In her role as Director, HR Competencies for the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), Kari Strobel is responsible for overseeing key initiatives around professionalism and competencies to include the assessment and implementation of SHRM’s HR Competency Model, and setting the research agenda for developing additional competency-based talent management tools.

Prior to joining SHRM in 2013, Dr. Strobel worked at the Department of Defense where she was responsible for leading the development, assessment, and implementation of competencies for the total force.  Dr. Strobel has also been responsible for managing organizational development projects for the Chief of Naval Operations, Surface Warfare Enterprise and the Naval Mine and Anti-Submarine Warfare Command. 

With over 30 journal articles, technical reports, and national and international conference presentations, to include published works in Journal of Applied Psychology and Human Performance, Situation Awareness and Automation, Dr. Strobel has received national recognition for her contributions to the field.  She was the first recipient of the 2002 American Psychological Association Division 19 (Military Psychology) Research Award, and received Honorable Mention from the Virginia Academy of Science for her team performance research. 

As a consultant she has worked with Hewlett Packard, Motorola, Royal Dutch Shell, Deutche Bank, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, The United States Army, and the State of Virginia’s Peninsula Aids Foundation.

Dr. Strobel received her Doctor of Philosophy degree in Industrial-Organizational Psychology from Old Dominion University. 

Elise Miller, MBA, SPHR is the Director of Educational Products at SHRM. Elise has over 10 years of experience in HR and product development and management. She is responsible for SHRM’s certification preparation products as well as SHRM’s competency assessment tools.

Shiza Shahid is an entrepreneur and social activist of Pakistani origin. She is the CEO and co-founder of the Malala Fund, the organization representing the young Pakistani activist who was shot by the Taliban for her campaign for girls’ education. A graduate of Stanford University, Shiza was previously a business analyst at McKinsey & Company in the Middle East. She is now leading Malala Fund in its work to empower girls through education. Shiza was recently named one of TIME magazine’s “30 Under 30 World Changers” and to Forbes “30 Under 30″ list of social entrepreneurs.

Around the world, over 600 million adolescent girls are denied a formal education because of social, economic, legal and political factors. And in being denied an education, society loses one of its greatest and most powerful resources. The Malala Fund aims to change that. Education empowers girls to raise their voices, to unlock their potential, and to demand change. The Malala Fund’s solutions are grounded in inspired innovation: they are girl-centric approaches to education that support the Fund’s goal of creating a world where every girl reaches her true potential.

Shiza currently lives in New York City.