Mark Horoszowski is the CEO and cofounder of MovingWorlds.org, a social enterprise that operates leadership development + social impact programs for individuals as well as global corporations. Mark is an RSA Fellow and also serves as adjunct faculty at the University of Washington Tacoma’s Center for Leadership and Social Responsibility. You can find him on Twitter at @markhoroszowski and @experteering.

Vickey leads a team of Diversity Business Partners at Google who are committed to changing the culture from the top down. In this role, she consults with senior executives on strategies and programs that pursue more equitable outcomes for hiring and progressing underrepresented talent globally. Prior to this, Vickey was a sales leader at Google for 12 years and responsible for building and leading high performing teams supporting Fortune 500 clients.

Vickey is a certified coach and founder of The Curated Career, a practice dedicated to women who lead and aspire to lead. She is also a member of Google’s internal, volunteer coach community, specializing in career and leadership coaching.

Vickey lives in Seattle with her husband and their 9-year old Rhodesian Ridgeback, Remington. She enjoys international travel and pilates.

Willie (he/him) is a keynote speaker, consultant, and facilitator who helps organizations advance vital conversations that unlock connections across differences. His belief in the transformative power of media to change narratives led him to found Abernathy, a magazine for black men backed by companies like Mailchimp, Atlassian, and WeWork. In its four-year run, Abernathy published 400+ articles and produced a series of curated events for diverse professionals across the nation.

Willie served as Founding Technical Lead of Seth Godin’s altMBA program for high-performing individuals who want to level up and lead, and CTO of The Domino Project, an award-winning publishing company founded by business luminary Seth Godin and powered by Amazon.com. He's been featured in documentaries (I’m Fine, Thanks), on HGTV (House Hunters International), and in print (Icarus Deception). Willie is an avid houseplant aficionado and loves to spread the gospel of self-watering planters whenever possible.

Roger serves as Vice President of Mental Health Strategy for the seven-state Providence St. Joseph Health system, based in Renton, WA. In this capacity he has responsibility for behavioral health, population health activities across the delivery system and for all lines of business. Roger has over 30 years of experience in the health care and non-profit sector. As a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, he worked extensively with individuals struggling with co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders as well as in a public, safety-net emergency room. As an administrator, Roger has led efforts to integrate mental health into primary care in multiple organizations as well as the overall coordination of large scale, clinical operations and health plan functions. He has previously served in director level, leadership roles at Virginia Mason Medical Center, VA Puget Sound Healthcare System and Neighborcare Health (the largest provider of primary care in King County for low-income and uninsured families and individuals). Prior to joining Providence, he worked as the Director of the Mental Health and Wellness at Kaiser Permanente of Washington. Roger holds a Master of Health Administration from the University of Washington, a Master of Social Work from the University of Pennsylvania and serves as a Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of Washington School of Social Work.

Shinder Dhillon is Fortives’ Vice President, Inclusion & Diversity, where she is responsible for leading the Inclusion and Diversity (I&D) strategy to ensure they are working on things that matter most to their teams and that have a real impact.  Shinder’s experience in various industries and various roles in her career, has shaped how she approaches I&D and focusing on how to drive better results and outcomes where everyone can succeed.  Prior to joining Fortive, as the Global Diversity & Inclusion Leader for Microsoft one of her latest achievements was incorporating performance objectives for all employees. 

Shinder earned her Bachelor’s degree in Business Studies from Brunel University, United Kingdom.

Denise Busch, located in the Seattle office, is a senior vice president for diversity and inclusion and HR at Edelman, a global communications firm. In her role, Denise works people across the Edelman network to create diversity and inclusion initiatives and policies designed to enhance the employee experience. She uses decades of HR experience and depth of knowledge to deliver world-class programs to benefit diverse employees worldwide and provide opportunities so that they can do their best work.

Denise earned a bachelor’s degree in Sociology from Seattle Pacific University. Personally, Denise is passionate about social justice, advocacy for urban Native American and Alaska Native people experiencing homelessness and equal access to all the world has to offer, especially for children of color. She is Vice President of the board of directors for the Chief Seattle Club. Originally from rural Alaska, she lives in Seattle with her husband, son and rescue dogs.

