Karen S. Carter serves as Chief Human Resources Officer and Chief Inclusion Officer for Dow. As Chief Human Resources Officer, Carter is responsible for developing and implementing human resources policies and practices to support the company’s global workforce, which includes talent, recruiting, compensation, benefits, and employee experience. 

As Dow’s first Chief Inclusion Officer, she guides and directs the Company’s efforts to create a more inclusive environment and diverse workforce while integrating inclusion as a key driver for business success. 

Carter has more than 25 years of experience with Dow. Before assuming her current responsibilities, Carter held the role of North America commercial vice president, Dow Packaging and Specialty Plastics (P&SP). While serving in that role, Carter was a member of the global business leadership team and was responsible for the overall profit & loss of P&SP’s North America region. 

Carter has held a variety of global business positions throughout her career, including global business director and global marketing director for Dow P&SP, and has also held roles within Building and Construction, Polyethylene, Engineering Thermoplastics, Fabricated Products and Information Technology Equipment and Consumer Electronics. 

Carter is on the board of directors for the Great Lakes Bay Region Boys and Girls Clubs of America. She is also a previous member of the Dow Kakoh Kabushiki Kaisha board of directors, a joint venture between Sumitomo Chemical Company, Limited and The Dow Chemical Company, and previously served as board chair of the Adoption Option, Inc. board of directors. Carter is a member of the Executive Leadership Council and is on the Catalyst Board of Advisors. 

Carter has a bachelor’s degree in marketing from Howard University and a master’s degree in international business from DePaul University. Carter has been published in the Journal of the American Health Information Management Association and featured in Chemical Week, the Huffington Post, MORE Magazine, and the Disrupt Yourself Podcast and The Future of Work Podcast. In 2014, Carter was named to the prestigious Forty Women to Watch Over 40 list for her innovative leadership contributions. In 2018, she was named to Black Enterprise’s Top Executives in Diversity list and received Northwood University’s Distinguished Women Award. In 2019, Carter was named to Black Enterprise’s Most Powerful Women in Corporate America list, and most recently was recognized as one of the 100 Ethnic Minority Executives on the EMpower Ethnic Minority Role Model Lists supported by Yahoo Finance. 

Danette Gerald Howard, Ph.D. is senior vice president & chief policy officer at Lumina Foundation, the nation’s largest private foundation focused solely on increasing student access and success in postsecondary education. Howard oversees several of Lumina’s key strategies to increase Americans’ attainment of high-quality postsecondary degrees and credentials, including strategic work in both state and federal policy. She also leads the Foundation’s efforts to mobilize and engage employers, metropolitan areas, higher education institutions and other key actors with a stake in postsecondary attainment.

Prior to joining Lumina, Howard served as Secretary of Higher Education in Maryland, leading the state’s postsecondary education coordinating agency, the Maryland Higher Education Commission.  As secretary she oversaw Maryland’s statewide financial aid program, approved new academic programs and institutions seeking to operate in the state, and advised the governor and legislators on higher education policies and initiatives.

A nationally regarded analyst and thought leader, Howard previously served as director of research and policy analysis at the Maryland Higher Education Commission.  She also held positions as the assistant director of higher education policy at the Education Trust in Washington, D.C., as a researcher at the University of Maryland, College Park, and as a student affairs administrator and admissions counselor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

Howard earned her bachelor’s degree, summa cum laude, from Howard University. She also received her master’s degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and her Ph.D. in higher education policy from the University of Maryland, College Park. In 2015, she was honored for her outstanding success and national distinction in the fields of education and policy with Howard University's Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award.

George Floyd was killed on May 25, 2020 in Minneapolis, MI. Survived by his family, George Floyd was the oldest of five siblings. Philonise and Rodney Floyd, George’s brothers, have publicly spoken out about George’s senseless murder, seeking racial justice in his name. Following public outrage over George’s death, Philonise and Rodney delivered powerful remarks during recent events like the 2020 Democratic National Convention and the  March on Washington this summer. Philonise even testified before U.S. Congress in June of this year during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on policing practices and law enforcement accountability.

J

Johnny C. Taylor, Jr., SHRM-SCP, is President and Chief Executive Officer of SHRM. With nearly 340,000 members in 180 countries, SHRM impacts the lives of more than 362 million workers and their families globally.

As a global leader on the future of employment, culture and leadership, Mr. Taylor is a sought-after voice on all matters affecting work, workers and the workplace. Recognized as one of the “300 Most Influential Executives in Corporate America” for 2024 by Savoy Magazine and one of the “Most Influential People Shaping Public Policy” in our nation’s capital by Washingtonian Magazine, Mr. Taylor is frequently asked to testify before Congress on critical workforce issues and authors the weekly USA Today column, "Ask HR."

Mr. Taylor's career spans more than 20 years as a lawyer, human resources executive and CEO in both the not-for-profit and for-profit spaces. He has held senior and chief executive roles at IAC/InteractiveCorp, Viacom's Paramount Pictures, Blockbuster Entertainment Group, the McGuireWoods law firm and Compass Group USA. Most recently, Mr. Taylor was President and Chief Executive Officer of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund.

He is the author of the national bestseller, RESET: A Leader’s Guide to Work in an Age of Upheaval, which immediately upon its release in September 2021, was in the top three of The Wall Street Journal’s list of best-selling hardcover business books.

Mr. Taylor is a member of the United Way Worldwide Board of Trustees and serves on the corporate boards of XPO Logistics (NYSE: XPO), Flores & Associates, and Guild Education. He previously served on the White House American Workforce Policy Advisory Board and as chairman of the President's Advisory Board on Historically Black Colleges and Universities during the Trump Administration.

The Women Business Collaborative (WBC) named Mr. Taylor as one of its 2023 Trailblazers in Gender Equity and Diversity for his work to achieve equal position, pay and power for all women in business. In 2020, he received the Distinguished Executive of the Year Award from the Academy of Management, and he was named 2021 ALA Professional Society CEO of the Year by CEO Update.

He is a Fellow of the National Academy of Human Resources and is licensed to practice law in Florida, Illinois and Washington, D.C.

Cathy McMorris Rodgers is Eastern Washington’s chief advocate in Congress and a rising star in American politics. Since first being elected to the House in 2004, she has earned the trust of her constituents and praise on Capitol Hill for her hard work, conservative principles, bipartisan outreach, and leadership to get results for Eastern Washington. As someone who grew up on an orchard and fruit stand in Kettle Falls, Washington, worked at her family’s small business, and later became a wife and working mom of three, Cathy has lived the American Dream, and she works every day to rebuild that Dream for our children and grandchildren.

Cathy served as Chair of the House Republican Conference from 2012 to 2018. Cathy was the 200th woman ever elected to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Since being elected to Congress in 2004, Cathy has focused on moving legislation based on the priorities she hears in conversations with the people of Eastern Washington. Her mission is to restore trust and confidence in representative government and the rule of law, and lead as a trust-builder, ability-advocate, and unifying force to get results for hardworking men and women in Eastern Washington.

Dr. Eden King is the Lynette S. Autrey Professor of Industrial-Organizational Psychology at Rice University. She is pursuing a program of research that aims to make work better for everyone. This research– which has yielded over 100 scholarly products and has been featured in outlets such as the New York Times, Good Morning America, and Harvard Business Review– addresses three primary themes: 1) current manifestations of discrimination and barriers to work-life balance in organizations, 2) consequences of such challenges for its targets and their workplaces, and 3) individual and organizational strategies for reducing discrimination and increasing support for families.

In addition to her scholarship, Dr. King has partnered with organizations to improve diversity climate, increase fairness in selection systems, and to design and implement diversity training programs. She is currently a Senior Associate Editor for the Journal of Management, an Associate Editor for the Journal of Business and Psychology, and the 2019-2020 President of the Society for I-O Psychology.

Alexander Alonso, PhD, SHRM-SCP is the Society for Human Resource Management's (SHRM's) Chief Data & Insights Officer leading operations for SHRM's Certified Professional and Senior Certified Professional certifications, research functions, and the SHRM Knowledge Advisor service. He is responsible for all research activities, including the development of the SHRM Competency Model and SHRM credentials.

During his career, he has worked with numerous subject matter experts worldwide with the aim of identifying performance standards, developing competency models, designing organizational assessments, and conducting job analyses. He was also responsible for working on contract task orders involving the development of measurement tools for content areas such as job knowledge (like teacher knowledge of instructional processes) and organizational climates (like organizational climate forecasting in military health care).

Dr. Alonso received his doctorate in Industrial-Organizational Psychology from Florida International University in 2003. His works have been recognized for their contribution to real-world issues. They include being recognized by the Society for Industrial Organizational Psychology (Division 14 of the APA; SIOP) with the 2007 M. Scott Myers Award for Applied Research in the Workplace for the development of the federal standard for medical team training, TeamSTEPPS; being awarded a 2009 Presidential Citation for Innovative Practice by the American Psychological Association for supporting the development of competency model for team triage in emergency medicine; and receiving the 2013 SIOP Distinguished Early Career Contributions for Practice Award.

Throughout his career, he has published works in peer-reviewed journals such as Industrial and Organizational Psychology: Perspectives on Science and Practice, Journal of Applied Psychology, International Journal of Selection and Assessment, People and Strategy, Personality and Individual Differences, Quality and Safety in Health Care, and Human Resources Management Review. He has also authored several chapters on community-based change initiatives in workforce readiness, as well as co-authoring Defining HR Success: A Guide to the SHRM Competency Model in Practice.

Dr. Alonso also served as a columnist analyzing major trends in the workforce for The Industrial Psychologist and HR Magazine. In addition, he has served on several professional society boards including the SIOP and the Personnel Testing Council of Metropolitan Washington.