Paula Harris is senior vice president of community for the Houston Astros and executive director of the Astros Foundation. Before joining the Astros, she had more than 33 years of experience in international oilfield services with Schlumberger.  Educated as a Petroleum Engineer, Paula initially worked in field operations offshore before progressing into leadership roles including training, sales and ultimately, in environmental-social (ES) sustainability She managed the development and implementation of metrics-based, cost efficient ESG programs tailored to meet the local needs of stakeholders, employees, communities, and customers. Implementation of the program helped in aligning negotiation strategies and winning successful new business tenders in Russia, Europe, Nigeria, Venezuela, China and Australia.  During her leadership tenure in training and sales, she developed a life-long civic interest in educational instruction and a personal interest in mentoring minority female engineers.  While working she authored and published two books: For Sister, The Guide for Professional Black Women (2002) and When I Grow Up I Want to be an Engineer (2009.)

Paula retired from Schlumberger and spent a year in retirement until she jumped back into an entirely new industry, the world of professional sports.  She is enjoying the impact to community through engagement and community program design.

She currently also serves on the boards of: Chart Industries (GTLS) The Vantage Group, The Houston Children’s Museum, the Petroleum Club of Houston, the Independent Petroleum Association of America’s Energy Education Center and Energized for STEM Charter School.  She is a founding member of the all-girls engineering school, the Young Women’s College Preparatory Academy, serving primarily minority communities in Houston to graduate girls prepared to attend top engineering universities.  Previously she served on the boards of the Houston Independent School District; the Permian Strategic Partnership in Midland, TX, the Space Center Houston and numerous other education and outreach associations.  In 2020, she received the Women Who Mean Business Lifetime Achievement award from the Houston Business Journal and in 2019, the Women on the Move award from Texas Executive Women and the United Nations Global Citizenship Award.

Rachel Clingman is Executive Vice President, Sustainability and Governance for McDermott. She leads the company’s sustainability, enterprise risk management, legal, and compliance functions and serves as Corporate Secretary.

McDermott is a premier, fully-integrated provider of engineering and construction solutions to the energy industry.  Operating in over 54 countries, McDermott’s globally integrated resources include more than 30,000 employees, a fleet of marine construction vessels, and fabrication facilities around the world.

Rachel brings more than 25 years of industry experience guiding public and private companies in creating value and managing complex risk and regulatory environments.

Before joining McDermott in 2021, Rachel was Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary for Noble Energy, Inc., which merged with Chevron in 2020. Before joining Noble, Rachel was Vice President and General Counsel for the global petroleum and Americas minerals businesses of BHP. She started her career at a prominent international law firm and has served as a registered lobbyist.

Rachel has held leadership roles in a number of civic and charitable organizations and currently serves on the board of the American Heart Association in Houston. She is active in the National Association of Corporate Directors, the Executive Women’s Partnership, Direct Women and the General Counsel Forum.

Rachel earned a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy and Political Science from Rice University and a law degree from the University of Texas where she served on the Texas Law Review.

Richie Malone is the Vice President, People & Culture at BP.

Kojo was born and raised in London, England to Ghanaian parents. After a successful collegiate
basketball career, Kojo went on to play professionally all over the world for 7 years. Most of which was
spent playing in Europe, primarily in Belgium, France, Portugal, England and Italy.
Kojo’s corporate professional career began as an Account Manager in 2006 for CDW (a global IT
solutions provider). As his career evolved, he moved on to spend 6 years within the software and
virtualization space. Ready to step into leadership, Kojo returned to CDW as Field Sales Manager where
he led a team focused on servicing large-scale Fortune 500 companies in Houston, TX
Kojo currently sits as the Global Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, aligned to all Integrated

Technology Solutions and Sales departments at CDW. Kojo is tasked with integrating sound business-
forward DE&I policies and principles into CDW’s everyday business practices. From recruiting,

promotion policies and company culture to community involvement, coworker, and partner
engagement.

A. Denise Malloy, Vice President Diversity & Inclusion, provides strategic and day-to-day operational leadership on all global equity, diversity and inclusion programs, and practices across the 150 countries where Johnson Controls conducts business. She is responsible for the optimal attraction, development and retention for diverse talent and infusing diversity, equity and inclusion principles and practices into Johnson Controls products, outreach and philanthropy. Denise is the architect of the newly designed Johnson Controls Diversity & Inclusion mission, vision and roadmap. She has led the effort to empower every Johnson Controls employee to play an active role in diversity & inclusion. This work has landed Johnson Controls on the Forbes 2021 list of Best Companies for Diversity & Inclusion. Prior to this role, Mrs. Malloy held numerous sales leadership and business development roles within Johnson Controls where she emerged as a repeat Master of Sales performer.

