James J. McDonald, Jr. is a partner in the Irvine, California and Tampa, Florida offices of Fisher & Phillips LLP, where he is a litigator, trial lawyer and strategic advisor to employers regarding labor and employment law matters.  He is author of the SHRM-published book, California Employment Law: An Employer’s Guide, and he is a frequent speaker on employment law issues.  He is a cum laude law graduate of Georgetown University and a member of the California and Florida Bars, and he holds the SHRM-SCP certification.

 

 

Shanti has been an innovator in the legal training industry for more than a decade, designing powerful compliance solutions for employers that maximize legal defenses while creating a culture of ethics, inclusion and respect.

Under Shanti’s leadership, ELT has grown to become a dominant player in its field, now servicing more than 2,000 employers around the world, and training more than 5,000,000 employees. In addition to overseeing ELT’s product and business development, Shanti also advises ELT clients regarding strategic risk management initiatives and workplace compliance.

Linda Southard has over 20 years of experience in the leave management industry. She founded and was the past President of Work & Well, a national medical leave management company that manages and administers all medical leaves. After selling Work & Well to a private investor group in 2009, Linda formed Southard Consulting while continuing to consult to her former company. Ms. Southard has been an expert speaker at numerous national conferences on medical leave management, workers’ compensation, return-to-work programs, tracking outcomes, and developing and utilizing benchmarks.

Cathy Carothers is Co-Director of Every Mother, Inc., an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant, and the national project coordinator for the U.S. Health and Human Services initiative, "The Business Case for Breastfeeding." She has coordinated numerous national breastfeeding initiatives for various branches of the federal government, and has provided more than 350 workshops in the field of lactation in every U.S. State and several foreign countries. As the author and lead trainer for the national "Business Case for Breastfeeding" project, she assists businesses with complying with the new federal legislation requiring lactation support for breastfeeding employees.

 

Michele Whitehead is Senior Manager of Client Services at Berkshire Associates. In her position, Michele is responsible for overseeing, developing, and implementing training and consulting services related to affirmative action and pay equity analysis.

With over 20 years in the human resource industry, Michele is an expert in HR practices and procedures. This experience allows her to develop and present training sessions to educate clients on the latest affirmative action, applicant management, compensation, and workforce analysis topics and trends. She has a true passion for educating fellow HR professionals, which is why she has been an active speaker throughout the country at conferences and meetings including the Society for Human Resource Management’s (SHRM) Talent Management and Annual Conferences.

Michele has a Master of Business Administration in Human Resource Management and Management Skills from New York State University at Buffalo. Michele holds both SPHR and SHRM-SCP Certification and is a member of the national Society for Human Resource Management.  

Kristyn Hurley is a Senior Human Resource Consultant for Berkshire Associates Inc. As an expert in compliance, Kristyn has partnered with hundreds of companies, of all sizes and industries, to accomplish their affirmative action and EEO compliance objectives. With over fifteen years experience, Kristyn has successfully provided Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) audit support, salary analyses, personnel action reviews, and HR strategic, functional, and planning assistance to Berkshire’s clients throughout the country. Her diverse skill set extends beyond compliance to include special training in traditional and Internet recruiting, behavioral interviewing, and new hire employment negotiations. Other areas include workforce analyses, compensation, employment policy development, and succession planning.

Dana Cotham is an attorney, law professor, and nationally-sought after speaker.   Dana considers herself a workplace advocate and enjoys making complicated employment law issues easy to understand.  She provides customized, in-house training and public seminars to her clients throughout the United States discussing human resources and employment law topics including the FMLA, ADA, Sexual Harassment, and Retaliation.  Dana has written policies and procedures for both large and small employers including the Nevada Supreme Court. 

Mark Toth has served as Chief Legal Officer of ManpowerGroup’s U.S. operations since 2000. He is a recognized expert on legal issues affecting the U.S. workplace and has been interviewed by The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Business Week, 60 Minutes and many others. His award-winning employment law blog was recently named one of the Ten Best Corporate Blogs in the World. He has been named to SHRM’s national Top Ten Highest Rated Speakers list each of the past two years and is the former Chair of the American Staffing Association.

Cynthia S. Sandoval is a Partner in Jackson Lewis LLP’s Orange County office. She has dedicated her entire legal career to the practice of employment law/litigation. Ms. Sandoval regularly defends clients against claims pertaining to numerous employment issues, including, discrimination, harassment, retaliation, leaves of absence and reasonable accommodation. She has also represented clients in connection with wage and hour issues including meal and rest periods, misclassification, and overtime compensation. In addition to her litigation practice, Ms. Sandoval counsels employers on their personnel policies including anti-harassment, equal employment opportunity, leave of absence, vacation policies, and wage and hour issues. Ms. Sandoval also provides training seminars on numerous employment matters including hiring practices, how to avoid wrongful termination, leave issues, wage and hour traps for the unwary, sexual harassment and discrimination (in both English and Spanish). Ms. Sandoval received her B.A. in Business Economics from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1993. In 1997, she received her J.D. from Golden Gate University, where she was a Merit Scholar.