Whitman, Kent- better know as Whit, but his Anishinabe Indian name is Onzaamidoon Wiijayaaw Awakaanag (translates in English to Talks With Animals)
Kent has extensive training and experience in both Quality Management and Corporate Management, both at the Corporate/System level and at the individual process level. As a Granite State Quality Council Award Examiner, he is trained in the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Criteria. He is a trained Internal Auditor. Kent studied the Deming System of Profound Knowledge and 14 Management Obligations under Dr. Michael Quigley, at the Center for Collaborative Leadership, School of Graduate Studies, at Rivier College in Nashua New Hampshire. He worked with Dr. Quigley in establishing a Deming User Group at Rivier College. Kent's extensive training and experience includes International Business Operations; ISO 9000 – 1994 and 2000 Quality Systems; Dr. J. M. Juran's Quality Improvement Tools; Peter Senge's Strategies and Tools for Building a Learning Organization; Six Sigma Process Improvement; Disaster Recover and Business Emergency Preparedness and a host of other Quality Management and Business Management Methods, Tools and Practices. While at PVA-EPVA, he developed and conducted corporate level Quality Management Training Programs providing this training to all levels of employees from the CEO to Production Associates. Currently he is an Adjunct Faculty and Part-Time Professor for Franklin Pierce University instructing both graduate and undergraduate courses in Business Management, Leadership, Law Enforcement and Information Technology topics. He teaches at both the Rindge Campus as well as the satellite campuses. He develops and teaches Distant Learning modules for Franklin Pierce University. Kent has conducted textbook reviews for McGraw-Hill Publishers. He is a member of the American Society for Quality and a member of the Board of Directors for the Granite State Quality Council. As an independent Business Management Trainer, Consultant, and Provider, Kent provides workplace development training to organizations throughout the Northeast United States. Kent has worked part-time as a Security Officer for Hunter North Associates, LLC. He enjoys reading and studying about a wide variety of topics and he enjoys writing. In addition to his training and consulting business, he is an artisan who owns and operates his own business of designing and producing custom hand crafted leather products and glass etching, and he enjoys many outdoor sports. As he is part Ojibwe, he is active in Native American cultural activities and is co-founder of a local Native American Intertribal group known as the Kindred Spirit Peoples. He and his wife Shirley English-Whitman enjoy riding his big touring motorcycle, fishing, canoeing, and camping.
Whit may be reached at: 603-899-4159 or whitmank@franklinpierce.edu |
Kent was born and raised on a small dairy farm in Massachusetts where he went to grade school. Deciding to teach Vocational Agriculture at the high school level, he went to college, graduating in 1967 from the University of Massachusetts with a Bachelor of Science degree in Animal Science. Upon graduating and because of the Viet Nam Conflict, he entered the U.S. Army as an Officer in the Corps of Engineers. Making the Army a career, he served a distinguishing 20-year period, retiring at the rank of Captain from the Army in 1987 with a slight disability. While in the Army, he earned a Master of Arts degree in Computer Resource Management and Management from Webster University. During his Army career, he served and operated both in the United States and overseas in Viet Nam, West Germany, Turkey, Egypt and Honduras.
Upon retiring from the Army, he went to work at PVA EPVA, Inc. (known as PEP-Direct now) in Wilton, NH. This company was a premium based direct marketing mailing house. Its primary customers were nonprofit organizations doing fund raising activities for their organizational needs. They did business internationally. While at PVA EPVA, he worked his way up from initially being assigned as a Department Manager, to being the Warehouse Manager, to being the Manufacturing Production Manager and finally the position as Director of Quality Assurance, Business Management Systems and Safety. As the Manufacturing Production Manager he was responsible for a three shift operation including eight major functional areas that produced and shipped up to 5,000,000 pieces of finished goods per week. While serving in his last position, he was the Process Owner (Manager) for the following business processes: Document Control and Process Mapping; Internal Auditing; Business Review; and Corrective and Preventive Action. Kent managed all the Quality Assurance activities and all the Safety activities for the Corporation. In addition, he was responsible for publishing the Corporate Newsletter as well as creating and later updating the Corporate Marketing Video.
