Nassim Abdi, Ph.D.
Personal Pronouns
She/Her/Hers
CEO and Co-Founder
StoryBolt
Connect Online with this Speaker

Nassim Abdi, Ph.D. is the CEO and Co-founder of StoryBolt, an innovative corporate inclusion training company sparking empathetic, guided conversations in the workplace with the power of storytelling through film. Nassim is a storyteller and evangelist dedicated to finding the intersection of entertainment and learning in the area of DEI.  She has 12 years of academic experience researching identity and intersectionality as they relate to systems of discrimination or disadvantage. Nassim's vision for StoryBolt was shaped while on the promotional circuit for her starring role in the internationally-acclaimed film Secret Ballot (2001). After seeing how film could change perspectives and facilitate courageous conversations, she and co-founder Babak Shahmansouri coined their novel active learning approach to addressing inclusion issues in the workplace.

SESSIONS:
Syeria Smith
Personal Pronouns
She/Her/Hers
Sr. Director, Diversity Equity & Inclusion and Campus Recruiting
Belk
Connect Online with this Speaker

Syeria Smith is Belk’s Sr. Director of Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion and Campus Recruiting. Syeria joined Belk in 2017 on their Talent Acquisition team supporting the companies West Division. Prior to joining Belk, Syeria spent 14 years with Macy’s, Inc. where she began in a Retail Development Program and built a well-rounded background through her work on buying and planning teams, store leadership as well as district, region, and corporate Human Resources functions. In addition to her prescribed role, she has always been an active participant in shaping company culture by serving on the Corporate Diversity Council and leading employee resource groups. In her current role, Syeria is responsible for leading Belk’s Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion (DEI) efforts and recently assumed responsibility for early talent program recruiting. She is extremely passionate about creating access to opportunities for others and leaving every situation better than she found it. Syeria holds a B.S. in Fashion Marketing and Management from Stephens College in Columbia, MO. She resides in Kansas City, MO, with her husband, Marcus, and their three children, Khloe (12), Maddox (7), and Lennox (4).

Fun fact #1: If you’re an iPhone user, when you call Syeria’s name, your phone (Siri) will respond 9 times out of 10.

 

SESSIONS:
Tuesday, October 25, 2022 - 4:00pm to 5:00pm
Nassim Abdi, Ph.D.
Personal Pronouns
She/Her/Hers
CEO and Co-Founder
StoryBolt
Connect Online with this Speaker

Nassim Abdi, Ph.D. is the CEO and Co-founder of StoryBolt, an innovative corporate inclusion training company sparking empathetic, guided conversations in the workplace with the power of storytelling through film. Nassim is a storyteller and evangelist dedicated to finding the intersection of entertainment and learning in the area of DEI.  She has 12 years of academic experience researching identity and intersectionality as they relate to systems of discrimination or disadvantage. Nassim's vision for StoryBolt was shaped while on the promotional circuit for her starring role in the internationally-acclaimed film Secret Ballot (2001). After seeing how film could change perspectives and facilitate courageous conversations, she and co-founder Babak Shahmansouri coined their novel active learning approach to addressing inclusion issues in the workplace.

SESSIONS:
Amy E. Hull
Head of Diversity Equity and Inclusion
Paycor, Inc.
Connect Online with this Speaker

Amy E. Hull, M.Ed. is the First Head of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Paycor, Inc. She brings authenticity to the forefront of leadership, action, and learning in the field of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Hull is a corporate leader turning DE&I strategy into actionable results. Recently featured as the cover of the July, 2022 issue of HR Future Magazine, her work is helping people learn how to internalize the work of DE&I to achieve systemic change for sustainable inclusion and belonging for all. After just one year of work, her leadership guided her company in obtaining the 2021 Top Workplace DE&I Practices Award.

