Leadership

Lonnie Spires is President and Chief Executive Officer and sits on the board of A2LA. Lonnie is a critical thinker with strong financial acumen, which he leverages to help maintain a focus on organizational growth opportunities and promotion of employee development. He has a competitive spirit and enjoys winning tough challenges.

As the leader of the A2LA Executive Team, Lonnie develops and drives effective solutions and strategies to leverage opportunities to ensure that A2LA has all the resources needed to continue being a leader in accreditation for decades to come. He is a believer in improving processes through innovation, breaking down communication barriers, and working together as a team to achieve organizational goals.

Prior to joining A2LA in 2016, Lonnie served as President/CEO at Trescal, Managing Director at Dynamic Technology, and General Manager at Comtel Electronics. He also served in senior leadership roles in NCSL International and NACLA.

Lonnie holds a B.S. degree in Business Management from Kansas Newman University and an M.B.A. from Webster University.

In his spare time, Lonnie likes to spend time with his family and three dogs, garden, attending sporting events, and travel.

Tom is A2LA’s Chief Financial Officer, responsible for a variety of Finance and IT functions including financial reporting and analysis, internal financial controls, forecasting and budgeting, systems administration and integration, and strategic financial initiatives. Tom is a results-driven financial executive with over 27 years of experience in multiple industries with a strong track record of performance as a strategic business partner in numerous financial roles. Tom’s vision for the Finance and Information Technology team is for it to be a true business partner by providing clear financial visibility that drives decision making and that provides the systems and opportunities that will improve business performance.

Prior to joining A2LA, Tom was the Operations Controller for Bimbo Bakeries USA, S.B. Thomas’ Division and the Manager of Financial Planning and Analysis, Semiconductor Equipment Operations at Eaton Corporation. Tom holds a B.S. in Accounting from Syracuse University and an M.B.A from The Johns Hopkins University Carey School of Business.

Mr. Trace McInturff is the Vice President - Accreditation Services at A2LA. Trace is the top management of Accreditation Services; oversees and facilitates all aspects of the vast A2LA contracted assessor corps; and is a member of the A2LA Executive Committee.

Trace is the Chair of the APAC MRA Council and APAC MRA Management Committee and is a member of the APAC Technical Committee and the APAC Executive Committee. He served as a member of the ISO CASCO Working Group 44 on the revision of ISO/IEC 17025 and is a recognized lead evaluator for ILAC, APAC and IAAC. Trace remains very active with ILAC serving as a member of the ILAC Accreditation Issues Committee (AIC), ILAC Arrangement Committee (ARC), ILAC Proficiency Testing Working Group (PTWG), ILAC Inspection Committee (IC), the Joint ILAC/IAF A-Series Working Group, the ILAC Accreditation Management Committee (AMC) and ILAC/IAF Joint Management Committee (JMC), and serves as the APAC Representative on both the ILAC Executive Committee and the ILAC/IAF Joint Executive Committee. He is the co-convener of the ILAC/World Anti-Doping Association (WADA) Liaison Committee; and is the A2LA Delegate to the ILAC General Assembly and the APAC MRA Council and General Assembly.

Trace began his employment with A2LA in August 1996 as a Laboratory Services Officer and held numerous positions before becoming the Operations Manager/Director of Accreditation in April 2003.

Prior to joining A2LA, Trace was a Laboratory Inspector II for the American Association for State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO). He received his B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Pennsylvania State University in May 1990.

Kim Paddison is the Director of Business Development for A2LA and is responsible for leading sales efforts and building trusting relationships with clients.

Kim joined A2LA in 2021 with an extensive history working directly with sales and marketing teams. In her previous role, she was a Vice President at Solutions Advisor’s Group where she provided sales, marketing, and community development consulting to premier senior living communities across several states. Prior to her role at Solutions Advisor’s Group, she worked for 7 years as the Director of Sales and Marketing for Buckingham's Choice in Maryland. During those years she was able to transform sales processes and marketing initiatives, which resulted in a high-performing, high-occupancy community. Kim has an additional 20+ years of leadership roles in sales, hospitality, and business development.

Kim graduated from the Pennsylvania State University with a B.S. degree in Kinesiology.

In her spare time, Kim enjoys spending time and vacationing with her family. Her extended family includes several cats and dogs. Kim is active in the Rotary Club of Carroll Creek and volunteering with Friends for Life Cat Rescue.

Randy Querry serves as A2LA’s Director of Government Relations and is responsible for advancing and directing policies and objectives of the association involving local, state and federal government and regulatory affairs. Randy works to build and maintain relationships with key government officials to communicate A2LA’s priorities, mission and vision and leads efforts to obtain approval in new regulatory programs.