Michaela Doelman (she/her/they/them) is a public servant, parent of four, and occasionally takes on the title of youth soccer coach. They’ve spent 15 years working for the state of Washington, holding various human resource positions in four different state agencies. Prior to that, they spent five years in the food, beverage, and hospitality industry in both the U.S. and Mexico.

As the Chief Human Resources Officer for the Employment Security Department, Michaela is focused on building an equitable and inclusive workplace culture where every employee feels like they belong and understands how they help make Washington better.

Michaela is committed to continuous learning and growth, recognizing learning happens everywhere. Their formal education consists of receiving an undergraduate degree from the University of Portland, a master’s degree from The Evergreen State College, and currently attending Leadership Tomorrow, a leadership program focused on building healthier and more resilient communities in the Puget Sound Region while working toward racial justice.  They are also a Certified Diversity Executive (CDE) with the Institute for Diversity Certification.

Rob Smith is the editor in chief at Seattle Business Magazine and Seattle Magazine, where he is responsible for the oversight, strategic direction and management of all content, both online and in print.

Smith spent a total of 13 years as editor-in-chief of the Puget Sound Business Journal and Portland Business Journal, where he helped develop an online news division while expanding the weekly print publications. He has also served as national retail coordinator and reporter for CoStar Group, a comprehensive, commercial property listing service and database (think Zillow for the commercial real estate industry). In that role, he launched a national retail desk while helping the team create a startup news organization.

Smith grew up in Portland and attended the University of Oregon.

Peter K. Stewart, PhD, is an experienced business psychologist specializing in leadership consulting, coaching, and training. As a member of the Senior Leadership Team of Stewart Leadership, Peter assists in strategic planning, firm development, management, and operational delivery. He continues to have ongoing oversight over the Stewart Leadership family of assessments, including the LEAD NOW! Self Assessment and LEAD NOW! 360° Assessment. In addition to individual leadership coaching, consulting, and delivery of training for clients, Peter also supervises assessment integration and certification for coaches within coaching services for Stewart Leadership.

Over the last 15 years, with his unique blend of insightful psychological and business perspectives, Peter has helped hundreds of individuals in diverse settings and professional positions achieve success in their personal growth and leadership development. Clients have frequently commented on the ease and speed with which Peter is able to thoroughly grasp the individual and organizational challenges that individuals are facing. He helps them conceptualize and understand their role in complex organizational systems through clear, practical, and common- sense direction with a clear plan for action.

Peter’s formal training in personal development began with his undergraduate studies in psychology and business at Brigham Young University. He completed his graduate studies at the University of Kansas and The Ohio State University by earning both a masters and doctorate degree in Clinical Psychology with emphasis in organizational systems, change, and human behavior. He also has expertise in the development, administration, and utilization of assessments, founded in relevant statistical analysis and research methodologies.

In addition to being a co-owner of a group practice for several years, Peter is an active researcher, trainer, author, and speaker. As an adjunct professor, he has taught assessment administration and interpretation in the graduate school at Washington State University. He has published many articles and studies in a variety of peer-reviewed journals, including Clinical Psychology: Science & Practice and The Journal of Clinical Psychology, presented at national conferences, and participated in the development, standardization, and psychometric analysis of multiple assessment instruments.

Peter’s unique background combined with a pragmatic, skills-focused application make him ideal to partner with organizations and individuals to bring sustained improvement through talent management and leadership development strategies.

Peter lives in Washington State with his wife, Michelle, and their 4 sons.

Amy Lou Abernethy began her career as an educator but was soon drawn into the world of visual storytelling and video production. In addition to co-founding and nurturing the agency AMP Creative, she followed her heart back to the art and science of adult learning a few years ago, getting her masters in learning in digital environments. Standing at the crossroads of learning innovation and cinematic storytelling, Amy Lou collaborates with companies to develop transformative learning experiences and AMP Creative produces those experiences. AMP’s VR-based empathy experiences are used by some of the world’s largest global companies to raise awareness of bias in the workplace. Amy Lou is passionate about the power of innovative mediums, like augmented reality and virtual reality, yet still believes that solutions start with the beating heart of a human story.

Anna is CEO and Founder of Ceresa.  Ceresa’s mission is to build diverse leadership for the future, by democratizing access to truly transformative career and leadership resources. She dedicates her time to shaping the company’s vision and strategy, driving consistent high-quality programming, building a world-class team and culture, and shaping a sustainable social impact business model.

Prior to launching Ceresa, Anna was a Partner at McKinsey & Company, where she served healthcare systems globally, as well as leading leadership development and diversity initiatives. She also served as COO at an early-stage tech company prior to launching Ceresa. She holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, MPhil, and BA from the University of Oxford. Anna lives in the Colorado mountains with her two dogs, three kiddos and one husband (who typically manage to get her attention in that order).

Herb Weisbaum, The ConsumerMan, is an Emmy award-winning broadcaster and one of America's top consumer experts. Herb is the Consumer Reporter at KOMO Radio in Seattle. He also covers the consumer beat for NBCNews.com.

During his distinguished career, Herb has reported for NBC's TODAY Show, CBS News, and Good Housekeeping magazine. His dedication to helping consumers has been honored by the Consumer Federation of America, United Press International, the Society of Professional Journalists and the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

Herb has been actively involved in charity work since coming to Seattle in 1981. He is currently Vice Chair of the Board of Directors at Pasado’s Safe Haven, a unique animal sanctuary located near Seattle.

Herb and his wife Debra share their home with two furry family members: Sam, their adorable pooch, and Buster the cat. Both are shelter rescues.

Herb's ConsumerMan website is loaded with helpful consumer information

Florangela Davila is news director at NPR affiliate KNKX where she leads a team covering the greater Seattle/Tacoma region. A longtime Seattle journalist, she's previously served as managing editor at Crosscut, where she also hosted the daily “Crosscut Now” news highlights show on KCTS 9 and chaired the company's Race and Diversity committee. A former news and features reporter at The Seattle Times, she worked for 14 years at the paper writing about race, immigration and culture and earning local, regional and national awards. A graduate of UC Berkeley and the Columbia University Journalism School, Florangela most recently completed work as a Corporation for Public Broadcasting Editorial Integrity and Leadership Initiative fellow at Arizona State University. Find her on Twitter @florangela..

Founder Jean Craciun is a nationally recognized moderator/facilitator. She has decades of experience helping groups and individuals get to that next level in team building and group dynamics, emotional intelligence, social justice, and community engagement.

As a founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Craciun Research Group Inc. she consulted on full service market research projects internationally and nationally.

Jean is a sociologist and feminist. She spent 30 years as an activist mentored by renowned Gloria Steinem and Congresswoman Bella Abzug. Jean served as Vice President of The National Women’s Political Caucus in the 90s and noted in November 2018, “we could only dream of the election cycle we just witnessed with women starting to take their rightful place in the politics that impacts our daily lives.”

As Jean's company thrived on a world stage, she honed skills in Social Marketing Campaigns consulting with USAID to train Russian sociologists on how to conduct quantitative and qualitative research. Working with Alaska Native Corporations' global businesses, she saw first-hand matriarchal leadership at its best.

Jean moved to Seattle in 2012 and believes her life’s purpose is to help women/men take decisive action to facilitate greater works by employing DEI to their daily practice. After founding Diversity Center of Seattle in Spring of 2018, she endeavors to assist clients with understanding the people issues in corporate America today. She pushes for a focus on inclusion, pay equity (comparable worth) and, as part of our heritage of white privilege, to assist in the eradication of institutional racial injustice.

Highly ethical in all aspects of her work she lives-into the motto “do no harm” at all levels of interaction working with human participants.

Margaret O’Mara is the Howard & Frances Keller Endowed Professor of History at the University of Washington and a contributing opinion writer at The New York Times. She writes and teaches about the history of U.S. politics, the growth of the high-tech economy, and the connections between the two.

