Sarah Waltman is the Vice President of Talent Management & Organizational Development for Dentsply Sirona. Sarah is an accomplished talent & organizational effectiveness Leader with extensive history improving performance of global businesses by designing learning structures and comprehensive talent initiatives.

Dentsply Sirona is the world’s largest manufacturer of professional dental products and technologies, empowering dental professionals to provide better, safer and faster dental care.

Rebecca Warren is the Director of Talent Centered Transformation, at Eightfold AI and has been in and around the TA space for 15+ years at a variety of organizations and industries in both full-time and consulting roles. She has been at Eightfold for just over a year in customer success and the president of the Arizona Recruiters Networking Community (part of the Recruiters Network) and is passionate about helping people succeed.

Chris Coultas, PhD is the Senior Director, Employee Performance & Engagement at McKesson Corporation.

Rob Catalano is WorkTango’s Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer. Rob has spent the last 20 years building HR Technology companies. He was on the founding team at Achievers, where he spent the majority of his 10+ year tenure leading their Marketing function as well as the final few years leading their global expansion out of the UK. Rob’s passion for improving the employee experience led to him co-founding WorkTango in 2015 to help companies collect and act on authentic employee feedback. He has been named as a top 101 Global Employee Engagement Influencer every year since 2017, and has had the privilege of speaking to HR leaders at conferences in over 45 cities. Rob is an avid hockey fan, traveler, once played guitar in a metal band, and is a self-proclaimed ‘pointaholic’ – collecting loyalty points for anything and everything. Get in touch with Rob at rob@worktango.com.

Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza is a freelance journalist and From Day One contributing editor who writes about work, the job market, and women’s experiences in the workplace. Her work has appeared in the BBC, The Washington Post, Quartz at Work, Fast Company, and Digiday’s Worklife.

Lydia Dishman is Fast Company’s senior editor for growth and engagement. She has also written for CBS Moneywatch, Fortune, The Guardian, Popular Science, and the New York Times, among others.

Michelle Bartlett is the Senior Director, IT Change Management at Akamai Technologies, Inc.

As Head of WOW! Colleague Experiences, Engagement and Appreciation at TD Bank, a top-10 leading bank in the U.S., Jackie creates and drives organizational strategies that reinforce and strengthen TD's colleague brand promise and unique corporate culture. She collaborates with leaders and colleagues enterprise-wide to nurture a positive, vibrant work environment that aligns with the organization's mission and shared commitments. TD's WOW! Spirit and culture are the heartbeat of TD, and Jackie takes great pride in fostering a caring community that provides colleagues with a feeling of being valued, appreciated, rewarded, and included.

An active supporter of Diversity and Inclusion, she serves as Co-Lead of the Women at TD Business Resource Group for Pennsylvania & New Jersey. In this role, she develops strategies that enrich TD's culture of care & support, while removing barriers & biases that further elevate the experiences of our customers, colleagues, and communities.

Jackie approaches life through a holistic lens of wellbeing, that places a strong focus on community and having compassion for others. After being touched personally by the American Heart Association's mission, she serves on the Regional Board of Directors, acting as Chair of their Leadership Development Committee, and is a member of the Executive Leadership Team for the Garden State Go Red for Women Luncheon. As an advocate, she helps build awareness around heart disease and empowers others to take control of their wellbeing to make progress in being a relentless force for a world of longer, healthier lives. Previous leadership roles include: Chair of Circle of Red, and Co-Chair of the Garden State Go Red for Women Auction Committee. Under Jackie’s leadership with the American Heart Association, she was recognized in 2021 for leading a top 3 Circle of Red group in the nation and in 2023 TD Bank won the title and trophy of being the #1 Heart Walk Team for the Central New Jersey Heart Walk in the "Financial Banking" cup challenge.

Jackie earned her Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and Management from The College of New Jersey and holds an Executive Education Certificate in Human Resources Management and Services from Rutgers University. During her free time, she enjoys reading, spending time with friends & family, traveling, giving back to the community, and appreciating art in all forms.

Andrea Cooper is a human resources executive who has invested more than 20 years to the
practice of improving employee experiences. She currently leads the People function for
Talkspace, an online and mobile therapy company whose mission is “therapy for all”. As a long
time Walmart employee she developed a broad range of human resources skills, including global HR, learning and development, labor relations, diversity & inclusion, and strong business partnership. Andrea has further developed her strategic leadership and innovative HR skills through her roles at Amazon, CUNA Mutual, and while running her own consulting practice (Flourish).

Andrea has a bachelor’s degree in organizational management from John Brown University and a Senior Human Resources Management certification from HRCI. She teaches HR study sessions through the UW SBDC to support developing human resources professionals and is a member of the Wisconsin Innovation Awards board of directors.

Kelli Burns leads a team of information security professionals supporting Accolade's vision to create and maintain a best-in-class information security and privacy posture that supports growth and maintains the trust of our customers and members. Before joining Accolade, Burns held multiple positions at Symetra Financial including serving as CISO. During this time, she was pivotal in building out the cybersecurity program and enabling the business to make decisions swiftly while protecting the data of customers and employees. Expanding her leadership role beyond her technical capabilities, Burns was also the founding leader and executive sponsor for Symetra’s Diversity and Inclusion Council and developed their IT Emerging Leaders enterprise program. She is well-regarded in the Seattle community for mentoring women in cybersecurity and technology. She holds a B.S. in Management Information Systems from the University of Montana and is currently pursuing an MBA from Penn State University.

Steve has spent the last ten years of his career building technology that helps people to learn, grow, and connect. Before starting Campfire, he spent 5 years at Instructure building a talent management platform focused on career development and human performance. He worked with product, marketing, sales, and strategy teams to grow the business from the ground up to $27 million in annual revenue. While with Instructure, he worked with teams at Disney, Tesla, Lululemon, Johnson and Johnson, and other global brands to strengthen their talent management practices.

Now, Steve is focused primarily on finding ways for people to learn and grow through connected learning experiences called Campfires. The business has strong investment and is responsible for training hundreds of managers in the key skills needed to effectively lead teams. Steve’s experience in technology, content, facilitation, and talent management provide a rich mix of skills for solving these challenges.

Campfire was founded in 2020 at the very beginning of the pandemic and has benefitted from the changes and shifts that allow for us to consider new ways of connecting and working with each other. Steve has three co-founders - Todd, Taylor, and Marinne - who are all passionate about the mission of providing universal access to connected learning experiences.

Kristen is the Chief People Officer at ZayZoon, a financial empowerment platform for SMBs. She's a passionate leader that creates full team engagement to move businesses forward. She believes culture trumps everything and leading by example is a requirement, not an option. A clearly articulated vision and strategy, and a solid plan of execution create alignment in a team. Culture and a compelling purpose is what gives your team heart. That heart is what gets people out of bed, and creates a fire for them to bring out the best in themselves and those around them. 

Melissa Luff Loizides is vice president of talent at Zebra Technologies, a global leader in tracking technology and solutions that generate actionable information and insight by connecting people, assets and data, which gives companies unprecedented visibility into their business and a performance edge. Zebra, headquartered in Lincolnshire, Ill., empowers people on the front line of business in retail, health care, transportation and logistics, manufacturing and other industries.

Melissa has nearly 25 years of experience within the technology and finance industries and has provided HR leadership throughout multiple merger and acquisition engagements including the Motorola acquisition of Symbol Technologies and the Zebra acquisition of the enterprise division from Motorola Solutions. Over her career, she has partnered with C-suite executives across multiple organizations and teams. In her current role, Melissa is leading Zebra’s Global HR Business Partners collaborating with our executive leadership and their organizations to “Shape the Future of Zebra through the Power of People.”

Melissa joined Symbol Technologies, Inc. in 2004 as HR business partner for engineering and product management, following her many years at Goldman Sachs & Co. in the Equities Division. During Melissa’s tenure, she held numerous HR business partner roles of increasing responsibility and scope with leaders across multiple functions. She was selected for a six-month rotation to partner with and support the Motorola Solutions Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) in 2011. In 2014 with Zebra’s acquisition of the MSI Enterprise business, Melissa was a core HR team member leading the effort to “carve out” nearly 4,500 employees and assets of the Enterprise business that were acquired by Zebra Technologies. Since the acquisition, Melissa has held roles of increasing responsibility leading to the merging of all global HRBP’s under her leadership in April 2021.

Melissa holds a bachelor of arts in history and a master of science in management with a concentration in HR management from St. Joseph’s College. She is a certified KF360 coach, and a member of the School Business Partnerships of Long Island, First Long Island Board of Directors. She resides in East Patchogue, NY, with her husband and two children.

As Chief Insights Officer at Explorance, Shawn Overcast partners with stakeholders at all levels and involves them in the co-design of strategic solutions to achieve critical business objectives. Shawn brings 20 years of experience working with well-known brands like BP International, Fifth Third Bank, The Hershey Company, JetBlue Airways, McDonald’s, Twitter, and Virgin America. She coaches leaders at all levels, including C-suite executives, senior leaders, and managers and directors across various industries, including education, transportation, technology, and healthcare. Shawn has a BS in Psychology and an MS in Instructional Systems from Florida State University. She’s a certified Executive Coach and Myers Briggs Type Indicator practitioner.

Sonya brings more than 25 years of leadership experience in HR and operations to her current position at Comcast as the VP of HR for the Technical Operations, Network, Engineering, and Construction teams in the West Division.

Sonya joined the Comcast team in 2019 as the VP of HR for the California Region. There she helped California earn the top spot for both YourVoice results and participation, as well as increase overall eNPS scores.

Prior to Comcast, she led Human Resources for 13,000 employees at DaVita Medical Group where she transformed culture, led integrations and technology deployments, and supported growth through mergers and acquisitions work.

She’s received several recognitions including “Woman of the Year” from the Northern California Chapter of Women in Cable Telecommunications (WICT). She is passionate in her support of several non-profits that advocate for the advancement of women in STEM-related fields.

In her spare time, you can find her somewhere building interesting things with AI, taking a class in quantum computing, or spending time with her fun family and friends.

Jenny Sucov is a journalist and editor who focuses on health and well-being. She has worked for companies and publishers including Hinge Health, EverydayHealth.com, Canyon Ranch, Real Simple, and Prevention.

Patrick Hyland, Ph.D., is an organizational psychologist with over 25 years ofexperience in employee research and consulting. He is currently a strategic advisor at Remesh.

Before this current role, Patrick served as the Director of Research & Development at Mercer, where he worked with a range of clients including FedEx Ground, Tiffany & Co., Thomson Reuters, the Bank of Montreal, and the U.S. Patent & Trade Office. At Mercer, he developed proprietary assessments and conducted research on a wide range of
topics, including employee engagement, employee turnover, workplace wellbeing, mindfulness at work, organizational culture, and survey actioning and analysis best practices. As a trained coach and OD specialist, he has helped hundreds of leaders and teams understand their assessment results and develop personal and organizational action plans. 

Patrick received his Ph.D. in Social-Organizational Psychology from Teachers College at Columbia University, where he served as an Adjunct Professor for ten years. He received his Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Pennsylvania. His research can be found on ResearchGate.

As Vice President of Enterprise Data at Accolade, Kapil Ashar spearheads the development and execution of sophisticated data products that ensure the delivery of high-quality, trustworthy data to both customers and internal stakeholders. Kapil has over a decade's experience in data engineering, Machine Learning and business intelligence, having worked at Concur and Microsoft, and is on the Data Advisory Board at Modal, a leading employee education platform.

With over 20 years of experience, Pamela is a seasoned expert in the field of Human Resources. Her extensive and varied career has equipped her with a distinctive set of skills, including HR Business Partnering and particularly excelling in Talent Management, Organizational Development, Learning, and Culture. Pamela has spearheaded key projects in diverse environments, including start-ups, acquisitions, and multiple African geographies, showcasing her adeptness in navigating intricate organizational landscapes. She firmly advocates for creative, people-centric strategies that harmonize employee and organizational values, to unleash maximum organizational potential and optimize employee discretionary effort.