Amber Clayton is the Senior Director of Knowledge Center Operations at SHRM.  Amber leads a team of HR experts who field an average of 60,000 HR-related inquiries from members a year.  She is frequently sought after as a speaker and expert for webinars, conferences, and media interviews.  Amber co-hosts a podcast called Honest HR.  She is SHRM-certified with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Baltimore.  She also holds specialty credentials in California law, inclusive workplace culture, and workplace investigations.  Prior to joining SHRM in 2011, she had years of HR experience in healthcare and retail.

Art Gloria, SHRM-CP is Director, Membership Community Initiatives for SHRM. In his role, he is responsible for member acquisition and retention, leadership development for volunteer leaders, chapters, and state councils, and creating the value-added proposition for SHRM.

Art Gloria is an award-winning, experienced professional in human resources, finance, and general business management with a demonstrated history of working in the government, health care, and diverse private business industries. Gloria has a very rich background in volunteer leadership, having been in various board roles with local SHRM chapters and state council, including most recently serving as the chapter president of El Paso SHRM. In addition, he serves on various non-profit boards in his home state Texas.

Art holds a Master’s in Business Administration from Regents University London. He attended the University of Texas at El Paso, where he earned his B.A. in Political Science.

Christine Rodman founded Lynx Employer Resources, LLC, because she’s steadfast in her commitment to imparting knowledge and expertise in human resources and compliance. Christine has more than 25 years of progressive HR and training experience and a proven gift for developing positive relationships within diverse workforces.

Christine holds a bachelor’s degree in Ethnic Studies from San Francisco State University, a SHRM-CP certification with SHRM, and an HR Management Certificate from Sonoma State University, where she currently teaches Talent Acquisition and Total Compensation.

Christine is dedicated to giving back to her profession and to her local community. She currently serves as State Director Elect for the California State Council for SHRM (CalSHRM), and has also been involved with various community organizations, including the Volunteer Center of Sonoma County, Chops Teen Club, and the YWCA.

Dianna Sporcic, SHRM-SCP is Members and Community Director for the Southeast Region, which includes the states of AL, FL, GA, Mississippi, Bahama, BDA, PR, DC, KY, NC, SC, TN, VA, WVA. She works remotely from her home in St. Petersburg, FL.

Dianna spent almost 30 years with Hyatt starting in operations and then moving into HR. Most recently she was Director of HR for Hyatt Vacation Ownership (HVO) who is known for the most luxurious vacation ownership resorts in the world. She was instrumental in the M&A when Interval Leisure Group (ILG) purchased HVO. She remained on as a highly valued and strategic member of the ILG HR team while still supporting HVO. After Marriott purchased ILG, Dianna joined ONICON Measurement Solutions. Dianna has diverse HR experience in hospitality, manufacturing and labor relations. Dianna is a member of our Tampa chapter and holds SHRM-SCP certification.

Howard A. Wallack has been the Deputy Chief Human Resources & Administrative Officer since 2016 in the Global Human Resources (GHR) department at Jhpiego in Baltimore, MD, an international, non-profit health organization, affiliated with Johns Hopkins University. Jhpiego is dedicated to improving the health of women, children, and families in lower-resourced countries, with approximately 4,200 employees worldwide in 38 countries. At Jhpiego, Howard spearheads the organization’s leadership development program and leads a team of 5 regional HR business partners who support country HR operations, himself currently backstopping Ghana, Guatemala, and Mozambique. During his 40-year career with experience in nearly 90 countries, Howard has had senior-level positions in HR, training and development, global business development, and program management in for-profit and non-profit businesses and the US Peace Corps. In April 2023 Howard was recognized with an OnCon Icon peer-voted award among the “Top 50 HR Professionals” for having made a considerable impact on their organization and/or previous organizations; made strong contributions to their community through thought leadership; innovated in their role/career; and exhibited exceptional leadership. He has advanced degrees in international affairs and international human resources and globalization and holds multiple professional certifications, including the SHRM Senior Certified Professional (SHRM-SCP), and the GPHR® & SPHRi™ qualification from the HR Certification Institute. As a volunteer he has served on the Board of Directors of Cultural Vistas since 2011.

