NIMS Appoints Four New 2023 Board Members

The National Institute for Metalworking Skills (NIMS) has appointed four new industry leaders to the NIMS Board of Directors in 2023, including Joanna Dowling, Neil Ashbaugh, Ryan Spielman and Stephen B. Leonard. They will each serve for three years.

NIMS is a nonprofit formed in 1995 to develop and maintain a globally competitive American workforce. The vision of NIMS is to build a globally competitive American workforce through collaboratively established industry standards, proven training frameworks and processes that dynamically respond to our technology-driven economy.

Dowling is the director of the Custom Group’s Center for Manufacturing Technology in Woburn, Massachusetts. The center is an advanced manufacturing training facility offering a range of customizable, certificate-based programs to meet the training needs for manufacturing companies throughout New England. Dowling has over 25 years of experience within the manufacturing industry. She is also actively involved within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to promote the manufacturing sector and the importance of education and training for sustaining manufacturing in Massachusetts. She earned a bachelor’s degree from Merrimack College.

Ashbaugh is president/CEO of New Century Careers (NCC) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He has over 20 years’ experience in manufacturing, from the shop floor to human resources and technical training management. He learned the manufacturing trade through two four-year state and federally recognized apprenticeships before becoming a journeyman grinder and machine operator. Hired by Oberg Industries initially as a journeyman precision grinder, he later held corporate positions there in sales and marketing, and management roles in training and talent development, government projects and new product development. At NCC, he manages operations and a range of programs, including apprenticeship, production, sales, marketing, business development, corporate training and talent development, and workforce development.

Spielman is director of manufacturing (Lincoln Campus – Industrial Division) at Woodward Inc., in Fort Collins, Colorado. He started his career in manufacturing in 1995 in a small machine shop. In 1998, he joined Woodward Governor as a machinist. After a year, he moved into the newly created CI team within Manufacturing Engineering. Through this time, he earned an associate’s degree in advanced manufacturing technology and then bachelor’s degree in management and leadership. Spielman led various groups within ME, including the newly formed Parts Manufacturing Quality team. He was later tasked with creating and leading a Training Development Team made up of engineers and front-line members from manufacturing. Later, he moved to headquarters into the newly created Global Operations Training Manager role. In July 2022, Spielman moved into the newly created director of manufacturing role at the Lincoln Campus, a part of the Industrial COE, where he leads the manufacturing floor.

Stephen B. Leonard is operations/program manager for the Digital Foundry, Penn State, in New Kensington, Pennsylvania, a digital manufacturing demonstration and educational facility. He is responsible for developing and managing the workforce development programs which are designed to provide upskilling/reskilling for unemployed/underemployed and dislocated workers as well as training for currently employed and advanced manufacturing engineering staff and manufacturing operations leadership throughout southwestern Pennsylvania. Leonard has been a practicing industrial designer and technical innovator for over 35 years. He previously worked as a senior innovation leader at the Alcoa/Arconic Technology Center (ATC). Leonard also served as an adjunct professor at Carnegie Mellon’s Integrated Innovation Institute. He earned a bachelor’s degree in industrial design from Syracuse University and a master’s degree in new product development from Northwestern University. He is also the recipient of 56 U.S. patents.