Annual Conference on Managing Quality Systems

Events

Register Now! The 2009 EPA Quality Management Conference will take place May 12-14, 2009 in San Antonio, Texas. See the Conference home page for more information.

EPA sponsors a national conference on managing quality systems for environmental programs every year. This conference is a national forum for disseminating and exchanging information on managing the quality of environmental data; discussion and action on issues of national concern; training; and technical presentations. The conference is open to all interested members of the environmental community including representatives from EPA, other Federal Agencies, State, local, and Tribal governments, academia, and the private sector. There is no charge for attending the conference or training.

* Note: The session papers and presentations accessible via this site are posted for informational purposes only. They have not been reviewed or endorsed by EPA management and thus do not represent an official statement of EPA's views or policy. They are not intended to be used to formulate or support any EPA decision or position. Posting these materials does not indicate EPA adoption or endorsement of the information contained therein.

The 28th Annual Conference

Registration is now open for the 2009 EPA Quality Management Conference which takes place May 12-14, 2009 in San Antonio, Texas. See the Conference home page for more informatoin.

The 27th Annual Conference

The 27th Annual Conference on Managing Environmental Quality Systems was held April 21-24, 2008 in Seattle, Washington. See the Conference home page for information about this event.

The 26th Annual Conference

The 26th Annual Conference on Managing Environmental Quality Systems was held June 11-14, 2007 in Cleveland, Ohio. The featured keynote address was delivered by Dr. Vincent Covello, founder and Director of the Center for Risk Communications. The plenary panel and technical presentations highlighted the conference theme of "Successful Strategies and Their Impact on Environmental Quality Systems." Conference abstracts (PDF 34pp, 216K About PDF) are now available. If you are interested in specific papers or slides from conference presentations, send an email to quality@epa.gov to request an electronic copy. Please indicate the title and author of the presentation in your request. Please note that slides and/or papers are not available for all presentations.

The 25th Annual Conference

The 25th Annual Conference on Managing Environmental Quality Systems was held in Austin, Texas, April 24 - 27, 2006. The conference featured a keynote address by Mr. Joseph DeFeo, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Juran Institute as well as numerous technical presentations and workshops. Plenary panel presentations highlighted implementation of the Information Quality Act and data management in response to hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Click here to access the available session papers. * If you are interested in specific slides from conference presentations, send an email to quality@epa.gov to request a copy. Please indicate the title and author of the presentation in your request. Note that slides are not available for all presentations.

The 24th Annual National Conference

The 24th Annual National Conference on Managing Environmental Quality Systems was held April 11-14, 2005 in San Diego, California. Key features of the conference included plenary session panel presentations on current EPA initiatives (e.g., Wadeable Streams, Information Quality Act), a keynote presentation by noted author Thomas Redman, and numerous technical presentations and workshops.

The 23rd Annual National Conference

The 23rd Annual National Conference on Managing Environmental Quality Systems was held April 13-16, 2004 in Tampa, Florida. The conference provided a national forum for disseminating and exchanging information on managing the quality of environmental data and to discuss issues of national concern to enhance the EPA Quality Community's ability to contribute to the efforts of environmental protection.

The 22nd Annual National Conference

The 22nd Annual National Conference was held in New Orleans, LA on April 14-17, 2003. The conference hosted more than 300 participants from federal, state and local governments and the private sector. Keynote speakers included the E. Ramona Trovato, Principle Deputy Assistant Administrator, Office of Environmental Information, Environmental Protection Agency; Michael Brackett, Consulting Data Architect; and Greg Weiler, American Society for Quality - Education and Training.

The 21st Annual National Conference

The 21st Annual National Conference was held in Phoenix, AZ on April 8-11, 2002. The theme of the conference was Quality Management Solutions for Today's Environmental Challenges. The conference hosted more than 300 participants from federal, state and local governments and the private sector. Keynote speakers included the Richard Tobin III, Deputy Director, Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, and Randolph Kahn, Esq., Kahn Consulting.

The 20th Annual National Conference

The 20th Annual National Conference was held in St. Louis, Missouri, on April 2-6, 2001. The theme of the conference was Quality Management Solutions for Today's Environmental Challenges. The conference hosted more than 260 participants from federal, state and local governments and the private sector. Keynote speakers included the Honorable Miriam Naveira de Rodón, Justice of the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico and Larry English of Information Impact International.

The 19th Annual National Conference

The 19th Annual National Conference was held in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on April 3-7, 2000. The theme of the conference was EPA Initiatives in Quality Management: Quality and Environmental Information. New training offered at this conference included Quality Management Plans, Quality Assurance Project Plans, Quality System Audits, and GIS for QA Professionals. Technical sessions covered topics such as QA and the law, quality-related issues for Laboratories, environmental information quality, measurement quality objectives, and systematic planning.

The 18th Annual National Conference

The 18th Annual National Conference was held in Cincinnati, Ohio, on April 12-16, 1999. The theme of the conference was Quality for the Next Millennium. Training was provided on integrating quality assurance into project development, EPA Quality System policies and specifications, Management Systems Reviews, and NELAP. The plenary sessions provided a status report on the Intergovernmental Task Force on Data Quality and its efforts to harmonize quality assurance practices on environmental data collection, analysis, evaluation, and use across the Government and examined current issues affecting the implementation of Performance-Based Measurement Systems in a regulatory setting like EPA. Technical sessions covered topics such as the use of secondary data, NELAP, implementation and oversight of quality assurance practices, information management for quality assurance personnel, quality assurance in the research environment, and benchmarking and determining the cost of quality.

The 17th Annual National Conference

The 17th Annual National Conference was held in Denver, Colorado, on March 30 - April 3, 1998. The conference started with a two-day training course on Integrating Quality Assurance into Project Development where the 70 participants used a simulated hazardous waste site to learn about Data Quality Objectives, Quality Assurance Project Plans, and Data Quality Assessment. The conference then continued with several plenary and breakout sessions for the 225+ participants. Topics for these sessions included Performance Based Measurement Systems; Secondary/Acquired Data; Quality Assurance Issues in Research; the National Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program; Data Verification and Validation; and Science and Law. Training on Quality Auditing and a Workshop on ANSI/ASQC E4-1994 Implementation was also offered.

The 16th Annual National Conference

The 16th Annual National Conference on Managing Environmental Quality Systems was held in Kansas City, Missouri, on August 18-22, 1997. The focus of this conference was quality assurance training and 9 different courses were offered. With over 400 participants, the conference was a great success in training many EPA and other government officials along with the private sector in quality assurance practices at EPA.

National Technical Workshop on Quality Assurance in Information Management

EPA did not sponsor an annual conference in 1996. Instead, EPA sponsored a National Technical Workshop on Quality Assurance in Information Management. The workshop was held in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, on August 20-22. The goal of the workshop was to begin developing an Agency-wide strategy on quality assurance issues associated with the information management aspects of environmental data collection. The workshop was limited to EPA participation only; the private sector was not invited since the workshop involved policy development.