Mike Aitken is Executive Vice President, HR Professional Solutions at SHRM, following 15 years of leading SHRM’s successful advocacy programs as Vice President of Government Affairs.  

Mike is a leading authority on the issues important to the human resource profession and drives SHRM’s membership vision, ensuring excellent member experiences, and implementing the organization’s newly developed business strategy.

He applies his proven model of engagement to shape the future of work, workers, and workplaces. He is an expert relationship-builder across diverse constituencies and stakeholders, always seeking out the “win-win” in every situation.

As a member of SHRM’s executive team, Mike also plays a key role in setting the strategic direction of the organization, offering important counsel on SHRM’s educational programs and professional development opportunities.

Before joining SHRM in 2003, he spent 14 years with the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources (CUPA-HR), which represents more than 23,000 HR professionals at over 1,900 higher education institutions. 

In 2015 and 2016, Mike served as an employer representative on the U.S. delegation to the International Labour Conference.

Mike holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of San Diego.

Wendi Safstrom is a senior non-profit leader committed to serving the public through philanthropic program management, cultivating strategic partnerships and managing and developing high performing teams. She has both association and nonprofit management experience including; national program development and administration, membership strategy, marketing and product development, grant management, development and donor stewardship, and leading cross functional teams. Safstrom currently serves as President for the Society for Human Resource Management Foundation (SHRM Foundation), where she leads the development and implementation of SHRM Foundation's programmatic, development, and marketing and communication strategies in support of SHRM Foundation's new mission and vision, creating growth plans and ensuring alignment with SHRM goals.  

Prior to assuming the role at SHRM Foundation, Safstrom served as Vice President at the National Restaurant Association and National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation, where she led the development and implementation of their Foundation's most recent five-year strategic plan, and was responsible for all Foundation programming, including workforce development initiatives, scholarship and event management, community relations and engagement initiatives. The NRAEF's philanthropic programming supported a number of audiences including high school youth, veterans transitioning from service to civilian work and life, opportunity youth and incumbent workers. Of particular note, she led the implementation of the restaurant industry's premier high school career and technical education program, growing the program to over 2,000 public high schools, engaging over 150,000 students annually, nationwide. In 2016, she served as lead project director for the development of a $10 million contract awarded by the U.S. Department of Labor to develop the hospitality industry's first apprenticeship program, and was instrumental in the Foundation's reorganization and relocation of operations from Chicago, Illinois to Washington, D.C., transforming the staff and culture.  

Safstrom has also held human resource management roles with the Leo Burnett Company and Hyatt Hotels Corporation in Chicago, Illinois. She has a BS in Business Administration from the Eli Broad School of Business at Michigan State University and was recognized as a member of the 2014 "Power 20" by Restaurant Business Magazine as a leader in philanthropy within the restaurant industry.  

Charmaine Davis is an experienced policy strategist, facilitator and organizer that has built diverse coalitions of labor, community and government organizations, trained grassroots leaders, and directed legislative campaigns using a racial and gender lens to end employment discrimination against justice impacted people, expand access to job protected leave and advance pay equity.

Charmaine began her career as a community organizer for the national organization Project Vote. After moving to Atlanta, GA Charmaine became the State Director for the Georgia chapter of 9to5, The National Association of Working Women. As State Director, she led all chapter organizing, legislative work and membership-building activities. In her role with 9to5 she worked with Georgia state legislators to draft the Family Care Act, a bill to expand job protected leave to Georgia workers. She successfully led lobbying efforts that resulted in the Family Care Act being signed into law by Georgia Governor Nathan Deal in May of 2017. 

While serving as the State Director for 9to5 Charmaine launched Atlanta’s “Ban the Box” campaign. Ban the Box is a campaign to reduce employment discrimination against the formerly incarcerated by removing questions from employment applications inquiring about an individual’s criminal record. In January of 2013, in response to Charmaine’s organizing efforts, the city of Atlanta made history by becoming the first city in Georgia to remove all questions regarding an applicant’s criminal background from city employment applications. This policy change has expanded employment opportunities to thousands of people across the state of Georgia.

Charmaine has received various forms of recognition and awards for her work including being inducted into the YWCA’s Women of Achievement Academy, being named one of Georgia’s 40 under 40 Rising Stars by Georgia Trend Magazine, being awarded Political Organizer of the Year by Project Vote and being named one of Marquis Who's Who in America in 2019.

Charmaine continues to promote the welfare of wage earning women by serving as the Director of Regional Programs and Operations for the US Department of Labor’s Women's Bureau.

Elisha is a Vice President of Aon’s U.S. Health Transformation Team. She is a member of the U.S. Health Transformation Leadership Team. She is a leader for the Minneapolis Apprentice Program. Her role is to partner globally with Aon colleagues and client leaders to understand the current employee wellbeing strategy, culture, and utilization to inform needed changes or enhancements. Her role also includes people leadership, which includes developing the next leaders at Aon.

Prior to joining Aon in 2021, Elisha served as the Clinical Director at Cigna Healthcare and concurrently practiced in the field for 18 years as a Licensed Mental Health Professional.  She first began working in the industry in 2003 as a Mental Health Practitioner. Her background stretches clinical practice in community-based care, school-based counseling, and outpatient services. During her 16 years at Cigna, the highlights of her career were that she built Utilization and Case Management Programs in Autism and Eating Disorders and built a Talent Readiness and Sustainment Program for Medical and Behavioral Operations to serve 4,000 employees.

Elisha’s expertise includes systemic mental health care. She brings her systemic thinking into her Prosci Change Management Certification to lead organizational changes. Her background also includes organizational cultural journey development and sustainment. She is trained in Mental Health First Aid.