In her prior role as Vice President and General Manager of a global business unit, she implemented growth strategies and customer experience for one of Johnson Controls largest customers yielding year over year double digit growth.

Before coming to Johnson Controls, Denise became known as a sales strategist, market creator and gifted relationship builder. She thrived in numerous senior leadership and business development roles with Xerox Corporation, J.P. Morgan, and Enron. Denise serves on numerous non-profit and corporate boards all of which are dedicated to the causes of women and children. Her servant leadership is key to ensuring that she reaches
back, pulls forward and leaves a legacy of advocacy and support of others. Her corporate board experience is focused on breakthrough medical advances and aiding women and minority start-ups success.

A true champion of the people, Denise divides her time between family, business interests, community service, corporate boards, and philanthropy.

Paul A. Pavlou is the Dean of the C. T. Bauer College of Business at the University of Houston. He is also a Cullen Distinguished Chair Professor of Information Sciences.

Paul received his Ph.D. from the University of Southern California. His research has been cited over 70,000 times by Google Scholar, and he was recognized among the “World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds” by Thomson Reuters based on an analysis of “Highly Cited” authors in Economics & Business for 2002-2012. He was ranked #1 in the world in publications in the top two Information Systems journals (MISQ & ISR) during 2010-2016.

Paul is a Distinguished Fellow of the INFORMS Information Systems Society. He won several Best Paper awards for his research, including the Sheth Foundation award for “Long-Term Contributions to Marketing” in the Journal of Marketing (2019), the Maynard Award for the “Most Significant Contribution to Marketing” in the Journal of Marketing in 2015, the ISR Best Paper award in 2007, and the 2006 IS Publication of the Year award. He won the Best Paper award in 2012, the Runner-Up to the Best Paper of the 2005, the Best Interactive Paper in 2002, and the Best Student Paper award in 2001 from the Academy of Management. Paul also won several Reviewer awards, including the 2009 Management Science Meritorious service award, the ‘Best Reviewer’ award of the 2005 Academy of Management Conference, and the 2003 MISQ ‘Reviewer of the Year’ award. Paul is currently a Senior Editor at ISR and earlier at MISQ and JAIS. Paul also won the Best Doctoral Dissertation award of the 2004 International Conference on Information Systems. He received over $2,000,000 in grants from funding agencies, such as the National Science Foundation (NSF).

His research appeared in Management Science, Information Systems Research, MIS Quarterly, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Decision Sciences, Journal of Management Information Systems, Journal of the Association of Information Systems, among others. His research spans several disciplines (information systems, marketing, strategy, operations, decision sciences) with emphasis on data science, analytics, artificial intelligence, digital business strategy, and research methods.

Ms. Gest is a seasoned human resources leader and business partner with more than 25 years of HR experience in large, global organizations. She joined LyondellBasell in 2018 as the Head of Growth & Integration for Human Resources where she began building the M&A function for HR. She is currently the SVP of Total Rewards and is accountable for global total rewards programs, including broad-based and executive compensation, mobility, reward and recognition, benefits and payroll.

Throughout her career, she has held numerous positions in Human Resources with other global organizations leading total rewards, mobility, talent acquisition, employee relations, HR shared services and business partner relationships with senior leaders. She has significant experience in M&A, organization design, HR transformation and DEI as well as serving as a trusted advisor to senior executive leadership and members of the board of Directors on executive compensation matters.

Ms. Gest holds an MBA from the University of Houston and bachelor’s degrees in Marketing and Management from Texas A&M University. She is a member of the Executive Compensation Council II for the Conference Board.

Pedro Neiva Botelho is currently the Schlumberger Head of HR for the Americas. Throughout his career, he held several HR Management positions within the Schlumberger Group in Africa, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East. The spectrum of his roles encompassed topics on HR business strategy, HR practices and People recruiting, training & development. In his previous position he was the Global Head of HR for the Schlumberger Surface Systems Product Line, based in Houston. He is a frequent speaker in conferences on topics related to HR strategy, compensation & benefits and career development.

Pedro has a M.A. from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po).

Lucho Vizcardo is a Global Human Resource Management leader with extensive experience in all facets of organizational development, global mobility, executive and non-executive compensation, benefits, payroll, and employee relations.  His foreign language proficiency includes Spanish and Portuguese.

Lucho currently serves as the Head of International Human Resources, Western Hemisphere at Nabors Industries (NYSE: NBR) and has been with the company since 2019.  He is an active leader of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Council of the company.  He also serves at the Advisory Panel for the Managing Human Resources Certificate Program at University of Houston, Bauer College of Business.

Prior to joining Nabors, Lucho served in a number of HR Management positions at Occidental Petroleum, Kerr-McGee, Anadarko and TETRA Technologies.

Lucho earned his bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering from University of Lima, and his master’s in Business Administration from Pepperdine University in Malibu, California.  When not at work, Lucho enjoys being with his wife and kids, playing tennis, and travelling.

Lamonica Spivey is the Inclusion, Diversity & Corporate Social Responsibility Director for TechnipFMC.  She began her career as a Human Resources Professional in various industries and made ‘providing fair, equitable opportunities for all’ her focus.  This led her into the current role where she is responsible for leading the global inclusion and diversity strategy – creating an inclusive culture that empowers people to be the difference by bringing their authentic selves to work.  Also she is responsible for the “Social” pillar of TechnipFMC’s ESG goals and initiatives of improving the underrepresented in senior leadership roles, creating inclusive leaders through learning and community involvement with a focus on STEM.

Lamonica holds a Master degree in Human Resources from Keller Graduate School of Management and a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Management from the University of South Alabama.  She is a Coach, Mentor and Influencer in her field.  As an active member of the Energy, Workforce and Technology Council, she is the Chair of the Inclusion & Engagement Committee and is working to bring inclusion and diversity to the Energy industry.  Most recently she is the Board Chair for the DEI Board.  Being impactful in the community is also important to Lamonica, as a result, she is serving her 2^nd year on the United Way of Greater Houston’s Women’s Initiative Steering Committee.

Lamonica was born in Canton, OH, raised in Mobile, AL and has lived in Houston, TX over 14 years.  She is a movie enthusiast and ‘Dog Mom’ to Tyson (Yorkie).

Julie Keller is the Global Human Resources Director for the Industrial Valves, Pumps, & Gears portfolio within the Industrial Energy & Technology business of Baker Hughes. Julie has worked in the HR industry for over 15 years, with the last 13 spent between General Electric and Baker Hughes. She has held a variety of HR roles, working with a broad variety of client groups from manufacturing, to sales, and technology, and has been part of multiple regional and global leadership teams.

Prior to working in HR, Julie worked in sales and marketing for both private and non-profit organizations.
Julie earned her MBA from the Marriott School of Management at Brigham Young University and her Bachelors of International Business from the Gore School of Business at Westminster College. She is an active member of many of the Employee Resource Groups (ERG) at Baker Hughes and currently serves as the Executive HR Champion for the Baker Hughes Veteran’s ERG. Julie is based in Austin, TX and lives with her husband, Trevor, and their blended family of seven children – ages 5 to 16 – plus one very spoiled black Labrador. Julie is passionate about creating an inclusive environment in both her professional and
personal life and in continuous learning and forward progress.

Shern-Min Chow anchors KHOU 11 News at Noon weekdays, fills in on other newscasts and reports. She joined the station in 1996.

She began her career in journalism as a stringer for Newsweek and has worked at KTRK-TV and anchored at KPRC-TV in Houston, as well as KENS-TV in San Antonio. Chow's awards include the Houston Press Club Award for Best Series, the Texas Associated Press Award for Best Spot Newscast-Producer and an Emmy for the documentary "Hong Kong Under the Dragon."

Shern-Min speaks often to civic groups, schools, churches and other organizations. Over the years, she has made close to 1,000 community appearances. She is currently on the advisory boards of the Asia Society and the Chinese Community center. She has previously served on the boards of SpringSpirit Baseball, the Bo & Stacey Porter Self Foundation, the YWCA, The Houston Ballet, the Chinese Community Center and The Bayou City Medical Center.

A history graduate from Yale University, Shern-Min speaks conversational Mandarin and Shang Hai dialects of Chinese. She has also studied Spanish, French and German. Shern-Min and her husband have two sons. They are students at Rice University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

With more than 20 years of experience guiding organizations toward workplace inclusion, Teresa Hopke brings a wealth of knowledge and wisdom on the importance of establishing cultures of belonging where everyone can thrive. Her unique, trusted, and proven insights on employee wellbeing, women's leadership development, and DEI (Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion) make her an incredibly valuable resource as Talking Talent’s CEO and as a partner to her coaching clients. ​

​Teresa’s career has been focused on building up others in order to achieve the best results, both for the individual and the teams they work with. Her innovative ideas and determination to see real change are the reasons for her success over the last two decades.  She is a nationally recognized thought leader on the topic of inclusive leadership, and she has been featured in many top tier business publications and media outlets such as CNBC, the CBS Morning Show, NBC Nightly News, NPR, Forbes, Wall Street Journal, HR Magazine, Money Magazine, and others. ​

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As a mother of four, Teresa understands the needs of working parents and caregivers. She also continually advocates for people who are underserved, undervalued, and underestimated in the workplace.

As Head of HR OpEx and PMO, Mindy leads the HR function through governance and processes that drive efficiencies, and effectiveness and collaboration. She also has the role of HR Director, where she partners with our Legal, EHS and Government Relations executives to execute people strategy in support of Air Product’s role in generating a cleaner future.

Mindy most recently served as the Director of Diversity Culture and Engagement. In this role, she built and led the functions of employee engagement, talent attraction and marketing, and diversity, inclusion, and belonging. She played a pivotal role in the success of executive leadership development, advancing diversity KPI's and achieving results through signature DEI programs. Mindy also executed employee engagement surveys that enhanced work culture.

Additionally, she served as the company's EEO officer and authored the people and culture sections of the Air Products’ Sustainability Report. Mindy was also a Director of the Air Products Foundation focusing on talent and diversity giving.

Prior to Air Products, Mindy accumulated over 20 years of experience in the oil, gas, and chemical industries across multiple geographies. She led departments in learning and development, talent management, people strategy, and project management within HR. She also served on the Deepwater Horizon incident response team leading competence assessment programs and delivering learning and leadership programs at site locations.

Shelby Stewart currently serves as the Associate Editor at Essence. She is a graduate of Dillard University and the University of Houston with a BA and MA in Communications.

Debi Yadegari is the Founder and CEO of Villyge. Once a Wall Street lawyer, Debi created Villyge to address the problems she faced as a working parent in corporate America. Today, Villyge is a comprehensive platform that drives empathy in the workplace by providing managers with the understanding and “just in time” guidance they need to better support their employees, increase DE&I and guard against attrition. Villyge is a total population solution, with specialized support for working parents, caregivers, and the leaders who support them. Through her work with Villyge, Debi is committed to improving the corporate landscape for caregivers and helping to shape the future of work. Debi is a frequent contributor to Fox Business, Cheddar TV, ABC News, Fox News, Forbes, Working Mother, World at Work, Strategic CHRO 360, Business Insider, Leader’s Edge, Employee Benefits News and Crunchbase. She received her BA in economics and political science from Barnard College of Columbia University and her JD from George Washington Law School. Previously, Debi served as in-house counsel to the investment banking division of Lehman Brothers and was a corporate associate at Fried Frank. In 2005, however, she traded her brief case for a diaper bag and has been supporting caregivers ever since. Most importantly, she is a working mother of five – ages 5, 11, 13, 15 and 16.

Innocent Ehimegbe is an Apprentice, Personal Banking and Wealth Management at Citi.

Emily Pearce is the Director of Global Customer Care at Achievers and has a passion for leading large teams through transformations. Emily completed her Master of Arts, Leadership with Royal Roads University in 2022. Though her research focused on mentorship, Emily continues to explore the various types of learning partnerships and the role they play in career development, especially for those new to the corporate world.

Brittany Hill is the CEO of Accelerist, the partnership intelligence SaaS platform where some of the industry’s most prolific brands and nonprofits prospect, value, access and measure their events and partnerships with each other. As a passionate data seeker and trend translator, Brittany specializes in using analytics and innovations to support B-corporations and Fortune 1000 companies as well as enterprise and federated nonprofits in their pursuit of sustainable events and partnerships. In her role, Brittany spearheads social impact product development and leads a talented team who has supported 100s of customers in effectuating social change.

