Dima Ghawi, MBA
DEI Influencer
Dima Ghawi, LLC
Connect Online with this Speaker

Dima is Middle-Eastern in her genes and global citizen in her spirit. She ignites the untapped potential in individuals across the globe, empowering them to shatter limitations and become courageous, purpose driven leaders.

Through keynote speeches, workshops, and executive coaching, Dima shares her unique leadership transformation journey with one goal in mind: motivate those around her to reimagine their potential and grow into leaders.

Dima has worked across the United States, Europe, Asia, Middle East, and Africa for several Fortune 100 companies and has honed a keen expertise in developing leaders to meet the demands of the global workforce.

 

SESSIONS:
Friday, September 25, 2020 - 10:45am to 11:45am
Alex Dorr, MSc
VP People Evolution
Reality-Based Leadership
Connect Online with this Speaker

Alex envisions a world where work is effortless and teams are drama-free.

Standing side by side since 2015 with New York Times best-selling author and thought leader Cy Wakeman, Alex collaborates with organizations and leaders globally to help them ditch the drama from the workplace, hardwire accountability in their teams and turn excuses into results.

Everything he does is designed to help people understand that success and happiness is their natural state as a human being—once the drama is gone. With this core belief, Alex’s passion is revealing to those he works with that once people carve away drama from their lives, the same job they found themselves upset with today becomes the job they look forward to and love tomorrow.

As a keynote speaker and trainer, he helps organizations exchange the endless argument for a DIFFERENT workplace reality for a shifted perspective that enables them to start achieving more success and fulfillment in their CURRENT workplace reality.

In addition to sharing the reality-based philosophy from the stage, Alex is also a quintessential part of Cy Wakeman’s content creation and media team, spreading the ditch-the-drama message online. Over the last three years, his expertise, insights and execution have helped to balloon her  online community of raving fans from 15,000 to 150,000 followers across multiple platforms.

As the host of The Carvery Podcast with Alex Dorr (available on Apple iOS, Google Play and Simplecast), he shares his journey, stories and insights as a reality-based speaker and practicing drama defuser to help others carve away their own drama and start calling those they lead to greatness.

Although Alex stands at 6’6” tall and is commonly told at events, “you look a lot taller up close,” he prides himself on being down-to-earth or, better yet, grounded in reality.

An advocate for mental minimalism and a former professional basketball player, Alex holds a MSc in international business from the University of Derby (England) and his client list includes the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Adobe, Carnival Cruise Lines, Ely Lilly, Kohler, Emory Healthcare, Methodist Healthcare (San Antonio), Nationwide, the U.S. Department of Commerce, NetJets, Allina Health, Delaware North, AMC Theatres, Washington Department of Transportation, Our Lady of the Lake Medical Center, Providence Medical Center, the University of Oregon, Baton Rouge General Medical Center, CH Robinson, Intact Insurance, National Association of Credit Management and Credit Institute of Canada, among others.

 
SESSIONS:
Coretha M. Rushing, SHRM-SCP
Retired Fortune 500 Corporate Chief People Officer and HR Consultant and Executive Coach
Coretha Rushing Consulting (CRC), Merryck & Company, Formerly Equifax, Coca-Cola Company, Pepsi, IBM, and Cameron Wesley
Connect Online with this Speaker

Coretha Rushing has over 30 years of corporate business and leadership experience.

She has worked in various executive roles at Equifax Inc., The Coca-Cola Co., Pepsi, IBM and Cameron Wesley LLC and also had her own human resource consulting firm. Additionally, she has provided consulting services and served on various nonprofit boards. She currently serves as a board member of 2U Inc., an educational technology platform company, and is a member of the Compensation and Succession Committee.

Coretha served the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), a 300,000-member global human resource organization, for eight years as a board member. During that period, she served as board chair and board chair emeritus. Currently, Coretha serves as an executive coach to various clients. She also provides advice and counsel to Kano Partners, a private investment partnership specializing in the acquisition, support and sale of family and founder-based businesses and startup businesses. She also serves as an advisor for Evident ID Inc., a tech company that supports companies that want to screen and contact trace employees to monitor COVID-19 status.

Coretha retired in January as the senior vice president and chief people officer for Equifax Inc., a 3B global credit and data analytics organization currently based in 24 countries. She joined the firm in May 2006 and led the global HR organization and the company’s Foundation during its greatest period of financial growth, global expansion and product innovation and during its biggest business challenge: a cybersecurity breach.

Prior to joining Equifax, Coretha served as president of Cameron Wesley LLC, a human resource strategy and executive coaching firm.

From 1996 to 2004, Coretha held progressively senior roles at The Coca-Cola Co. She was promoted in 2000 as the first woman and Black EVP, chief people officer, for the company. During her tenure as the chief people officer, she played an instrumental role in the resolution of the largest U.S. racial discrimination lawsuit, working with the board of directors and a court-appointed board chaired by Alexis Herman, a former U.S. secretary of labor. Coretha also led the development of leading-edge people programs and initiatives that serve as the foundation for the company's current leadership and employee programs designed to ensure business success and leading-edge diversity, inclusion and equity programs. Other experiences include working as the vice president, human resources, for the Midwest division of Pizza Hut, a division of PepsiCo.

She began her global HR career at IBM where she held several roles during her 10 years across all HR disciplines, supporting diverse businesses in various major IBM US locations.

A native of Virginia, Coretha received her undergraduate degree in education from East Carolina University and holds a Master of Education with an emphasis in human resources and counseling from The George Washington University.

She is active in several professional and community organizations and has served as a panelist and keynote speaker at various business, university, women and human resource conferences. She has received numerous community awards and has been recognized for four consecutive years (2016-2019) for outstanding business achievements by Black Enterprise.

She currently resides in Atlanta and St. Petersburg, Fla., with her husband, Howard Smith.

SESSIONS:
Friday, September 25, 2020 - 1:30pm to 2:30pm
Jim Reidy, Esq.
Shareholder
Sheehan Phinney Bass & Green PA
Connect Online with this Speaker

Attorney James P. (“Jim”) Reidy is a management-side labor and employment lawyer. He is a partner in the New England based law firm, Sheehan Phinney Bass & Green, PA, where he is the Chair of the firm’s Labor and Employment group. His practice focuses on prevention, training and compliance but he also handles matters when claims arise.

He has more than 35 years of experience in the field and been a media resource on workplace law for media outlets including CNN, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times Business Magazine, Bloomberg, NPR, The Associated Press, NPR Market Place, Buzz Feed, Law 360, Inc. Magazine, The HR Power Hour, HR Breakroom, SKI Magazine and HR Magazine as well as several local/regional publications.

In 2020 Jim was inducted as a Fellow in the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers. 

Chambers USA and New England Super Lawyers have ranked Jim in the Top Tier of management-side employment lawyers for each year of the last 15 years. Best Lawyers USA named Jim the 2022 Lawyer of the Year for Labor and Employment Law (Manchester, NH) and the NH Business Review named him one of the top 200 most influential business leaders in New Hampshire.

Jim has been a presenter regularly at SHRM’s Legal and Legislative Conference in Washington, DC as well as SHRM’s annual conferences.

SESSIONS:
Kim Ades, MBA
Founder
Frame of Mind Coaching
Connect Online with this Speaker

Kim Ades is the Founder of Frame of Mind Coaching™ and The Journal That Talks Back™. Recognized as a pioneer in the field of leadership coaching and thought mastery, Kim uses her unique philosophy and quirky coaching style to help leaders identify their blind spots and direct their thinking to achieve extraordinary results. Author, speaker, entrepreneur, coach, and mom of five, Kim’s claim to fame is teaching her powerful coaching process to leaders, executives, and entrepreneurs worldwide. Kim has been featured in a variety of online publications including Forbes and Inc. and has spoken for organizations including Microsoft and SHRM. 

 

SESSIONS:
Thursday, September 24, 2020 - 11:00am to 12:00pm
Shola Richards
Best-Selling Author, Keynote and TEDx Speaker, and Workplace Civility Activist
Shola Richards
Connect Online with this Speaker
SESSIONS:
Bianca Lager
President
Social Intelligence
Connect Online with this Speaker

Bianca is the President of Social Intelligence where she drives the vision to support organizations in protecting workplace culture and preventing harassment. Bianca obtained an MBA from Pepperdine University with a concentration in Dispute Resolution and is a LinkedIn Learning Instructor.

SESSIONS:
Friday, September 25, 2020 - 12:15pm to 1:15pm
Bernadette Jones, SHRM-SCP
CEO, Co-founder
Visionova HR Consulting, Inc.
Connect Online with this Speaker

Bernadette Jones is a trailblazing HR leader with over 20 years of experience crafting "Culture-First" solutions across diverse organizations. As Human Resource Committee Chair at Richmond Art Center and Professional Development Chair for SHRM Northern California, she champions intentional inclusion and culture-first practices. Bernadette's innovative "Respect in the Workplace Starts With Me®" workshop series addresses crucial compliance and cultural issues. With SPHR and SHRM-SCP certifications, she brings deep HR expertise to her roles. Bernadette's leadership in Visionova's participation in SHRM's National HR Registered Apprenticeship Program demonstrates her commitment to nurturing HR talent and enhancing workplace environments. Her work connects over 27,000 HR professionals across 16 SHRM chapters in Northern California.

 

SESSIONS:
Thursday, September 24, 2020 - 12:30pm to 1:30pm
Christopher CJ Gross
Founder and CEO
Ascension Worldwide
Connect Online with this Speaker

Christopher “CJ” Gross is the author of the best-selling book What's Your Zip Code Story? Understanding and Overcoming Class Bias in the Workplace and the highly acclaimed Harvard Business Review article, A Better Approach to Mentorship. He is a TEDx Speaker and founder of Ascension Worldwide, a firm dedicated to DEI and cultural transformation consulting based in the Washington, D.C. area. CJ has 20-years of experience as an international organizational development consultant specializing in leadership development, and DEI transformation. CJ is a certified Social + Emotional Intelligence coach, trainer, Keirsey Temperament professional, and Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) Administrator.

SESSIONS:
Wednesday, October 21, 2020 - 11:30am to 12:30pm
Dr. Tana M. Session, SHRM-SCP
Award-Winning International Speaker, Executive-level Performance Coach, Best-selling Author, Recognized Inclusion, Diversity & Multigenerational Thought Leader, Media Contributor, CEO and Founder
TanaMSession.com
Connect Online with this Speaker

Dr. Tana M. Session is the CEO and founder of TanaMSession.com, a certified woman minority business enterprise. With over 20 years of human resources experience, Tana specializes in cultural engineering, facilitated experiences, and leadership and organizational development. She spent 10 years as the top human resource executive for domestic and international organizations, where she led various change initiatives and up-leveled entire departments, including talent, systems and infrastructure. She has partnered with high-tech startups and fast-growth companies as well as McDonald's, Topa Insurance Group, Thermo-Fisher Scientific, Xerox, Cognizant, Citibanamex and many other multinational for-profit and not-for-profit organizations. Her experience has enabled her to embed her passion for diversity, equality and inclusion in everything she develops and implements.

Tana is the author of multiple books, including the best-seller Get Your Career Life in Order (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2016). She is a recognized media contributor and has been a contributing writer for Forbes and Black Enterprise and has been featured in Huffington Post and Essence and on various television, syndicated radio and podcast shows.

 
SESSIONS: