Senior-Level

Cheryl Larson is President and CEO of the non-profit Midwest Business Group on Health (MBGH), a coalition of more than 150 mid, large and jumbo, self-funded, public and private employers who represent more than 4M lives. MBGH seeks to advance leadership, collaboration, and knowledge among employers and stakeholders to continuously improve the quality and cost-effectiveness of health benefits, health care, and community health. She currently serves on multiple boards and committees representing the purchaser perspective, including the Institute of Medicine Chicago – Board of Directors and Fellow, National Alliance of Healthcare Purchasing Coalitions – Board of Governors, University of Michigan Value Based Insurance Design (VBID) – National Task Force on Low-Value Care.

Ryan spent a decade litigating cases for the Department of Justice and U.S. Intelligence Community before joining Sixfifty, where he has happily traded arguing cases for collaborating on projects. At the time, Ryan was the first member of the Legal Product Team, and Sixfifty offered only one product. Today, he serves as Sixfifty’s Chief Legal Officer and leads a robust Legal Product Team that has helped create over a dozen products that simplify the law for businesses and individuals. Ryan loves spending time with his wife and four kids, coaching youth soccer, and camping in the Adirondacks.

Ryan spent a decade litigating cases for the Department of Justice and U.S. Intelligence Community before joining Sixfifty, where he has happily traded arguing cases for collaborating on projects. At the time, Ryan was the first member of the Legal Product Team, and Sixfifty offered only one product. Today, he serves as Sixfifty’s Chief Legal Officer and leads a robust Legal Product Team that has helped create over a dozen products that simplify the law for businesses and individuals. Ryan loves spending time with his wife and four kids, coaching youth soccer, and camping in the Adirondacks.

Christina is a seasoned talent acquisition leader and consultant with a track record in delivering innovative and scalable solutions for high-volume hiring across various industries and markets. She is a SHRM Senior Certified Professional (SHRM-SCP) and a member of Chief, a network for senior women executives. Christina's mission is to drive business results through an engaged and agile workforce, blending art and science in her approach. She leverages persona-based employment brand storytelling, data modelling, conditional logic, automation, and AI to optimize the workforce and enhance the people experience of the future. Christina led first-generation RPO solutions for Samsung, Verizon and Walmart prior to driving talent acquisition transformation initiatives as an in-house practitioner at McDonald's, ISS Global, and Advantage Solutions. Christina is a Senior Vice President – Client Services at AMS with a strategic focus on advisory-infused, tech-enabled RPO at scale.

Kent is as passionate about compensation and pay equity as he was in 1999 when he co-founded Salary.com with a goal of reinventing how employers and employees access compensation data. Kent has always believed pay equity is a two-sided coin and designed the business to support that belief. The company’s groundbreaking Salary Wizard was the first tool employees could access to understand their worth, effectively lifting the veil on salary information for millions of employees annually. On the B2B side, Salary.com has become the preeminent provider of compensation market data, software, and analytics, serving over 30,000 survey participant organizations, 8,000 business-to-business software subscribers, and 45+ million employees globally. 

Kent holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and A.B. in Economics and Government from Georgetown University. He is a three-time Inc. 500 CEO, a six-time Deloitte Fast 50 awardee and recipient of the 2007 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of Year Award for business services. Kent is accredited by WorldatWork as a Certified Compensation Professional (CCP®) 

An accomplished HR practitioner, Laurie has industry experience in non-profit, health care, consumer packaged goods, and banking. As a senior leader of SHRM’s HR team, she focuses on strategic initiatives to drive innovation to positively impact the employee experience and allow staff to maximize their potential through a culture of learning. She received her Masters’ degree in HRM from Capella University, is a Certified Strengths Coach and holds both SHRM-SCP and CAE designations.

