Concurrent Session

Hilary Blair, co-founder ARTiculate: Real&Clear, incorporates her professional voice over and performing techniques into a re-framing of executive presence and leadership communication. As a trainer, coach, facilitator and speaker, she sees beyond habits and extensively across the globe with businesses including: AWS, PwC, Maersk, ALCU, Centura Health, Liberty Global, and MD Anderson. Hilary is a CSP™, Certified Speaking Professional, and is certified in Conversational Intelligence™ (CIQ), and CultureTalk. She holds an MFA in acting from the National Theatre Conservatory and a BA from Yale University.

Jeff Faber is the Chief Strategy Officer for Hub International.  His role is to put better ideas in the heads of our consultants and customers. 

In his 20+ years of broad-based consulting, which ranged from pension actuarial work to executive compensation to HRIS and healthcare, he learned that the success of an employer’s benefits offering is unique to a workplace and deeply interconnected to culture, company branding and individual talent. 

He is responsible for the development and execution of cutting-edge tools, enabling cost-containment strategies with minimum friction, and deploying risk-reduction and employment-enhancing initiatives.  At Hub, he creates quality employee experiences.

For Melinda, Medicare is more than just a job; it's literally in her DNA.

As the daughter of nationally recognized expert and pioneer, Diane J. Omdahl, RN, MS, Medicare was always a topic of conversation at the dinner table. Today, as a co-founder of 65 Incorporated® and the revolutionary i65® Medicare enrollment software, Melinda carries on the legacy as a Medicare expert herself. She's known for passionately empowering today’s seniors, their families, and their professional advisors with unbiased, expert Medicare guidance.

When she's not sharing her expertise in one-on-one consultations, Melinda is a captivating Medicare speaker lauded for her presentations at conference for Charles Schwab, Edward Jones, Raymond James, Axtella, LPL, Osaic, Allstate, Protective and more. Melinda was recently named the top-rated speaker for 2023 for the Financial Experts Network.

She's also frequently featured in national news publications like The Wall Street Journal, Barron's, Consumer Reports, and many more.

Beyond the spotlight, Melinda consults with corporate giants like PBS and Macmillan Publishing, ensuring their teams and retirees can tap into her unmatched Medicare wisdom.

Best of all, Melinda does NOT sell Medicare insurance. Her interest is simply her client's best interest.

For Melinda, Medicare is more than just a job; it's literally in her DNA.

As the daughter of nationally recognized expert and pioneer, Diane J. Omdahl, RN, MS, Medicare was always a topic of conversation at the dinner table. Today, as a co-founder of 65 Incorporated® and the revolutionary i65® Medicare enrollment software, Melinda carries on the legacy as a Medicare expert herself. She's known for passionately empowering today’s seniors, their families, and their professional advisors with unbiased, expert Medicare guidance.

When she's not sharing her expertise in one-on-one consultations, Melinda is a captivating Medicare speaker lauded for her presentations at conference for Charles Schwab, Edward Jones, Raymond James, Axtella, LPL, Osaic, Allstate, Protective and more. Melinda was recently named the top-rated speaker for 2023 for the Financial Experts Network.

She's also frequently featured in national news publications like The Wall Street Journal, Barron's, Consumer Reports, and many more.

Beyond the spotlight, Melinda consults with corporate giants like PBS and Macmillan Publishing, ensuring their teams and retirees can tap into her unmatched Medicare wisdom.

Best of all, Melinda does NOT sell Medicare insurance. Her interest is simply her client's best interest.

Dr. Sherri Reese has over 20 years in human resources, investigations, and academia, evolving from regulatory roles in East Lansing to becoming the Director of Talent at Michigan State University and a professor at the University of Arkansas. Her career includes significant positions like Civil Rights Investigator, Human Resources Specialist, and Director of Talent, with a focus on policy compliance, career, and talent development. Sherri, who holds a PhD in Public Policy & Administration and Industrial & Organizational Psychology, is known for her expertise in contract negotiations, talent development, diversity, and executive coaching, aiming to enhance leadership and organizational effectiveness.

