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.

Gerry Brandon, PhD, SPHR, SHRM-SCP is a Teaching Professor and the Director of the Graduate Program in HR Development at Villanova University. He received a PhD in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from Penn State, and a BA in Psychology from Franklin & Marshall College. He is a Fellow with the Center for Evidence-Based Management and holds the SHRM specialty certificate in People Analytics. Previously, he served for over 17 years as a senior HR manager while working for the Pennsylvania State Education Association. He taught at Gettysburg College in Organization and Management Studies for two years prior to joining Villanova in 2015.

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.

Jason Barke currently serves as the Deputy Associate Director for Strategic Workforce Planning at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). He currently leads the Government-wide effort for the future of the workforce at OPM and is co-lead on the President’s Management Agenda (PMA) Priority 1, strategy 3 on reimagine and build a roadmap to the future of Federal work informed by lessons from the pandemic and nationwide workforce and workplace trend. Before joining OPM, he worked at Department of Commerce, HHS and SSA. He has been at OPM for 15 years and has 22 years of Federal service.