Speakers

Jeremy Ray is Owner and VP of Operations for Rock Hill Screen Printing in South Carolina.  

He started his screen printing journey a little over 9 years ago, as a garage printer for his son's tee shirt brand.  He quickly developed a passion for the craft and used his engineering background to efficiently grow from an owner-operator operation to a 16-person shop.  

He has a talent for lean manufacturing, setting up standard operating procedures and likely runs the cleanest shop you'll ever step foot in. In his free time, Jeremy enjoys checking out local breweries with his wife and business partner, Jill.

Aparna Avasarala’s creative journey started long before Denimrush. As a child, she moved four times between Delhi, India and Cincinnati, Ohio. In India, her family would visit temples and fabric mills, which is where Aparna developed her love of design. The downtown street art scene of Cincinnati added an urban flare to her aesthetic. 

She transitioned into experiential retail design, coordinating such large-scale tradeshows as Liberty, Cabana, and Coterie. She was instrumental to The “Future of Retail” pop-up at Summit LA in 2017, and in 2019, was a founding partner and head of creative at Arcadia Earth—a large-scale, multi-sensory installation powered by Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, projection mapping, and interactive environments. 

Bonnie is a professional Trainer and Consultant with over 20 years of experience helping organizations of all types (city/state governments, manufacturing, service organizations, higher education, and K-12 education) to improve their processes and work environments. She has conducted over 2000 training sessions in Lean, leadership and team building for more than 200 organizations throughout the US. Bonnie is also a published author in Lean methodologies. In addition to Lean Bonnie is also the owner of the Holistic Health & Wellness Center/H3 Hypnosis in Knoxville, IA where she provides hypnotherapy, reiki therapy, and certification classes. Her passion is helping people to improve what they do, how they do it, how they feel (mentally and physically), and helping them reach their full potential.

Lynn Burghardt is a fifth-generation owner of Burghardt Sporting Goods in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  As the President of Chipply, this first-hand experience in the apparel industry gives her an in-depth understanding of her customers and their unique challenges. She was inspired to help create the Chipply webstore building platform and share it with her industry peers. She is passionate about the relationships she’s been able to foster with business owners, salespeople, and vendors through the introduction of new technology, cooperative advancement, and common growth objectives. Lynn’s mission with Chipply is to provide a platform of technology and service to team dealers and apparel decorators that will enhance the daily operation of their business and speed up their growth trajectory.

Kay Ferin is a veteran in the apparel industry, serving as the CEO of P&M Apparel for over 20 years. She has done every job that can be done in a shop and has trained a multitude of newcomers in production, sales, and business management.

Adrienne Palmer is the editor-in-chief of DTF Printing, a website dedicated to helping apparel decorators in the direct-to-film space grow their businesses and brands.

She has nearly 11 years of experience in the print industry. Previously, she was the editor-in-chief of Big Picture and Screen Printing magazines where she spearheaded the annual Women in Print Awards and Best of Wide Format Awards; launched The Mentorship Project; hosted the Screen Saver podcast; and represented the magazines at numerous industry events year-round as a speaker, moderator, and panelist.

She is a 2019 Folio: Top Women in Media award winner, the secretary of U.N.I.T.E. Together (a diversity and inclusion program for the print industry and beyond), and is on the boards of Printing United Alliance's Women in Print Alliance and the North American Specialty Printing Manufacturers Association.