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About MyQACoach.com Founder, Diane Kulisek

About MyQACoach.com

MyQACoach.com is currently a venue for Diane Kulisek to provide quality assurance advice and templates.

MyQACoach was conceptualized in 2015, initially as a concierge virtual quality service provider on a subscription or contract basis with an emphasis upon affordably supporting entrepreneurial start-ups, especially those in heavily regulated industries, such as medical device manufacturing and aerospace manufacturing.  2015 was too early for adoption of the virtual approach and was not financially sustainable so, since then, Diane has been working as a consultant (W-2).  The only remaining activity has been an occassional conversation and provision of a few free templates.

About Diane Kulisek

Diane Kulisek - 2020 

Diane Kulisek has founded many small companies throughout her career.  MyQACoach was the last.  Through all of it, her undying passion for helping people do things and make things that are as much of what they are supposed to be for those who want or need them has been her mission.  She does this by doing all she can to help those she works with to better understand the profound value of quality in all things.

Diane's maternal grandfather was her best friend and provided her with a flourescent light kit and access to a telescope, along with trips to museums, rock hound club meetings, amateur astronomer meetings, the Griffith Park Observatory and numerous other scientific activities.  He worked as a technician for the Apollo program at Atomics International, which later became Rocketdyne, in Canoga Park, CA.  The space race began and Diane viewed it as one way to save earth.  Sending mankind to other planets and the stars could potentially minimize consumption of earth's resources.

By 13 years of age, Diane had begun working multiple, part time, jobs. Engaging in many extracurricular high school activities that, along with good grades, helped her to win several much needed university scholarships.  In 1971, she accepted her first corporate role, as a work-study technician in the quality assurance laboratory of the Andrew Jergens lotion and soap manufacturing facility, in Burbank, CA.  Later, she was hired as a work-study quality technician on the night shift at the Adolph's Meat Tenderizer company's manufacturing facility in North Hollywood, CA.

In 1974, while still working at Adolph's, Diane graduated from Burbank High School as Student Body President and had won multiple scholarships, both athletic (track) and academic.  She was accepted by multiple colleges and universities but chose to study biology at nearby California State University, Northridge (CSUN).

In 1979, Diane became the first and only person in her family heritage to ever graduate from a university.  She had earned her Bachelor of Arts in Biology with an emphasis upon environmental biology.  Unfortunately, the only organizations willing to hire environmental specialists were those seeking ways to avoid being held responsible for environmental destruction.  Diane also found that she could earn more by remaining in what was becoming a new passion for her, the profession she had been working in since 1971, quality assurance.  Added to that, quality assurance encompassed environmental quality.  There were no undergraduate college degrees in quality assurance available at that time, so a degree in any technical discipline was usually the only academic requirement by employers of quality professionals... along with work experience.

So... soon after graduation, Diane accepted an offer to join the Gillette company as their first female Junior Quality Engineer.  She also began pursuing a Master of Science in Quality Assurance through the CSUN College of Engineering and Computer Science.  In the early 1980's, Diane became the first Gillette employee in Southern California to earn her credential as a Certified Quality Engineer (CQE) through the American Society for Quality (ASQ) and was promoted to full Quality Engineer status.

While at Gillette's PaperMate operations in Santa Monica, CA, Diane was offered the role of Senior Quality Engineer in Westlake Village, California.  While at Jafra, Diane went on to establish their first documented quality management system  and tapped into her professional network for computer expertise (being applied only in aerospace at that time) to help her establish one of the first known high speed automated filling process control systems. 

Gillette was not yet ready for women in technical management roles, so Diane left Jafra to become manager of the quality control organization at a local electronics company.  In that role, Diane led a training program, similar to ASQ's certification programs for Certified Mechanical Inspectors and Certified Quality Technicians, for the company's 40 quality inspectors.

Soon after the demise of Challenger Space Shuttle, Diane was approached by NASA and, in 1986, she accepted a role working closely with NASA as a quality assurance manager on behalf of Rockwell International's Rocketdyne Division in Canoga Park, California, the same facility previously known as Atomics International, where Diane's grandfather had worked as a technicial on the Apollo program.  Rocketdyne was the developer and manufacturer of NASA's Space Shuttle Main Engines (SSMEs).  While at Rocketdyne, Diane held several quality management roles and was eventually 'elected' by 80 coworkers (mostly fellow engineers) to co-lead the self-managed Avionics & Controls Team for the Space Shuttle Main Engines as the Associate Quality Program Manager. 

During her work with Rocketdyne, Diane was provided with an opportunity to obtain her Graduate Certificate in Program Management through West Coast University.  She also earned two additional professional credentials.  The first was another Certificate from ASQ in Quality Management/Organizational Excellence (CMQOE).  The next was a Certificate as a Manager (CM) from the Institute of Certified Professional Managers (ICPM) sponsored by the National Management Association (NMA). 

Meanwhile, the Quality Assurance curriculum Diane had followed for her Master's Degree was found to never have been accredited and, in order to graduate, Diane would need to complete some additional courses to, instead, graduate under an accredited Engineering curriculum.  Rocketdyne was experiencing issues with environmental problems caused while under contract to the Department of Energy when it was known as Atomics International.  Rocketdyne had constructed a small nuclear power plant in the hills between the San Fernando Valley and Simi Valley, California, before the dangers of nuclear energy production were understood.  Related radiation had contaminated the soil and ground water.  Seeing the opportunity to revive her passion for the environment, Diane switched her graduate studies to Environmental Planning.  Although she completed all certification requirements through what was then known as the CSU Consortium or the CSU '1,000 Mile Campus', the program... which had been funded entirely through a grant from the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans)... was discontinued before she could graduate.  Diane finally applied the course units she had earned toward a degree in general Engineering (Civil, Industrial and Applied Mechanical Engineering) with an emphasis on Failure Analysis and a minor in Engineering Management at CSUN.   Eventually, Engineering Management became an accredited curriculum in and of itself, but not during the time Diane was pursuing her studies.  She wrote her thesis based upon original research about Teamsmanship Among American Aerospace Engineers and graduated with her Master of Science in Engineering from CSUN in 1991.

