Meredith Singer is a Government and Regulatory Affairs Executive for IBM, where she serves as a Capitol Hill and federal agency lobbyist. She is responsible for advancing IBM's legislative and regulatory priorities in human resources policy, ie., immigration, diversity/LGBT+, paid leave, labor/employment, healthcare and retirement.

She regularly lobbies U.S. and foreign embassy officials; interfaces with senior company leadership; builds consensus, creates and executes strategies for all U.S. HR policy priorities in close coordination with IBM's myriad business units here and abroad; writes legislative language, Congressional testimony and regulatory comments; and actively creates and leads many coalitions and trade associations. She also manages both grassroots and grasstops policy campaigns and communications. In addition, Meredith has managed IBM's advocacy for nationwide intelligent transportation and automotive solutions, as well as appropriations for basic research at federal agencies, such as NIST, NSF and DoE.

She currently chairs the US Chamber of Commerce's Immigration Committee; is a board member of the Public Leadership Education Network; is an advisory board member of the Coalition for the American Dream; and is on the Executive Committee of Compete America, among other positions.

Meredith has a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.A. in East Asian Studies from The George Washington University. She also is an internationally certified Les Mills™ BODYPUMP instructor.

Katie W. Mahoney rejoined the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in June 2010. Mahoney has more than 13 years of health care experience in hospital and health plan operations, as well as health policy. She is responsible for developing, advocating, and publicizing the Chamber’s policy on health and works with members of Congress, the administration, and regulatory agencies to promote the organization’s health policy. Mahoney also crafts regulatory responses for the Chamber and its member companies and addresses material areas as part of a comprehensive health policy. 

Mahoney joined the Chamber from the law firm of Greenberg Traurig where she served as assistant director of health and FDA business. While there, she analyzed legislative and regulatory health care proposals and advised insurers, health care providers, and employers on the respective business impact. 

Previously, Mahoney worked at the U.S. Chamber as director of health care policy from 2004 to 2007. She focused on access to health coverage for small businesses and the uninsured, health plan mandates, ERISA preemption and regulatory requirements, COBRA, Medicare payment systems, retiree health coverage, medical liability reform, and health care quality improvement initiatives. 

Mahoney has consulted on a variety of projects for state agencies and hospitals to maximize reimbursement and improve coverage among underserved populations, using public financing strategies. Her operational experience includes negotiating, implementing, and monitoring all managed care agreements with hospitals and health systems, large medical groups, and ancillaries in Southwest Central Louisiana on behalf of the largest single health carrier in the United States. She completed a postgraduate fellowship with the then-fully integrated Ochsner Health System, working at the executive level with chief executive officers at the Ochsner Health Plan, Ochsner Clinic, and Ochsner Foundation Hospital.

Originally from Massachusetts, Mahoney graduated cum laude from Vanderbilt University with an undergraduate degree in English literature. She earned a law degree and a master’s degree in health administration from Tulane University’s Schools of Law and Public Health and Tropical Medicine, respectively. She lives in Rockville, Maryland, with her husband, Jason, twin sons, and a daughter. 

A principal at The Fratelli Group, Frances specializes in advocacy and communications strategy, helping a wide variety of organizations – ranging from multinational corporations and NGOs to trade associations and foreign governments – develop and execute communications strategies that advance their missions. She has coached ambassadors, diplomats, business leaders and other executives to become even more effective and skilled communicators. Prior to The Fratelli Group, Frances managed public policy and business issues for General Motors; was a legislative representative for federal affairs at Ryder System, Inc.; and was a government relations consultant for a boutique lobbying firm that represented city, regional and state agencies, as well as public and private sector transportation providers. She began her career in Washington, D.C., as a legislative staffer in the Office of Congressman Kevin Brady. Frances received her bachelor’s degree from Duke University and her JD from Georgetown Law. She is admitted to the state bars of Maryland and New York.

Nancy is vice president of regulatory & judicial engagement in the government affairs department of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM).  Nancy joined SHRM in January 2006 and oversees SHRM policy engagement with the executive branch.  In this role, Nancy advocates SHRM membership views in order to shape federal rulemaking and influence regulatory proposals affecting the HR profession.  In addition, Nancy directs SHRM’s intervention in court cases that raise critical issues for the HR profession to ensure the HR viewpoint is considered.

Prior to joining SHRM, Nancy spent 5 years as legislative counsel for senator Bob Kerrey (D-NE).  Nancy also served as director of the International Division and policy counsel for the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.

Nancy received her law degree from Washington University School of Law in   St. Louis, Missouri and her Bachelor of Science degree in Political Science from Nebraska Wesleyan University.

Wendell Primus is the Senior Policy Advisor on Budget and Health issues to Speaker Nancy Pelosi.  In that capacity, he was the lead staffer in developing the Affordable Care Act.  He also played a major role in the SGR legislation in 2015 and various budget agreements.  Prior to this appointment in March, 2005, Dr. Primus was the Minority Staff Director at the Joint Economic Committee. He has also held positions at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, served in the Clinton Administration at the Department of Health and Human Services and also served as Chief Economist for the House Ways and Means Committee and Staff Director for the Committee's Subcommittee on Human Resources.  Dr. Primus received his Ph.D. in economics from Iowa State University.

Steve Clemons is Editor at Large of The Hill, America's most read political media publication.  Clemons is also host of the weekly Al Jazeera show on American politics and global issues, The Bottom Line. Previously, Clemons served as Editor at Large of The Atlantic and has been a long time politics and economic issues contributor to MSNBC. He is proprietor of the popular political blog, The Washington Note.  He also founded and serves as Senior Fellow of the American Strategy Program at the New America Foundation where he previously served as Executive Vice President.  Prior to this, Clemons served as Executive Vice President of the Economic Strategy Institute, was Senior Economic & International Affairs Advisor to Senator Jeff Bingaman, and was the founding Executive Director of the Nixon Center, now re-named the Center for National Interest. 

