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.

Michelle Ray is a highly sought-after international business keynote speaker, consultant, author and educator who demonstrates a deep understanding of importance of self-leadership in business and in life. Born in Australia, Michelle began her career in the media industry during the recession of the early 80′s. She was once told by management that she “didn’t have what it takes” to succeed in the business world. Despite a lack of mentors, Michelle was inspired to move up the management ladder to self-employment; creating her own successful international business. She believes that leadership is a state of mind and helps individuals at any stage of their career to master personal leadership…the ability to take charge of oneself first in any situation. Michelle speaks passionately about self – actualization, the importance of outstanding leadership in the workplace and the responsibility of positive communication and influence.

Follow Michelle on Twitter @michelleraycsp.

Keri Gasiorowski is Senior Director of Talent Management for Digital Risk, the largest global independent provider of risk, compliance, and transaction management solutions. She has over 10 years of experience in Talent Management, including having worked for Robert Half International and United Stationers Supply Company. In her role at Digital Risk, she leads the Talent Acquisition, Learning & Development, and Internal Communications functions. Keri has her Bachelor’s Degree in Organizational Behavior and her Masters in Human Resource Management, both from Rollins College in Winter Park, FL. Aside from working at Digital Risk, Keri is lead faculty member for Human Resource courses at Rollins College and has been published in many industry periodicals including the Encyclopedia for Human Resource Management.

Follow Keri on Twitter @KeriGasiorowski.

William D. Wight is a partner in the Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. offices and is the chair of the firm's International Employment Practice Group.  He counsels employers on various global employment, compensation and benefit issues related to employees abroad, as well as foreign nationals working in the U.S. and the employment of the U.S. permanent residents and citizens abroad.  Bill has worked with compliance issues related to hiring, retention and separation of employees in a multitude of jurisdictions.  His experience with global employment issues has helped him assist our clients with international operations on all sevel continents including Antarctica.  Bill has assisted clients with the implementation of strategic planning and policy development with respect to global HR practices and policies.  He has also assisted clients with the management of litigation and employment controversy matters in numerous international jurisdictions.  Bill has also counseled clients based outside the United States with the special considerations that are required when complying with U.S. employment and employee benefit rules and regulations. Bill is regularly involved with resolving questions related to privacy and data protection issues.  

Jathan Janove, a former state bar Employment Lawyer of the Year and now Executive Coach and Organization Development consultant, writes SHRM’s “Putting Humanity into HR Compliance” column, and is a Master Coach and Practice Leader with the Marshall Goldsmith Stakeholder Centered Coaching organization, including writing its Ask the Coach column. He’s the author, most recently, of “Hard-Won Wisdom: True Stories From The Management Trenches” (HarperCollins 2017). He’s currently working on his next book, “From Compliance Cop to Culture Coach: Transforming the HR Profession.”