Senior-Level

Paul Karlzen (JD, MBA, and PMP) serves as the Director, HR Information & Analytics at Catholic Health Initiatives (CHI). One of the nation’s largest health systems, Englewood, Colorado-based CHI operates in 19 states and comprises 105 hospitals, including four academic health centers and major teaching hospitals and 30 critical-access facilities; community health-services organizations; accredited nursing colleges; home-health agencies; and other facilities that span the inpatient and outpatient continuum of care. Paul is responsible for HR Information metrics, service level agreements, information standardization and researching/implementing leading information practices including predictive analytics, text analysis, and big data.  

Previously, Paul held various leadership roles at The Coca-Cola Company, American Airlines, Ball Corporation and Accenture. Paul is licensed to practice law in Colorado, Georgia and Texas and obtained concurrent Juris Doctorate (J.D.) and Masters in Business Administration (M.B.A.) degrees from Southern Illinois University, magna cum laude. 

Paul is a voting member of SHRM’s National HR information standards taskforces and has been an active member of the Colorado Bar Association’s Communications & Technology section. He is a first time presenter at SHRM’s Annual Conference & Exposition and has previously presented at the Project Management Institute’s Global Congress.

Mary Jo Burfeind has more than 25 years of experience in the insurance and healthcare industries and currently leads Enterprise Organizational Effectiveness, Talent Management and Professional and Executive Learning and Development for HCSC. Her teams are responsible for the design, development and delivery of effective organizational models, learning products and talent services for 16,000+ employees and subsidiaries. Formerly, Mary Jo was a Vice-President in HCSC’s Internal Operations divisions, a Senior Manager of Education Design and Delivery with Allstate Insurance, a Chief Learning Officer for a Midwest healthcare system, and the owner of an independent performance consulting firm.

Mary Jo holds a BA in English, an MA in Human Performance and Training, and has completed post-graduate work in adult education (ABD, Ed.D), with a concentration in human resources and organizational development.

Mary Jo is an Advisory board member of the Healthcare Business Women’s Association, a former board member of the Society of Insurance Trainers & Educators, and a member of the Executive Learning Exchange’s Chief Learning Officer/Chief Talent Officer consortium.

Erika Tedesco describes herself as culture champion in her role as Vice President of (HR) People & Culture at Diversified Automation, responsible for the culture, engagement, retention, and recruitment of professional talent at the company. Erika also teaches at the Gordon Ford School of Business at Western Kentucky University on International HR Business, leveraging her practical experiences with multinational entities to train the HR professionals of the future. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communication from the University of Louisville and a Master’s degree in Communication from the University of Illinois.

Gerry Crispin, SPHR is a former practitioner, Co-author of eight books and over 100 articles, and a Life-long student of Staffing. Gerry facilitates the CareerXroads Colloquium – a series of intense, small-group meetings for staffing leaders from some of the world’s largest firms to share staffing best practices.

A long time SHRM volunteer, Gerry currently leads a national standards task force of more than 100 volunteers working to establish standards for recruiting that meet American National Standards Institute (ANSI).

One indicator that Gerry still sees himself as a student and keeps his perspective fresh is his travels around the world to watch, interview and observe recruiters, job seekers and employers. He has been to more than 20 countries in the last decade including China, Japan, Australia, Russia and India.

Follow Gerry on Twitter @GerryCrispin.

Crystal Miller is a Founder & Strategist with Branded Strategies.

She has 7 years of Agency Search & leadership experience, 5 years of HR Business Partnership, 3 years heading up Corporate Recruiting, and 2 years of Training experience. She has been a Team Leader & Practice Director for two of the more cutting edge groups within one of the best & brightest recruitment firms in the US w/ 4 "Best Place to Work" wins & knows how to leverage culture into Talent Marketing & Attraction campaigns.

Having built successful Talent Marketing/Attraction, Community, Social Media/Digital strategies for over 50 companies since 2005 with over a repeat clientele rate of over 80%; she has built a reputation as an established, progressive advocate in the areas of social media, recruitment and HR marketing.

Chris Peterson has worked in the Online Marketing space for over 10 years. From an Online Marketing Manager at a Top 500 Internet retailer ecommerce company, to a VP of Online Marketing at a large advertising agency, Chris's career has allowed him to work with many clients from a variety of industries on numerous online marketing challenges. With specialties including everything from SEO, PPC, and web analytics, to inbound marketing, conversion rate optimization (CRO), and social media strategy, Chris's experience lends insight to Versique's online marketing strategy, as well as the online marketing strategies of their clients.

Joe Urbanski believes an Undeniable Culture™ inspires its people to unleash their best selves, take home more wins and less stress to their families, and create incredible value for the company, its customers, and community. For more than two decades, he has worked with HR and training departments, consulting and coaching 750+ executives and leaders at 400+ global organizations, and facilitating 800+ kickass trainings, strategic retreats, and leadership programs for 480,000 people. Joe has a remarkable understanding of how to transform the workplace experience. Plus, you’ll have more fun and laughs than you’d expect.

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!

John Vlastelica draws from  20 years of recruiting experience, including almost 10 years as a corporate recruiting leader and over 8 years as a recruitment management consultant and trainer. He was the Senior Director, Global Recruiting for Expedia, a Recruiting Director at Amazon.com, and the engineering recruiting leader for two start-up divisions of McCaw/AT&T Wireless. In 2002, he started Recruiting Toolbox to help other companies improve their in-house recruiting capabilities.

John has provided training and recruitment management consulting services to companies of all shapes and sizes, including leading organizations in high-tech, bio-tech, healthcare, financial services, and retail. John has shared his expertise with colleagues as an entertaining and credible repeat presenter at regional, national, and international recruiting conferences (including ERE Expo, SourceCon, RecruitingTrends, AIRS Symposiums, Talent42, SmartResourcing UK, Australalsian Talent Conference, iRecruit Europe, and SHRM’s national HR conferences), through online webinars, and as an instructor for various Sourcing and Recruiting Leadership workshops and academies.

Courtney Barksdale Perez is a senior litigation associate at Carter Scholer Arnett Hamada & Mockler. Board Certified in Labor & Employment Law, Courtney represents individuals, corporations, and government entities in all phases of commercial and employment-related litigation including administrative proceedings, state court and federal court.  Courtney has represented plaintiffs and defendants in disputes involving fraud, negligence, breach of contract, breach of covenants not to compete, tortious interference with contracts, misappropriation of trade secrets, trademark infringement, breach of fiduciary duty and employment-related civil rights claims.

Courtney also advises clients concerning compliance with employment-related statutes such as Title VII, the Americans with Disabilities Act, Age Discrimination in Employment Act, Family Medical Leave Act, Federal Labor Standards Act, the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, 42 U.S.C. § 1983, the Texas Whistleblower Act, the Texas Payday Act, the Texas Labor Code and employment agreements.  She also conducts internal investigations, reviews and prepares policies and procedures, and provides training for employers.  Ms. Perez also has experience advising government contractors with their obligations under federal contract compliance laws, developing compliance programs, drafting Affirmative Action plans and representing government contractors in administrative proceedings.

In addition, Courtney is a trained mediator and uses her dispute resolution training and experience to assist litigants in resolving employment, business, commercial, consumer, personal injury and civil rights disputes. Prior to joining Carter Scholer, Courtney maintained a solo practice. Courtney was an associate at K&L Gates, LLP from 2008-2011, and served as Law Clerk to the Honorable James A. Beaty, Jr., U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina from 2007-2008.