Lana Williams is a Program Manager with the SHRM Foundation where she manages The Foundation’s initiatives to support students and emerging professionals, as well as their efforts to expand and diversify the HR sector. She brings a wide range of expertise in social impact and DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) from her experience within the nonprofit, advocacy, and corporate sectors.

Prior to this role, she was serving as the Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging Project Manager for NetApp where she managed the employee business resource groups and evolution of diversity and inclusion programming, as well as increasing employee engagement and belonging initiatives. She also held roles at the Sodexo Stop Hunger Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Sodexo, and the Human Rights Campaign where she was responsible for the oversight and coordination of the daily activities for the annual Corporate Equality Index and Buying for Workplace Equality Guide.

Lana graduated from The New School in New York City with a MS in Nonprofit Management and a BA from Wake Forest University in North Carolina.

As founder of WorkJoy, Tina builds on 20 years of operations, technology consulting, and HR leadership experience to provide facilitation and coaching solutions to organizations ready to unleash the potential of their people. She co-creates talent programs that drive business outcomes and deliver human results, partnering with leaders from prominent organizations including Fabletics, FOX Sports, National Wildlife Federation, SAP, Savage X Fenty, and Spotify. Tina graduated from the University of Virginia (BA), University of Michigan (MBA), and Coactive Training Institute coaching program, and is adjunct faculty at Loyola Marymount University. She lives in Los Angeles with her writer husband and two pet parrots.

Jodi Brandstetter is a Brand Positioning Coach specializing in human design and design thinking, empowering HR business consultants to define their business uniquely. With two decades of HR and business experience, Jodi offers tailored strategies for HR consultants to authentically connect with their ideal customers. As an 8-time Amazon Bestselling Author, Jodi lives outside Cincinnati, Ohio, with her family.

Martin Keen, an IBM Master Inventor, holds over 400 issued patents and leads the development of online video training content for the Systems Technical Training team. Renowned for his engaging educational content, Martin's AI-focused videos on the IBM Technology YouTube channel have amassed over 6 million views, making him a leading voice in AI technology education. 

Jennifer Currence is a Senior Partner of HR Soul consultancy firm in Tampa, Florida, where she delivers results through strategic HR solutions, customized training, and coaching programs for organizational and HR leaders. She is the creator of The SOTO Approach to Leadership and the content architect for the Society for Human Resource Management’s (SHRM) international People Manager Qualification (PMQ).

Jennifer is regularly published and featured in industry magazines, webinars, and podcasts, and is the author of three HR books on behavioral business competencies.

Jennifer was named one of the top 100 Influential HR professionals in Leadership and Development in 2023 and Tampa Bay’s HR Consultant of the Year in 2017.  She is a faculty member for SHRM and a former management professor at the University of Tampa.

Jennifer Currence is a Senior Partner of HR Soul consultancy firm in Tampa, Florida, where she delivers results through strategic HR solutions, customized training, and coaching programs for organizational and HR leaders. She is the creator of The SOTO Approach to Leadership and the content architect for the Society for Human Resource Management’s (SHRM) international People Manager Qualification (PMQ).

Jennifer is regularly published and featured in industry magazines, webinars, and podcasts, and is the author of three HR books on behavioral business competencies.

Jennifer was named one of the top 100 Influential HR professionals in Leadership and Development in 2023 and Tampa Bay’s HR Consultant of the Year in 2017.  She is a faculty member for SHRM and a former management professor at the University of Tampa.

Nanci Appleman-Vassil is a highly sought after Certified Speaking Professional® (CSP) and accomplished business professional with more than 25 years' experience in training, organization development, and corporate consulting with focus on coaching and developing managers and building high-performing teams.She is the Founder and CEO of APLS Group, a firm that specializes in facilitating individuals, groups and organizations toward better solutions for increased effectiveness.Known for her dynamic style that touches hearts, engages minds and gets an audience smiling, Nanci infuses her presentations with real-life examples that are relatable to the audience and bring teams to a new level of understanding. From keynotes to webinars to workshops and everything in between, Nanci will get you excited about discovering, learning and transforming your behavior to increase your influence in the workplace.As part of her commitment to helping others increase their confidence and competence, Nanci devotes her off work time to supporting non-profits and aspiring entrepreneurs. 
 

Rae Vann is Head of Employment Law and Labor Relations for Wayfair. She and her team are responsible for guiding and counseling cross-functional Talent teams and business leaders on ensuring compliance with a wide range of labor and employment laws and requirements, supporting and executing practical strategies for proactively preventing and mitigating legal risk, and responding to, and coordinating the defense of,  employee disputes and contested proceedings.

Prior to joining Wayfair in January 2022, Rae spent more than two decades in private practice, where she represented and advised corporate clients on a variety of workplace compliance and DEI matters. She previously served as the senior vice president and general counsel of the Center for Workplace Compliance (formerly the Equal Employment Advisory Council (EEAC)). There, she advocated for the development of sound workplace policy in the courts and before federal regulatory agencies, including authoring numerous amicus curiae briefs with the U.S. Supreme Court and federal courts of appeals. Rae also authored comments and testified before the U.S. Congress and the EEOC on a range of equal employment opportunity and workplace compliance matters.

Having begun her career in enforcement, Rae is well-versed in recognizing and mitigating individual and systemic discrimination risks, establishing effective alternative dispute resolution procedures, conducting thorough and effective workplace harassment and other misconduct investigations, and other labor and employment matters. As a member of the EEOC’s Select Task Force on the Study of Harassment in the Workplace, Rae helped guide development of a detailed set of recommendations to help employers prevent workplace harassment. The recommendations were released in June 2016, ahead of the international #MeToo movement.

Rae is a nationally recognized speaker and author on labor and employment issues. Her thought leadership has been featured in media including the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg Law, Law360, National Law Journal, National Public Radio, PBS NewsHour, Politico, and Reuters. She is a Faculty member for the Institute for Workplace Equality and is on the Board of Directors for the American Employment Law Council (AELC), the nation’s premier, invitation-only organization of high level labor and employment attorneys practicing on the management side.