Inclusion & Diversity

Josh Christianson is Project Director for the Partnership on Inclusive Apprenticeship (PIA) where he leads efforts to create a more diverse and inclusive workforce through apprenticeship. Josh has extensive experience in supporting the diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) efforts of non-profit organizations, private companies, and government agencies.
 
He is the former director of the Partnership on Employment & Accessible Technology (PEAT), where he built cross-sector partnerships to shape the policies and practices contributing to the development of accessible emerging technologies in the workplace.
 
Before coming to PEAT Josh was a Senior Consultant at Deloitte where he provided talent strategies, change management, and leadership development support to federal agencies.
 
Prior to Deloitte he spent several years with The Posse Foundation as the Career Program Manager where he cultivated relationships with companies and organizations to provide career development opportunities for Posse Scholars and Alumni.

Lola Adeyemo is an Employee Resource Group (ERG) Advocate, Speaker, and Team Consultant. As the founder of EQImindset, she engages her skills and passion to promote inclusion within corporate workplaces. She advocates for an inclusive lens across every level within corporations as well as the empowerment of individual contributors, people managers, and executive leaders to align with their passions in supporting their personal and organizational goals.
Lola is a scientist by discipline and is currently working towards her Doctor of Strategic leadership degree with a dissertation focus on belonging, informal teams, and employee resource groups. She has work experience across global organizations in the biotechnology and life sciences industry and has spent years moving across roles in project management, supply chain, data analysis, people management, HR compliance, and Global Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion positions. Her book on Immigrant Women in Corporate America is set for a Fall 2022 release.

Jeremy York, SHRM-SCP, SPHR is the Lead Consultant and President of InvigorateHR and coauthor of the “JoyPowered Organization.” He has over 20 years' experience in human resource strategy and business operations where he has worked with and advised all levels of management on critical business and people-related issues. Jeremy's expertise in defining and understanding the "big picture" enables him to translate business needs into tangible solutions. With his guidance, organizations have improved employee relations, increased performance, and developed cultures based on mutual trust and respect. Jeremy holds a master’s degree in management from Indiana Wesleyan University and a bachelor’s degree in organizational leadership from Purdue University. He has served as an adjunct faculty member for Purdue University Indianapolis for over 15 years teaching various leadership and human resources curriculums. Jeremy is a national speaker and currently serves as an advisor on the Society for Human Resource Management’s Diversity Taskforce.

Lauren leads Microsoft’s Global Talent Acquisition team responsible for university, industry, and executive level hiring for the company. She has been with Microsoft since 1991 and has held various leadership roles including HR GM for Microsoft’s Marketing & Consumer Business and HR leader for the U.S. subsidiary. She also currently serves as the HR Executive Sponsor for the Blacks@Microsoft employee resource group.

Lauren is a proud graduate of the University of Washington with a B.S. in Psychology and an MBA with an emphasis in HR. A life-long learner, Lauren enjoys spending time with her family and supporting local charities.

Award-winning author Ed Muzio is one of very few practitioners worldwide doing systems-level intervention with CEO and staff simultaneously, shifting culture quickly and significantly enough to improve how the company is run at executive and subordinate levels.  To accomplish this, he pulls from over 70 years of research and experience spanning multiple academic disciplines and industries.  Leaders and managers – especially those overseeing complex work constrained by competing requirements and influenced by unpredictable external forces – consistently endorse Muzio’s latest bestseller, “Iterate,” in which he lays out a methodology for making organizations of all kinds more agile and adaptable in real life.

Named a top 100 HR Professional of 2020, Dr. Allessandria Polizzi has 20 years of experience leading HR teams across multiple industries. Following recovery from burnout in 2021, Allessandria left her CPO position to focus on helping companies with resiliency, burnout prevention and psychological safety. Verdant offers programs designed around neuroscience, cognitive behavior theory, and the ISO 45003 standards by training practical, simple skills that help teams flourish. She also co-founded the Kite HR wellbeing app for HR teams and shares discoveries on all of these topics via the Be Verdant podcast.

Erika Sandoval (she/ella) is Partner with the Strategic Advisory Group at UKG and has spent 15 years in the areas of people and organizational practice, specifically in DEI, L&D, HR, organizational and professional development, and facilitation and consulting. Having lived and worked across North America, South America, Europe and Asia, Erika has experience in leading and guiding strategic and cross-cultural initiatives that impact organizations and drive business success.

Erika is multilingual and holds various DEI and training certificates; she received an MSc in Human Rights Law from the University of Birmingham in the UK and has an MA and BA.

As the Senior Director of Partnership Development at Disability Solutions, Kevin works directly with employers on developing programs to actively attract, hire and retain talent with disabilities, which includes Pepsi Beverages’ Pepsi ACT – Achieving Change Together and the expansion project Frito ACT for Frito Lay.  Kevin trains employers to educate them on the benefits of hiring talent with disabilities and provides tools to help them best engage and support potential and current employees.  He is also responsible for developing and managing relationships with talent partners to meet the hiring needs of Disability Solutions’ employer clients. Kevin also regularly contributes to blogs and hosts Disability Solutions’ podcast “Changing Minds and Changing Lives.”

Miguel is the Chief Belonging Officer of MJA & CO, a Minority-owned consulting firm helping leaders leverage DEI as a catalyst to improve recruitment, engagement, and retention.  Recognized as a LinkedIn's Top Voice in Racial Equity, Top 15 Champion of Diversity by Diversity Global Magazine, a Top 100 Executive by Diversity MBA Magazine, and featured as an Inclusion Innovator by SHRM.

Miguel served as the first civilian Chief of D&I in the history of the US Coast Guard.  He started his career as diversity recruiter and for over a decade held several leadership positions in 3 major Federal Departments. Miguel is a TEDx speaker, featured at the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, and Telemundo.

 You can learn more about him by visiting www.migueljoeyaviles.com

Dr. Rick Goldgar, Ph.D. is the IBM Associate Partner for Digital Credentials in the IBM Talent Transformation Service Line. He was responsible for the original architecture of what is now the IBM Digital Credentials product and currently leads efforts for the Learning and Employment Records (LER) marketplace. He is also instrumental in the worldwide credentials market business planning, client relationships, partnerships and supports business and financial modeling. Dr. Goldgar participates in education credential efforts with numerous organizations, including IEEE and the Ed. 3.0 efforts.

Dr. Goldgar has been with IBM more than nine years, previously working in IBM Watson Research, Watson Education and in the IBM Center of Competency.  He has supported numerous key education initiatives at IBM in both k-12 and higher education and has worked directly with clients worldwide.

Dr. Goldgar was formerly the CIO and CTO at the Texas Education Agency, a $27B state agency responsible or over 1200 K12 districts, over 6M students and over 500,000 teachers in public and charter schools. In this role he was responsible for operations, contracts, innovation in the IT department.  Dr. Goldgar built and managed award-winning organization of over 200 staff, over 80 applications, with a $45M budget for functions including project management, operations, security and data systems. Mr. Goldgar is considered the Father of Texas Student Data System (TSDS), a state-wide data warehouse and reporting system for all schools.