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, his Certificate in Product Ownership Analysis (IIBA^®-CPOA) in 2021, and his ICAgile Certified Professional - Agile Product Owner (ICP-APO) in 2022. 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. 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 Communications – Will Powers 

Will Powers graduated from Northern Kentucky University (NKU) in May 2022 with a Bachelor’s degree in Anthropology with a minor in Information Systems. He currently works at Fidelity Investments and the NKU Museum of Anthropology. He has held positions of responsibility with he Alpha Sigma Phi fraternity in member retention, finance, growth and alumni relations.

Will would like to provide his marketing and digital expertise to see the Bluegrass IIBA Chapter to continue to grow and provide excellent events and service to its community. He plans to grow the chapter’s presence both online and offline, with targeted social media messaging as well as look for potential new social media platforms that can be utilized to grow the chapter’s presence. As a recent college graduate, Will will be happy to help develop connections with local universities to grow the chapter college-age presence.

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 - Kathy Leigh, CBAP

Kathy Leigh, CBAP is a Certified Advanced Facilitator and a Certified Business Analysis Professional™ (CBAP®). She has 30 years of experience in Information Technology, including 25 years in project and program management, and IT business analysis. Kathy earned a BS in Chemical Engineering and an MBA from the University of Kentucky. She currently dedicates her time to teaching college students at University of Phoenix to prepare them to find fulfilling jobs in IT and Project Management. Kathy also volunteers for Junior Achievement. She loves thoroughbred horse racing and has been to tracks all over the United States, Canada and UK, but thinks Keeneland is the best racetrack in the world. Kathy is a 2017 Inductee into the Bluegrass Business Hall of Fame. When asked what she wants the Chapter to bring to the surrounding community, she responded: “I want the Bluegrass IIBA Chapter to raise the quality of business analysts in the area as well as to provide a place where they can network with each other and with potential employers.”

Email: Sponsorship@bluegrass.iiba.org 

Kentuckiana Branch Executive Director - Isis Phillips, MBA, MS

Isis Phillips is a Gas Business Analyst for Louisville Gas and Electric - Kentucky Utilities, a PPL Corporation, that provides gas and electric services throughout Kentucky. Passionate about technology, Isis acquired a Master’s of Science in Applied Information Technology from Bellarmine University which stimulated her interest in Business Analysis. She participates in community service projects as often as possible and is an avid believer in servant leadership. Isis has been a member of IIBA international since 2014. Isis would like for Bluegrass IIBA Chapter to help secure some volunteer projects, for members or those entering the field of Business Analytics, can obtain some hands on training.  This will help individuals acquire a more in-depth skill set in business analytics as well as help them make steps toward gaining their Business Analysis certifications.

 Email: Kentuckiana@bluegrass.iiba.org