Jeff Smith
partner
Fisher Phillips, LLP
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Jeff Smith is a partner in the Cleveland office and a member of Fisher Phillip's Employee Benefits Practice Group. He works with clients to create, implement and maintain their retirement and health plans.
He also advises employers on the impact of the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), as well as Multiple Employer Welfare Arrangements (MEWAs) and Voluntary Employer Beneficiary Associations (VEBAs).
 
While in law school, Jeff served as Executive Notes Editor and earlier as Associate Editor of the Health Matrix: Journal of Law-Medicine. He has been selected for inclusion in Ohio Super Lawyers -Rising Star three times. He was also listed in Best Lawyers in 2017.
 
SESSIONS:
Karen A. Young
President
HR Resolutions, LLC
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Karen A. Young is a sought-after speaker and consultant best known for her programs on leadership, communication, and how to have a drama-free workplace. In her latest book, Sought After, Karen offers a fail-safe formula for career success along with entertaining anecdotes about career-ending moves that led to forward trajectory. Her first book, Honest and Real reimagines HR fundamentals while offering candid advice on reducing daily HR drama.

Karen is recognized professionally through SHRM and HRCI as a Senior Certified Professional and a Senior Professional in HR, respectively. She has been recognized as one of Pennsylvania’s Best 50 Women in Business, and AGS ranked HR Resolutions as a Best HR Consulting Company in 2021. Central Penn Business Journal honored HR Resolutions in 2020 as a Game Changer—one of Central PA’s most dynamic and impactful businesses and leaders.

Karen regularly contributes HR insights and strategy nationwide to Forbes, USAToday, SHRM, and ZipRecruiter. Karen holds a BS in Business Administration and Psychology and a MA in Industrial Relations. She resides in Harrisburg, PA, with her husband Barry and their retired racing greyhounds.

SESSIONS:
Lori Kleiman, SHRM-SCP
Personal Pronouns
She/Her/Hers
Managing Director
HR Topics
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Been there – done that!  With 30 years of HR and business experience – Lori has walked in your shoes.  A recovered HR Generalist, she built a consulting company that she sold to Arthur J Gallagher after 7 years and then reinvented her current business – HR Topics -  training, speaking and developing content for HR professionals.  Lori delivers facts, tips, tricks and best practices in a way that appeals to human resource and business leaders: with a sense of humor, a bias toward actions that improve their operations right away, and practical resources and tools to support their progress.  As an annual speaker at the National SHRM conference, she has leveraged her masters in HR, SPHR and SHRM-SCP background to elevate the position of all HR professionals!

 

 

SESSIONS:
Michael Bach
Personal Pronouns
He/Him/His
CEO
Future of IDEA, LLC
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Michael Bach is a nationally and internationally recognized thought leader and subject matter expert in the fields of inclusion, diversity, equity and accessibility (IDEA). He has worked globally in the IDEA field, including as the Deputy Chief Diversity Officer for KPMG International. He is the founder of the Canadian Centre for Diversity and Inclusion (CCDI), CCDI Consulting and Pride at Work Canada.

He is the author of the best-selling and award-winning books Birds of All Feathers: Doing Diversity and Inclusion Right and Alphabet Soup: The Essential Guide to LGBTQ2+ Inclusion at Work.

SESSIONS:
Michael Baran
Founder and CEO
Iris Inclusion
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Dr. Michael Baran is the CEO of Iris Inclusion, a global diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) firm. Dr. Baran draws on his own social science research to inform his DEI speaking engagements, writings, consulting, leadership development, and eLearning. After teaching at Harvard University, he has been supporting DEI in organizations for 20 years. His work has been covered in the New York Times, BBC, Forbes, CNN, NPR, and more.

His recent book, Subtle Acts of Exclusion, was named by Forbes as one of “The 11 Books To Read To Be A More Inclusive Leader” and has won several awards.