She is the author of Cities of Knowledge (Princeton, 2005), Pivotal Tuesdays (Penn Press, 2015), and The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America (Penguin Press, 2019). She also is a coauthor, with David Kennedy and Lizabeth Cohen, of forthcoming editions of a widely used U.S. history college textbook, The American Pageant (Cengage). In addition to her opinion pieces in The New York Times, her writing also has appeared in The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, Bloomberg Businessweek, Foreign Policy, the American Prospect, and Pacific Standard.

O'Mara is a Distinguished Lecturer of the Organization of American Historians and a past fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the National Forum on the Future of Liberal Education. She received her MA/PhD from the University of Pennsylvania and her BA from Northwestern University. Prior to her academic career, she worked in the Clinton White House and served as a contributing researcher at the Brookings Institution. She lives outside Seattle with her husband Jeff and their two daughters.

(Last name pronounced "O-mare-a.")

(Photo by Jim Garner/www.jgarnerphoto.com)

Enrique Cerna is a veteran journalist who has worked in Seattle media for more than four decades.

Cerna worked for 23 years at Cascade Public Media’s KCTS 9 and retired in February 2018 from his role as senior correspondent. He anchored current affairs programs, moderated statewide political debates, interviewed major newsmakers, produced and reported stories throughout Washington State and for national PBS programs.

Cerna has earned nine regional Emmy awards and numerous other journalistic honors.  He is a member of the National Association of Television Arts and Sciences Northwest Chapter Silver Circle for his work as a television professional.

Deborah currently leads a Global Learning Delivery Team at Expedia Group based in Seattle.

She has been in Corporate Learning and Development roles for over 15 years with organizations and have led efforts at McCaw Communications, AT&T Wireless, Concur Technologies and SAP.

Deborah is a seasoned leader with deep domain expertise in learning and development. Major strengths in performance consulting and problem solving. Leading teams in the workplace and fostering a growth mindset mentality driving organizational transformation. Expert in learner experience and content curation for onboarding, leader development and sales programs.

She is best known for her experience as a Creative Learning and Development Leader. Master Facilitator. Coach. Performance Consultant. Leadership Development. Business Strategist and Executor. Accomplished Public Speaker and recognized Thought Leader.

Cassandra Mitchell is a community partner, influencer, and advocate. Regardless of her role, connecting the right people together and building relationships has been the primary focus throughout her career. She began her career in Human Resources (HR) holding multiple positions across a variety of industries including, Government, IT Professional Staffing, and most recently Financial Services.

As the SVP, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Strategy and Engagement for Washington, Cassandra is responsible for executing Washington’s Community Engagement Strategy through partnerships with local non-profit and community based organizations. Her passion and focus is advocating for Diverse and Inclusive communities and work environments where organizations thrive and people excel.

Cassandra’s personal commitment and focus is serving the Puget Sound community through civic engagement. In 2018, Cassandra joined the Board of Directors for Sound Outreach, Foundation for Tacoma Students and Capitol Hill Housing (Seattle).

Cassandra received her Bachelor of Science in Human Resource Management from Colorado State University and also completed her Professional Human Resource (PHR) certification. She is originally from Portland, Oregon but has called Puget Sound home for over 18 years with her three daughters, Sierra, Kamryn and Kadyn.

Maria is Syndio’s Chief Executive Officer. As CEO, Maria is responsible for the company’s vision and strategy for delivering innovative solutions, building an organization of the industry’s most talented people and developing organizational excellence to deliver the highest levels of business value to its customers. 

Prior to joining Syndio, Maria co-founded Smartsheet.com, a work collaboration tool for companies of all sizes. Drawing on more than 20 years of experience in technology and communications at companies including Microsoft, Starbucks and technology start-ups you’ve never heard of, she has a proven track record of building successful companies with strong core values that are dedicated to its people and customers.

Rebekah Bastian is Vice President of Community & Culture at Zillow Group, leading efforts around Equity & Belonging, Social Impact Products and Cultural Engagement. Rebekah was one of Zillow’s first employees, coming over from Microsoft in 2005, and spent her first 12 years leading product development across many areas of the company.

