Consultation

Rosie is an accomplished speaker, writer and consultant. She has spent more than 20 years in worksite health promotion and organizational development. In addition to her bachelor’s degrees in Kinesiology and Public Health, and a doctorate in Organization and Management, Rosie is also a Certified Intrinsic Coach® Mentor, Certified Judgment Index Consultant, a Certified Valuations Specialist, and a Board Certified Coach. Rosie uses this unique combination to work with executive and leadership teams to create comprehensive development strategies centered on shifting thinking patterns. She is a contributing author to the book, “Organization Development in Healthcare — High Impact Practices for a Complex and Changing Environment.” She leverages these principles to help organizations develop and implement strategies to create a thriving workplace culture that values and supports wellbeing and the unique, intrinsic needs of employees.

Dr. Shonna Waters is the Vice President of HR Innovations and Insights (formerly known as “Research”) at the Society for Human Resource Management, where she leads the team that provides evidence-based insights, recommendations, and innovations at the intersection of people and work to improve the employee experience and business performance. Prior to joining SHRM, Dr. Waters spent over 15 years helping organizations make evidence-based decisions as an external and internal consultant. Most recently, she was the Technical Director of Human Resources Strategy and Program Design at the National Security Agency where she led the transformation of NSA’s promotion, performance management, and awards and recognition systems, the design and validation of the Agency’s analyst hiring assessments, and a variety of other evaluation and organizational performance projects. Dr. Waters holds a PhD in Industrial-Organizational (I-O) Psychology and Statistics, a certificate in Leadership Coaching from Georgetown University's Leadership Coaching Program in the Institute for Transformational Leadership, and is an Associate Certified Coach (ACC) through the International Coach Federation (ICF). Her work has been published in a variety of peer-reviewed journals, the Handbook of Employee Selection, and she has published over 50 technical reports and presented at over 25 professional conferences.

Mike Aitken has worked at SHRM since 2003 and currently serves as the Senior Vice President of Government Affairs. Prior to joining SHRM, he served for 14 years as associate director for Governmental and External Relations at the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources (CUPA-HR). Previously, Aitken worked on state public policy issues at Bonner & Associates, a public affairs firm in Washington, DC. Currently, he is based in Alexandria, VA.

As a measurement strategist, Whitney’s passion and expertise lies in the field of surveys and assessments. A self-professed “data nerd,” Whitney has a Master’s degree in the area of Human Resources Measurement and Evaluation and has conducted extensive research on the predictive validity of various hiring assessment strategies.

Whitney has been a highly rated speaker at several National HR Conferences and has authored articles on assessments for several books and publications, including Harvard Business Review. She is a member of the Society for Industrial & Organizational Psychology (SIOP) and has two decades of experience working in the assessment industry.

Lester S. Rosen is an attorney at law  and CEO of Employment Screening Resources (ESR), a national background screening company.  He is a consultant, writer, expert witness  and frequent presenter nationwide on pre-employment screening. He is the author of “The Safe Hiring Manual,” (3d Edition 2017/826 pages), the first comprehensive book on background screening.  He served as the chairperson of the steering committee that founded the Professional Background Screeners Association (PBSA),  served as its first co-chair and received the PBSA Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019. 

Jennifer Payne is an HR veteran with nearly two decades of experience in various aspects of the profession, including employee & labor relations, learning & development, and talent acquisition.  She currently oversees talent management, engagement, and employee communications for Tops Markets, a regional grocery chain based in Buffalo, NY, and her dedication to that industry has earned her recognition as a “2016 Top Woman in Grocery” through Progressive Grocer magazine.   Outside of her “day job,” Jennifer is a seasoned blogger.  She is one of the co-founders, principal writers, and current editor of the Women of HR blog, has blogged for numerous SHRM Annual Conferences, and is part of the “HR Tech Insiders” for the HR Technology Conference.  Always an HR practitioner at heart, she strives to bring that point of view to the topics she explores, and to challenge others to think differently about how they approach their jobs.

Been there – done that!  With 30 years of HR and business experience – Lori has walked in your shoes.  A recovered HR Generalist, she built a consulting company that she sold to Arthur J Gallagher after 7 years and then reinvented her current business – HR Topics -  training, speaking and developing content for HR professionals.  Lori delivers facts, tips, tricks and best practices in a way that appeals to human resource and business leaders: with a sense of humor, a bias toward actions that improve their operations right away, and practical resources and tools to support their progress.  As an annual speaker at the National SHRM conference, she has leveraged her masters in HR, SPHR and SHRM-SCP background to elevate the position of all HR professionals!

Mykkah Herner is the Modern Compensation Evangelist at PayScale, the leader in modern compensation data and software. PayScale’s products help employees and employers understand market-based pay and have more open and mutually beneficial conversations about compensation. He has more than a decade of experience developing strategic compensation programs for more than 400 companies to ensure they retain and attract the right talent. Mykkah specializes in linking performance with compensation in order to drive better business results. He delivers a monthly accredited webinar series at PayScale, breaking complex compensation concepts into actionable steps. Mykkah is also a regular contributor to TLNT. Mykkah holds a Master’s Degree in Organizational Development from Antioch University, and is a Certified Compensation Professional.

Internationally recognized as an expert in the field, Mr. Kushner is one of the nation's most sought after speakers on HR strategy and employee benefits. He has advised four U.S. Presidents on health care and has testified before the U.S. Senate Finance Committee, the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee and the U.S. House Small Business Committee on employee benefit issues.

A frequent resource to the media, Mr. Kushner contributes to the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, AP, Knight-Ridder, the Kiplinger Washington Newsletter, CNN News, Fortune, MSNBC and Good Morning America among others. More importantly, he and his wife Tamis have five children and four wonderful (and amazing!) grandchildren.