SESSIONS:
Monday, June 12, 2023 - 11:40am to 12:00pm
Amy Beacom
Founder and CEO
Center for Parental Leave Leadership
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Dr. Amy Beacom is credited as the trailblazer who built the vertical broadly referred to as parental leave support. Amy conceived of and began developing the field of parental leave coaching and consulting in 2006. In 2014 she founded the Center for Parental Leave Leadership, the first full service consultancy in the US to focus exclusively on parental leave strategy, research, and training. Drawing on over 25 years in executive leadership development and coaching, Amy consults with organizations of all sizes to drive talent development, attraction, and retention while improving the employee experience.

SESSIONS:
Cindy Huggett, CPTD
Founder & CEO
Cindy Huggett Consulting, LLC
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As a leading industry expert and 20+ year pioneer of virtual training and hybrid learning, Cindy Huggett, CPTD, has vast experience helping organizations create engaging learning solutions. She’s the author of several acclaimed books including Virtual Training Tools and Templates: An Action Guide to Live Online Learning, and The Facilitator’s Guide to Immersive, Blended and Hybrid Learning. She partners with organizations on learning strategy and teaches trainers how to effectively facilitate online. She’s also a past member of ATD’s global Board of Directors. Based in Raleigh, NC, Cindy serves clients globally.
SESSIONS:
Dima Ghawi, MBA
DEI Influencer
Dima Ghawi, LLC
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Dima is Middle-Eastern in her genes and global citizen in her spirit. She ignites the untapped potential in individuals across the globe, empowering them to shatter limitations and become courageous, purpose driven leaders.

Through keynote speeches, workshops, and executive coaching, Dima shares her unique leadership transformation journey with one goal in mind: motivate those around her to reimagine their potential and grow into leaders.

Dima has worked across the United States, Europe, Asia, Middle East, and Africa for several Fortune 100 companies and has honed a keen expertise in developing leaders to meet the demands of the global workforce.

 

SESSIONS:
James Robbins
President
The Robbins Group
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James is a rare mix of management consultant, change specialist, adventurer and motivational speaker. James helps turn busy and over-worked managers into inspirational leaders.

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Lorne Epstein, SHRM SCP
Talent Acquisition Leader
Electric Cow LLC
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Lorne Epstein, SHRM-SCP, MSOD, is a social scientist, keynote, and Vistage speaker who consults with senior leaders on improving decision-making outcomes by reducing biases. Over 50,000 professionals have taken his workshops worldwide. He has been quoted in Forbes, Cosmopolitan, Christian Science Monitor, and other publications. His research focuses on improving decision-making and reducing the impacts of unconscious bias in the workplace. Lorne has been leading experiential workshops since 1993. His book, You're Hired! Interview Skills to Get the Job has been downloaded over a half-million times worldwide. Lorne is currently studying cognitive neuroscience at the master’s level at George Mason University. He was admitted to the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society and Psi Chi, The National Honor Society of Psychology.

I was a talent acquisition leader for 23 years supporting teams in the United States, Brazil and India. Many of my teams won awards for their performance. I wrote the National Talent Acquisition and Diversity Hiring plan for the United States Forest Service.

SESSIONS:
Robert Bogue
Personal Pronouns
He/Him/His
President
Thor Projects LLC
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Robert Bogue has led change projects for three decades. As a recovering technologist, he’s changed the way people work as he changed the technology. He’s the author of 28 books and has been a Microsoft MVP for 20 years. His work has transformed corporations, government, and quasi-government organizations. It’s not about the technology, but he leverages his strength in technology and human systems to create change that is sustainable and transformative for organizations of all sizes and shapes.

SESSIONS:
Terri Bogue
Personal Pronouns
She/Her/Hers
Chief Operations Officer
Thor Projects LLC
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Terri Bogue has a passion for helping people be healthy and happy, both physically and emotionally. As a clinical nurse specialist with over 30 years of experience in nursing, she understands how difficult healthcare and life is for patients and providers. Through this experience, she has developed tools that support healthcare providers in delivering effective and compassionate care to their patients and themselves and reducing healthcare-associated infections. She inspires people to learn what boundaries are and how to maintain them, both professionally and personally, cool down a conflict during heated situations, and prevent and recover from burnout. 

