Kevin Cope is the #1 Wall Street Journal and New York Times bestselling author of Seeing the Big Picture: Business Acumen to Build Your Credibility, Career, and Company. A renowned trainer and speaker, Kevin has spent the last 25 years working with top organizations including 30 Fortune 50 companies. His 5 Business Drivers model and ideas, shared with millions through his book, articles, and courses, have been praised for being relevant and actionable; they help you come to the table prepared.

Margaret is CEO for The HR Edge, Inc., an international management consulting and training company. Her clients have included Lockheed Martin, Chevron, Time Warner, U.S. Secret Service, Sara Lee Foods, Home and Garden Television, Roche, Nationwide Insurance, NAPA Auto Parts, Homeland Security, New York Presbyterian Hospital (Cornell & Columbia Medical Centers), U.S. Marine Corps, Deloitte, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Vanderbilt University, Comcast, Intercontinental Hotel Group, National Institutes of Health, McKee Foods, Skanska, Fox Broadcasting, Schwarz BioSciences, Fifth Third Bank, Verizon, SAS (computer software), The Nashville Predators national hockey franchise, Northrop Grumman, Miami University, Wells Fargo, TECO Energy, AmSurg, Quorum Health Resources, the U.S. Naval Nuclear Submarine Group and various local and state governments. Previous to owning her own company, Margaret was Sr. Vice President, Human Resources Consulting for a national consulting firm out of Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She has a BS degree from the University of Alabama and a JD degree from the Vanderbilt University School of Law. She has worked as an attorney, specializing in employment law as well as been Vice President of Human Resources for three large companies and served on the Board of Directors for Aegis Sciences Corporation. She is often quoted as a business expert in newspapers and magazines across the country including Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Chicago Tribune, USA Today, CBS Money Watch and Entrepreneur and appears regularly on local ABC, CBS and Fox television affiliates. She is the author of the business books, “Management Courage – Having the Heart of a Lion” and “The Hidden Language of Business – Workplace Politics, Power & Influence.”

Americus Reed, II is the Whitney M. Young Jr., Professor of Marketing at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, where he has served on faculty since 2000. He received a Ph.D. (Consumer Behavior and Social Psychology) from the University of Florid a’s Warrington College of Business after receiving two master’s degrees (Organizational Behavior and Market Research Methods) and a B.B.A (Strategy) from Georgia State University. Professor Reed’s primary research and consulting areas are in brand equity and specifically identity driven marketing – the study of creating and fostering “brand communities” that transcend the utilitarian aspects of products; connect to deep levels of emotional and social affiliation, and cultivate lifelong loyalty with consumers (http://americusreed.com/). 

In 2005, his academic work in this area received honorable mention for the prestigious Robert Ferber Award for academic impact in the Journal of Consumer Research (JCR) and in 2009 he received JCR’s Best Paper Award. Professor Reed has authored more than 40 articles and book chapters on the topic. He teaches courses in customer analysis, branding and consumer psychology to undergraduate, graduate, doctoral and executive students.

Steve Browne, SHRM-SCP is the Chief People Officer for LaRosa's, Inc., a regional Pizzeria chain. He has 35+ years working as an HR professional in a variety of industries. He has a globally recognized HR blog and author of three books, HR on Purpose !!, HR Rising !! and HR Unleashed !! He is a past member of the SHRM Board of Directors. Steve also runs a global HR network called the HR Net which reaches 15,000+ HR and business professionals weekly.

The exclusive teacher of improvisational comedy at the DC Improv for more than eight years, Shawn Westfall teaches classes in beginning improv, advanced short-form and long-form improv, as well as improv workshops focusing on character, long form, and non-traditional improv techniques. His classes (and the numerous performances they've generated) have been featured in the pages of The Washington Post, The Washington Post Express, Washingtonian magazine, as well on Washington Post Radio, DC 101, WTOP Radio, Mix 107.3's "The Jack Diamond Morning Show," on The Food Network's "Dinner: Impossible!," as well as on such local media outlets as K Street Kate's video weblog, and other local blogs, including WeLoveDC.com, among many others. Not only has Shawn taught the principles of improv to individual students, he's also taught improv as a strategy for fomenting creativity, teambuilding and organizational development to various private, public and non-governmental organizations, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Discovery Channel, B'nai Brith Youth Organization, Touchstone Consulting, Booz Allen Hamilton, and The Washington Post Company, among numerous others.