Dr. Sherri Reese has over 20 years in human resources, investigations, and academia, evolving from regulatory roles in East Lansing to becoming the Director of Talent at Michigan State University and a professor at the University of Arkansas. Her career includes significant positions like Civil Rights Investigator, Human Resources Specialist, and Director of Talent, with a focus on policy compliance, career, and talent development. Sherri, who holds a PhD in Public Policy & Administration and Industrial & Organizational Psychology, is known for her expertise in contract negotiations, talent development, diversity, and executive coaching, aiming to enhance leadership and organizational effectiveness.

Ashley T. Brundage is the President and CEO of Empowering Differences. While seeking employment at PNC Bank in the United States, she identified openly during the interview process as a woman of transgender experiance and subsequently was hired after facing years of harassment, discrimination, and homelessness. These factors led her to start her second career as a means of survival while doing research on empowerment & differences. She took a role in the bank as a part time teller and then rose to national Vice President of Diversity & Inclusion in less than 5 years. She captured her research as a 4-Step process of empowerment to cultivate change in her new book and online leadership course. Ashley credits her success to those closest to her for providing actionable allyship including her 2 teenage sons, Bryce and Blake. She also volunteers her time serving numerous nonprofit organizations including serving as the vice chair for the national board of directors for GLAAD who works to accelerate acceptance across all forms of media for the LGBTQ+ community.

As the Director, Global Diversity & Inclusion, Jen improves the work experience for all employees through inclusive programs, policies, and behaviors. During her 9+ years at Lenovo, Jen has held several roles within HR. With over 20 years of experience in leadership and development, she has a deep understanding of how to create and deliver effective training programs that promote a more inclusive culture. Working women and mothers are especially important to Jen. She founded and co-chaired Lenovo’s new mother’s group for 3.5 years and is an active board member of Women in Lenovo Leadership (WILL). Jen has a MBA from The George Washington University and a bachelor’s degree in Journalism from the University of Wisconsin Madison. Outside of work Jen enjoys spending time with her husband and two young daughters. She loves yoga and hiking.

Chris Mikulski is Head of Human Resources for H&M, Region Americas, and an accomplished Retail executive with over 20 years of experience in the industry. He began his career with famed American retailer, Toys ”R” Us, where he spent his several years working in stores, learning about the foundational principles of the retail business and management. During his time in stores, he found his passion for connecting people with business success and made a bold decision to pursue a career path in Human Resources. Chris quickly discovered there was no pre-identified path to achieve this ambition, so he set off on a discovery journey to learn as much as he could about the profession from his network of mentors, leaders and advisors. His journey led him to grow through roles in Talent Acquisition, HR Business Partnering, Employee Relations, Total Rewards and Executive Leadership Chris ended his tenure with Toys “R” Us in 2018 and was then recruited to the iconic global fashion brand H&M, serving as the Head of Human Resources for the Americas Region since 2020. In his current responsibility, Chris leads a team of over 100 diverse HR professionals across Canada, USA, Mexico, Colombia and Ecuador who are responsible for supporting 24,000 colleagues across the region. His accomplishments in his current role include leading multiple end-to-end business transformations, architecting a modern colleague experience strategy, increasing colleague retention and engagement, and embarking on the largest HR transformation in the company’s history. Chris also serves as an Executive Sponsor for H&M’s Voices of Internal Black Excellence (VIBE) employee resource group and is a published contributing author in the book “Staying in the Game: Leading and Learning with Agility for a Dynamic Future” by Pamela Meyer. In his personal life, Chris was born and raised in the Hudson Valley area of New York State and currently resides in New York City. He is a proud member of the LGBTQIA+ community and uses his platform to advocate for the equality of all people.

Dr. Whitehead, a certified SHRM and diversity practitioner is a versatile and award-winning senior leader, speaker, strategist, mediator, mentor and coach with over 25 years’ experience in building high performing, inclusive teams. Dr. Whitehead has excelled at "people" work across industries, leading strategic organizational change as well as providing consulting expertise to corporate, non-profit and higher education sectors. Dr. Whitehead has been called a “inclusionist” due to her unique approach to systemic humanity throughout the employee life cycle. Honing her lens of systemic humanity as the “willful interrogation of every element of our “system” of being, acting, communicating and providing access to resources that reflect the foundational belief that all people hold value that is solely connected to their humanity” has helped her “meet employees at all levels, where they are”. A John Maxwell certified coach and leader; Nicole holds several degrees and certifications, however her passion for utilizing her experiences to evolve culture and climate through transformative leadership.