SESSIONS:
Jean Oelwang
Founding CEO and Trustee
Virgin Unite
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Jean is the founding CEO and President of Virgin Unite, an entrepreneurial foundation that builds leadership collectives, incubates ideas, and re-invents systems for a better world.   

 Over the last 19 years, she has worked with partners to lead the incubation and start-up of several global initiatives, including: The Elders, The B Team, The Carbon War Room (successfully merged with the RMI), The Africa Donor Collective, Ocean Unite (now ORRAA), The Caribbean Climate Smart Accelerator, 100% Human at Work, The Virgin Unite Constellation, and The Branson Centres of Entrepreneurship.  She also played a key partner role in the incubation of many other initiatives such as The Audacious Project.  

As part of her work over the last three decades, Jean has helped corporations put the wellbeing of people and the planet at their core, including working with over 25 Virgin businesses across 15 industries to help embed purpose in all they do.  Jean also served as a Partner in the Virgin Group leading their people strategy.    

Jean spent seventeen years living and working on six continents to start and help lead mobile phone companies in South Africa, Colombia, Bulgaria, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, and the US.  She was the joint CEO of Virgin Mobile in Australia prior to starting Virgin Unite.   

Jean has long explored the overlap of the business and social sectors having worked for the Foundation for National Parks and Wildlife in Australia, and as a VISTA volunteer where she worked with – and learned from - homeless teens in Chicago.   

 Jean holds several advisory board roles, including The Elders, Vintro, Vatican Humanity 2.0, and the Sara Blakely Foundation.  She is on the boards of RMI, The Caribbean Climate Smart Accelerator, Ocean Unite, Unite BVI Foundation, The B Team, Penn State Board of Visitors, Just Capital, and NOVONIX.  She is also honoured to be a B Team leader.    

  She co-founded Plus Wonder to spark more meaningful deep connections and collaborations in the world. She is the author of the new book, Partnering.       

Jean has been on the TED and TEDx stages as a host and speaker and has been the recipient of several awards including the Bernie Glassman Trailblazer Award, FilmAid Philanthropic Leadership Award, Helen Eakin Eisenhower Award, Gerry Susman Sustainability Award, 2021 Beta Gamma Sigma International Honoree Award, ACCR Capital Community Engagement Award, and Penn State Fellows Award.    

 

SESSIONS:
Monday, June 12, 2023 - 10:15am to 10:40am
Kate Smalkin
SVP of Employer Partnerships
Climb Hire
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Kate currently serves as the SVP of Partnerships for Climb Hire. Most recently, Kate served as Global Talent Lead for Public.com, a venture-backed high-growth retail investment startup based in New York. This is actually Kate’s second stint at Climb Hire - from 2019-2022 she built Climb Hire’s employer partnerships function from scratch, having built 60+ partnerships with companies like Google, Salesforce, Microsoft, Discord, IBM, Gusto, and more. Prior to Climb Hire, she was an Associate Partner with Arete Partners, a boutique SF-based executive search firm, where she ran VP+ level searches in Engineering, Product Marketing, Product Management, and more for Seed-Series A startups globally. Previously, Kate held leadership roles in sales & recruiting at Frederickson Partners in Menlo Park, where she oversaw business development, co-led the consulting & contracting practice, and ran C-level HR searches for marquee companies nationwide. Kate holds an M.A. in Philosophy of Religion from Yale University and a B.A. in French from the University of Redlands. She's thrilled to continue pushing the envelope on systems-level change with Climb Hire, helping companies think more broadly and creatively about entry-level hiring.

SESSIONS:
Tiana Carter
Chief of Staff
USAA
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Since August 2022, Mrs. Tiana Carter has been with USAA serving as the AVP, Human Resources Strategy and Planning, DEI (talent) and the HR chief of staff office. She is a visionary and execution architect who moves the business and people forward with innovative solutions and measurable results. Tiana has over a decade of experience leading workforce, culture and diversity strategies across global brands.  

