Leadership & Navigation

Justin retired from the Marine Corps at the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.  He deployed to Iraq in 2006 and suffered a gunshot wound to the head while there, but has had an incredible recovery.  He is now an inspirational speaker and a leading voice in the veteran community.  Justin wrote a leadership book for mid-level managers in 2015, and SHRM recently published his authoritative guide on veteran employment.  Justin has given several TEDx talks, has been honored by several presidents, and is one of the wounded warriors painted by President Bush in his book Portraits of Courage. 

Alexandra Levit’s goal is to prepare organizations and their employees to be competitive and marketable in the future business world. A former nationally syndicated columnist for the Wall Street Journal and writer for the New York Times, Fast Company, and Forbes, Alexandra has authored several books, including the international bestseller They Don’t Teach Corporate in College and Humanity Works: Merging People and Technologies for the Workforce of the Future.

Alexandra recently became a partner with organizational development firm PeopleResults. She consults and writes on leadership development, human resources, technology adoption, entrepreneurship, innovation, career and workplace trends on behalf of numerous Fortune 500 companies including American Express, Canon, Deloitte, DeVry University, Intuit, SilkRoad, and Staples, and has spoken on these topics at hundreds of organizations around the world including Abbott, ADP, Bank of America, Cardinal Health, Campbell Soup, Exelon, the Federal Reserve Bank, the Human Capital Institute, McDonalds, Microsoft, PepsiCo, the Society of Human Resource Management, and Whirlpool.

In the last several years, Alexandra has conducted proprietary research on the future of work, technology adoption, the millennial generation, gender differences and bias, and the skills gap. She also served as a member of Business Roundtable’s Springboard Project, which advised the Obama administration, the U.S. Department of Labor, and the U.S. Department of Defense on current employment issues.

Alexandra is also a frequent national media spokesperson and is regularly featured in outlets including USA Today, National Public Radio, CNN, ABC News, CNBC, Forbes, the Associated Press, and Glamour. She was named an American Management Association Top Leader for two years in a row and has also been Money Magazine’s Online Career Expert of the Year and the author of one of Forbes’ best websites for women.

 A member of the Northwestern University Council of 100 and the Young Entrepreneur Council, Alexandra received the prestigious Emerging Leader Award from her alma mater. The award honors a Northwestern graduate under 35 who had made a significant impact in her field and in society. She was also just named to the Thinkers50's Class of 2019. This global organization identifies the individuals developing the most compelling business and management ideas of our age. She resides in Chicago, IL.

Pankaj Bansal is the Co-founder and CEO of PeopleStrong. He is responsible for building strategic partnerships and managing the overall growth of the company globally. Under his leadership, PeopleStrong has established itself as the largest HR SaaS player from Asia and one of the first HR tech brands from India to have a global presence. Prior to establishing PeopleStrong in 2005, Pankaj worked as a part of the founding team of Aricent Group’s (formerly Hughes Software) BPO division. He is an active member of CII’s National Committee on Skills & Jobs, a non-Executive Director at Wheebox, the fastest growing talent assessment company from India and Board member for Sheroes, the largest women’s community online.

Rue Dooley has been an HR Knowledge Advisor for the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) for over 16 years and has over 25 years of HR experience.

In college, as an accounting major, Rue interned with major corporations and worked his way through school from fast food, to dorm RA, to payroll assistant with a state agency. After receiving his B.S., he worked as an accountant, a budget analyst, a meeting planner, payroll specialist, benefits coordinator, and an HR Generalist…mostly all at the same company! 

After managing the HR function for a growing government contractor (from 13 to 100+ employees while he was there), Rue went on to hire school teachers at a major school district. In his current position as an HR Knowledge Advisor for SHRM, Rue has daily direct contact with HR professionals around the world, helping them to create solutions, to improve systems, and to find and use resources that improve the delivery of the HR function. 

Rue has authored and co-authored numerous articles; Designed systems and policies; Created practical tools (including forms, letters, toolkits, and other resources); Conducted webcasts and videos; and has been quoted in various media outlets on a number of HR topics. Rue is SHRM-SCP certified.

Alex envisions a world where work is effortless and teams are drama-free.

Standing side by side since 2015 with New York Times best-selling author and thought leader Cy Wakeman, Alex collaborates with organizations and leaders globally to help them ditch the drama from the workplace, hardwire accountability in their teams and turn excuses into results.

Everything he does is designed to help people understand that success and happiness is their natural state as a human being—once the drama is gone. With this core belief, Alex’s passion is revealing to those he works with that once people carve away drama from their lives, the same job they found themselves upset with today becomes the job they look forward to and love tomorrow.