SESSIONS:
Jennifer Gessendorf
Personal Pronouns
She/Her/Hers
Senior Director of Total Rewards, HR Operation & Systems
Paycor, Inc.
Connect Online with this Speaker

Jennifer L. Gessendorf, is the Senior Director of Total Rewards, HR Operation & Systems at Paycor, Inc.  She brings over 20 years of multi industry Human Resources experience.  She is passionate about the employee experience and delivering, innovative, inclusive, and employee centric Rewards strategies

SESSIONS:
Tuesday, October 25, 2022 - 11:30am to 12:30pm
Amy E. Hull
Head of Diversity Equity and Inclusion
Paycor, Inc.
Connect Online with this Speaker

Amy E. Hull, M.Ed. is the First Head of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Paycor, Inc. She brings authenticity to the forefront of leadership, action, and learning in the field of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Hull is a corporate leader turning DE&I strategy into actionable results. Recently featured as the cover of the July, 2022 issue of HR Future Magazine, her work is helping people learn how to internalize the work of DE&I to achieve systemic change for sustainable inclusion and belonging for all. After just one year of work, her leadership guided her company in obtaining the 2021 Top Workplace DE&I Practices Award.

SESSIONS:
Jennifer Gessendorf
Personal Pronouns
She/Her/Hers
Senior Director of Total Rewards, HR Operation & Systems
Paycor, Inc.
Connect Online with this Speaker

Jennifer L. Gessendorf, is the Senior Director of Total Rewards, HR Operation & Systems at Paycor, Inc.  She brings over 20 years of multi industry Human Resources experience.  She is passionate about the employee experience and delivering, innovative, inclusive, and employee centric Rewards strategies

SESSIONS:
Rachel Sheerin
Award-Winning Emcee & National Speaker
Connect Online with this Speaker

Rachel Sheerin, CPBA is an award-winning keynote speaker, emcee and employee engagement consultant on a mission to help people feel better, think better and do better - together!

A Certified Professional Behavior Analyst, audiences are transformed and recharged with energy and leave equipped with strategies and tangible tools. What makes Rachel connect is the fact that she has been on all sides of business - sales, operations and executive leadership.. She's built multi-million dollar sales teams for organizations that want to grow profits and boost happiness and delivered organization-wide training for different vocations from machinists to executive director, SVP and beyond.

She's also burned out, failed and ruined her career a couple of times - which makes her messages of burnout prevention, happiness and success sincere, impactful and hilarious. With a strong dash of vulnerability, Rachel meets audiences where they are and with her background in meetings and events, gives planners and executives the 5-star surveys they want most.

With Fortune 500 clients such as The Ritz Carlton, WAL-MART, National Associations in Healthcare and Banking, Hilton, Berkshire Hathaway and many more, Rachel is also Co-Founder of MAGNET METHOD, an employee engagement and retention consulting firm for growing cultures.

Rachel's continued research and motivational content around burnout, happiness and success can be seen regularly on her LinkedIn profile and read in her upcoming book, BETTER: How to Feel Good as You Live, Lead and Succeed (8/8/23, Hawthorn Road Press).

Currently serving on the Board of Directors for the Association for Women in Events (AWE), Rachel is a proud member of Meeting Planners International (MPI), supporter of the Appalachian Bear Foundation and can often be found playing ping pong badly with her husband, Jeff.

SESSIONS:
Monday, September 26, 2022 - 8:20am to 8:30am
Meg Switala
Director, Healthy Cultures
TiER1 Performance
Connect Online with this Speaker

Meg Switala serves as Director of Healthy Cultures at TiER1 Performance. In her role, she focuses on helping create thriving, healthy, high performing organizational cultures. Meg is passionate about helping people do their best work. Her work at TiER1 has been focused on employee experience, organizational effectiveness, talent optimization, communication, and growth and development. She also brings experience in the areas of strategic planning, marketing, research, new business development, and talent for Fortune 500 companies, and as an independent consultant. 

As part of her work fostering healthy cultures, Meg leads the Start the Conversation initiative and partnerships with participating organizations. Meg brings a passion for strengths-based leadership, mental health, and well-being. She was part of the development team for Start the Conversation, an organizational experience designed to reduce the stigma of mental health conditions in the workplace. Start the Conversation has been adopted by numerous organizations, featured as a model case study by the American Psychiatric Association, and recognized by the CDC as a workplace mental health success story. 

