Breakout Session

Mark S. Fogel is currently a Director for Clifton Larson Allen’s National HR consulting practice. He is a former CHRO for Leviton, Marcum, and Success Academy Charter Schools, Mark has been the recipient of several national awards including SHRM’s Human Capital Leader of the Year in 2007, SHRM’s Innovation in a Down Economy in 2009, and HR Executive Magazine’s Honor Role in 2010. He has also been recognized as a 50 around 50 award recipient by Long Island Business News. Mark is also a part-time educator employed as a Senior Adjunct Professor of distinction at Adelphi University in their MBA program. Additionally, he facilitates the SHRM SCP/CP prep class for HR Jetpack. Mark has presented over two dozen times at SHRM and World at Work national, regional, and local conferences on a broad range of HR topics. Often Quoted in national media, Mark brings a refreshing point of view to every HR discussion.

Dave Barnett is the Chief Administrative Officer for DeVry University. Responsible for leading DeVryWorks partnership strategy, while also driving the direction of Human Resources, Diversity Equity and Inclusion, Public Relations, Communications and Alumni Relations efforts for the university, Barnett is focused on creating impactful strategies to encourage outstanding outcomes for students, colleagues and partner organizations. He previously served as DeVry’s Chief Human Resources and University Relations Officer.

With more than 20 years of experience, he has worked with numerous universities and corporations, driving large-scale change during times of high growth and turnaround. 

Barnett earned his MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in Chicago, and a Bachelor of Science degree in psychology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He holds numerous certifications and has been recognized by the American Society for Training and Development, Training Magazine, and the Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Awards.

Benjamin McCall is a Consultant, Speaker and practitioner in HR, DEI, Learning, Business and Organizational Performance serving organizations nationally. With FOCUS Consulting, he has partnered with Fortune 500’s from Financial Services, Education, Healthcare, Startup, Military Defense, Manufacturing across the nonprofit, private and public sectors.

Benjamin’s work focuses on 4 areas: People Development, Strategic Planning and Execution, HR Practices, and Coaching.  With his partners, he builds better processes and mindsets to address the changing landscape individuals, executives, and organizations face when delivering initiatives to their stakeholders. As a practitioner and coach his style balances guiding individuals to honestly clarify needs while being firm around the real work that needs to be addressed and to "Be BETTER" in their work and relationships.

Lorne Epstein, SHRM-SCP, MSOD, is a social scientist, keynote, and Vistage speaker who consults with senior leaders on improving decision-making outcomes by reducing biases. Over 50,000 professionals have taken his workshops worldwide. He has been quoted in Forbes, Cosmopolitan, Christian Science Monitor, and other publications. His research focuses on improving decision-making and reducing the impacts of unconscious bias in the workplace. Lorne has been leading experiential workshops since 1993. His book, You're Hired! Interview Skills to Get the Job has been downloaded over a half-million times worldwide. Lorne is currently studying cognitive neuroscience at the master’s level at George Mason University. He was admitted to the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society and Psi Chi, The National Honor Society of Psychology.

I was a talent acquisition leader for 23 years supporting teams in the United States, Brazil and India. Many of my teams won awards for their performance. I wrote the National Talent Acquisition and Diversity Hiring plan for the United States Forest Service.

Christopher J. Fernandez, Corporate Vice President of Microsoft’s HR Services and Digital Employee Experiences worldwide team, has been with Microsoft since 2005. He leads global HR teams in developing end-to-end digital strategies across all HR systems, including AI-enabled HR, and oversees HR service delivery worldwide. His responsibilities extend to compensation, benefits, talent acquisition, learning, onboarding, and more. Fernandez has also held HR leadership roles for a wide portfolio of Microsoft’s global businesses, including hardware, Windows, Office, Gaming, the Artificial Intelligence and Research Group, and others.

Before joining Microsoft, Fernandez was a human resource leader at General Motors Corporation’s European organization in Zurich, Switzerland. He holds a Master of Human Resources and Labor Relations from Michigan State University (MSU), a Bachelor of Arts in American Public Affairs from James Madison College at MSU and is a graduate of the Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Program. He is active in several civic organizations and is a member of various professional associations.

Justin Ladner is a Senior Labor Economist at SHRM. His work centers on examining labor market trends and emerging issues facing employers and employees. He also has extensive experience researching occupational mobility, personnel training, recruiting, and retention. In all of these areas, he is passionate about leveraging data and analytics to inform real-world policy improvements.

Justin holds a master’s degree and Ph.D. in economics from the University of Michigan, as well as a master’s degree in economics and bachelor’s degree in economics and mathematics from Boston University.