In-person Pass

Khaliah O. Guillory (KOG) worked her way from banker to vice president at a Fortune 100 company that oversaw a $1 billion book of business and over 220 employees. While Vice President of Wachovia Bank, she served as one of the founding members of the Diversity Council, influencing positive change at the company. During this time, the organization saw a retention increase of approximately 35% due to her leadership. After leaving Corporate America, her phone started ringing off the hook and hasn’t stopped since. 

An avid napper and Forbes Featured Sleep Coach, Khaliah is obsessed with sleep so much, she founded Nap Bar™, the first-of-its-kind, white-glove, virtual reality wellness experience in the world. Nap Bar offers communities and companies onsite and en-suite rest sanctuaries to help reduce sleep deprivation and increase mindfulness and alertness. 

In 2015, Khaliah founded KOG & Co., a boutique firm that partners with corporations to transform human emotion through inclusion, equity, culture, wellness, and employee engagement experiences. Khaliah is an international speaker chosen to deliver the 2018 MBA Commencement Speech at the University of Houston-Downtown. She has been featured in a plethora of national media outlets, including Forbes, Huffington Post, Essence, Houston Business Journal, Fox News, ABC, and NBC. 

Khaliah’s thought leadership has inspired companies like Microsoft, Synchrony Bank, Shell, NASA, and LinkedIn, to name a few. As a dynamic professional speaker, she champions workplace well-being and belonging with electrifying energy and real-world insights. 

When she’s not revolutionizing the way we rest, you can find Khaliah chasing her next adventure — like skydiving from 10,000 feet out of a perfectly good plane. She’s a lover of ’80s music, a travel junkie, a vinyl collector, and has an undeniable obsession with socks, sunglasses, and watches. 

A member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., Khaliah is also the recipient of the Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award. Her impact runs deep, so much so that former Mayor Sylvester Turner and the City of Houston declared October 29 as Khaliah O. Guillory Day in recognition of her philanthropic work. 

W. Brad Johnson, PhD, is a clinical psychologist and the co-founder of Workplaceallies.com. For 30 years, he served Sailors and Marines in the U.S. Navy, first as a commissioned officer in the Navy’s Medical Service Corps and later as a tenured full professor at Annapolis in the U.S. Naval Academy's Department of Leadership, Ethics, and Law. For 20 years, he was also a clinical faculty associate at Johns Hopkins University. A clinical psychologist, Dr. Johnson is a mentoring expert specializing in developing gender-inclusive mentoring cultures for organizations around the globe. Dr. Johnson is the author of numerous publications, including 14 books, in the areas of mentoring, professional ethics, and gender inclusion. Recent Books include Good Guys: How Men Can Become Better Allies for Women in the Workplace (2020, October, with David Smith); On Being a Mentor: A Guide for Higher Education Faculty (3rd Ed.) (2025, with Kimberly Griffin); The Elements of Mentoring (3rd Ed.) (2018, with Charles Ridley); and Athena Rising: How and Why Men Should Mentor Women (2016, with David Smith).

Tamla Oates-Forney is an innovative thought leader and speaker, women’s advocate, wellness champion, philanthropist, and investor. Tamla serves as Chief Executive Officer of SHRM Linkage, a leadership development firm empowering organizations to achieve business success by unlocking the full potential of their talent from the backpack to the boardroom. 

Tamla previously served as EVP, Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) for USAA, where as a member of the Executive Council she led USAA’s team of more than 500 HR professionals spanning talent development, talent acquisition, pay and benefits, culture, and employee services for 37,000 teammates. Prior to joining USAA, Tamla served as Senior Vice President and Chief People Officer at WM (previously Waste Management). She spent the majority of her career (20 years) at General Electric, where she held multiple leadership roles, including HR Leader for GE Africa, Chief Diversity Officer for GE Appliances and Lighting, and Vice President of HR for GE Energy Connections. 

Tamla is also a member of the Board of Advisors for her alma mater, UNC Chapel Hill’s Kenan-Flagler Business School, and is a sought-after speaker, advisor, and thought leader for several HR-related technology startups. 

Tamla is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she earned her Bachelor of Science in business administration. A renowned expert in her field, she has received multiple honors, including being featured in The New York Times, Fast Company, The Network Journal’s 25 Influential Black Women in Business, and Savoy’s 2020 Most Influential Black Executives in Corporate America. She is also a member of the Executive Leadership Council (ELC), a network of Black CEOs and business leaders who support the development of diverse talent and the promotion of social justice.