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Doug Rand began serving as Senior Advisor to the Director of USCIS on Aug. 16, 2021.

Previously, he served as a Senior Fellow at the Federation of American Scientists (FAS), directing the Technology and Innovation Initiative that focuses on the intersection of immigration policy and artificial intelligence (AI) in advancing the nation’s national security and economic growth.

Rand served in the Executive Office of the President between 2010­-2017 as Assistant Director for Entrepreneurship in the Office of Science and Technology Policy, with a portfolio spanning inclusive high-growth entrepreneurship, access to capital, clean energy innovation, commercialization of federally funded research, and high-skill immigration. More recently, he advised the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence.

As an entrepreneur, Rand was the co-founder and president of Boundless, and the co-founder and CEO of Playscripts, Inc.

He is a graduate of Yale Law School and the Yale School of Management, and received Master’s and undergraduate degrees from Harvard, where he studied evolutionary biology.

Lynden Melmed is a partner with Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP and oversees the firm’s compliance and government affairs practices. He counsels corporate clients on complex immigration matters, assists businesses in establishing and managing global immigration programs, and represents businesses in connection with audits and investigations by the federal government. He has served as immigration counsel in connection with several of the largest immigration investigations ever pursued by the federal government.

Before joining BAL, Lynden served as Chief Counsel of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), where he was a key advisor to senior leadership within USCIS, DHS, the White House, and other federal agencies on all aspects of immigration law. Lynden also served as Special Counsel to Senator John Cornyn, who was Chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Citizenship; in that role, Lynden played a leading role in drafting and managing comprehensive immigration legislation.

Tom Brunskill is the co-founder and CEO of Forage, a job simulation platform that helps students bridge the gap between education and work opportunities. On a mission to make education-to-workforce pathway more equitable, Tom co-founded Forage in 2017 to provide the ability to preskill through virtual job simulations produced by the world’s top companies, including J.P. Morgan, Lyft and Walmart, to name a few. By breaking down barriers to gaining workplace-specific skills, Tom hopes to level the opportunity playing field and empower anyone to pursue their dream career. Tom started his career as a corporate lawyer at a multinational law firm in Australia before moving to San Francisco and has been featured in Business Insider, Financial Times and TechCrunch, among others.

Kerri Nelson, Ph.D., is the Director of Mission Research at SHRM. She is responsible for leading, developing, and designing strategic, public-facing research that provides organizations, business leaders, and policymakers with evidence-based insights at the intersection of people and work. She also partners with public and private organizations to produce research related to work, worker, and workplace. Kerri has led research on a variety of topics including pay equity, skills-based hiring, untapped talent pools, workplace culture, and the global workforce. Her work has been featured in top news outlets, on podcasts and webinars, and on the Hill.

Roselle Rogers, SPHR, SHRM-SCP, is the Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Circa™ with responsibility for leading its DEI strategy and thought leadership initiatives. She is a subject matter expert in HR/OFCCP Compliance and diversity and frequently speaks on these topics at various HR conferences and webinars. Prior to this role, Rogers was responsible for the company’s OFCCP compliance operations for its federal contractor clients. She has more than 30 years of HR experience and holds senior level professional certifications with HRCI and SHRM. She currently serves as the Vice President and Secretary of the Milwaukee Industry Liaison Group (ILG), a member of the Chicago ILG, a presenter on the Circa OFCCP webinar series, is the lead editor of the Circa publication, The OFCCP Digest, and an in-house expert on the online forum Ask the Experts. Roselle has served as a Director on the Metro Milwaukee (MM) SHRM Board, chaired the MM SHRM Certification Committee, and facilitated the SHRM SPHR/PHR Certification course for three years.

Rick Grimaldi is the author of “Flex” and a partner at Fisher Phillips, one of America’s preeminent labor and employment law firms representing employers, where he works with companies both large and small on solving their most complex workplace challenges. Rick has served employers and employees in Pennsylvania in high-ranking public service positions, worked as a human resources professional, and spent years in private practice partnering with companies to help them adapt to the ever-changing business environment, achieve their workplace goals and become better employers that are ultimately rewarded by the market.

James A. Paretti, Jr. is an experienced management-side employment and labor relations attorney with in-depth political and policy knowledge of labor, pension, healthcare and employment law, regulations and legislation. Jim is well versed in all aspects of legislative and political processes with demonstrated knowledge in the substance of federal labor and employment policy. He has over two decades of experience working with federal legislators and policymakers, including former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Chairmen of the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce, and senior level administration officials.

Prior to joining Littler, Jim was chief of staff and senior counsel to the acting chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. He provided legal and political counsel with respect to all aspects of agency business, administered and managed the Office of the Chair where he was responsible for over 2,200 employees and a 375 million dollar annual budget, and served as primary liaison to regulated stakeholders and Capitol Hill. His extensive experience includes developing policy and providing legal counsel on the Committee on Education and Labor in the U.S. House of Representatives as well as coordinating external communications and media relations for a senior member of Congress. Jim represented corporate and nonprofit clients in employment litigation in federal and state court, before administrative agencies and in private arbitration while with two Boston firms.

During law school, he held positions as editor as well as note and comment editor for the New York University Law Review