Concurrent Session

Megan Taylor is a seasoned finance and strategic planning expert, a founder, and a certified RETAINTM parental leave coach. With rich experience across the healthcare, professional services and media industries, she has transformed financial planning and analysis capabilities, architected innovative strategic planning processes, built businesses from the ground-up and significantly improved organizational efficiency. She is skilled in leading teams, working cross functionally and partnering with executive leadership. During her 10+ years in the healthcare sector, Megan pioneered several resources for working mothers and parents at her Fortune 500 employer’s world headquarters. She founded her own coaching and consulting company, has served dozens of clients, and specializes in elevating leadership performance and solving complex problems. Megan is a part of the core leadership team at the Center for Parental Leave Leadership where she serves as Business Development and Finance Lead. She holds an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin and has completed over 300 hours of leadership development training.

Tara Skinner is a seasoned HR professional with over 30 years of extensive experience in human resources, payroll, and HRIS across diverse industries. Her robust expertise encompasses not only the technical and operational aspects of HR but also strategic leadership in these fields. Tara is particularly passionate about fostering inclusive and equitable workplaces, which is evident through her co-leadership of her organization's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) program. Her commitment to DEI initiatives underscores her dedication to creating a supportive and thriving work environment for all employees. Tara's wealth of knowledge and her proactive approach to integrating HR best practices make her a respected and influential voice in the HR community. As part of Working While Black, she works to put a spotlight on issues that affect all Black employees in the US, advocating for fairness, representation, and systemic change.

Ryan Abernethy is a Weintraub shareholder and practices in the Firm’s Labor and Employment, and Litigation groups. Ryan has successfully represented clients in all areas of employment law, including the defense of claims involving workplace discrimination, harassment, retaliation, wrongful termination, wage and hour issues, trade secrets infringements, and class actions.  He also regularly counsels clients regarding compliance, risk management, policy preparation, and training.

A woman serial entrepreneur, Brianna Rooney is the founder and CEO of TalentPerch, Thriversity, The Millionaire Recruiter,  and Techees; Affirm acquired its team in 2021. Passionate about all things recruiting, she also co-hosts a podcast called Talent Takeover Unfiltered that brings respect and awareness to the industry.

Brianna’s businesses offer companies and individuals a 360-degree solution to recruiting and sourcing. Thriversity’s mission is to turn anyone into an efficient and successful recruiter, while TalentPerch focuses on providing solutions to the most daunting business hiring goals.

Brianna is a mom to Diego Danger and Lima Ariel. She believes you can be as successful at work, as you are at home. You don’t have to choose. Be present and rock everything you do. 

Mariah Shields, seasoned benefits broker, consultant, and HR benefits compliance leader with over 15 years of experience,  as she shares her extensive expertise in enhancing employee engagement and well-being. Mariah goes beyond traditional consulting, leveraging employee surveys and innovative tools to help organizations—from startups to large enterprises—foster meaningful connections with their teams.

Lonnie Giamela is a partner in the Los Angeles office of Fisher Phillips and a co-chair of the firm's Pay Equity practice group.  Lonnie has handled a full range of labor and employment matters, from single-plaintiff to multi-plaintiff, in both federal and state courts in California, the California Court of Appeals, the California Supreme Court and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.  Lonnie also has extensive experience representing local, regional and national clients in class action wage-hour lawsuits as well as representative lawsuits brought under California’s Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA), having handled more than 200 such matters across the country. Lonnie also has experience as lead counsel in two wage-hour class actions that have gone to trial.  Additionally, Lonnie counsels employers on preventative measures to prevent litigation from arising on various issues including wage and hour compliance, independent contractor classification, mass layoff strategy, and management training. He has assisted in the preparation of more than 500 handbooks for clients and has developed policies and procedures manuals for both small businesses and national companies with multi-state operations.  Utilizing experiences from his family's restaurants in the San Fernando Valley, Lonnie prides himself on providing advice to the companies he represents. His prior business experience enables him to find practical, compliant legal solutions to clients’ everyday employee relations issues. Lonnie is a frequent lecturer on employment law topics and has presented over 350 seminars to various groups.

