Concurrent Session

Jeanine uses her courtroom experience to help employers prevent lawsuits through well-crafted policies, staff training and informal dispute resolution. Jeanine counsels businesses on employment and issues. Her practice focuses on representing employers in all areas of employment law, including wage and hour claims, harassment, discrimination, retaliation, wrongful termination, and other employment-related claims. She represents employers in administrative proceedings, class actions, civil litigation, mediation and arbitrations.

Jeanine is committed to providing her employer clients with ready access and quick response. She assists with all aspects of the employment lifecycle, from hiring to compensation to management to separation, including creating and implementing workplace policies and procedures (including technology privacy) and counseling on employee performance management, including corrective actions and terminations.

Jeanine is a member of the Association of Workplace Investigators and is regularly retained to conduct workplace investigations for claims regarding harassment, discrimination, retaliation, toxic work environment and workplace conditions. She has conducted investigations at nonprofit agencies, foundations, private employers and public entities.

Jeanine regularly provides training for managers and staff on harassment prevention, fostering respectful workplaces, and managing within the law, among other topics.

Diane has been leading and scaling organizations for the last 20 years with an approach of creating purpose-built strategies that enable and align people to the business, driving business results. In her role as CHRO of BetterWorks Diane sits at the intersection of HR strategy and technology. Leveraging her unique experience, Diane is responsible for scaling the company through innovative people practices while simultaneously working closely with the product team to influence and evolve the companies product offerings. 

Prior to her role at BetterWorks, Diane was head of HR at 8x8 during a period of hyper growth that included multiple expansions and acquisitions. She spent 13 years in various HR leadership positions at Cisco, including three years on a team dedicated to continuous performance management. She honed her recruiting and consulting skills early in her career as a headhunter in Silicon Valley. 

Diane holds a B.A. in Business from Northern State University and a MBA from Golden Gate University.

Gary Ware, the Founder of Breakthrough Play is a corporate facilitator, keynote speaker, certified coach, and self-proclaimed Creative Catalyst. Gary has over 14 years of experience in the corporate word holding various leadership positions. Being a multifaceted individual Gary also comes with nearly a decade of experience as a performer in improv theatre. After experiencing burnout in his pursuit for success and happiness, he realized that what was missing was play. Committing to a life of play is what led Gary to discover his passion for facilitating. Gary uses the power of applied improvisation and other playful methods to assist people in unlocking creativity, confidence, and better communication. Gary was recently featured as one of the Top 100 HR influencers of 2020 by the Engagedly HR software platform. When Gary isn't leading workshops or speaking, you can find him learning magic or off an adventure with his wife Courtney and son Garrett.

Magi The Evolutionist

Catalyst for Positive Change

Personal - Interpersonal - Team - Organizational

Using a unique combination of experiential coaching, science-backed development tools, and actionable strategies, Magi empowers leaders to evolve themselves and their organizational culture to meet the moment. Whether it’s change initiatives, new leadership, or cultural transformation, she partners with teams to catalyze positive change.

Magi has spent her life reinventing herself. From a single mother at 19 working at the first Cable TV company, to leading one of the fastest growing consultancies and becoming a best selling author in her field of expertise, Magi has continually taken challenges and failure as lessons and learned to move beyond her limits (both real and perceived) to live a life that inspires and contributes. Her body of work cuts through the personal, group, and organizational malaise stifling happiness, joy, and fulfillment at work. Her uplifting talks and groundbreaking courses uncover, catalyze, and optimize human potential, unite teams, and raise organizational effectiveness. 

Steve McElfresh is a Principal at, and the Founder of, HR Futures, Inc where he works with scaling organizations to address their people problems of growth. Recently, Steve was also the SVP/People at Duo Security, driving growth and supporting their acquisition and integration with Cisco. He has been the CHRO at three other tech companies, two of which he took public. He was also the President/CEO of Saratoga Institute and taught at the Boston College School of Management.

Steve has a Ph.D is from Boston College and a JD from Santa Clara University. He is also a past-president of BAHREC and has been a member of SHRM and BAHREC for several decades

Adam Smiley Poswolsky is a millennial workplace expert, internationally renowned keynote speaker, and bestselling author of The Quarter-Life Breakthrough (Penguin Random House), and The Breakthrough Speaker. Smiley helps companies attract, retain, and empower millennial talent, and he’s inspired thousands of professionals to be more engaged at work, through speaking at companies like Facebook, ASAE, Unilever, IDEO, Salesforce, SAP, Deloitte, Uber, Harvard Business School, and TED. His TEDx talk has been viewed over 1 million times, and he has done hundreds of speaking engagements, reaching over 50,000 people in 15 countries. Smiley’s writing has been published in The Washington Post, Fast Company, Time, and Business Insider, and his work has been featured in USA Today, Forbes, Inc., Entrepreneur, CNN, CNBC, and the World Economic Forum, among others.

