With more than 20 years as a practitioner and researcher, John has a broad HR background in Employee relations; international HR, immigration, executive search and HR metrics. John managed employer immigrations practices and executive search for high technology and financial institutions. John has authored many articles on HR Metrics, and holds a graduate degree in industrial/organizational psychology and is SHRM-SCP certified. 

Michelle has been with SHRM for three years as the Manager of the Knowledge Center Operations.  She comes to SHRM with over 25 years of Operations Management experience.  She has experience working in various industries, Government, Non-profit, Telecommunications and Multi-family. Additionally, Michelle has a diverse background in call center operations, finance/collections, and customer service management. In previous roles, her artfully balanced workplace objectives and productive relationships have inspired strategic and insightful suggestions, which have been instrumental with customer retention and revenue growth.

She thrives in high-pressure and fast-paced situations, she’s able to visualize success and achieve a competitive business edge. She strives for positive results through the application of my team building and her project management abilities. She possesses expertise in call center operations and an aptitude for optimizing performance and motivating colleagues. 

Michelle attended the University of the District of Columbia where she studied Business Management and Accounting.

Yvette Lee, SHRM-SCP, is an HR Knowledge Advisor at SHRM, the world’s largest HR professional society, representing 300,000+ members in more than 165 countries. Yvette possesses over 25 years of human resources experience. Her expertise includes talent management, benefits, compensation, diversity and inclusion, employee relations, ethics and compliance, and employee development. A published author of several articles in SHRM's HR Magazine on various topics, Yvette holds a bachelor's degree in communications from the University of Virginia. She also holds the SHRM California Law HR, Talent Acquisition, Inclusive Workplace Culture, People Manager Qualification and HR Dept. of One Specialty Credentials. Yvette enjoys spending time with her family and doing community service.

Stacy Berg Jackson, CPC, SHRM-SCP, SPHR, M.Ed, is a Certified Professional Coach and founder of SBJ Consulting, Inc., a Certified Women-Owned Business. As an Executive Coach and Consultant with over 20 years of experience, Stacy provides tailored leadership coaching, training, and consulting services across a variety of industries. Stacy is a certified Korn Ferry KF360 Feedback Coach, Hogan Performance Coach, certified Breakthrough Coach, and holds a Women in Leadership Certificate from Cornell and a Leadership for Women in Business Certification from HRCI. Stacy works with organizations and professionals to help reinforce effectiveness, increase presence and influence, and maximize balance.

Liz Petersen, SHRM-SCP, is the Quality Manager for the HR Knowledge Center at SHRM.  Prior to this role, she worked as a SHRM HR Knowledge Advisor.  Liz has a bachelor’s degree from John Carroll University in Industrial/Organizational Psychology with a Business minor.  She has a master’s degree from University of Maryland University College in Human Resource Management. 

Liz has over 25 years of HR experience and the SHRM Senior Professional Certification.  Prior to SHRM, Liz worked as an Outsourced HR Manager for several small and medium sized organizations in multiple industries including technology, engineering, hospitality, retail, service, construction, healthcare, manufacturing, etc. She also worked as in-house HR Manager and Director in the manufacturing industry.

Liz is lives in Oceanside, CA with her husband.  In her free time, Liz is discovering a love for painting, hacking away on golf courses, doing anything water or beach related, watching Seahawk and Steeler football, and trying to earn a green thumb.

Named a top 100 HR Professional of 2020, Dr. Allessandria Polizzi has 20 years of experience leading HR teams across multiple industries. Following recovery from burnout in 2021, Allessandria left her CPO position to focus on helping companies with resiliency, burnout prevention and psychological safety. Verdant offers programs designed around neuroscience, cognitive behavior theory, and the ISO 45003 standards by training practical, simple skills that help teams flourish. She also co-founded the Kite HR wellbeing app for HR teams and shares discoveries on all of these topics via the Be Verdant podcast.

Karl Ahlrichs specializes in helping professionals make order from chaos. He is a national speaker, author, and consultant, presenting on the people issues in all industries, and is often quoted in the local and national media. 

Karl’s experience is ideally suited to times of organizational change as he pulls on risk management and organizational development theories to replace “best practices” with “next practices”. He owes much of his communications mastery to working as a writer and editor in daily media, to on-the-job writing experience and to the process of becoming a published author.

He joined Gregory & Appel in 2010 after serving as a founding partner of ExactHire, bringing his HR, operations, diversity & belonging, and learning & development skills with him. Karl’s affinity for design, composition and learning started at a very young age, by taking and examining thousands of boring pictures with the goal of improving his craft. He loves deploying that practice-to-improve approach with all manner of hobbies including writing haiku, mastering cutting-edge technology and learning Spanish.

In 2003, he was named the SHRM Human Resource Professional of the Year for the State of Indiana. He is on the Boards of several organizations, including the Maryland CPA Society.  He has lived in Scotland and Spain and lives to explore new experiences with his wife and family.

Julie Schweber, SHRM-SCP, has over 18 years of strategic and tactical HR experience in for profit and nonprofit organizations including FedEx and IKON Office Solutions. Prior to joining SHRM, Julie was a senior HR consultant for more than six years and provided Fortune 500 HR expertise to small and midsize organizations. Julie earned her bachelor's degree in human resources with a business minor from Old Dominion University.  Julie enjoys spending time at the beach and hiking.

Deniece Maston has 14+ years of HR experience.  Her areas of expertise in employee relations, performance management, talent acquisition, benefits and compensation is a great addition to the Knowledge Center team.  Prior to working at SHRM, Deniece spent a majority of her career in human resource positions in the government contracting industry.  Along with having her SHRM-CP, Deniece has a Bachelor of Science from Cornell University. She also holds the SHRM California Law HR and the Workplace Investigations Credentials, and the People Manager Qualification.