Reporting directly to the Chief Human Resources Officer, Mrs. Carter serves as Chief of Staff, using over a decade of human resources and client services experience to drive a high- performing team through a culture of connectivity, innovation and collaboration. Tactically, she oversees board operations, change management, HR's budget and business operations.  

Prior to USAA, Mrs. Carter worked at WM Inc. (NYSE: WM) serving as Senior Director of Culture and Social Impact (equivalent to Chief Diversity Officer). She designed and lead execution of WM's pioneering employee engagement, DEI and social impact strategies focused on making the company of nearly 50,000 employees an employer of choice and a great place to work. In 2021, Mrs. Carter was the recipient of the CEO's Circle of Excellence Award, granted to the highest performers across the company. 

Prior to WM, Tiana served as the Vice President of Innovation and Business Development at Skills for Chicagoland's Future's a social impact organization based in Chicago, Illinois. Her work focused on creating strategic diversity and workforce solutions for Fortune 500 and other major brands like Ulta Beauty, Anthem, Gap Inc., W.W. Grainger, CDW, Bank of America, J.P. Morgan Chase, United Airlines, Walgreens, and Exelon. She is a recognized thought leader and her work has been featured by local and nationally recognized newspapers (NBC, Chicago Business, The Chicago Tribune, and the Sun-Times to name a few) and has sat as an expert on numerous panels or has served as a keynote. 

Tiana resides in San Antonio, Texas, with her husband and two daughters. She holds a Master of Arts in Organizational Psychology and Counseling from the Adler University and a Bachelors in Psychology and Communications from Converse College. 

SESSIONS:
Olivia Walsh
VP Talent and Culture
Tyson Foods
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Olivia is the Head of Talent & Culture and leads a team focused on design and execution of strategies to attract, retain and develop talent to promote a positive candidate and team member experience and drive the organization’s competitiveness. In addition, Olivia ensures an integrated strategy and approach with other HR and business areas. 

Olivia has a background in Global Talent Management, Learning & Development, IT, Diversity & Inclusion, & Change Management. 

She leads and coaches current teams of Talent Acquisition, Talent Enablement, Team Member Experience, Learning, HR Change Management, & Workforce Planning to ensure superior performance and delivery of the companies talent Ecosystem. 

She is a Mom to Adam and lives with her husband Michael in North West Arkansas and in her spare time loves hosting dinner parties, podcasts, and running. 

SESSIONS:
Jeremy Reese
Head of L&D
H&M
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Jeremy is currently the Vice-President of Learning & Development for H&M Americas, responsible for creating and driving learning and career development initiatives for over 25K employees in 750 offices and stores across North and Latin America. Prior to H&M, he spent over 10 years overseeing learning strategy, DEI initiatives, talent management, and business operations at the Equinox Group where he contributed to the expansion and growth of the portfolio across four brands: Equinox, Equinox Hotel, SoulCycle and Blink Fitness. He was recently recognized with a Top 100 L&D Professional Award by OnCon and is a frequent guest speaker / lecturer at NYU and Columbia Teachers College.  

He holds a Master’s Degree in Project Management & Organizational Development from NYU, and a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts in Musical Theatre from Ithaca College. Interests include: All things tennis, the performing arts, marathon running, and weekend bagels on New York City’s Upper West Side.   

SESSIONS:
Jean Oelwang
Founding CEO and Trustee
Virgin Unite
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Jean is the founding CEO and President of Virgin Unite, an entrepreneurial foundation that builds leadership collectives, incubates ideas, and re-invents systems for a better world.   

 Over the last 19 years, she has worked with partners to lead the incubation and start-up of several global initiatives, including: The Elders, The B Team, The Carbon War Room (successfully merged with the RMI), The Africa Donor Collective, Ocean Unite (now ORRAA), The Caribbean Climate Smart Accelerator, 100% Human at Work, The Virgin Unite Constellation, and The Branson Centres of Entrepreneurship.  She also played a key partner role in the incubation of many other initiatives such as The Audacious Project.  

