BA position.  She had found her niche.  The role was very exciting as the role consisted of networking with different stakeholders; preparing for testing and training; requirements gathering, verification and validation; continuous improvement and communication; and continuous learning experience, to say the least.  She found the role to be very fast-paced and at times overwhelming but overall, very fulfilling.  She greatly enjoyed it and wanted to become a better BA, so the next logical step was to align her experience with theory (the BABOK®).  She earned her CBAP® designation in 2018.

She lives in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) with her husband and two lovely, intelligent, little girls.  She enjoys spending all her spare time with them no matter the activity, reading books, walking outside or just having a lazy day at home.

Her goal, as Vice President of Membership, is to make all members feel welcomed and engaged, and benefit from each interaction with the Bluegrass Chapter.

Email: Membership@bluegrass.iiba.org  

Vice President of Professional Development - Retta Witter, MBA

Retta Witter, MBA Is a Consultant with J. Geiger Consulting with over 20 years of Business and Information Technology experience implementing ERP systems.  She has earned her Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and her MBA degree from University of Wisconsin Oshkosh.

Retta lives in Kimberly, Wisconsin with her husband, son and dog.  In her free time, she loves hiking, photography and volunteers her time with the youth at her church.

Retta wishes to help IT professionals understand all the opportunity available and help them increase their skills so they can achieve their career goals.

Email: Professional@bluegrass.iiba.org 

Vice President of Sponsorship – LeShai Phelps  

LeShai Phelps earned her Bachelor's Degree in Business Management at Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond, KY.  She explored a career in Telecommunications by working in a call center.  This exploration led to over a decade of experience with the public, how to handle escalated issues, internal training programs, and business process improvement projects.  This pursuit has offered various career titles, including Customer Service Supervisor and Business Process Owner.  Most recently, she obtained a new title of Business Analyst for Tempur-Sealy International in Lexington, KY, where she has been employed for the past 10 years.  She enjoys cooking, traveling, spending time with family, and long drives on summer days.  LeShai currently lives in Richmond, KY.  She desires to be an asset to the Chapter with the knowledge she has collected over the years.  She hopes to also help the Chapter members increase by recruiting some of her co-workers to join, as well as involve the community.

Email: Sponsorship@bluegrass.iiba.org