In-person Pass

Stacey has 20 years of public relations, ​internal communications, ​brand reputation, crisis communications, culture development and corporate social responsibility experience. She’s adept at strategy and creation of key messaging to all stakeholders, from the boardroom to the break room.

She’s held CorpComm leadership positions managing all social and traditional media for Brinker International (parent company of Chili’s Grill & Bar and Maggiano’s Little Italy), FedEx Office and At Home. She built internal and external communications strategies and led a culture shift for At Home’s $20 million, nationwide rebrand. Additionally, she served on the core team and led communication for the company’s 2016 IPO. As an SVP at a NYC-based PR agency, she was deeply involved in supporting Peloton’s September 2019 IPO. In 2020, she joined the Peloton organization as an employee.

Margaret Dondero is a Senior Manager of Global Benefits at Globalization Partners whose passion about holistic wellbeing and employee benefits has been making a difference in employee’s lives for more than thirty years.

She joined Globalization Partners in 2021 following nine years with Novanta where she managed Global Benefits. Margaret has always approached solutions to employee benefits inclusively of overall wellbeing; physical, financial, emotional and social.

Margaret lives in Massachusetts with her husband and children and their dogs on a family farm. When she is not working, she likes to spend time on the farm with her family and assorted farm animals.

Building community is at the core of Allie's professional career and has been for nearly a decade. Leading internal employee engagement efforts around the world for Globalization Partners for nearly 2 years, Allie has a host of experience in event planning, communications, and creatively finding ways to weave story telling into the employee experience. "Cultivating a positive employee experience is about more than hosting fun events, it's about the connections we're able to make around the world that expand our ways of thinking, empowering one another to be active participants in building communities and partnerships, how we view other cultures and what we can learn from one another," says Allie. Her career is driven by the belief that building community needs to be intentional, especially in this remote-first world, and that building a corporate culture to be proud of is a collective effort among the entire team.

Margaret Dondero is a Senior Manager of Global Benefits at Globalization Partners whose passion about holistic wellbeing and employee benefits has been making a difference in employee’s lives for more than thirty years.

She joined Globalization Partners in 2021 following nine years with Novanta where she managed Global Benefits. Margaret has always approached solutions to employee benefits inclusively of overall wellbeing; physical, financial, emotional and social.

Margaret lives in Massachusetts with her husband and children and their dogs on a family farm. When she is not working, she likes to spend time on the farm with her family and assorted farm animals.

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.

Karith Foster is a Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging Expert and creator of the groundbreaking INVERSITY™ methodology and other signature programs. She is creating a seismic shift in diversity and culture change in academic institutions, organizations and corporations across America. These new conversations are revolutionizing the way we address issues of diversity, mental wellness and leadership.

Karith brings the perfect blend of humor, knowledge and experience while conveying the ever-present need to address diversity, inclusion and effective communication. Karith leaves her audiences feeling engaged, connected, inspired and encouraged to commit to the journey of mutual respect, acceptance and a greater sense of belonging.

As a speaker, humorist, TV & radio personality, author, entrepreneur, wife, and mother, Karith is a positive force of change with her sense of duty, service—along with her riotous sense of humor. “If you can laugh at it you can get through it,” is her motto and the invaluable lesson she seeks to instill in others. 

In addition to being CEO of INVERSITY™ Solutions, Karith is also the Founder of F.R.A.M.E the Foster Russell Alliance for Meaningful Expression a 501(c)3 non-profit, whose mission is to inspire free speech, inclusion, social change and empowerment through education and mentorship on college and university campuses.

Karith was featured in two hit documentary films “Can We Take a Joke?” and "No Safe Spaces" which have garnered accolades in The Washington Post and TIME Magazine, as has her TEDx Talk “The Art of Defying Stereotypes: Learning to be True to Your Voice.” Karith is a former co-host on Imus in the Morning, has also made regular appearances on Fox&Friends, MSNBC, Howard Stern, Comedy Central, and Oprah.

Tony Buffum is Vice President of HR Client Strategy at Upwork, where he is responsible for helping accelerate the growth of enterprise companies, helping them solve HR challenges related to finance, procurement and talent transformation. Tony brings over two decades of experience leading global HR teams as well as driving transformational change in company culture, organizational design, performance management, and employee integration and engagement. He joins Upwork following a series of leadership positions including chief human resources officer (CHRO) at FLIR Systems, VP of global human resources at STANLEY Security and VP of human resources at Stanley Black & Decker.