As part of her work over the last three decades, Jean has helped corporations put the wellbeing of people and the planet at their core, including working with over 25 Virgin businesses across 15 industries to help embed purpose in all they do.  Jean also served as a Partner in the Virgin Group leading their people strategy.    

Jean spent seventeen years living and working on six continents to start and help lead mobile phone companies in South Africa, Colombia, Bulgaria, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, and the US.  She was the joint CEO of Virgin Mobile in Australia prior to starting Virgin Unite.   

Jean has long explored the overlap of the business and social sectors having worked for the Foundation for National Parks and Wildlife in Australia, and as a VISTA volunteer where she worked with – and learned from - homeless teens in Chicago.   

 Jean holds several advisory board roles, including The Elders, Vintro, Vatican Humanity 2.0, and the Sara Blakely Foundation.  She is on the boards of RMI, The Caribbean Climate Smart Accelerator, Ocean Unite, Unite BVI Foundation, The B Team, Penn State Board of Visitors, Just Capital, and NOVONIX.  She is also honoured to be a B Team leader.    

  She co-founded Plus Wonder to spark more meaningful deep connections and collaborations in the world. She is the author of the new book, Partnering.       

Jean has been on the TED and TEDx stages as a host and speaker and has been the recipient of several awards including the Bernie Glassman Trailblazer Award, FilmAid Philanthropic Leadership Award, Helen Eakin Eisenhower Award, Gerry Susman Sustainability Award, 2021 Beta Gamma Sigma International Honoree Award, ACCR Capital Community Engagement Award, and Penn State Fellows Award.    

 

SESSIONS:
Clint Carlos
Co-Founder
SOAR
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SESSIONS:
Michael Leach
Special Assistant to the President and Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer
The White House
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Michael Leach currently serves as Special Assistant to the President and was appointed the first-ever Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer for the White House. Prior to his appointment, Leach served as the Chief People Officer and Head of Diversity & Inclusion on the Biden-Harris Campaign where he led the campaign’s strategic vision, planning, and implementation of HR, staff diversity & inclusion efforts, talent acquisition, and leadership development. Prior to joining the Campaign, Leach worked in Labor Relations and Labor Operations for the National Football League (NFL) Management Council, served in leadership on the NFL Diversity Council, Co-Chaired the NFL Black Engagement Network, and was the Administrative Lead for the NFL Bill Walsh Diversity Coaching Fellowship Program. Prior to his work at the NFL Headquarters, Leach served as the Assistant to Head Coach for the Chicago Bears. Before joining the Chicago Bears, Leach also worked in media relations for the Miami Dolphins. Originally from Chicago, IL, Leach is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and St. Thomas University (Miami, FL) and was recently awarded an Honorary Doctorate Degree (Doctor of Humane Letters) during the summer of 2022.

 

SESSIONS:
Michael Leach
Special Assistant to the President and Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer
The White House
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Michael Leach currently serves as Special Assistant to the President and was appointed the first-ever Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer for the White House. Prior to his appointment, Leach served as the Chief People Officer and Head of Diversity & Inclusion on the Biden-Harris Campaign where he led the campaign’s strategic vision, planning, and implementation of HR, staff diversity & inclusion efforts, talent acquisition, and leadership development. Prior to joining the Campaign, Leach worked in Labor Relations and Labor Operations for the National Football League (NFL) Management Council, served in leadership on the NFL Diversity Council, Co-Chaired the NFL Black Engagement Network, and was the Administrative Lead for the NFL Bill Walsh Diversity Coaching Fellowship Program. Prior to his work at the NFL Headquarters, Leach served as the Assistant to Head Coach for the Chicago Bears. Before joining the Chicago Bears, Leach also worked in media relations for the Miami Dolphins. Originally from Chicago, IL, Leach is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and St. Thomas University (Miami, FL) and was recently awarded an Honorary Doctorate Degree (Doctor of Humane Letters) during the summer of 2022.

 

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