Meet the Staff
Dean
Neumann - President
Along with being the co-founder of The Electric Quilt Company, Dean is the creator and programmer of all EQ software. He takes suggestions from customers and puts it into a quilting program like EQ, BlockBase, or Town & Country Patchwork. Dean is a retired Mathematics professor from Bowling Green State University.
Penny
McMorris - Vice President
Along with being the co-founder of The Electric Quilt Company, Penny is the main
technical support person. Penny has had earlier "quilt lives" as
a TV Producer, quilt historian, and art curator, but now spends full-time answering
customer questions for many EQ customers via email and/or the telephone. Penny
also edits many of the
companion manuals for EQ software and is the friendly voice you hear on our videos.
Ann Rutter - Business Manager and Assistant Programmer
Ann has been with The Electric Quilt Company since 1991 and started out as the treasurer. Although
she still handles the treasurer's duties as well as being Dean's assistant, she has become
much more of a project manager. Ann assigns new projects, keeps everyone on schedule, and
helps Dean with programming tasks. Ann was the project designer for Town & Country Patchwork and other software.
Lu
Vandemark - Sales Manager, Customer Service, & Office Manager
Lu (short for Lucretia) is the friendly voice you hear when you call EQ. If you are a retail customer, quilt shop owner or distributor, Lu works to make sure your order gets filled and on its way. She is also our "answer woman" on Customer Service email. Unofficially Lu acts as "mother hen," providing homemade pies and cookies when we need them most. You might say Lu takes care of us as well as our customers.
Andrea
Bishop - Webmaster and Software Educator
Andrea maintains the massive Electric Quilt Company web site, oversees anything
web-based in our software, answers technical support questions, and edits software
companion manuals.
She teaches and demonstrates EQ at trade shows, sewing machine conventions,
and quilt guilds. Andrea has appeared on Quilting with Shar, Friends
in the Bee, Quilter's
News Network, Quilter's Tea, Quilter's Coffee and over
many episodes of America Quilts Creatively. Andrea loves to draw and
created the Karen K.
Stone CD.
Sara Woodward - Assistant Programmer and Technical Support
Sara assists Dean with programming tasks and also provides technical support to EQ customers.
When Sara doesn't know the tech support answer, the only other person might be the president.
She worked as a programmer for several years in Silicon Valley, but applied at The Electric
Quilt when her mother mentioned that her Sew Precise software was made in the same city that Sara graduated from.
Jan Nelson - Shipping Manager and Sales
"Jan in shipping" takes phone orders with Lu, but spends most of her day shipping EQ products to wholesale and retail customers. She and her assistant maintain the warehouse, or annex, appropriately renamed to the "Jannex." Her humor is unbeatable and she always keeps us laughing.
Margaret
Okuley - Quilter Extraodinaire and Sales
Margaret is our "quilting consultant." If EQ needs a quilt for a trade show, photo
shoot, or television show, you will be sure to find Margaret sewing away. She works part-time
between
EQ and her quilt shop, The
Quilt Foundry in Maumee Ohio, which she co-owns with 3 friends. Margaret also colors quilt
blocks for software libraries and takes phone orders for EQ products.
Jenny
Novinsky - Graphic Designer and Advertising
Jenny is part of the Graphics Department. She began at EQ as an intern, but decided
to stay on after she graduated. She designs software packaging, CD art, and magazine
advertisements.
Jenny is in charge of advertising and STASH.
Heidi
Kory - Graphic Designer
Heidi is part of the Graphics Department and is primarily responsible for web
portions of software like Town & Country
Patchwork or Judy Martin. She is our go-to-girl for images and
photos. When Heidi was younger she took quilting
classes taught by Margaret
at The Quilt Foundry.
Sara
Seuberling - Graphic Designer and Trade Show Coordinator
Sara is also a part of the Graphics Department and is usually swamped with coordinating
trade shows and new products. She is responsible for organizing and planning
about 5 shows a year. She began at EQ as an intern, but decided to stay on after
she graduated. She also
designs product packaging and promotional materials.
Sarah Kollar
- Marketing and Promotions
Sarah was one of our co-op/intern students from Bowling Green State University
for a few semesters, but recently agreed to stay on as our Marketing Manager.
She will be in charge of promotional materials, new ideas, and just getting the
EQ name out.
Samantha Austin - Jan's Shipping Assistant
Samantha is a freshman from Bowling Green State University and is Jan's new shipping assistant, working between classes. When you get your order, it may have been assembled and carefully packed by Sam. We hope to have her with us for the next four years.