As a keynote speaker and trainer, he helps organizations exchange the endless argument for a DIFFERENT workplace reality for a shifted perspective that enables them to start achieving more success and fulfillment in their CURRENT workplace reality.

In addition to sharing the reality-based philosophy from the stage, Alex is also a quintessential part of Cy Wakeman’s content creation and media team, spreading the ditch-the-drama message online. Over the last three years, his expertise, insights and execution have helped to balloon her  online community of raving fans from 15,000 to 150,000 followers across multiple platforms.

As the host of The Carvery Podcast with Alex Dorr (available on Apple iOS, Google Play and Simplecast), he shares his journey, stories and insights as a reality-based speaker and practicing drama defuser to help others carve away their own drama and start calling those they lead to greatness.

Although Alex stands at 6’6” tall and is commonly told at events, “you look a lot taller up close,” he prides himself on being down-to-earth or, better yet, grounded in reality.

An advocate for mental minimalism and a former professional basketball player, Alex holds a MSc in international business from the University of Derby (England) and his client list includes the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Adobe, Carnival Cruise Lines, Ely Lilly, Kohler, Emory Healthcare, Methodist Healthcare (San Antonio), Nationwide, the U.S. Department of Commerce, NetJets, Allina Health, Delaware North, AMC Theatres, Washington Department of Transportation, Our Lady of the Lake Medical Center, Providence Medical Center, the University of Oregon, Baton Rouge General Medical Center, CH Robinson, Intact Insurance, National Association of Credit Management and Credit Institute of Canada, among others.

Heather Tinsley-Fix is a Senior Advisor at AARP, where she leads the organization’s work on employer engagement and helps drive AARP’s focus on providing workers 50+ with the tools they need to thrive in today’s work environment.  With a background in marketing, innovation, and program management, Heather works with employers and job seekers, external partners, and academics to provide thought leadership on 50+ labor market issues and create practical resources that enable employers to capitalize on the value of experience. 

As SHRM’s Director of Certification and Veteran Affairs Andrew Morton works with the military and veterans' organizations to develop workforce readiness pathways for veterans and military-families. As part of SHRM’s Speaker’s Bureau Andrew informs and empowers organizations in their inclusion-hiring efforts across many populations including Veterans, individuals with disabilities, and Returning Citizens as part of SHRM’s Getting Talent Back to Work Initiative.  He is the contributing author to Justin Constantine’s SHRM published book “From We Will to At Will- A Handbook for Veteran Hiring, Transitioning and Thriving in Today’s Workplace.” 

Andrew, a retired Infantry-Officer, served in several leadership roles during multiple overseas and combat tours (Iraq, Bosnia, Macedonia and Egypt) in his 21-year Army career. He also served as the Chief of Marketing and Advertising for the Army Reserve.   Prior to his arrival at SHRM in 2014 Andrew previously served as public relations director for a PR firm in Alexandria. 

Andrew is passionate about awareness and resources in support of mental health within our workforce and society at large and is currently completely his Masters in Mental Health Counseling at the College of William and Mary.       

Christina Broussard is a Recruitment Evangelist with Indeed. She has spent her career working with recruitment teams across multiple industries to optimize their strategies and performance in online talent attraction, candidate experience and recruitment technology. As a member of Indeed’s Employer Insights team, Christina pairs platform data with industry trend analysis to share Indeed’s story and bring the value and impact of the company’s programs and solutions to life.

Steve Garguilo is an instigator with a track record of large-scale, grassroots change inside big companies. As the Founder of Cultivate, he leads a team that empowers changemakers inside many different types of organizations. His team at Cultivate also pioneered an enterprise software platform that supports workplace communities.

He is the author of a #1 bestseller, Surge: Your Guide to Put Any Idea into Action.

Garguilo has also worked on social ventures globally. In 2014, he completed The Mongol Rally, a 10,000-mile adventure from London to Ulan Bator, Mongolia, fundraising for the African Prisons Project. He has visited each of the 48 contiguous United States and is a member of the “century club” having visited over 100 countries.

Dawn Burke, founder of Dawn Burke HR, is an HR leader, speaker and writer specializing in new HR practices, engagement and workplace culture. Her HR and leadership career has spanned the last 20 years, most recently serving as VP of People for Birmingham, AL, award-winning technology company, Daxko.

During her tenure as VP of People, Dawn was responsible for finding great talent, developing team members, and preserving company culture - a culture recognized in Fortune Magazine as one of the “50 Best Small and Medium Workplaces.” Recognized as a Top HR Innovator, she is creator of DawnHBurke.com, and a contributor to a variety of national blogs including SHRM Next and Fistful Of Talent.