Consultation

Kasia Nowak is an associate in the San Francisco office. Her practice involves employment-related litigation, including defending employers against claims of discrimination, retaliation, wrongful termination, and other torts. She has represented public companies, private companies and individuals in a wide variety of employment matters, in both state and federal courts, and before various state and federal agencies. She has appellate experience, including handling cases before the California Court of Appeal, the California Supreme Court, and the 4th Circuit.

Kasia also advises employers on all aspects of the employment process, including hiring, developing employment policies and handbooks, and handling employee discipline and termination matters. In addition, she routinely provides sexual harassment and management training, as well as employee training.

Two themes are woven throughout Lauraine Bifulco's diverse career: a passion for a job well done and a zest for continual learning and improvement.  Lauraine infuses Vantaggio HR with these qualities every day. When she founded the firm in 1994, Lauraine combined her rare talent in understanding what a client needs and her gift of business foresight to create a company that can service the HR and management consulting needs of small and large companies equally well.  Today, Vantaggio serves clients across the country from their offices in California, Hawaii, Colorado, and New York. 

Her Career experience helps employers realize their HR goals and adapt to the shifting HR landscape.  Lauraine is a veteran HR executive and entrepreneur with 25 years of international, corporate, and consulting experience. Her bold career has taken her to employment and business opportunities in Europe and multiple U.S. cities. She serves as co-chair of the California Small Business Administration's committee on Labor Issues which reviews and makes recommendations on pending labor/employment laws, keeping her abreast of legal developments.                                                                            

Delivering over 30 presentations and webinars each year, Lauraine is a well-respected, and highly sought after guest lecturer and speaker on a variety of business management and HR-related topics for both state and national organizations including Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), Professionals in Human Resources Association (PIHRA), American Payroll Association (APA), Next Concept HR Association (NCHRA), Paylocity annual Elevate Conference, and HR Star Conference to name a few. She has been invited to review, develop, and deliver certificate programs for SHRM, and has developed and delivered curriculum for businesses throughout the U.S.                                                                   

Lauraine received a bachelor’s degree from Wellesley College and conducted graduate level studies in linguistics at the Sorbonne in Paris.

For over 20 years, Allison West has used her employment law background in delivering customized workplace training, conducting investigations, coaching executives/managers, serving as an expert witness, and specializing in conflict resolution and facilitated discussions to create more collaborative work environments. 

Allison is a top-rated speaker at the SHRM Annual Conference as well as other HR/diversity conferences, and is a national expert on harassment, discrimination and investigations. She has appeared on PBS, CBS This Morning and in O Magazine discussing workplace harassment issues. 

She is a member of the State Bar of California and holds her SHRM-SCP certification and AWI-CH (investigation) certificate.

Kristi is a Partner at the firm's Silicon Valley office, where she serves as corporate immigration counsel to emerging and mid-size clients in a wide range of industries, including technology, consumer products, civil engineering, and legal service providers. Kristi has experience in all areas of corporate business immigration, including nonimmigrant visas, labor certifications, and adjustments of status. Kristi first joined Fragomen in 1999. She served as the Congressional Assistant and Immigration Policy Advisor to Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren from 2010 to 2012 before rejoining the firm.

Kristi earned her Juris Doctor and Bachelor of Arts from Santa Clara University. She speaks English and Spanish.

Marjorie Derven, Director, Valeocon Management Consulting, delivers Diversity & Inclusion strategies and initiatives to some of the world’s best companies, combining D&I expertise with Organizational Effectiveness, Change Management and Learning, to create integrated approaches that produce sustainable results. Marjorie works with clients to establish strategic alignment, clarify key priorities for resource allocation and create designs that have buy-in at mutiple organizational levels and functions.  With a view of organizations as ecoystems, Marjorie collaborates with clients to design best fit solutions. The author of many blogs and articles, Marjorie is a frequent speaker on D&I best practices.

Ben Eubanks is a bestselling author, speaker, and researcher living in Huntsville, AL. He spends his days as the Chief Research Officer at Lighthouse Research & Advisory, developing groundbreaking research on workforce trends and examining the talent technologies and People practices that set great organizations apart from the rest. 

His latest book Talent Scarcity explores why companies are having difficulties finding quality talent and how they can solve it. His first book, Artificial Intelligence for HR, is the world’s most-cited resource for leveraging technology to create a more human experience at work. His new book The Payroll Promise (March 2025) examines how HR and payroll teams can create workplace trust and do more meaningful work at the same time. He also hosts HR Summer School, a virtual event focusing on improving human resources, one HR pro at a time. When he's not speaking or writing, he spends time with his five kids and runs in a variety of outlandish races for fun.

Keli Wilson is a Principal Consultant with DCI Consulting Group, Inc. (DCI). She leads the diversity and inclusion practice group with metrics driven services. Keli manages a team of associate principal and senior consultants who assist contractors with compliance needs, such as affirmative action plan development, pay equity analyses, strategic audit advice, and training support. She writes blogs and white papers, presents at local and national conferences, and will host a new DCI diversity podcast, The EEO Studio. Keli received an M.A. degree in Industrial and Organizational Psychology from Xavier University and B.A. degree in Psychology from West Virginia University.

Scott is the Director of Product at Hireology, driving the product roadmap for upcoming Hireology features.

​In this role, he’s responsible for discovering, designing, and defining valuable products that delight our customers. Brinkman drives the strategic vision for product development focused on creating impactful user experiences for customers through his product and UX teams.

Scott was previously the Head of Product at Upsight, a mobile analytics and marketing platform that provides business intelligence to the largest enterprises in mobile. Before joining Upsight, Brinkman was an engineer developing sales analytics and CRM systems at Google to empower companies to better understand how behavior affects revenue production.

Scott is the Director of Product at Hireology, driving the product roadmap for upcoming Hireology features.

​In this role, he’s responsible for discovering, designing, and defining valuable products that delight our customers. Brinkman drives the strategic vision for product development focused on creating impactful user experiences for customers through his product and UX teams.

Scott was previously the Head of Product at Upsight, a mobile analytics and marketing platform that provides business intelligence to the largest enterprises in mobile. Before joining Upsight, Brinkman was an engineer developing sales analytics and CRM systems at Google to empower companies to better understand how behavior affects revenue production.