Randy joined A2LA in 1998, first as an Accreditation Officer serving material testing and life science testing laboratories by helping customers to navigate the accreditation phases. During this time, he spearheaded the launch of the Reference Material Producer and Proficiency Testing Provider accreditation programs. In 2002, he was promoted to Accreditation Manager overseeing the Life Sciences Team and in 2015 he became the Accreditation Manager for Clinical Testing. Randy has conducted management system assessments to ISO 15189, ISO/IEC 17025 and ISO 17034 and has evaluated other assessors in this role. He also performs peer evaluations of accrediting bodies to ISO/IEC 17011 and serves as an evaluation team lead for the Asia Pacific Accreditation Cooperation (APAC).

Prior to working at A2LA, Randy worked as a quality assurance inspector for the Cement and Concrete Reference Laboratory (CCRL) located at NIST, Gaithersburg, Maryland from June 1990 to May 1994 performing over 100 laboratory inspections. In addition to his quality assurance experience, Randy was employed as an environmental scientist in the Due Diligence section for Dames & Moore Group, where he conducted environmental site assessments, groundwater and soil sampling, and asbestos and lead-based paint surveys.

Randy holds a bachelor’s degree in Geo-Environmental Studies from Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania.

In his spare time, Randy likes spending time with his family, hiking, trail running and reading historical fiction.

Kelly has over 25 years of experience in the meetings and events industry. She oversees and guides the strategic process for the association’s events and tradeshows that supports marketing objectives, instills an organization philosophy, and strengthens the A2LA brand.

She maintains and extends the company’s leadership role and image in the accreditation industry to internal and external audiences by implementing strategic marketing enhancements and new approaches which will contribute to A2LA’s exposure in the industry.

Mr. Adam Gouker is a General Manager within the Accreditation Services department at the A2LA. He oversees the day-to-day activities of the accreditation teams assigned under his leadership, including life sciences testing, forensics testing and inspection, clinical testing, calibration, proficiency testing provider and reference material producer accreditation programs. In addition, Mr. Gouker is responsible for managing and maintaining the A2LA Accreditation Council membership.

Mr. Gouker has a B.S degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh, and has passed the NCEES Fundamentals of Engineering Exam. He has been employed with A2LA since 2006 in various roles under the accreditation services department. Mr. Gouker is currently a qualified A2LA staff approved lead assessor and assessor evaluator. He is also a trained ISO/IEC 17011 APLAC and IAAC peer evaluator, and has performed several peer evaluations of other accreditation bodies around the world.

Mr. Gouker currently represents A2LA on ASTM committees E36 (Accreditation and Certification) and D37 (Cannabis). He is also a past member of ASTM committees E01, E28 and F16; has served as Chairman of SC6 on ANSI’s ASC C63 Committee, served on the executive committee of the ACIL Conformity Assessment Section, and was APLAC Liaison to the APEC TEL MRA.

Rob Miller is a General Manager of Accreditation Services that oversees the day-to-day operations and program growth for the accreditation schemes related to materials testing (mechanical, chemical, acoustics & vibration, thermal, non-destructive, electrical and construction materials), product certification and inspection.

Mr. Miller holds a B.S. degree in Computer Information Systems and started his career in the United States Air Force. After being honorably discharged, he transitioned to civilian life by taking on a position as quality control inspector for the Cessna Aircraft Company. From here he moved back to the east coast where he has been employed with A2LA since 2003.

He is an A2LA qualified assessor for both ISO/IEC 17025 and ISO/IEC 17065, and is an approved evaluator by the Asian Pacific Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (APLAC) and the Inter-American Accreditation Cooperation (IAAC) to perform peer evaluations of other Accreditation Bodies to ISO 17011. He represents A2LA on an international level as the lead delegate for A2LA’s Multi-lateral signatory status in the International Accreditation Forum (IAF) and IAAC and is also an active member in numerous IAF and IAAC committees and sub-committees.

Christopher Gunning a General Manger of Accreditation Services focusing on the Life Sciences group with the American Association for Laboratory Accreditation (A2LA) where he has been employed since 2009. He also has 10 years of laboratory experience in the biological field working in variety of regulatory environments from research through cGMP compliant vaccine production. This experience allows Mr. Gunning to appreciate the important role of a quality management system and technical competence both from a data defensibility standpoint and in generating customer confidence.

Mr. Gunning also provides training both publicly and privately and has developed and delivered training courses on the topics of understanding 17025:2017, root cause and corrective action, as well as internal auditing. He also leads the instruction course for all new A2LA assessors using the ISO/IEC 17025:2017 standard.