Business (Behavioral)

 Joe is a leading thinker in managing and motivating people. He’s passionate about helping organizations achieve their vision through effective performance management.

 He’s a top-rated SHRM speaker and serves as Chief Value Officer for Delphia Consulting, a national HR and Payroll software consulting firm based in Columbus, Ohio. Joe is the co-creator of miviva, a continuous performance management application.

 Joe has over 30 years of experience and serves as VP of Professional Development on the Human Resources Association of Central Ohio (HRACO) Board of Directors. Joe is a cited contributor to the SHRM Learning System.

 Joe is a leading thinker in managing and motivating people. He’s passionate about helping organizations achieve their vision through effective performance management.

 He’s a top-rated SHRM speaker and serves as Chief Value Officer for Delphia Consulting, a national HR and Payroll software consulting firm based in Columbus, Ohio. Joe is the co-creator of miviva, a continuous performance management application.

 Joe has over 30 years of experience and serves as VP of Professional Development on the Human Resources Association of Central Ohio (HRACO) Board of Directors. Joe is a cited contributor to the SHRM Learning System.

Alexander Alonso, PhD, SHRM-SCP is the Society for Human Resource Management's (SHRM's) Chief Data & Insights Officer leading operations for SHRM's Certified Professional and Senior Certified Professional certifications, research functions, and the SHRM Knowledge Advisor service. He is responsible for all research activities, including the development of the SHRM Competency Model and SHRM credentials.

During his career, he has worked with numerous subject matter experts worldwide with the aim of identifying performance standards, developing competency models, designing organizational assessments, and conducting job analyses. He was also responsible for working on contract task orders involving the development of measurement tools for content areas such as job knowledge (like teacher knowledge of instructional processes) and organizational climates (like organizational climate forecasting in military health care).

Dr. Alonso received his doctorate in Industrial-Organizational Psychology from Florida International University in 2003. His works have been recognized for their contribution to real-world issues. They include being recognized by the Society for Industrial Organizational Psychology (Division 14 of the APA; SIOP) with the 2007 M. Scott Myers Award for Applied Research in the Workplace for the development of the federal standard for medical team training, TeamSTEPPS; being awarded a 2009 Presidential Citation for Innovative Practice by the American Psychological Association for supporting the development of competency model for team triage in emergency medicine; and receiving the 2013 SIOP Distinguished Early Career Contributions for Practice Award.

Throughout his career, he has published works in peer-reviewed journals such as Industrial and Organizational Psychology: Perspectives on Science and Practice, Journal of Applied Psychology, International Journal of Selection and Assessment, People and Strategy, Personality and Individual Differences, Quality and Safety in Health Care, and Human Resources Management Review. He has also authored several chapters on community-based change initiatives in workforce readiness, as well as co-authoring Defining HR Success: A Guide to the SHRM Competency Model in Practice.

Dr. Alonso also served as a columnist analyzing major trends in the workforce for The Industrial Psychologist and HR Magazine. In addition, he has served on several professional society boards including the SIOP and the Personnel Testing Council of Metropolitan Washington.

Wendi Safstrom is a senior non-profit leader committed to serving the public through philanthropic program management, cultivating strategic partnerships and managing and developing high performing teams. She has both association and nonprofit management experience including; national program development and administration, membership strategy, marketing and product development, grant management, development and donor stewardship, and leading cross functional teams. Safstrom currently serves as President for the Society for Human Resource Management Foundation (SHRM Foundation), where she leads the development and implementation of SHRM Foundation's programmatic, development, and marketing and communication strategies in support of SHRM Foundation's new mission and vision, creating growth plans and ensuring alignment with SHRM goals.  

Prior to assuming the role at SHRM Foundation, Safstrom served as Vice President at the National Restaurant Association and National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation, where she led the development and implementation of their Foundation's most recent five-year strategic plan, and was responsible for all Foundation programming, including workforce development initiatives, scholarship and event management, community relations and engagement initiatives. The NRAEF's philanthropic programming supported a number of audiences including high school youth, veterans transitioning from service to civilian work and life, opportunity youth and incumbent workers. Of particular note, she led the implementation of the restaurant industry's premier high school career and technical education program, growing the program to over 2,000 public high schools, engaging over 150,000 students annually, nationwide. In 2016, she served as lead project director for the development of a $10 million contract awarded by the U.S. Department of Labor to develop the hospitality industry's first apprenticeship program, and was instrumental in the Foundation's reorganization and relocation of operations from Chicago, Illinois to Washington, D.C., transforming the staff and culture.  

Safstrom has also held human resource management roles with the Leo Burnett Company and Hyatt Hotels Corporation in Chicago, Illinois. She has a BS in Business Administration from the Eli Broad School of Business at Michigan State University and was recognized as a member of the 2014 "Power 20" by Restaurant Business Magazine as a leader in philanthropy within the restaurant industry.  

Melissa Risteff spent the past few decades as an executive thriving in technology. As CEO and Founder of an EdTech startup, she sparked equitable change in STEM education. Risteff is the Chief Strategy Officer at MindSpark Learning – providing visionary leadership in the development of human capital solutions for the education-to-workplace ecosystem. 

Guillermo Corea has been involved in digital technology for over 25 years. He’s currently the Managing Director for SHRMLabs, SHRM's workplace innovation laboratory and venture capital arm. He is charged with establishing SHRM as a research thought leader and product testbed for technologies impacting the future of work and the workplace.

