Herman McKenzie is currently Director of the Physical Environment Department within the Standards Interpretation Group of The Joint Commission (TJC). In this role, he manages all activities associated with the daily operations of the physical environment department, provides standards interpretation and education to The Joint Commission’s Surveyors and accredited organizations, reviews equivalency requests and survey reports, conducts surveys and Intracycle Monitoring conference calls, and serves as faculty for educational programs and a speaker for national, regional, state, and local audiences. Herman is a Certified Yellow Belt. With this designation, he supports The Joint Commission’s activities associated with establishing and sustaining a Robust Process Improvement® (RPI®) culture. As a Certified Yellow Belt, he is trained in the foundational concepts and tools of problem solving and makes improvements to better meet customer expectations and organization objectives. He comes to TJC with over 30 years of healthcare experience having held managerial and director level roles in Clinical Engineering, Plant Operations and Facilities Services throughout the Chicago land area. As part of his background he was a part of the team that opened the first new hospital in Illinois in over 25 years. Herman holds a Bachelor’s degree from Southern Illinois University and a MBA from Governors State University. Herman is a certified healthcare safety professional (CHSP), a member of the American Society for Healthcare Engineering (ASHE) and the Healthcare Engineers Society of Northern Illinois (HESNI) serving as president 2013 - 2014.