Talent Selection

Alison Daley is the Founder & CEO of Recruiting Innovation. A 15 year veteran of the recruitment industry, Daley focuses on the intersection of technology, professional development, and reimagining recruitment models for the 21st century. Creator of the Tech Recruiter Certification and the Alignment Framework™, Daley is a pioneer in technical recruitment. She is an international speaker, trainer and entrepreneur.

Dr. Melody Rawlings is Director of the Center for the Advancement of Virtual Organizations, Lead Faculty for Managing Virtual Organizations specialization, and doctoral chair at Northcentral University. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Education, an MS in Technology specializing in business management, and a doctorate in leadership. Melody has led remote teams for 10+ years, developed partnerships between corporations and higher ed, and managed her own businesses. She has authored peer-reviewed publications and presented internationally on business topics such as leadership development, emotional intelligence, ethics, and conflict management. Melody has taught internationally in Europe and Asia.

Karl Ahlrichs specializes in helping professionals make order from chaos. He is a national speaker, author, and consultant, presenting on the people issues in all industries, and is often quoted in the local and national media. 

Karl’s experience is ideally suited to times of organizational change as he pulls on risk management and organizational development theories to replace “best practices” with “next practices”. He owes much of his communications mastery to working as a writer and editor in daily media, to on-the-job writing experience and to the process of becoming a published author.

He joined Gregory & Appel in 2010 after serving as a founding partner of ExactHire, bringing his HR, operations, diversity & belonging, and learning & development skills with him. Karl’s affinity for design, composition and learning started at a very young age, by taking and examining thousands of boring pictures with the goal of improving his craft. He loves deploying that practice-to-improve approach with all manner of hobbies including writing haiku, mastering cutting-edge technology and learning Spanish.

In 2003, he was named the SHRM Human Resource Professional of the Year for the State of Indiana. He is on the Boards of several organizations, including the Maryland CPA Society.  He has lived in Scotland and Spain and lives to explore new experiences with his wife and family.

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.”

Ms. Walters has more than 30 years’ combined experience in management, HR administration, employment law practice, and teaching.

She has presented at conferences across the country, been engaged as an expert witness, and testified before U.S. Congressional and state legislative committees on employment issues.

Her book, “From Hello to Goodbye: Proactive Tips for Maintaining Positive Employee Relations” is in its 2nd edition and was one of the SHRMStore’s “Great 8” best-sellers for eight consecutive years.

Today, Ms. Walters works as an independent consultant doing business as FiveL Company, “Helping Leaders Limit their Liability by Learning the Law.”SM

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!

Lester S. Rosen is an attorney and Founder  of Employment Screening Resources (ESR) a service offering of ClearStar.   He is the author of, “The Safe Hiring Manual,”  (3d Edition 2017), the first comprehensive book on employment screening.  He is also a consultant, writer, expert witness and frequent presenter nationwide on safe hiring and due diligence.  He is both a former prosecutor and criminal defense attorney.  Mr. Rosen was the chairperson of the steering committee that founded the Professional Background Screening Association (PBSA) and served as the first co-chairman in 2004. He  received the  PBSA Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019.

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