Board of Directors
The AST is run by members who volunteer as a nominated and elected slate of officers.
For more information see our elections and past leadership pages.
A coffee filled dreamer with a quality problem. Gwen’s been a technology leader and quality practitioner for the past three decades and has helped development / engineering teams establish and scale quality & testing practices for both startup environments and fortune500 corporations across a diverse set of domains including global e-commerce, education and financial services.
She earned her MS in Information Systems from the University of Utah and has been an advocate for context driven testing both within AST and across the globe for the past decade plus. Her passion for technology started at an early age, learning her first programming language in Logo as part of an enrichment program in her elementary school. She began her technology career in the mid-90s working in software and hardware support for both Prodigy and later Packard Bell. In 1998 She formally transitioned to Quality and Testing and has been leading initiatives in the technology delivery and quality space ever since. She is currently serving as VP, Technology Strategy & Responsible Innovation for Zions Bancorporation in SLC, UT USA.
Doug Hoffman | Vice President & Conferences
Doug is an independent management consultant in software quality (specialty in software testing). He has been working with computers since the punchcard days and has ancient BACS, MSEE, and MBA degrees. He has been very active in the testing community, participating in all of the LAWST workshops, a founding member of AST, on the Board of Directors through 2014, Chaired a couple of CASTs, and Chair of the Board for two years
Janna Loeffler | Secretary and VP of Grants & Partnerships
Bringing over two decades of experience in software quality and testing leadership, Janna currently serves as Director of Quality Engineering at The Walt Disney Company in Orlando, FL, where she has spent the past 7 years guiding teams in developing and supporting highly reliable systems.
Throughout her career, she has worked in development, quality engineering, and DevOps across diverse industries including industrial controls, embedded medical devices, and globally recognized entertainment platforms. These roles have strengthened her commitment to efficient, inclusive quality practices and the importance of mentorship at every stage of a tester’s journey.
A personal passion of Janna's is exploring artificial intelligence in software testing and how AI and machine learning are transforming our industry, enhancing problem-solving, improving test coverage, and creating new ways for teams to collaborate.
Bernie Berger |Treasurer
Bernie is a New York-based software tester, manager, and consultant with most of his work experience in the financial services industry. He’s also a project manager and testing service delivery manager with experience in pre-sales, quality assessments and consulting.
Bernie believes in the power of the testing community and is a founding member and former director of AST. In the past, he has organized peer workshops like the Software Testing in Financial Services (STiFS), and served as a program director for CAST. His current focus is on helping testers advance their careers, supporting skill development, and building connections among software professionals. Outside of work, he likes all kinds of music and enjoys playing the guitar
Matt Heusser | Vice President of Training & Career Development
Matt is a former AST board member (2011-2013) who attended every CAST from 2010-2019. Along the way he won a few awards, acted as lead editor for a book that is a collection of essays on testing, wrote a testing textbook, and organized the initial Great Lakes Software Excellence Conference. He is currently President and CEO of Excelon Development, which is founded on "context driven" values and practices and recently earned accolades as one of Inc's 5000 list of fastest growing private companies in the United States.
He has lead and organized several peer conferences, including Test Coach Camp, a half-dozen Test Retreats, the Workshop on Self-Education in Software Testing (WHoSE) and the WorksHop on teAching Test Design (WhatDa), and the first ever workshop related to technical debt.
Two decades ago, Matt made the transition from Software development into the world of testing and quality. About ten years, when people started to say "test is dead", he made a professional commitment to the field and has led quality driven practices ever since.
Abitha Arunachalam | Vice President of Community Engagement, APAC
Abitha, or "Abi" is a Test Automation Practice Lead, mentor, community organiser, and someone who genuinely loves helping testers thrive. She has spent over 17 years in QA, leading everything from large-scale enterprise transformations to startup testing turnarounds. Right now, she leads the national automation practice at Avocado Consulting in Australia, and also runs the Sydney chapter of The Test Tribe, bringing testers together to learn, connect, and grow.
Abi is driven by People, purpose, and progress. She believes testing is about building trust, asking better questions, and making sure the things we create actually work for the people who use them. She is especially passionate about AI in testing, ethical quality practices, and helping new testers find their voice and place in this ever-changing field.
Paul Hayes | Vice President of Marketing & Community Engagement, EU
Paul has been a proud member of the Association for Software Testing (AST) since 2007, and its principles of context-driven testing, critical thinking, and professional integrity have shaped his 18+ year career in quality engineering. His professional journey has taken him through large-scale, regulated environments, particularly in banking, where he's built sustainable automation strategies, led performance engineering initiatives, and mentored diverse teams worldwide. He specializes in AI-augmented, human-in-the-loop testing architectures that combine the scale and speed of automation with the judgment, context, and ethical oversight only skilled testers can provide.
Paul has a special area of interest in helping AST as our profession is at a critical inflection point. AI, remote work, and rapid delivery cycles are reshaping how we test and AST has a unique opportunity to lead this transition globally. His vision is to help AST become a continuous learning laboratory, connecting testers across geographies to co-create practical frameworks, ethical guidelines, and sustainable practices that are relevant today, not a year from now.
Aramayis Hovhannisyan |Vice President of Technology
Aramayis is an LA-based software tester, team manager, and consultant with a passion for context-driven testing. He is also an avid collector of miniatures and unique socks.
Aramayis has co-organized notable events like the Yerevan Testing Days conference in Armenia, which brought together over 500 participants and 34 speakers from around the world. He is dedicated to building a strong testing community through organizing meetups and fostering collaboration among professionals.
Aramayis believes in the power of software testing to uncover critical issues before they impact businesses, and he is committed to advancing the profession through skill development and shared knowledge.