Concurrent Session

Dr. Singleton comes to Marist College from The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. He has held many leadership positions at GW and most recently served as associate dean, where he was responsible for all aspects of School of Business undergraduate programs. 

Singleton has held numerous academic and professional positions throughout his career. He has served as president of the Mid-Atlantic Region of the American Accounting Association, Secretary/Treasurer of the Board of Directors of the Human Resource Certification Institute, and as a member of its Executive and HR Committees. He worked in the audit and National SEC Practice groups of Ernst & Young LLP’s Washington office and was a visiting professor at Grenoble Ecole de Management in France and Peking University in China. He has also served as a consultant to many of the world’s leading companies and organizations, including Cisco Systems, Inc., Harley-Davidson Motor Company, NASDAQ, National Investor Relations Institute, National Geographic Society, Public Relations Society of America, Raytheon, Roche, Siemens Corporation, the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, and The World Bank.

Singleton is a recipient of the George Washington Award, the university’s highest, in recognition of exceptional contributions. He has received numerous teaching awards and was recognized by the Society for Human Resource Management on numerous occasions as one of its Annual Conference Top Ten Speakers.

Singleton is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, Beta Gamma Sigma, Beta Alpha Psi, the American Accounting Association, the National Investor Relations Institute, and the Society for Human Resource Management.

Singleton received Ph.D., M.S., and B.S. degrees in accounting from Louisiana State University. He is a Certified Public Accountant

Barrie G. Christman is vice president of the Individual Investor Segment of Retirement and Investor Services for The Principal Financial Group® and is also chairman of Principal Bank and Principal Trust Company, affiliates of The Principal Financial Group®.

The Individual Investor Segment is charged with ensuring that the Principal Financial Group® becomes a leader in helping individual investors achieve financial security by creating a compelling, personalized individual investor experience that results in long-term relationships.

In 2001, Christman joined The Principal, a global investment management leader in retirement services, insurance solutions and asset management, following over 25 years in banking.  
She earned her bachelor’s degree in Economics/Mathematics from Allegheny College in Meadville, PA, and her masters in business administration from the University of Pittsburgh. She recently served as president of the Community Depository Institutions Advisory Council to Chairman Bernanke and the Federal Reserve Board, and currently serves as vice chairman of the Government Relations Council of the American Bankers Association.

 

Susan Kosman, RN, BSN, MS, is the Chief Nursing Officer for Aetna Inc.  In this role, she is responsible for Aetna’s nursing strategy, which includes establishing a formal nursing presence in national healthcare and nursing communities; stewardship and strategy development for internal nursing roles and the business roles that support them; and workforce planning and leadership development.

In addition, Mrs. Kosman has oversight for the following core functions for Aetna’s National Care Management: clinical training; compliance; quality review and auditing; systems and reporting; and innovation, program design and management.  National Care Management provides clinical policy and operations support to all of Aetna’s segments.

Previously, Mrs. Kosman was the head of NCM Medical Management Services.  In this role, she was the liaison between National Accounts and National Care Management, representing National Accounts needs on strategic and operational medical management to the shared services.  She also oversaw the successful expansion and operation of the Dedicated Patient Management Units.  These seven units, located in Albany, New York; Allentown, Pennsylvania; Blue Bell, Pennsylvania; Highpoint, North Carolina; New Albany, Ohio Richfield, Ohio; and San Antonio, Texas; provide coordination of care and case management services to some of the largest National Accounts Plan Sponsors.  During her tenure and because of the unique services this area provided, the demand for customized Care Management programs grew; and membership increased from 600,000 in 2002 to 3.1 million in 2012.

Mrs. Kosman began her career with Aetna in 1995 as manager of Government Programs for the Northeast Region. Later, she assumed responsibility for case and disease management. In 1998, Susan joined Core Health Delivery Operations as manager for Quality and Audit. She returned to the Northeast region from 1999 to 2002 as director of Patient Management.  Prior to joining Aetna, Susan spent 10 years in the home health industry in various roles.

Susan is a Board member of the Aetna Foundation; Qualidigm, a healthcare consulting and research firm; and the American Heart Association, Greater Hartford chapter.  She represents Aetna externally on the Champion Nursing Coalition, and the American Organization of Nurse Executives Committee on Health Care Reform.

She holds a BS in Nursing from SUNY Downstate and an MS in Organizational Leadership from Quinnipiac College.

Based in Geneva, Switzerland

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.

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.

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.

Clint Swindall is the president and CEO of Verbalocity, Inc., a personal development company with a focus on leadership enhancement. These solutions include leadership development programs, training, speaking and general consulting.

As a professional speaker, Clint Swindall travels the world delivering high-content speeches and training in an entertaining and inspirational style to Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, and trade associations.

Clint enjoys the challenge of enhancing employee engagement for his clients by delivering programs based on his book entitled Engaged Leadership: Building a Culture to Overcome Employee Disengagement (John Wiley & Sons, 2007). He recognizes that a culture of employee engagement is a two-way road, and that true engagement comes when leaders and employees are both doing their part. In addition to working with leaders to build a culture to overcome employee disengagement, Clint addresses the employee’s role in his follow-up book entitled Living for the Weekday: What Every Employee and Boss Needs to Know about Enjoying Work and Life (John Wiley & Sons, 2010).

Follow Clint on Twitter @ClintSwindall.