Clemons serves on the advisory boards of the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience at Washington College and of the Eastern European national security think tank, GLOBSEC. 

Prior to assuming the role of Assistant Secretary for Career, Technical and Adult Education, Scott Stump served as the Chief Operating Officer with Vivayic, Inc., a learning solutions provider devoted to helping individuals, organizations and corporations do good in the world.  Before that, Scott served as the Assistant Provost/State Director for Career & Technical Education (CTE) with the Colorado Community College System. Over his tenure with the system Stump also served as State FFA Advisor, Agriculture Program Director and interim President of Northeastern Junior College during the institution’s presidential search process.

During his seven-year tenure as a State CTE Director, Scott served as an officer in the National Association of State Directors of Career & Technical Education.  Through this role, he served on the National SkillsUSA Board of Directors as the NASDCTEc liaison.

Stump served two terms on the Prairie RE11-J school board and one year on the Colorado Association of School Boards Board of Directors.

Stump received his bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Education from Purdue University and taught at Manchester High School in North Central Indiana.  Before coming to Colorado he also worked for the National FFA Organization managing the national officer team and the national FFA convention. In May of 2018, Stump completed his Master of Business Administration through Western Governor’s University.

Patrick Brady is a Director of Policy Engagement at SHRM national’s Alexandria, Virginia office handling labor, employment, civil rights and workforce development issues.

Prior to joining SHRM, Mr. Brady was a Manager, Public Policy at WorldatWork – a nonprofit human resources association for professionals and organizations focused on compensation, benefits, work-life effectiveness programs and total rewards. In this role, Mr. Brady served as the association’s lobbyist for the U.S House of Representatives as well as the federal agencies with jurisdiction over employment matters. He was instrumental developing and implementing the association’s strategy focused on the Department of Labor’s 2016 update to the overtime regulation.   

Prior to joining WorldatWork, Mr. Brady was a Senior Associate at Bond Associates – a boutique appropriations lobbying firm that specialized in foreign development and international exchange programs for institutions of higher education. 

Mr. Brady is a graduate of Loyola University of Chicago with Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Minors in Economics and Criminal Justice. He lives in Alexandria, Virginia with his wife and son.

Drawing on his diverse communications, public policy and public affairs experience, Nate Bailey serves as chief of staff to U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. He is responsible for implementing the Secretary’s strategy for education reform in America and overseeing the Department’s 3,600 employees and $72 billion discretionary budget. Prior to assuming his current role, Bailey served as the Assistant Secretary for Communications and Outreach (delegated) at the Department.

Before joining the Department, Nate was the president of a boutique public affairs, communications and advertising firm based in Alexandria, VA. There, he provided senior leadership to a diverse range of clients involving health, energy, trade, telecom and foreign policy matters.

Previously, Nate was a Senior Vice President at Edelman, the world’s largest public relations firm, where he led a team of grassroots, digital and public affairs professionals and executed campaigns for major trade associations and Fortune 100 companies.

Earlier in this career, Nate had held roles at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, with a senior member of the House Appropriations committee, the Michigan Attorney General’s office, and in numerous electoral campaigns.

Nate is a graduate of the James Madison College at Michigan State University, where he studied international affairs, economics. He and his wife, Kylee, live in Alexandria with their three children.

Ms. O’Connell is the Founder & CEO of Global Disability Inclusion. She is an internationally recognized disability employment and inclusion expert with over 20 years of experience in human capital management, talent acquisition, performance management, disability inclusion, employee engagement, marketing and customer service programs. 

Ms. O’Connell provides strategic program design and implementation of disability employment and inclusion programs for Global 500 companies, US Federal Contractors, colleges and universities, non-profits, and foundations.

Prior to founding Global Disability Inclusion, Ms. O’Connell was Vice President at The National Organization on Disability where she designed and led their national consulting practice, Bridges to Business, providing disability inclusion expertise to Fortune 500 companies.  She was the lead architect of the first ever disability assessment tool, The Disability Employment Tracker, and led the analysis of the first data captured on employee engagement of people with disabilities.

Ms. O’Connell also spent ten years at the premier consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton.  She was a member of the firm’s People Strategy team and led several large-scale talent management projects and diversity & inclusion efforts that transformed business operations for her clients. 

While at Booz Allen, Ms. O’Connell developed and led their employee resource group for employees with disabilities, and won Booz Allen’s Global Diversity Award for Individual Contributor. Booz Allen was also one of the first recipients of the New Freedom Initiative Award for their disability employment programs.

Her work has received numerous accolades including the Society of Human Resource Management’s (SHRM’s) Innovative Practice Award.  She has been quoted in Diversity Executive magazine, The Huffington Post, DiverseAbility and numerous trade magazines for her insights on employment of people with disabilities.  She keynotes and presents at national conferences regularly.  Ms. O’Connell holds a certificate in ADA Mediation and she is also conversationally proficient in American Sign Language.

A few of O’Connell’s notable clients have included Aetna, Arrow Electronics, Cummins, HBO, JLL, Lowe’s, NCR, P&G, The Poses Family Foundation, Starbucks, Toys R Us, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), Understood 4 All, IRS and the Department of Homeland Security.

Ms. O’Connell is a board member of the United States International Council on Disabilities, which serves to promote global equality for persons with disabilities and is working to promote and ratify the Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities.   She is also an expert resource to The Valuable 500, a global organization working with CEOs to include disability on their board agendas.