Brittany holds over 15 years of experience in the entertainment, nonprofit and agency sectors, with a consistent specialization and commitment to purpose-driven work. Throughout her career, Mrs. Hill’s portfolio of work ranges from building multi-channel partnerships and award-winning campaigns between blue-chip nonprofits and companies, to helping entertainers and celebrities find their social purpose, and producing social activism events.

Brittany’s trendsetting insights have been featured in Forbes, Huffington Post, TIME, and MSN.com. She is a seasoned speaker on the topics of data-driven cause partnerships, social impact measurement, industry trends, sponsorship valuation and cause partnership sales, with previous engagements at Sustainable Brands, SXSW, Association of Fundraising Professionals and Engage for Good

Jamie Spiva serves as the Interim Chief Development Officer for Houston SPCA. She is a non-profit expert helping organizations create development and communication plans to exceed goals. Her passion for mission-based institutions shines through her efforts resulting in over $300 million raised by her teams during the past two decades.

She graduated from Marquette University with a dual major from the Diedrich College of Communication. Jamie prides herself on the diverse types of organizations with which she’s worked, including education, religious and social service agencies, cultural institutions, conservation, and animal welfare groups.

Jamie enjoys traveling, reading, and volunteering in the community in her spare time. She shares her home with three Houston SPCA Alumni:  two cats, Bunny and Ally Kat, and her dog, Joy.

Jonathan Pride is the Executive Director at NPower.

Rebecca brings her years of experience in the HR and People space to SkillCycle as the first official employee and Co-Founder. Throughout her 10 years in HR, she developed programs that optimized talent acquisition, employee retention, upskilling/reskilling, employee engagement, employee experience, succession planning, and more. She used this expertise to build People strategies that made her companies successful and protected their most valuable asset – the people. At SkillCycle, she works cross-functionally to deliver solutions and experiences that push learners beyond their perceived limitations to unlock their potential. She aligns with key stakeholders to ensure they see ROI and continue making learning more accessible within their organizations. Her goal is to empower people to invest in themselves and their teams, to increase employee engagement, retention, and performance.

Matthew Kitchen has served as Chron's editorial director since 2021. He previously worked as a features editor at The Wall Street Journal, edited politics and future tech at NBC News, and has contributed to Sports Illustrated, Rolling Stone, Esquire, and The Ringer. Before falling into journalism, Matthew worked in the film industry where he played a very insignificant role in crafting some of your favorite trailers. To submit tips, comments, or secrets, reach him at matthew.kitchen@chron.com.

Dr. Sarah Janes is the Associate Vice Chancellor at San Jacinto College.

Jamie has been in the Employee Benefits and Healthcare Industry since 2004 in a variety of Leadership roles.  His focus at Anco Insurance it to passionately and tirelessly serve employers and their employees providing unparalleled service.  Specific healthcare strategies include Cost Containment, Alternative Funding and Captives, Compliance, HRIS Technology, and helping employers drive Culture and Employee Presentism.

Prior to joining Anco Insurance, Jamie was in Sales Leadership for two Fortune 500 companies, Guardian Life, and also served on the National Healthcare team at Gallagher consulting for large Hospital Systems across the country.

Jamie’s deep relationships in the industry, as well as extensive experience are integral pieces to the Anco Insurance growth strategy.

Jamie resides in Houston with his wife Erica and their four children where he is active serving within the community.

Katie is the Founder and CEO of Claira, a competency analytics engine that helps companies understand their people and hire better. No job descriptions. No resumes.

Katie spent eight years in global workforce development building competency models and helping organizations prepare for the future of work. She regularly speaks and writes on a variety of topics, including the digital economy, diversity hiring, AI ethics, and automation impact on the workforce.

Having worked in many types of jobs– cleaning hotel rooms, making sandwiches, and assembling windows on a factory line– she believes valuable competencies are used in every role, every day, everywhere. The problem isn’t people, it’s the antiquated hiring system.

Previously, she worked in the White House Office of Global Communications assisting the administration with strategic messaging following Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. Additionally, she spent four years managing high volume document cases with the White-Collar Crime Division in the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

She holds an MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management, an MPA from the University of Michigan Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, and a BA in Political Science from Hope College.

Dana Morrow Branch is the Senior Vice President, Technology Product Manager & AI/ML Model Development Lead at Bank of America.

Anissa Cordova is the Development Director for Houston Habitat for Humanity.