Scott is an internationally recognized crisis negotiator, advisor, trainer and keynote speaker. He is known and respected for his experience negotiating in highly charged situations, with high stakes and when the situation requires sensitivity to the human element. Clients, audiences and students alike, find Scott’s teachings, insightful, inspiring and pragmatic.   

Scott worked as a hostage/crisis negotiator with one of the largest regional SWAT teams in the United States for many years before moving into the role of a negotiations speaker and trainer. He has over 20 years of law enforcement experience and retired from a Chicago area police department in 2023 at the rank of Lieutenant. He was trained by in negotiation by the FBI and has studied at the Harvard University Program on Negotiation, at IMD Business School, and he continues to receive training from the world’s top negotiators.  

​Scott is a prolific trainer within the negotiation field and travels the country and around the world speaking to a wide variety of audiences. He has taught negotiations at Harvard University, for the FBI, and has keynoted for companies such as Microsoft and Bosch.  In 2016, he was invited to give a TEDx talk titled “The Secrets of Hostage Negotiators”, which has received over 1 million views.  His visibility as a speaker and educator through TEDx and other venues has reached global status.  
 
Scott currently resides in the Chicago area and is a Partner and co-founder with the Negotiations Collective, where he works with organizations and their leaders on how to have difficult conversations to resolve conflict and increase their influence.    

Scott is an internationally recognized crisis negotiator, advisor, trainer and keynote speaker. He is known and respected for his experience negotiating in highly charged situations, with high stakes and when the situation requires sensitivity to the human element. Clients, audiences and students alike, find Scott’s teachings, insightful, inspiring and pragmatic.   

Scott worked as a hostage/crisis negotiator with one of the largest regional SWAT teams in the United States for many years before moving into the role of a negotiations speaker and trainer. He has over 20 years of law enforcement experience and retired from a Chicago area police department in 2023 at the rank of Lieutenant. He was trained by in negotiation by the FBI and has studied at the Harvard University Program on Negotiation, at IMD Business School, and he continues to receive training from the world’s top negotiators.  

​Scott is a prolific trainer within the negotiation field and travels the country and around the world speaking to a wide variety of audiences. He has taught negotiations at Harvard University, for the FBI, and has keynoted for companies such as Microsoft and Bosch.  In 2016, he was invited to give a TEDx talk titled “The Secrets of Hostage Negotiators”, which has received over 1 million views.  His visibility as a speaker and educator through TEDx and other venues has reached global status.  
 
Scott currently resides in the Chicago area and is a Partner and co-founder with the Negotiations Collective, where he works with organizations and their leaders on how to have difficult conversations to resolve conflict and increase their influence.    

Heather Stefanski is the Chief Learning and Development Officer at McKinsey & Company where she is responsible for Learning & Development for 45,000+ colleagues globally.  She built McKinsey’s Talent Management capability and she is currently leading the work to pivot the firm to a skills-focused development culture.

Throughout the past 19 years at McKinsey, Heather has held a broad range of People roles, including talent acquisition, professional development, and learning.

Prior to her People roles, Heather was a McKinsey consultant serving clients on various operational topics such as procurement, product development and supply chain.  

Heather has an MBA and an MA in Education from Stanford University, and a BS in Engineering and Operations Research from Princeton University. 

John Rood is founder and CEO of Proceptual.com. Proceptual provides compliance solutions for emerging regulation of automated and AI-driven tools for HR and people operations. John is on the board of JB Training Solutions, a leadership training consultancy, and Victory Lap, a sales training and placement platform. Prior to Proceptual, John was founder of Next Step Test Preparation, a market leader in pre-health and pre-medical test prep that sold to private equity. He is a graduate of the University of Chicago and Michigan State University.