Previously, as Director, Digital Media and Business Development at SHRM, he lead e-commerce operations and identified non-dues revenue opportunities through a variety of activities, including business and product development, and content and technology partnerships.

Francine Parham is a career expert and practitioner focused on female leadership and the advancement of women and women of color in the workplace. Having spent two decades in the corporate sector advancing to the position of a global vice-president at General Electric and Johnson and Johnson, she understands the importance of this work.

She is currently the Founder and CEO of FrancineParham & Co., a professional development company focused helping organizations and their female talent with career advancement. Francine is the creator of the Sharpen Your Skills Professional™, a series of career development learning programs focused on the right skills (explicit and implicit) women and women of color need for their professional success and advancement. Her company also works with organizations to provide quantitative and qualitative assessments with recommended approaches and solutions to advance their professional women and women of color in the workplace.

Francine is a keynote and public speaker. She has written for various online platforms and has been cited or recognized as a career expert in various published books. Her most recently published book, Please Sit Over There: How to Manage Power, Overcome Exclusion and Succeed as a Black Woman at Work (Berrett-Koehler Publishers I Penguin Random House Distributors) will be available globally, August, 2022. Francine is a Senior Fellow at The Conference Board, a business memberdriven global think tank and is cited as a Women’s Media Center expert.

Francine holds two master's degrees. She graduated from Columbia University with her Masters of Science degree in Journalism as a Stabile Investigative Fellow. Her second degree is from the University of Illinois where she obtained her Masters of Arts degree in Labor and Industrial Relations. Her undergraduate degree is from Purdue University where she double-majored in Business Communications and Psychology.

Karen Worthy enjoys solving the most challenging problems in the industry and is known for her ability to make difficult problems seem simple. As VP of Talent Acquisition and Employee Experience at Booster, she leads a team that is revolutionizing how the industry hires for both field workers and corporate employees. With Booster’s accelerated growth trajectory, her team has mastered high volume recruiting in hard-to-fill roles such as CDL truck drivers. 

Karen is a self-proclaimed data geek, an engineering and business graduate, and a mom of three amazing boys. Her resume boasts companies such as Amazon and Procter & Gamble, which have prepared her for her role leading change and growth within the startup world of Booster.

On a mission to spend 1 hour, 1 on 1, with 10,000 different people, Rob Lawless sees the world from an incredibly unique perspective. Over the last 8 years, he’s met over 6,000 people across 90+ countries, sharing their stories on his Instagram, @robs10kfriends. Rob has been featured on "On Air with Ryan Seacrest," the TODAY Show, and even the Kelly Clarkson Show. Rob's inspiring project showcases the value of intentional human connection and how every human interaction holds the potential to change your life.

On a mission to spend 1 hour, 1 on 1, with 10,000 different people, Rob Lawless sees the world from an incredibly unique perspective. Over the last 8 years, he’s met over 6,000 people across 90+ countries, sharing their stories on his Instagram, @robs10kfriends. Rob has been featured on "On Air with Ryan Seacrest," the TODAY Show, and even the Kelly Clarkson Show. Rob's inspiring project showcases the value of intentional human connection and how every human interaction holds the potential to change your life.

Marques Colston is the founder of Marques Colston Enterprises (MCE), a professional development services company, which empowers organizations and growth-minded
individuals to unlock creativity and possibility to experience sustainable business success. Creating Separation is a Mindset© inspired by his illustrious NFL career, spanning a
decade. Marques’ game-changing methodology of ‘Creating Separation’ is the paradigm shift that has propelled him to overcome adversity and experience seemingly
unattainable accomplishments, personally and professionally, over his lifetime.

“The reality is most business professionals have dealt with limitations external forces place on their ability to succeed. The good news is they don’t have to accept them.”
Marques is convinced you can build professional success and transcend perceived limitations with the right mindset and strategies. Marques’ sustained durable competitive advantage is Irrational ConfidenceTM -- A mindset shift rooted in the belief that an individual can perform at seemingly unattainable levels due to having the right mentality, well-developed strategies, and grit. Irrational ConfidenceTM was the contributing factor to the creation of employment opportunities, community development outreach programs, and opportunities for athletes as a franchise owner in professional football. Marques’ ventures have since expanded to business ownership, partnership, investment and advisory roles for dozens of businesses and organizations. 

The rigors and challenges experienced through his success and failure have uniquely positioned Marques to empower entrepreneurs and business owners to open their minds to possibilities and create meaningful value to fuel their business trajectory. Marques is a licensed financial advisor holding the Series 7, Series 66, Life insurance, and Health insurance licenses. He launched Venture Investing and Entrepreneurship for Professional Athletes, an executive education program for current and former professional athletes at the prestigious Columbia Business School.

He has partnered with his alma mater, Hofstra University to create the Marques Colston Fellowship, which provides experiential learning opportunities for student-athletes in health majors. And is currently teaching entrepreneurship and life skills to undergraduate students as an adjunct professor at the University of New Orleans.

Marques is a Super Bowl champion, inductee in the New Orleans Saints Hall of Fame and the Sports Hall of Fame in both Pennsylvania and Louisiana. While an active player for the New Orleans Saints, he was the all-time franchise leader in receptions, receiving yards, and total touchdowns.

Colston is a proud husband and father. He resides in the Greater Philadelphia area with his wife, Emily, a real estate professional and health and fitness expert, and their two
children, Austin and Mia.