Performance Improvement of Virginia, Inc. was started in 2000 by two people.

Steven Swarthout (BS SIU) – has 37 years of experience in troubleshooting electrical and mechanical equipment failures and 21 years of process failure analysis. He started teaching root cause analysis in 1986 and has been a TapRooT® user since 2001 and a TapRooT® instructor since 2002. He rewrote the EquifactoR® equipment failure course for System Improvements in 2005. He also has significant experience in corrective action development, training development, and procedure writing.

Kathleen Burtoft RN (BSN PHN UCLA) – has 36 years experience in the medical field with experience in hospital, public health, psychiatric and industrial health care. She has been a TapRooT® user since 2004 and has much prior experience troubleshooting healthcare process upsets.