Rebekah’s first book, Blaze Your Own Trail, will be coming out in February 2020 with Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

Rebekah serves on the Board of Directors of Bellwether Housing and the Advisory Board for the University of Washington School of Mechanical Engineering. She is also an advisor to technology startups, a respected thought leader and community partner. She writes articles in multiple publications including Forbes.com, and is a frequent speaker at conferences and community events. She has been recognized in the Puget Sound Business Journal 40 Under 40, the Inman 33 People Changing the Real Estate Industry and the Female Founders Alliance Champion Awards.

Rebekah earned her Masters of Mechanical Engineering from UC Berkeley and Bachelors of Mechanical Engineering from the University of Washington. She is also a mentor, a mother to two boys and an aerial acrobat.

Javier is director of diversity and inclusion engagement at T-Mobile USA. He brings expertise and insight in DEI from his work at Charter Communications, Amazon, Biogen, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, and various Human Resources roles at Bank of America, the TJX Companies and Business for Social Responsibility.

His work over the years includes several firsts and leading-edge practices in the diversity and inclusion space. These include a Multiple Sclerosis program for underserved patient populations (MS-UP), tax benefit equality for same-sex couples, women’s leadership programs, transgender healthcare benefits, the Biodiversity Fellowship and Raising the Bar Women on Corporate Boards programs. Javier has been recognized by the Boston Business Journal with the 2014 "Leaders in Innovation Award," the Harvard Medical School Biomedical Career Sciences Program 2015 Honor Roll, the National Center for Race Amity and GK100 as a 2016 top 100 most influential leaders in Greater Boston, and Boston’s Whittier Street Health Center as a 2017 "Men’s Health Champion."

Javier earned his MBA from Boston University, a graduate certificate in Diversity Management from Cornell University and a bachelor’s degree in law from Universidad de Costa Rica. In addition, he is a coaching graduate of the Augere Foundation and Coaches Training Institute in Barcelona, Spain.

In his spare time Javier is a self-proclaimed cat entertainer, who loves traveling, independent films, theater, hikes and nature walks.

Jacquelyn is the Customer Success Director at Enboarder, the world’s first and only Experience-Driven Onboarding Platform. Jacquelyn joined Enboarder in October 2018.

Based in Austin, Jacquelyn previously worked at The Business Journals as the Head of Customer Success. She’s a huge fan of dad jokes, matcha and office pups. Her 3 p.m go-to snack is M&Ms.

Charlotte currently leads DocuSign’s Global Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging (DIBs) efforts as the Director of Diversity and Inclusion based in Seattle. She has been in diversity and inclusion focused roles for the past 5 years having led efforts at Alaska Airlines, SAP Concur and now at DocuSign. She has created several programs aimed at engaging men in diversity and inclusion efforts, has started and led several employee resource groups and is passionate about empowering individuals to act, lead and live with an inclusive mindset. She graduated from University of Washington and has held a variety of other HR roles in Employee Experience, Leadership Training & Development and Corporate Social Responsibility. Charlotte’s role is to support DocuSign’s purpose-driven and inclusive culture – one where individuals are empowered to show up as their authentic selves, encouraged to give back to their communities and enabled to do the work of their lives.

Kate Zimberg, PhD, has spent her career as an HR professional within the technology and telecommunications industries.  She has intentionally varied her career, moving between roles within HR centers of excellence - where she’s been instrumental in creating new programs, tools, and methods – and roles working directly with employees and business leaders – where she’s focused on the pragmatic application of HR practices, coaching and consulting to help drive business success.

Most recently, Kate joined F5 in March 2019 as the VP of Talent and Organizational Capability.  In this capacity, Kate works closely with other members of HR and with business leaders to drive Leadership Development, Performance Management, Talent Management, Recognition, Employee Listening, Culture, the F5 Giving Programs, and Organizational Design.

Prior to F5, Kate worked at T-Mobile as the HR leader for the Product & Technology organization where she led a team which provided coaching, change management, talent management, leader and employee development, recruiting, and HR consulting.  Kate also led the T-Mobile enterprise-wide community of leadership development consultants.  Before T-Mobile, Kate worked held multiple HR leadership roles at Microsoft, including HR business partner, talent mobility, talent management, and leading employee engagement and onboarding programs. Kate began her HR career in the telecommunications industry as an I/O Psychologist, focused on selection assessments and methods at both AT&T and Lucent Technologies. She earned both her masters and doctorate from Purdue University.

Outside of work, Kate has a passion for working with girls as a troop leader with the Girl Scouts of Western Washington.

Adam Weber is the host of the popular  HR Superstars Podcast & SVP of Community for 15Five where he supports and leads thousands of HR professionals through the HR Superstars Community, elevating them to become more strategic leaders. 

Previously he was the Co-founder and Chief People Officer of Emplify (which sold to 15Five in 2021), a company that helped leaders measure, diagnose. He also co-founded Bluebridge Digital, where he grew and sold the company in 2016. 

He is the author of the Amazon bestseller, Lead Like A Human. In 2020, Adam was named to Business Insider’s list of Rising Stars in HR. 

Adam is a proud Ball State University alum holding a bachelor's degree in sociology and a master's degree in organizational communication. 

He lives with his wife, two sons and dog Poppy in Zionsville, Indiana. 

Mike Bailen is VP of People at Lever where he leads the Recruiting and Employee Experience functions for the San Francisco-based hiring software company. Bailen first met Lever while leading recruiting efforts for Eventbrite, where he drove the selection and implementation of Lever as the company’s primary recruiting platform. During his tenure at Eventbrite, Bailen overhauled the company’s recruitment practices across recruitment marketing, employer branding, candidate experience, and hiring manager and interviewer training. Bailen previously held multiple recruiting and HR roles at Zappos, where he led the company’s innovative decision to remove all job postings in favor of building talent pipelines among their passionate user base.In 2015, Bailen was named to LinkedIn’s “Next Wave” list, which recognizes the top professionals under 35 across different industries.

Frances leads the People and Culture team at Girl Scouts of Western Washington that includes diversity, equity and inclusion, the human resources, research and evaluation, and volunteer learning. Her team is committed to bringing voice to all employees to drive equity in people practices, inclusion, trust, and high performance based on sound data driven practices.

Prior to this role Frances was the HR Director at the Washington State Bar Association for over 13 years and responsible for talent management, staff development, employee relations, internal diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, leadership development, and practices to drive a transparent, open and inclusive culture. Frances has served on the board for the Seattle Chapter of the Society for Human Resources Management and the Puget Sound Association of Legal Administrators.

Frances has a Master of Science degree in Industrial Organizational Psychology. She is originally from Jamaica and has lived in Seattle for the past 14 years with her husband. She enjoys bike commuting, cooking and staying fit.

Named one of the top 30 I-O Psychologists alive today, Dr. McKenna is passionate about developing leaders and about transforming the way we see the people in our organizations. As he will tell you, we have the tools at our fingertips to invest in our people in ways that are meaningful to them and will get the results we need. Thirty years of research has taught us much about how people learn and grow on the job. We have what it takes to create rich learning environments for the people we lead, and all we have to do is begin to act on what we know.

Dr. McKenna brings a combination of approachability, authenticity, expert knowledge, and humor to his talks. Whether you are interested in character development, dealing with conflict, creating engaging learning cultures, or developing the next generation of leaders, his approach of getting real about what’s going on in your life and work brings people alongside him in a way that inspires change. The models he uses in his talks are based on decades of research on leadership, team functioning, organizational health, and individual development.

He is the founder of WiLD Leaders, Inc. and creator of the WiLD Toolkit, a whole and intentional leader development process and set of tools that one leader described as “A whole approach that blurs the line between who we are as ‘workers’ and ‘human beings.”  He is also the Chair of Industrial-Organizational Psychology at Seattle Pacific University. His research and coaching with thousands of leaders across corporate, not-for-profit and university settings has given him insight into the real and gritty experience of leaders. His clients have included the Boeing Company, Microsoft, Heineken, Foster Farms, the United Way, Alaska Airlines and Children’s Hospital. He is the author of numerous articles and chapters on leadership character, calling, effectiveness, and leadership under pressure. His latest book, Composed: The Heart and Science of Leading Under Pressure, focuses the specific strategies leaders can use to stay true to themselves and connected to others when it matters most.