Concurrent Session

Lauraine Bifulco
Personal Pronouns
She/Her/Hers
President
Vantaggio HR, ltd.
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Two themes are woven throughout Lauraine Bifulco's diverse career: a passion for a job well done and a zest for continual learning and improvement.  Lauraine infuses Vantaggio HR with these qualities every day. When she founded the firm in 1994, Lauraine combined her rare talent in understanding what a client needs and her gift of business foresight to create a company that can service the HR and management consulting needs of small and large companies equally well.  Today, Vantaggio serves clients across the country from their offices in California, Hawaii, Colorado, and New York. 

Her Career experience helps employers realize their HR goals and adapt to the shifting HR landscape.  Lauraine is a veteran HR executive and entrepreneur with 25 years of international, corporate, and consulting experience. Her bold career has taken her to employment and business opportunities in Europe and multiple U.S. cities. She serves as co-chair of the California Small Business Administration's committee on Labor Issues which reviews and makes recommendations on pending labor/employment laws, keeping her abreast of legal developments.                                                                            

Delivering over 30 presentations and webinars each year, Lauraine is a well-respected, and highly sought after guest lecturer and speaker on a variety of business management and HR-related topics for both state and national organizations including Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), Professionals in Human Resources Association (PIHRA), American Payroll Association (APA), Next Concept HR Association (NCHRA), Paylocity annual Elevate Conference, and HR Star Conference to name a few. She has been invited to review, develop, and deliver certificate programs for SHRM, and has developed and delivered curriculum for businesses throughout the U.S.                                                                   

Lauraine received a bachelor’s degree from Wellesley College and conducted graduate level studies in linguistics at the Sorbonne in Paris.

SESSIONS:
Rich Huebner
director, Data Architecture & Data Science
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
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Dr. Rich Huebner is currently Director of Data Architecture & Data Science at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, where he leads data analytics and data science projects. He also regularly blogs and writes articles and white papers about data science and data-related topics. He is also a published author of 15 refereed articles in the areas of data mining, data science, and data architecture. He has 20 years of experience working on database and data projects in different industries including healthcare, manufacturing, and education. He is also an adjunct professor for New England College of Business, where he teaches HR Metrics & Analytics, Strategic Information Technology & Business Analytics, Operations Management, and Statistics. He also has developed and taught numerous courses on database systems, data mining, and analytics.

SESSIONS:
Carla Patalano, DBA, SHRM-SCP
MHRM & MBA program chair
New England College of Business
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Dr. Patalano, Professor and Chair of NECB’s MBA and Human Resource Management graduate programs, assists new HR professionals in developing 21st century HR skills.  A former human resources professional herself, with senior management experience in the healthcare, non-profit, hospitality and manufacturing industries, she brings that experience to bear in the classroom  via a scholar-practitioner approach to learning.  Additionally, she consults to organizations on team building, diversity, benefits and compensation, generational differences,  and employee communication. She also holds certifications in Executive Coaching, Mediation, and Situational Leadership. Her HR thought-leadership has been featured in HRExecutive, Banker and Tradesman, and the Chief Learning Officer blog.

SESSIONS:
Amanda Haddaway
Managing Director
HR Answerbox
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Amanda Haddaway is an award-winning HR consultant and corporate trainer. In her role as the managing director of HR Answerbox, she serves small businesses and start-ups as a talent optimization expert. She has more than 40,000 hours of experience in HR and holds the two highest professional certifications, SPHR and SHRM-SCP, as well as a Master of Jurisprudence degree in Labor and Employment Law from Tulane University Law School, a Master’s degree from George Washington University and a Bachelor’s degree from James Madison University.

She has been recognized as the Most Influential Woman in HR Training - USA by Acquisition International and the Gamechanger of the Year (US-East Coast) by ACQ Global Awards.

She is also the creator of New Manager Bootcamp and the author of two books.

 
SESSIONS:
Lisa D. Murfield, SHRM-SCP
HR Manager
Hill Ward Henderson
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Lisa Murfield is on a mission to help leaders leverage the ROI of compassion. As the Human Resources Manager for Hill Ward Henderson law firm and Vice President of Murfield Coaching, Inc., she speaks, coaches and trains using cutting-edge ideas merged with proven best business practices. Lisa co-authored The ROI of Compassion and the forthcoming release of Leading with the Power of Compassion. She holds her MBA and is certified SHRM-SCP, SPHR, GPHR and served as the 2010 President of HR Tampa. Lisa also speaks on various media platforms at the local, state and national level.  