Chris Failla is a keynote speaker, workshop facilitator, and Gallup-certified Strengths Consultant. He has a master's degree in Organizational Leadership, and has worked with teams on every inhabited continent, including five years in China. Chris loves to Ignite What’s Possible in organizations, helping them gain greater clarity, connection, and capacity so they can be more fulfilled and productive. 
 
Chris has been married to Sarah for over 20 years, and they have three boys. As a family they enjoy traveling (he’s been to over 50 countries and speaks three languages), time in the snow, and planning their next adventure. 

Sarah Bettman is the founder of Bettman Consulting Group. She blends organizational culture, leadership, and change principles to support meaningful change for her clients. Sarah’s style is deeply rooted in her values of integrity and authenticity. She brings forward her experiences with passion and humor that ignites engagement and creates traction where there none before. 

Feeling like a badass is your birthright. 
 
Based in Los Angeles, Jennifer Cassetta is a nationally recognized keynote and TEDx speaker, empowerment coach, self defense expert and author of The Art of Badassery: Unleash Your Mojo With Wisdom of the Dojo. She helps people feel strong, safe and powerful from the streets to the boardroom. 
 
Equipped with her 3rd degree black belt in Hapkido, Master’s degree in Nutrition, and health coaching certification, she’s been presenting her signature programming for the last two decades for corporate clients that include: Apple, American Airlines, British Airways, Del Monte, Nike, Uber, UBS and Visa. Jennifer has rocked hundreds of stages across the country with her super power combination of engaging content and contagious enthusiasm.  
 
Her skills have been featured on Good Morning America, The Today Show, The Doctors, Rachael Ray and she was a featured expert on ABC-TV’s My Diet is Better Than Yours. From national magazines to newspapers, Jenn is a go-to expert on safety and empowerment for dozens of publications. 

Jennifer's career highlights include: 
 
- Speaking over 50 times a year to professionals in the banking, hospitality, travel, real estate industries and more. 
 
- Speaking at over 55 universities around the country about empowerment, self confidence, safety and self-defense. Schools include: Cornell University, Fordham University, Loyola Marymount University, Dusquesne University, UC Boulder, UC Davis, UC Santa Barbary, San Diego State University, Penn State, St. John's University, Lenoir Rhyne, and many more.  
 
- Speaking at conferences such as Professional Business Women of California, Bacardi S.H.E. Summit, Meeting Planner's International, National Association of Realtors and SITE Global.  
 
- Media appearances on: Good Morning America, The Today Show, Inside Edition, E!, The Doctors, Rachael Ray, The Real, Bethenny Frankel, Marie Osmond and many more. 
 
- Created an online training program called She Warrior Self Defense. 

Confidence Crusader, Neuro Nerd and Success Equalizer, Alyssa Dver founded and leads the American Confidence Institute, which uses brain science to teach the skill of confidence. She also is the founder & chair of the ERG Leadership Alliance, the largest global association of employee group champions working together to make all workplaces inclusive. Author of 8 books, her latest, “Confidence is a Choice: Real Science. Superhero Impact.” and, “ERG Intelligence: What every leader needs to know about employee groups.” Her work has been endorsed by leaders at Harvard Medical & Business Schools, MIT, Wharton Neuroscience and UPenn Medical School, Yale, UC Berkeley, Amazon, Xerox, The World Bank, and many more.

Alyssa delivers 100+ event keynotes and training workshops each year, frequently being asked back to the same group year after year. She also teaches at the MIT and Wharton innovation centers and is the official confidence educator for L’Oréal’s IT Cosmetics. Alyssa has been recognized by Chief Navigators as a Top 10 Pioneering Women Leaders in Business and the Stevie Awards as a Thought Leader. Check out her two TED talks and popular Real Confidence podcast.