Despite her passion for the manned space flight program, Diane still wished to address the entrepreneurial aspect of her nature, so during the last few years of the nine years she worked with Rocketdyne, Diane was authorized by Rockwell management to launch a part-time, non-competing, independent consulting company.  She opened 'Diane Kulisek & Associates'.  That endeavor ended when the building within which her office was located was sold to a new owner and all former tenants were evicted.  However, Diane left her mark by hosting several successful weekend seminars on problem-solving and was able to create an effective quality management system manual for a local computer graphics company, Gazelle Graphics, which was soon after acquired by Logitech in 1993.  

In 1995, the Space Shuttle program was cancelled by Congress.  Rocketdyne began the massive layoffs typical of aerospace companies when programs lost their funding.  What remains of Rocketdyne's SSME launch command center is now on display at the Museum of Science and Industry in Los Angeles, along with the retired Space Shuttle Endeavor.  

Although Diane had not yet been impacted by the layoffs at Rocketdyne, Gillette was in need of a Group Manager for their new product development quality laboratory and the quality engineering group, as well as an interim manager for the manufacturing engineering group, at their Stationery Products manufacturing operations in Santa Monica, California.  Gillette's Corporate Quality Vice President, headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, reached out to Diane.  In order to accept Gillette's offer, Diane proposed a voluntary layoff to Rocketdyne's management.  Rocketdyne accepted that proposal and Diane returned to work for Gillette. 

Sadly, Gillette experienced a massive economic crisis just a few years after Diane's return and closed the Santa Monica manufacturing operations, so, using generous separation funds provided by Gillette, Diane started her own vitamin development and manufacturing company, Gulp!, Inc., a California C corporation.  She worked as a temporary acting Director of Quality for the aerospace and defense division of a local ordnance manufacturing company, Special Devices, while serving as President and Chairman of the Board for her own start-up.  Sadly, despite best efforts to ensure the vitamin venture was adequately funded, efforts to secure the necessary patents and protect the company's trademarks, GULP!, Inc. failed.  The failure was due to an ill-founded legal challenge of the company's trademark by a large and powerful corporation.  Gulp!, Inc's attorneys won the suit on Gulp's behalf but the burden of defending the intellectual property proved too much for the start-up to survive. 

Diane moved on and accepted a regular role as Quality Director for the ordnance company she had been supporting.  While there, she earned her professional certification as a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt from Six Sigma Systems, Inc.  Special Devices, unfortunately, was divested and relocated out of state.  Not wishing to leave her home in California, Diane declined to relocate and was laid off.

Thereafter, Diane resumed her career as a senior quality assurance professional and leader, taking on directorships and even a vice presidency for mid-sized computer, filtration, process control and medical device companies until, at the pinnacle of her career, in 2005, the massive impact of what would eventually become known as the 2008 economic recession.  Work was scarce, but she was asked by her employer and a key client to relinquish her full time role and, instead, work as a part time consultant, with each organization splitting her fee because neither could afford to retain her as a full time salaried executive.

During her work as a Vice President of Quality, Diane had simultaneously founded CAPAtrak, LLC, to develop and make available a 'pay-as-you-go', internet-based, Corrective and Preventive Action tracking system for smaller organizations who could not afford the pricey server-based applications available at that time.   This was perhaps one of the first conceptualizations of a cloud-based technology (Google did not coin the term 'cloud technology' until 2006).  Unfortunately, under the pressures of the failing economy, CAPAtrak was unable to become profitable and, in order for Diane to accept a regular full time management position offered by a huge medical device company in 2011, the CAPAtrak enterprise had to be suspended.  Although CAPAtrak was revived briefly in 2013, it was dissolved again in 2015.  

Diane has continued to work as a quality assurance consultant since 2005 with only a few brief regular full time management roles having been held since then.  Her most recent work has been entirely within the medical device and IVDR industries.

Today

Over the span of a nearly 50-year career in Quality Assurance Diane Kulisek has created a massive number of solutions and tools for her employers and clients.  Although happy to share, she has managed to retain ownership of most items she created.  

Currently, Diane is devoting part of her time to curating a large library of Quality Assurance and Quality-related templates to make them available to her colleagues.  It is a slow process. If you need help finding a specific QMS example or template, reach out to her.

You can also learn a little bit more about Diane below... or follow her on the LinkedIn site for which a direct link is also provided below.

Some Freebies and More about Diane Kulisek

  • Key Skills: Quality Assurance Leadership, Quality Management Systems (QMS), Metrics, Quality Cost Analysis, Corrective and Preventive Action (CAPA), Regulatory Compliance and Regulatory Affairs
  • Industry Experience: Medical Devices, Aerospace, Consumer Products, Filtration, Plastics, Metal Fabrication, Electronics, Assembly, Packaging.
  • Credentials: MS Engineering, BA Biology, Grad. Cert. Program Management, American Society for Quality Certified Manager of Quality/Organizational Excellence, Quality Engineer (ASQ CMQ/OE, ASQ QE), Lean Six Sigma Green Belt (LSSGB) Institute of Certified Professional Managers Certified Manager (ICPM CM). 
  • Examples of Diane's Work:  To learn a bit more about Diane and for free examples of her work (including templates)CLICK HERE.
  • Connect: To follow Diane Kulisek, directly, on LinkedIn, CLICK HERE.