SESSIONS:
Monday, June 24, 2019 - 10:45am to 11:45am
Kelly Dobbs Bunting
Shareholder
Greenberg Traurig, LLP
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Kelly Bunting, Co-Chair of the Greenberg Traurig, LLP's Labor & Employment Practice's Workplace Compliance & Counseling Group, and member of its Artificial Intelligence Law Group, has considerable experience defending class and collective wage and hour litigation and misclassification claims, having defended employers in Title III ADA access litigation and litigation alleging race, sex, pregnancy, age, disability discrimination, harassment, and retaliation. She is deeply experienced in virtually all aspects of employment litigation, including wage and hour, labor, Title VII, harassment, discrimination, wrongful termination, non-competition and non-solicitation, trade secrets, SOX and Dodd Frank whistleblower claims, CEPA, ADEA, FMLA, NJLAD, and failure to accommodate issues. She has identified and managed employment issues in M&A deals and appeared before the EEOC, NLRB, and DOL in many states, as well as state agencies in DE, NY, NJ and PA. Kelly has represented many clients in mediation and settlement negotiations, and created HR and compliance training modules. She is regularly sought after as a workforce trainer for issues related to harassment and discrimination, FCPA compliance, good management techniques, and union awareness.

Kelly focuses much of her practice on international L&E issues, including employment/secondment contracts, data privacy, and global anti-corruption compliance. She advises clients on national and international handbook policies, procedures, and strategic HR issues, and provides day-to-day counsel in hiring, employee relations, employee discipline, and termination. She also conducts and advises on internal investigations.

SESSIONS:
Jonathan Smilansky
professor
Tel Aviv University Business School
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Professor Jonathan Smilansky is an international expert on management development and employee engagement and a consultant to leading organizations in Israel including IAI, Bank Leumi, Maccabi, Amdocs, etc.

He is the Academic Director of the Career Management Center at the Tel Aviv University Business School and a leading lecturer in the field of Human Resource Management.

 

Previously, he was the Global Human Resources EVP at Universal (New York) and at the Meridien hotel chain (London), VP Internal Services at Visa International EMEA (London) and a Partner at Hay Management Consultants (London).

He published numerous professional papers including one of today's leading books in the field of management development: "Developing Executive Talent" (Wiley).

SESSIONS:
Jonathan A. Segal
Partner
Duane Morris, LLP
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Jonathan is a partner at Duane Morris LLP in its Employment Group.  He also is the Founder and managing principal of the Duane Morris Institute, which provides training on employment issues to HR professionals, in-house counsel and other leaders.

The core of Jonathan’s practice is helping employers maximize legal compliance and minimize legal risk with regard to harassment, discrimination, retaliation and reasonable accommodations.
Over the past few years, Jonathan has focused on religion in general and antisemitism in particular. In addition to helping clients, Jonathan has delivered a number of talks on antisemitism on behalf of the EEOC as well as to field directors of the EEOC.
 
Jonathan has provided training to federal judges and other members of the federal judiciary on various employment issues for more than 20 years.

 

SESSIONS:
Monday, June 24, 2019 - 10:45am to 11:45am
James J. McDonald, Jr., J.D., SHRM-SCP
Partner
Fisher & Phillips, LLP
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James J. McDonald, Jr. is a partner in the Irvine, California and Tampa, Florida offices of Fisher & Phillips LLP, where he is a litigator, trial lawyer and strategic advisor to employers regarding labor and employment law matters.  He is author of the SHRM-published book, California Employment Law: An Employer’s Guide, and he is a frequent speaker on employment law issues.  He is a cum laude law graduate of Georgetown University and a member of the California and Florida Bars, and he holds the SHRM-SCP certification.

 

 

SESSIONS:
Monday, June 24, 2019 - 10:45am to 11:45am
Gary B. Kushner, CBP
Chair and President
Kushner & Company
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Internationally recognized as an expert in the field, Mr. Kushner is one of the nation's most sought after speakers on HR strategy and employee benefits. He has advised four U.S. Presidents on health care and has testified before the U.S. Senate Finance Committee, the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee and the U.S. House Small Business Committee on employee benefit issues.

A frequent resource to the media, Mr. Kushner contributes to the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, AP, Knight-Ridder, the Kiplinger Washington Newsletter, CNN News, Fortune, MSNBC and Good Morning America among others. More importantly, he and his wife Tamis have five children and four wonderful (and amazing!) grandchildren.

 

SESSIONS:
Mary Ila Ward, SHRM-SCP
owner
Horizon Point Consulting Inc.
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Mary Ila Ward, SHRM-SCP, SPHR is the owner of Horizon Point Consulting which drives to move the workplace forward through innovative people practices.  She has a background in corporate recruiting, economic and workforce development, talent management and leadership coaching and training.

A huge believer in work-life integration, she helps organizations realize how they can hire for fit while improving diversity, engage employees by supporting them holistically, and drive home the importance of career development to communities and organizations.

She graduated from The University of Alabama, with a BS in Business Management and holds Master’s degree Industrial and Organizational Psychology from Middle Tennessee State University. 

SESSIONS: