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.

Kim is the Vice President of Coaching and Consulting at Purple Ink. Her passion is providing HR solutions to clients by helping them build their HR infrastructure through technology, compliance, and people. 

Kim has held and consulted in several corporate leadership positions in various industries providing her the opportunity to coach and mentor individuals at all levels of organizations. She thrives in sharing her knowledge and passion for HR and people development. Kim holds a Bachelor of Science degree in psychology and an MBA with a concentration in Organizational Leadership. Kim also holds Professional Coach and SHRM Senior Certified Professional.