In-person Pass

Josh Christianson is Project Director for the Partnership on Inclusive Apprenticeship (PIA) where he leads efforts to create a more diverse and inclusive workforce through apprenticeship. Josh has extensive experience in supporting the diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) efforts of non-profit organizations, private companies, and government agencies.
 
He is the former director of the Partnership on Employment & Accessible Technology (PEAT), where he built cross-sector partnerships to shape the policies and practices contributing to the development of accessible emerging technologies in the workplace.
 
Before coming to PEAT Josh was a Senior Consultant at Deloitte where he provided talent strategies, change management, and leadership development support to federal agencies.
 
Prior to Deloitte he spent several years with The Posse Foundation as the Career Program Manager where he cultivated relationships with companies and organizations to provide career development opportunities for Posse Scholars and Alumni.

Lola Adeyemo is an Employee Resource Group (ERG) Advocate, Speaker, and Team Consultant. As the founder of EQImindset, she engages her skills and passion to promote inclusion within corporate workplaces. She advocates for an inclusive lens across every level within corporations as well as the empowerment of individual contributors, people managers, and executive leaders to align with their passions in supporting their personal and organizational goals.
Lola is a scientist by discipline and is currently working towards her Doctor of Strategic leadership degree with a dissertation focus on belonging, informal teams, and employee resource groups. She has work experience across global organizations in the biotechnology and life sciences industry and has spent years moving across roles in project management, supply chain, data analysis, people management, HR compliance, and Global Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion positions. Her book on Immigrant Women in Corporate America is set for a Fall 2022 release.

Dr. Wade Larson is a workforce consultant and human resources executive with 30-years of experience in strategy, leadership enablement, and talent management. His    expertise in HR and leadership helps organizations improve structures, culture, management, and leadership to achieve their goals. As an international speaker, published author, and professor, he strives to help others achieve the best versions of themselves. Wade has worked with hundreds of organizations and thousands of leaders to shift mindsets, innovate programs, and lead change that helps them do more, achieve more, and live their best lives.

Jeremy York, SHRM-SCP, SPHR is the Lead Consultant and President of InvigorateHR and coauthor of the “JoyPowered Organization.” He has over 20 years' experience in human resource strategy and business operations where he has worked with and advised all levels of management on critical business and people-related issues. Jeremy's expertise in defining and understanding the "big picture" enables him to translate business needs into tangible solutions. With his guidance, organizations have improved employee relations, increased performance, and developed cultures based on mutual trust and respect. Jeremy holds a master’s degree in management from Indiana Wesleyan University and a bachelor’s degree in organizational leadership from Purdue University. He has served as an adjunct faculty member for Purdue University Indianapolis for over 15 years teaching various leadership and human resources curriculums. Jeremy is a national speaker and currently serves as an advisor on the Society for Human Resource Management’s Diversity Taskforce.

Alison Daley is the Founder & CEO of Recruiting Innovation. A 15 year veteran of the recruitment industry, Daley focuses on the intersection of technology, professional development, and reimagining recruitment models for the 21st century. Creator of the Tech Recruiter Certification and the Alignment Framework™, Daley is a pioneer in technical recruitment. She is an international speaker, trainer and entrepreneur.

Andi Campbell is a progressive executive focused on driving results through people. She serves as Chief Growth Officer at WellSpark, a national wellbeing, disease prevention, and management company that moves diverse, long-tenured employee populations along a path toward a more enduring well. At WellSpark, Andi develops and delivers holistic, “total person” wellbeing programs to thousands of employees across the U.S.

An experienced senior HR leader, Andi was previously Senior Vice President, Head of People and Culture at LAZ Parking, one of the largest parking companies in the world. CLO, Elearning!, Parking, Training, Workforce, and TD magazines have recognized her work.

Lauren leads Microsoft’s Global Talent Acquisition team responsible for university, industry, and executive level hiring for the company. She has been with Microsoft since 1991 and has held various leadership roles including HR GM for Microsoft’s Marketing & Consumer Business and HR leader for the U.S. subsidiary. She also currently serves as the HR Executive Sponsor for the Blacks@Microsoft employee resource group.

