Steve Perrotta is the Director of Public Policy for SHRM.  He directs the comprehensive strategy and initiatives to achieve SHRM’s public policy objectives at the Congressional and state level.

Previously he was the Retirement Policy Director for Senator Richard Burr of North Carolina, Ranking Member of the Health Education Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee.  His responsibilities included the Committee’s jurisdiction over private sector ERISA retirement plans.  He also covered workforce and labor matters.  In addition to his HELP Committee responsibilities, Steve has covered tax matters, government affairs, telecommunications, and technology issues including the Senator’s Finance Committee and Aging Committee assignments.  He coordinated the Senator’s activities with the Senate Nanotechnology Caucus and the Senate Philanthropy Caucus.  He joined Senator Burr’s HELP Subcommittee on Retirement and Aging staff at the start of the 110th Congress in March 2007.

Prior to joining Senator Burr’s Committee staff, Steve was a Professional Staff Member with the House Committee on Education and the Workforce chaired by Representative John Boehner of Ohio.  His responsibilities included pension reform and health care. Previously, he was the Senior Legislative Assistant and Military Legislative Assistant in the office of former Congressman Amo Houghton of New York State. Representative Houghton was a Marine veteran and former CEO of Corning, Inc. Rep. Houghton served on the Committee on Ways and Means and on the Committee on International Relations. Congressman Houghton established a bipartisan retreat for members of Congress and their families on the theory that civility and personal friendship would foster cooperation on Capitol Hill.  Steve spent ten years working for Mr. Houghton – starting in the Corning, New York district office in 1995 as a military and veterans affairs caseworker. While in the District he also acted as the Congressman’s Military Service Academy selection committee coordinator. In 1999, he transferred to the Congressman’s Washington D.C. office to join his legislative staff. In addition to military affairs, his responsibilities included veterans, agriculture, labor, education, welfare, energy, transportation, judiciary, crime, immigration, gun control, campaign finance reform, mining, housing, banking, and financial services.

Prior to his Congressional career, Steve worked in the human resources office of Toshiba Westinghouse Electronics Corporation, an international joint venture between two of the world's leading electronics firms involved in the manufacture of television picture tubes.

Steve has a Bachelors of Science from Cornell University’s School of Industrial Labor Relations.

Nita Beecher, Of Counsel to Fortney & Scott, LLC, advises clients on a broad range of employment law issues with her primary focus on issues involving discrimination, affirmative action, compensation, and wage and hour matters. She serves as Legal Counsel for The Institute for Workplace Equality and co-editor of the Federal Employment Law Insider, a monthly newsletter updating employers on federal laws and regulations and presents webinars on federal employment law issues.

Prior to working for FortneyScott, Ms. Beecher served as in-house counsel in major corporations for over 20 years where she advised in-house clients on labor and employment law issues and developed a self-audit tool for OFCCP audits. Ms. Beecher also spent 10 years leading networks of senior diversity, EEO, and affirmative action corporate practitioners and of in-house labor and employment counsel.

 In 2011-2012, Ms. Beecher served as one of ten experts on the National Research Council of the National Academies panel which produced the NAS report, Collecting Compensation Data from Employers, requested by EEOC.

Ms. Beecher has been a regular speaker at many professional meetings, including the annual NILG conferences since 2004.