Concurrent Session

Been there – done that!  With 30 years of HR and business experience – Lori has walked in your shoes.  A recovered HR Generalist, she built a consulting company that she sold to Arthur J Gallagher after 7 years and then reinvented her current business – HR Topics -  training, speaking and developing content for HR professionals.  Lori delivers facts, tips, tricks and best practices in a way that appeals to human resource and business leaders: with a sense of humor, a bias toward actions that improve their operations right away, and practical resources and tools to support their progress.  As an annual speaker at the National SHRM conference, she has leveraged her masters in HR, SPHR and SHRM-SCP background to elevate the position of all HR professionals!

Jessica Miller-Merrell is the Founder of Workology, a workplace resource for HR, recruiting professionals and business leaders, and host of the Workology Podcast. The site has been listed twice as a top 75 career resource by Forbes. Jessica is the president and CEO of Xceptional HR, a human capital strategy and consulting agency. Because of her industry expertise and knowledge, Jessica’s expertise is sought after and sourced by publications and media including: The Economist, Forbes, CIO Magazine, CBS, Entrepreneur Magazine, and SHRM’s HR Magazine. Her new book, Digitizing Talent: Creative Strategies for the Digital Recruiting Age was published in 2023 by SHRM.

Gerry Crispin, SPHR is a former practitioner, Co-author of eight books and over 100 articles, and a Life-long student of Staffing. Gerry facilitates the CareerXroads Colloquium – a series of intense, small-group meetings for staffing leaders from some of the world’s largest firms to share staffing best practices.

A long time SHRM volunteer, Gerry currently leads a national standards task force of more than 100 volunteers working to establish standards for recruiting that meet American National Standards Institute (ANSI).

One indicator that Gerry still sees himself as a student and keeps his perspective fresh is his travels around the world to watch, interview and observe recruiters, job seekers and employers. He has been to more than 20 countries in the last decade including China, Japan, Australia, Russia and India.

Follow Gerry on Twitter @GerryCrispin.

Follow Rita on Twitter @tririta.

Dr. Ahu Yildirmaz leads the ADP Research Institute, a specialized group within ADP that provides insights to leaders in both the private and public sectors on current and emerging issues in human capital management, employment trends, and workforce strategy. The Institute leverages ADP’s deep expertise across the entire spectrum of human capital management, as well as insights gained from ADP’s approximately 600,000 clients and its 20M+ employee sample, to conduct research that illuminates the crucial trends shaping today’s working environments.

Follow Ahu on Twitter @Ahu_Yildirmaz.

Matt is the Director of Talent Acquisition at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta – one of the nation’s leading pediatric healthcare systems and consistently ranked as one of the “100 Best Companies to Work For” by Fortune magazine. With the support of a strong team, Matt is working to evolve and optimize the recruitment platform at Children’s.

Prior to working at Children's, Matt helped reshape talent acquisition at Ericsson, the world's leading provider of communications technology and services, operating in 180 countries and employing more than 100,000 people. In his five years with Ericsson, Matt lived in both Australia and Singapore. He drove innovation in the employer branding, sourcing and recruitment strategy for Ericsson regionally and globally.

He has past experience as a senior strategy consultant with a U.S. recruitment communications firm, helping leading organizations implement innovative employer branding and digital strategies to attract top talent. Matt is a graduate of The Florida State University in the USA. He is an author and featured industry speaker on best practices in Talent Management at international HR events.

Michele Whitehead is Senior Manager of Client Services at Berkshire Associates. In her position, Michele is responsible for overseeing, developing, and implementing training and consulting services related to affirmative action and pay equity analysis.

With over 20 years in the human resource industry, Michele is an expert in HR practices and procedures. This experience allows her to develop and present training sessions to educate clients on the latest affirmative action, applicant management, compensation, and workforce analysis topics and trends. She has a true passion for educating fellow HR professionals, which is why she has been an active speaker throughout the country at conferences and meetings including the Society for Human Resource Management’s (SHRM) Talent Management and Annual Conferences.

Michele has a Master of Business Administration in Human Resource Management and Management Skills from New York State University at Buffalo. Michele holds both SPHR and SHRM-SCP Certification and is a member of the national Society for Human Resource Management.  

Bill Schiemann is founder and CEO of Metrus Group, specializing in performance measurement and organizational change. He has consulted extensively with corporations on the development and implementation of business and people strategies; HR measurement; strategic employee surveys and internal value assessments; and creating high performance cultures. He also founded the Metrus Institute, which supports research and publications, many in the human capital arena.  

Bill is a thought leader in the human resources field, having written scores of articles and six books in the human capital area, most recently the SHRM-published book, Hidden Drivers of Success:  Leveraging Employee Insights for Strategic Advantage (2013). 

He is the Past Chair of the SHRM Foundation Board of Directors and currently serves on the Board of Directors of the HR Certification Institute.  He has been named a Fellow and Scholar by the Society of Industrial and Organizational Psychology. 

Follow Bill on Twitter @wschiemann.