Lauren is a proud graduate of the University of Washington with a B.S. in Psychology and an MBA with an emphasis in HR. A life-long learner, Lauren enjoys spending time with her family and supporting local charities.

Dr. Deborah Everhart serves as Chief Strategy Officer at Credential Engine, leading credential and competency transparency initiatives that enable more effective connections between education and career opportunities. Deborah has pioneered open technology standards for competencies, learning and employment records, and open badges. She led nationally-recognized experts authoring the American Council on Education publications “Quality Dimensions for Connected Credentials” and “Communicating the Value of Competencies.” Her business expertise includes leadership roles in technology architecture and product strategy at Cengage and Blackboard. Deborah holds a Ph.D. from the University of California, Irvine. 

Dr. Rick Goldgar, Ph.D. is the IBM Associate Partner for Digital Credentials in the IBM Talent Transformation Service Line. He was responsible for the original architecture of what is now the IBM Digital Credentials product and currently leads efforts for the Learning and Employment Records (LER) marketplace. He is also instrumental in the worldwide credentials market business planning, client relationships, partnerships and supports business and financial modeling. Dr. Goldgar participates in education credential efforts with numerous organizations, including IEEE and the Ed. 3.0 efforts.

Dr. Goldgar has been with IBM more than nine years, previously working in IBM Watson Research, Watson Education and in the IBM Center of Competency.  He has supported numerous key education initiatives at IBM in both k-12 and higher education and has worked directly with clients worldwide.

Dr. Goldgar was formerly the CIO and CTO at the Texas Education Agency, a $27B state agency responsible or over 1200 K12 districts, over 6M students and over 500,000 teachers in public and charter schools. In this role he was responsible for operations, contracts, innovation in the IT department.  Dr. Goldgar built and managed award-winning organization of over 200 staff, over 80 applications, with a $45M budget for functions including project management, operations, security and data systems. Mr. Goldgar is considered the Father of Texas Student Data System (TSDS), a state-wide data warehouse and reporting system for all schools.

Award-winning author Ed Muzio is one of very few practitioners worldwide doing systems-level intervention with CEO and staff simultaneously, shifting culture quickly and significantly enough to improve how the company is run at executive and subordinate levels.  To accomplish this, he pulls from over 70 years of research and experience spanning multiple academic disciplines and industries.  Leaders and managers – especially those overseeing complex work constrained by competing requirements and influenced by unpredictable external forces – consistently endorse Muzio’s latest bestseller, “Iterate,” in which he lays out a methodology for making organizations of all kinds more agile and adaptable in real life.

Tara Noonan Amaral is a Principal Consultant at Riviera Advisors. Tara brings several decades of talent acquisition and leadership strategy expertise to Riviera Advisors. Tara has had an impressive career in recruitment, diversity and strategic talent acquisition for some of the most successful organizations in the world including: Marsh & McLennan, Fidelity Investments, New York Life, ADP and AON/Hewitt. She has more than 20 years of experience developing, implementing, and operating both Corporate and RPO talent acquisition and recruiting functions where she has inspired innovation, and integrated emerging technologies and practices into the talent acquisition function. Prior to her talent acquisition career, Tara held banking and financial services leadership positions at JPMorgan Chase in retail and institutional client management and Six Sigma and Agile project management.

In addition to her corporate leadership roles, Tara has been a frequent industry speaker, well-travelled industry advocate and has participated in leadership roles with the Association of Talent Acquisition Professional (ATAP), the Conference Board Global Labor Advisory Council, and the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM). Tara also serves as an HR Venture Advisor with SemperVirensVenture Capital.

Tara’s passions include working on the continued importance of a strong talent acquisition and retention ecosystem, the future of work(ers), Diversity & Inclusion solutions, and cross-cultural and multi-generational talent strategies. Tara holds a Bachelor of Arts in Organizational Behavior from Brown University. Tara is based in Charleston, South Carolina.