SESSIONS:
Meg Switala
Director, Healthy Cultures
TiER1 Performance
Connect Online with this Speaker

Meg Switala serves as Director of Healthy Cultures at TiER1 Performance. In her role, she focuses on helping create thriving, healthy, high performing organizational cultures. Meg is passionate about helping people do their best work. Her work at TiER1 has been focused on employee experience, organizational effectiveness, talent optimization, communication, and growth and development. She also brings experience in the areas of strategic planning, marketing, research, new business development, and talent for Fortune 500 companies, and as an independent consultant. 

As part of her work fostering healthy cultures, Meg leads the Start the Conversation initiative and partnerships with participating organizations. Meg brings a passion for strengths-based leadership, mental health, and well-being. She was part of the development team for Start the Conversation, an organizational experience designed to reduce the stigma of mental health conditions in the workplace. Start the Conversation has been adopted by numerous organizations, featured as a model case study by the American Psychiatric Association, and recognized by the CDC as a workplace mental health success story. 

SESSIONS:
Kim Crowder
Personal Pronouns
She/Her/Hers
CEO
Kim Crowder Consulting
Connect Online with this Speaker

Kim Crowder, Founder & CEO of Kim Crowder Consulting, is one of the country’s leading Anti-Racism, Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity Speakers, Coaches, Trainers, and Consultants. 

Kim and her team work across industries serving global organizations. From Adobe to Smugmug, the American Library Association, HarperCollins Publishers, and more, Kim and her team provide leaders and companies actionable tools to move initiatives forward long term.

Kim has been named by Forbes as a “Top Anti-Racism Educators Companies Need Now,” A Top 10 Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Expert by All American, and Top Influential African-American Business Women To Follow by LinkedIn. She is also a member of the MIT Technology Review Global Panel and For(bes) The Culture.

She has been featured by The New York Times, Business Insider, Cheddar News, CBS, NBC, FOX, Katie Couric Media, regularly by Forbes, on Hubspot’s podcast, The Growth Show, Workology, and As Told By Nomads.

SESSIONS:
Tuesday, October 25, 2022 - 2:00pm to 3:00pm
Bob Lockett
Personal Pronouns
He/Him/His
Chief Diversity and Talent Officer
ADP
Connect Online with this Speaker

Bob is currently the Chief Diversity and Talent Officer at ADP. In this role, Bob is accountable for the Diversity, Corporate Social Responsibility and Talent strategy. Bob is passionate about ensuring that our workforce is reflective of the communities in which we live and the clients we serve. Additionally, he is an advocate for parity in leadership levels for all ADP population segments.

Prior to his role expansion, Bob was the Chief Talent Officer. He joined ADP in 2016 as the Head of Human Resources/Division Vice President for Small Business Solutions & HR Outsourcing business units. Bob’s corporate career spans over 20 years with several top tier companies. Prior to ADP, Bob was the Senior Vice President/Head of Human Resources at Harland Clarke; Vice President, Talent Management at First Data; HR Executive at USAA; Director, Human Resources at Limited Brands (Bath& Body Works, Express); Director, Player Services at Harrah’s Casino; Senior Group Manager, HR at Frito Lay, and Executive Senior Partner at The Lucas Group. He has led multiple HR Centers of Excellence (Diversity & Talent Acquisition, Talent Management, Employee Relations and HR Business Partners) throughout his career.

Prior to his corporate career, Bob served as a field artillery officer in the US Army for 9 years. He commanded an artillery unit in Germany and is a Desert Storm veteran.

Bob is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point and earned a MBA from the University of Texas at Dallas.
Bob sits on the board of directors for the Johnny Mac Soldiers Fund, is a member of the Diversity HR50, coaches little league football, is a lifetime member of the VFW, The American Legion, and the National Black MBA Association.

SESSIONS:
Wednesday, October 26, 2022 - 8:30am to 9:30am