Michelle Kim is a fierce immigrant queer woman of color entrepreneur challenging the status quo in tech.

Michelle is the co-founder and CEO of Awaken (www.visionawaken.com), a leading provider of modern, experiential diversity and inclusion workshops that go beyond just “checking the box.” Awaken creates compassionate and inspiring learning experiences to empower leaders and teams to lead fearlessly and inclusively in today’s dynamic workplace.

Prior to Awaken, Michelle had a successful career in both tech and management consulting, working with C-/VP-level executives to build high performing organizations around the world.

Michelle has been a lifelong social justice activist and has served on a variety of organizations such as the LGBTQ Speakers Bureau, SF Human Rights Commission's Advisory Committee, and LYRIC nonprofit’s Board of Directors.

Michelle graduated from UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business with a passion for social entrepreneurship. Michelle is a passionate keynote speaker and writer -- she was named “Top Writer in Diversity” by Medium for her thought leadership and is a contributor to Quartz at Work.

James Wright of JamesWantsToKnowYou.com is a dynamic and compelling leader with a track record of delivering practical roadmaps for increasing Inclusion and Diversity in global corporations such as Apple Inc., LinkedIn, NBCUniversal, and Time Warner (now WarnerMedia). A featured guest on NBC and FOX, Wright’s articles and commentary appear frequently on LinkedIn and his expertise has been included in The Washington Post as well as several SHRM articles. 

In his practice, James offers transformative training solutions on Gender Equality, Unconscious Bias, Improving Race Relations, and Generational Diversity. In addition, James introduced The Language of Inclusion - a free download of over 135 key terms and definitions to help organizations find a common language to Inclusion. With increased focus on gender and LGBTQIA+ equality, James believes it is important to update these terms to signal where we are today in our journey to ensure diverse communities are truly seen, heard, and valued.

James attended Erskine College in SC & The Catholic University of America in Washington DC.

Ashleigh Gardere serves as Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer at the New Orleans Business Alliance (NOLABA), responsible for implementation of a new business model for economic development. In partnership with NOLABA President & CEO Quentin Messer, Gardere is demonstrating the power of a holistic economic development strategy that fully maximizes opportunity for the people and businesses of New Orleans.

Gardere most recently served as a Senior Advisor to Mayor Mitch Landrieu. In this role, she managed the Mayor’s Economic Opportunity Strategy and supported the revitalization of the Claiborne Corridor through a cross-sector initiative called The Network for Economic Opportunity. The Network was responsible for the start-up, development, implementation and management of productive partnerships among local industries, small businesses, residents, non-profits and city agencies to drive long-term revitalization. By integrating The Network’s portfolio within NOLABA, Gardere expects to prove that an inclusive economy best ensures a thriving, sustainable economy for New Orleans.

Gardere previously served as Vice President of Community Relations at Chase Bank for Louisiana. During her tenure, she piloted the firm’s place-based neighborhood revitalization strategy.

Gardere began her career working in various strategic planning and policy development roles supporting the work of local and national nonprofit organizations with community development-oriented missions.

A New Orleans native, Gardere earned a B.A. in metropolitan studies from New York University and a master’s degree in public policy from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. She is the proud wife of Lamar and mother to Jayden and Justin Gardere.

Missy Sparks, PhD serves as Vice President of Talent Management/Human Resources  for Ochsner Health System. In this role she oversees Workforce Development, Orientation & Onboarding, Diversity & Inclusion, Performance Management and Engagement for more than 26,000 team members.

She leads her team in developing a diverse talent pipeline that opens career pathways into healthcare for the unemployed/underemployed. She is a current board member for the Workforce Development Board for New Orleans, YouthForce NOLA, and for Communities in Schools. Additionally, she volunteers weekly to help feed the hungry and homeless through St. Mark’s United Methodist in the French Quarter.  

Joseph is Global Vice President, Customer Experience, Incubation Services & Technology.  His team continuously works to identify new opportunities to help customers around the world adapt to a rapidly changing digital world. This includes the incubation and delivery of IoT services for edge computing, industrial networking and OT security, and smart city solutions.

Joseph has deep knowledge of both start-up and enterprise businesses, and is a technology disruption thought leader for emerging technologies and business culture. Prior to joining Cisco, he was President at Uptake Technologies, CEO at C3 Communications, and Vice President/General Manager of AT&T’s Data Communications group.

He holds an economics degree from the University of California at Berkeley.