In-person Pass

Charmaine Davis is an experienced policy strategist, facilitator and organizer that has built diverse coalitions of labor, community and government organizations, trained grassroots leaders, and directed legislative campaigns using a racial and gender lens to end employment discrimination against justice impacted people, expand access to job protected leave and advance pay equity.

Charmaine began her career as a community organizer for the national organization Project Vote. After moving to Atlanta, GA Charmaine became the State Director for the Georgia chapter of 9to5, The National Association of Working Women. As State Director, she led all chapter organizing, legislative work and membership-building activities. In her role with 9to5 she worked with Georgia state legislators to draft the Family Care Act, a bill to expand job protected leave to Georgia workers. She successfully led lobbying efforts that resulted in the Family Care Act being signed into law by Georgia Governor Nathan Deal in May of 2017. 

While serving as the State Director for 9to5 Charmaine launched Atlanta’s “Ban the Box” campaign. Ban the Box is a campaign to reduce employment discrimination against the formerly incarcerated by removing questions from employment applications inquiring about an individual’s criminal record. In January of 2013, in response to Charmaine’s organizing efforts, the city of Atlanta made history by becoming the first city in Georgia to remove all questions regarding an applicant’s criminal background from city employment applications. This policy change has expanded employment opportunities to thousands of people across the state of Georgia.

Charmaine has received various forms of recognition and awards for her work including being inducted into the YWCA’s Women of Achievement Academy, being named one of Georgia’s 40 under 40 Rising Stars by Georgia Trend Magazine, being awarded Political Organizer of the Year by Project Vote and being named one of Marquis Who's Who in America in 2019.

Charmaine continues to promote the welfare of wage earning women by serving as the Director of Regional Programs and Operations for the US Department of Labor’s Women's Bureau.

Elisha is a Vice President of Aon’s U.S. Health Transformation Team. She is a member of the U.S. Health Transformation Leadership Team. She is a leader for the Minneapolis Apprentice Program. Her role is to partner globally with Aon colleagues and client leaders to understand the current employee wellbeing strategy, culture, and utilization to inform needed changes or enhancements. Her role also includes people leadership, which includes developing the next leaders at Aon.

Prior to joining Aon in 2021, Elisha served as the Clinical Director at Cigna Healthcare and concurrently practiced in the field for 18 years as a Licensed Mental Health Professional.  She first began working in the industry in 2003 as a Mental Health Practitioner. Her background stretches clinical practice in community-based care, school-based counseling, and outpatient services. During her 16 years at Cigna, the highlights of her career were that she built Utilization and Case Management Programs in Autism and Eating Disorders and built a Talent Readiness and Sustainment Program for Medical and Behavioral Operations to serve 4,000 employees.

Elisha’s expertise includes systemic mental health care. She brings her systemic thinking into her Prosci Change Management Certification to lead organizational changes. Her background also includes organizational cultural journey development and sustainment. She is trained in Mental Health First Aid.   

Matt Bahl is Vice President and Head of Workplace Financial Health at the Financial Health Network (FHN).  FHN is the nation’s leading authority for business leaders, policymakers, and innovators committed to improving the financial health of the nation’s most vulnerable populations.  A nationally recognized thought leader on workplace financial wellness, Matt leads FHN’s workplace team and collaborates with employers, benefits providers, and other leading thinkers to advance a workplace system that improves the financial lives of all working people.  

Matt has over 15 years of experience as a thought leader, HR executive, and is a recovering labor and employment lawyer. Matt graduated with honors from the SMU Dedman School of Law and Colorado College.  He is passionate about all things Maine, and can often be found exploring the ocean, woods, and mountains with his wife and three young children.

Aleta Howell currently leads Global Inclusive Recruiting and Business Strategy for Cisco Systems.  In this role she works to align corporate diversity, equity and inclusion strategies that drive diverse and inclusive hiring.   

Prior to her current role, Aleta led Inclusive Recruiting Strategy for University recruiting, where she worked with leaders and HR Partners to drive hiring strategies and program development to attract diverse university talent.  She also served as a Program Manager with Cisco’s Office of Inclusion and Collaboration where she helped to create new processes to drive diversity metrics review discussions with senior leaders.

Before joining Cisco, Aleta spent more than a decade as a senior branding consultant, working with senior leaders and executives to develop and guide branding and business strategy.   Her experience includes leading brand marketing teams, strategic consulting, education recruiting and talent acquisition strategy for numerous Fortune 500 companies.

Aleta began her career as a brand manager with Nabisco Foods.  Upon leaving Nabisco, she returned to Kenan-Flagler Business School as Assoc. Director of Admissions for Minority Recruitment and later became MBA Admissions director, where she led all recruiting and admissions for the full-time MBA program. 

Aleta is an alumnus of NC State University where she earned a BA in Economics and Business Management.  She also earned an MBA from the Kenan-Flagler School of Business at UNC Chapel Hill.  Aleta resides in Raleigh, NC with her husband Kevin.  She is the mother of two college-aged daughters.  In her spare time she loves to sing, cook, write and travel.

Caz is Director of Inclusive Hiring, where she leads RBIJ’s first and second chance hiring programs, including Unlock Potential (UP). In addition to leading the Inclusive Hiring team, her responsibilities also include collaborating with community-based organizations, advocacy leaders, and social services providers.

Previously, Caz worked at various nonprofits, including as the program manager at the Vera Institute of Justice’s Redefining Public Safety team, the Director of Employment Services for Westhab’s NYC and Westchester County shelter and community-based employment programs, and as Director of Fathers Count - Family Services of Westchester’s federally-funded Responsible Fatherhood Program. She received a Citation from Mayor Mike Spano for her contribution to Westchester County and the City of Yonkers and a Certificate of Recognition from the Senate of the State of New York for Exemplary Service to the community. While in the UK, Caz also worked as a probation officer for HM Prison & Probation Service and as a youth social worker with Camden Children & Family Services.

Carmen Canales is a talent expert, dynamic leader, and three-time, multi-industry CHRO. She is an engaging and sought-after speaker and storyteller who connects with a wide range of audiences on topics related to talent, resilience, inclusion, leadership, and culture.

Carmen is passionate about belonging and maximizing the potential of current and future talent by advising leaders on how to build a nimble and high-performing workforce. She is known for her mentorship and sponsorship of emerging leaders, who become CHROs. Her industry experience is diverse, including senior leadership roles in the healthcare, higher education, consumer goods, banking, and professional services industries. She previously served as the chief human resources executive at Novant Health, Wake Forest University and at an international law firm. Earlier in her career, Carmen held human capital leadership roles at Wells Fargo and Pepsi-Cola.

She often is recognized for her contributions to the human resources profession. Carmen was named a Woman Worth Watching in the Profiles in Diversity Journal; an Al Día 2021 Woman of Merit; one of the Top 100 HR Professionals by the National Diversity Council; a Leader in Diversity by the Triad Business Journal; CHRO of the Year, Non-Profit by HRO Today; and Diversity MBA Inclusive Leader.

Carmen holds a Master of Labor and Industrial Relations degree from Michigan State University. She was appointed by North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper to the Forsyth Technical Community College Board of Trustees, has served on the Governor’s Advisory Council for Hispanic and Latino Affairs, and has broad board experience.

Rachel Sheerin, CPBA is an award-winning keynote speaker, emcee and employee engagement consultant on a mission to help people feel better, think better and do better - together!

A Certified Professional Behavior Analyst, audiences are transformed and recharged with energy and leave equipped with strategies and tangible tools. What makes Rachel connect is the fact that she has been on all sides of business - sales, operations and executive leadership.. She's built multi-million dollar sales teams for organizations that want to grow profits and boost happiness and delivered organization-wide training for different vocations from machinists to executive director, SVP and beyond.

She's also burned out, failed and ruined her career a couple of times - which makes her messages of burnout prevention, happiness and success sincere, impactful and hilarious. With a strong dash of vulnerability, Rachel meets audiences where they are and with her background in meetings and events, gives planners and executives the 5-star surveys they want most.

With Fortune 500 clients such as The Ritz Carlton, WAL-MART, National Associations in Healthcare and Banking, Hilton, Berkshire Hathaway and many more, Rachel is also Co-Founder of MAGNET METHOD, an employee engagement and retention consulting firm for growing cultures.

Rachel's continued research and motivational content around burnout, happiness and success can be seen regularly on her LinkedIn profile and read in her upcoming book, BETTER: How to Feel Good as You Live, Lead and Succeed (8/8/23, Hawthorn Road Press).

Currently serving on the Board of Directors for the Association for Women in Events (AWE), Rachel is a proud member of Meeting Planners International (MPI), supporter of the Appalachian Bear Foundation and can often be found playing ping pong badly with her husband, Jeff.

Jason Sheffield is BRPs National Director of Compliance for the Baldwin Regulatory Compliance Collaborative. He oversees the ongoing evolution of our firm's national compliance operations. Jason develops, designs and implements educational programming and compliance assuredness services by creating timely and relevant solutions designed for the benefit of our clients and colleagues, our industry partners, and the general benefits community. Jason has practiced employee benefits law and consulting for nearly two decades, representing individual, corporate, and tribal interests at the local, state, and federal levels. He has advised clients and provided representative services before administrative agencies such as the DOL, the IRS, CMS, OCR, several state-level treasury authorities, and others. He has experience with both qualified and non-qualified retirement plans, executive compensation matters, and extensive experience respecting health and welfare plan matters. Jason received his undergraduate degree from Georgia State University (magna cum laude) and his Juris Doctor from Western New England College School of Law. He is admitted to the State Bar of Georgia.