Follow Shawn on Twitter @shawnwestfall.

Tim Sackett, SCP, is the CEO of HRUTech.com, a leading technical recruiting firm. Tim has over 20 years of combined executive HR and talent acquisition experience working for Fortune 500 companies. Tim is a highly sought-after international speaker on leadership, HR &TA Tech, talent acquisition, and HR execution. Tim is currently a Senior Faculty member with the Josh Bersin Academy. He is also an Angel investor and advisor and sits on multiple HR Technology corporate boards.

Tim is the author of the newly released book The Talent Fix, Vol. 2. He also writes daily on his blog, the Tim Sackett Project. Tim is married to a hall-of-fame wife, has three sons, and his dog Tucker. In 2023, he was named a Top Global HR & Recruitment Influencer by HR Executive. He has more Twitter (X) followers than his 3 Gen Z sons and is sponsored on stage by diet Mt. Dew.

Sandy Michelet is the Senior HR Director at Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center and the current President for Greater Baton Rouge SHRM. She is proficient as a top multi-project manager and team builder in program implementation, requirement identification, performance reviews and executive relationship building. She has experience in the creative design and execution of successful, high-impact training initiatives and performance metrics plans; formation and administration of employee evaluation surveys, infrastructure support and skills assessments. As the Director of HR Corporate Services for the Shaw Group, a global 27,000 employee Fortune 500 Company, she led the HR Operations, Learning and Development, Compliance and Leaves of Absence teams. She led the development and launch of new programs, policies and processes, led the company wide initiative to become I-9/e-verify compliant (she shares your love of the I-9) and launched the Shaw Group’s first orientation program. As a self-professed “paper hater”, she initiated the paperless initiative to transition paper personnel files to OCR electronic files for 28,000 employees and led the effort to create standardized hiring processes and new hire packets across business units.

Follow Sandy on Twitter @SandyMichelet.

In her new role as SHRM’s Senior Speechwriter for the SHRM’s Speaker’s Bureau, Aliah is responsible for managing the speaking program for SHRM executives and Board Members totaling more than 200 presentations annually. In addition, she writes and edits many of the speeches given by SHRM senior executives and vice presidents.

A subject matter expert on social media engagement and social strategy, HR technology and global human resources Aliah, a journalist for more than 15 years, began working in SHRM’s editorial division in March of 2008. She has written for SHRM Online and HR Magazine.

She is the author of the best-selling SHRM-published book, A Necessary Evil: Managing Employees' Activity on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn … and the Hundreds of Other Social Media Sites, which encourages HR professionals to embrace social media as a tool for increased employee engagement. It also shows HR professionals how to effectively promote, protect, and defend their firm’s brands and reputations on social media platforms encouraging them to manage employee activity with legal social media policies.

She has delivered keynote addresses and speeches across the United States, Canada and Europe, where she attended and moderated conferences—including the SHRM Annual Conference on a variety of HR topics, including social media engagement, recruiting and HR technology selection.

After receiving a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism from Temple University in her hometown of Philadelphia, she worked as a Reporter and Editor for the Philadelphia Inquirer, The Philadelphia Daily News, The Greenville (S.C) News and as a Political Correspondent for the nation’s largest news organization, The Associated Press. She left there to work at USA Today where, as the Entertainment Editor for Gannett News Service, she managed a team of entertainment reporters nationwide for all of Gannett’s papers, including the nation’s largest daily newspaper — USA Today.

She is a frequent speaker on various social media topics and has been featured in a number of publications, blogs and podcasts, among them The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Forbes, American Express Business Blog, HR Magazine, Small Business Digest, Talent Management Blog, JumpStartHR Blog, and the Business Life & Coffee and National Press Club podcasts.

She is the proud mom of an aspiring psychologist who’s studying abroad in Australia next year. You can follow her tweets @1SHRMScribe and read her articles published on SHRM.org and LinkedIn.

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.