Quality Management and Continuous Improvement

The Quality Management and Continuous Improvement Professional Specialty Group helps enhance processes and improve data assets by collaborating across NOAA Fisheries and with our partners to embed QM/CI practices into organizational culture.

National

Quality management encompasses a suite of principles and tools that guide and support an organization-wide commitment to continuous improvement. By implementing a QM/CI approach, agencies and teams can enhance outcomes by first improving the underlying procedures that drive them.

Whether it’s combining complex and divergent information streams into a single, accessible data source, or creating a strategic plan to drive a good idea from the whiteboard to the field, the QM/CI PSG has resources and funding available to help solve the everyday challenges faced by scientists, managers, and others who work with fisheries data.

Funding

Each year, the Fisheries Information System, National Observer Program, and National Catch Shares Program fund projects that enhance science and management. A key area of interest for this funding stream’s Request for Proposals is support for initiatives that incorporate quality management and continuous improvement practices—such as strategic planning or process analysis workshops—into new or existing projects to improve fishery-dependent data collection, storage, and dissemination.

Learn how FIS supports innovative projects

Explore previously funded quality management and continuous improvement projects

Tools

A variety of exercises, tools, and best practices can help us understand and improve data, processes, and projects. Group members have provided descriptions, examples, and templates from completed projects to help understand the benefit of these tools.

Learn about quality management and continuous improvement tools

Read about quality management and continuous improvement success stories

Contact Us

Members of this group provide guidance and expertise to the NOAA Fisheries community and our partners. To learn more about quality management and continuous improvement or to request help applying these tools to a project you’re working on, email the group or reach out directly to the group member from your region or office.

Glenn Campbell	glenn.campbell@noaa.gov 206-526-4240	Alaska Fisheries Science Center Fisheries Monitoring and Analysis Division
Stacy Katasse	stacy.katasse@noaa.gov 907-586-7363	Alaska Regional Office
Julie Defilippi Simpson	julie.simpson@accsp.org 703-842-0787	Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ACCSP)
Taylor Compton	taylor.compton@noaa.gov 978-675-2161	Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office
Donna Bellais	dbellais@gsmfc.org 228-875-5912	Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission GulfFIN
Karen Sender	karen.sender@noaa.gov 301-427-8192	Headquarters Office of Science and Technology
Lucas Johansen	lucas.johansen@noaa.gov 301-427-8141	Headquarters Office of Science and Technology
Melissa Yencho	melissa.yencho@noaa.gov 301-427-8193	Headquarters Office of Science and Technology
Debra Duarte	debra.duarte@noaa.gov 508-495-2304	Northeast Fisheries Science Center Fisheries Monitoring and Research Division
Erin Kupcha	erin.kupcha@noaa.gov 508-495-2031	Northeast Fisheries Science Center
Jeff Cowen	jeff.cowen@noaa.gov 206-860-3413	Northwest Fisheries Science Center
Dawn Golden	dawn.golden@noaa.gov 808-725-5100	Pacific Islands Regional Office
Bob Ryznar	robert_ryznar@psmfc.org 503-595-3234	Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission AKFIN/PacFIN
Jenny Suter	jenny.suter@noaa.gov	Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center West PacFIN
Jason Edwards	jedwards@psmfc.org 503-595-3109	Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission RecFIN
Jennifer Cudney	jennifer.cudney@noaa.gov 727-209-5980	Office of Sustainable Fisheries, Atlantic Highly Migratory Species Management Division (SE Branch)
Vivian Matter	vivian.matter@noaa.gov 305-361-4571	Southeast Fisheries Science Center
Michelle Masi	michelle.masi@noaa.gov 727-551-5729	Southeast Regional Office
Yuhong Gu	yuhong.gu@noaa.gov 858-546-7053	Southwest Fisheries Science Center
Taylor Debevec	taylor.debevec@noaa.gov 562-980-4066	West Coast Region