Concurrent Session

Mrs. Peters has worked with the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) since October 2018. She previously worked for SHRM’s former affiliate the Council for Global Immigration (CFGI) in the Washington DC metro-area for nearly fifteen years, helping to advance high skilled immigration and employment verification reforms with the U.S. Congress, the White House and the federal agencies. She has served as a chair of the policy committee of the Compete America coalition. She also serves on other coalitions and working groups to educate and advance immigration system efficiencies and to ensure critical changes to employer immigration compliance are reasonable.

Barbara J. Miller is a partner in Morgan Lewis's Labor and Employment Practice. Ms. Miller focuses her practice on employment litigation. Ms. Miller has experience representing employers in a broad range of employment matters including race, sex, and disability discrimination; harassment; wage and hour; wrongful discharge; and employment-related class actions. Ms. Miller has also counseled and trained employers on California's unique employment laws and has significant experience with wage-and-hour audits and class actions. Prior to joining Morgan Lewis, Ms. Miller worked at another large international law firm in Orange County, where she focused on representing private employers in employment law. Ms. Miller received her J.D., with high distinction, from the University of Kentucky College of Law in 1992 and her B.S. in industrial engineering from Stanford University in 1989. Ms. Miller is admitted to practice in California and before the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Sander Nieuwenhuizen was appointed as Vice President, Recruitment for Shell International in The Haugue, Netherlands in September 2009. In this role Sander has general management responsibility for the global Recruitment organisation that sources all graduate and experienced  hires for Shell worldwide.  He joined Shell in 2007 as VP, HR supporting the global IT function. 

Prior to this, Sander served as Senior Vice President, Human Resources and Organization for Lafarge S.A., a world leader in construction materials.  He joined Lafarge  in 1999 as SVP, Organization Development to contribute to globalizing and modernizing its management practices.  In this capacity he revamped the leadership development practice and introduced a People review process in the company management cycle. 

Chris Hoffman manages the San Diego office for the national labor and employment law firm of Fisher & Phillips LLP. While Chris dedicates a substantial portion of his time to defending employers in class actions and other complex litigation matters, he also spends substantial time assisting clients find practical solutions to their employment issues. A big proponent of preventative efforts, Chris strongly believes that some of his best results assisted clients to avoid litigation. Chris also frequently speaks to employer groups and associations around the country on issues ranging from wage and hour compliance to leave laws and even traditional labor relations.

Brenda S. Kasper is a founding member of Kasper & Frank LLP, a law firm representing California and multi-state employers for all of their human resources and employment law needs.  She regularly advises employers of all sizes on wage and hour compliance, leaves of absence, disability accommodation, reductions in force, terminations and discipline management, employment contracts, personnel policies, and hiring issues.  She also provides management and human resources training.  Brenda is a former HR director so her legal advice is practical, creative and tailored to each client’s needs.  She was the 2015 San Diego SHRM Board President, is an instructor for the HR Certification program at the University of California San Diego Extension and holds her SHRM-SCP and SPHR-California certifications.

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.

 

Toni Pilzner is an attorney with more than 15 years' experience in advising employers on creating and administering employee welfare and retirement benefit plans. Having worked as a certified public accountant and as an in-house corporate tax analyst dealing with employee benefit plan matters before becoming an attorney, she also understands the financial and practical aspects of employee benefit plan administration. Toni has shared her expertise with SHRM members by presenting concurrent sessions on employee benefits topics at a number of SHRM conferences in addition to writing SHRM Legal Alerts and contributing to SHRM Online articles on employee benefit matters. She also served on the SHRM Total Rewards Special Expertise Panel and its predecessor, the SHRM Compensation and Benefits Committee, as well as serving a three-year term on the U.S. Department of Labor's ERISA Advisory Council.

 

For over 20 years, Allison West has used her employment law background in delivering customized workplace training, conducting investigations, coaching executives/managers, serving as an expert witness, and specializing in conflict resolution and facilitated discussions to create more collaborative work environments. 

Allison is a top-rated speaker at the SHRM Annual Conference as well as other HR/diversity conferences, and is a national expert on harassment, discrimination and investigations. She has appeared on PBS, CBS This Morning and in O Magazine discussing workplace harassment issues. 

She is a member of the State Bar of California and holds her SHRM-SCP certification and AWI-CH (investigation) certificate.