Machael Sherry is a Principal Consultant and Executive Coach at Linkage, a SHRM company, with over two decades of expertise in the learning and development arena. Throughout her career, Machael has spearheaded the creation, implementation, and management of large-scale leadership development initiatives designed to foster self-awareness, inspire action, and drive impactful outcomes for individuals, teams, and organizations. Prior to her tenure at Linkage, Machael held esteemed senior leadership roles, where she consistently enhanced organizational performance by clarifying vision and strategy, nurturing talent, and cultivating inclusive cultures that prioritize people's value and investment in the organization's success. Machael holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Boston College, a Master of Science in Education from Pace University, and a Juris Doctorate from the University at Buffalo School of Law. She has further honed her coaching expertise through an Executive Certificate in Leadership Coaching from Georgetown University’s Institute for Transformational Leadership. As a Professional Certified Coach (PCC) with the International Coaching Federation (ICF), Machael also holds certifications in Linkage’s Advancing Women Leaders Assessment, Linkage’s Purposeful Leadership Assessment, the Hogan Assessments (HPI, HDS, and MVPI), and the EQ-i 2.0 Assessment. Her multifaceted background and unwavering commitment to excellence position her as a trusted advisor and catalyst for professional growth and organizational success.

Clayton Lord (Clay, he/him) oversees strategy, planning, program delivery, and program evaluation for the SHRM Foundation, the 501(c)3 nonprofit arm of SHRM, which focuses on widening pathways to work and helping every worker and workplace thrive by empowering HR leaders to be forces for social good. He is a social impact executive who has spent his career driving systemic change in the world of work. Clay is also a writer, painter, and quilter, as well as a travel fanatic, and holds a B.A. in English and Psychology from Georgetown University. He lives with his husband and daughter in Maryland.

Andy Tonsing is Vice President of Postsecondary Education at Stand Together. He is an experienced philanthropic and business leader in advancing innovative work and learning models that help people unlock their potential. He has a background in international education and online learning startups, including helping to establish the Pioneer Research Program, one of the premier academic summer programs for high school students in the US.

Clayton Lord (Clay, he/him) oversees strategy, planning, program delivery, and program evaluation for the SHRM Foundation, the 501(c)3 nonprofit arm of SHRM, which focuses on widening pathways to work and helping every worker and workplace thrive by empowering HR leaders to be forces for social good. He is a social impact executive who has spent his career driving systemic change in the world of work. Clay is also a writer, painter, and quilter, as well as a travel fanatic, and holds a B.A. in English and Psychology from Georgetown University. He lives with his husband and daughter in Maryland.

Elizabeth is currently the Manager, Foundation Programs overseeing SHRM Foundation’s strategic priority of Building Inclusive Workplaces. In that capacity, she oversees the Foundation’s initiatives around leveraging untapped talent including Veterans At Work, Employing Abilities and Getting Talent Back to Work. She joins the Foundation with extensive experience across the corporate, nonprofit, and government sectors. She most recently served as the Deputy Executive Director for PFLAG National working to advance equality and anti-discrimination efforts. In that role, she also partnered with corporate diversity and HR professionals on partnerships to impact the workplace culture for the LGBTQ community. She lives in Alexandria with her spouse, two sons, and an oversized rescue dog.

Allison Chamberlayne is the Director of Operations for Hiring Our Heroes, an initiative of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation connecting transitioning service members, veteran, military spouses, and caregivers with American businesses to create economic opportunity and a strong and diversified workforce. In her role, Allison focuses on day-to-day program operations, staff development, process improvement, and strengthening partnerships.

Allison is a military spouse who served alongside her husband, a retired Army Engineer, for over 25 years. She joined Hiring Our Heroes in January of 2018, as a part of the Corporate Fellowship Program. Over the past four and a half years, Allison has held several roles to include Operations Manager, Program Manager of Corporate Fellowship program in the National Capital Region and Deputy Director of the Military Spouse Fellowship Program.

Before her career at Hiring Our Heroes, Allison faced the same employment challenges as those she currently serves. She has held full time, part time and temporary positions in multiple fields to include Accounting, Logistics, Marketing, Finance and Education. This has made her a passionate advocate for military spouses in their pursuit of meaningful employment opportunities.

Allison has a bachelor’s degree in Urban Affairs from Virginia Tech and being a diehard Hokie consumes much of her and her family’s free time. She resides in McLean, VA with her husband, Ed (VT ’93, ‘02, ‘11 ) and son Eddie (VT ’24). Her daughter, Emma (UVA ’20) lives nearby and tolerates the VT fanaticism.