Live 2024: Philadelphia

Cindy currently serves as VP of HR Transformation at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). Having reached her 24-year anniversary with GSK, Cindy is both thrilled and humbled to be leading the HR organization through this transformation. We are striving to be a best-in-class HR function, partnering with business leaders to drive impact in talent, leadership, culture and capability.

Each day, I am amazed at the level of HR talent we have in our organization who are working hard to protect our license to operate and create the right employee services with user-friendly support. My goal throughout the transformation is to make sure everybody in the function feels supported and equipped to lead through the change.

In her role as EVP, Chief Human Resources Officer, Hanson oversees associate relations, learning, development, benefits, and recruiting for AmeriHealth Caritas’ more than 8,000 associates nationwide. She reports to President and CEO Kelly Munson.

Prior to joining AmeriHealth Caritas, she spent 20 years in human resources and diversity, equity, and inclusion leadership roles at Aramark. Most recently, she led the company’s Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) strategy.

Hanson’s role at AmeriHealth Caritas leverages her strengths and expertise in diversity, equity and inclusion; leadership development; talent acquisition and management; strategic change management; learning strategies; and organizational effectiveness.

Hanson is a graduate of the University of Madras in India, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English literature. She also attended Columbia University’s Teacher’s College to become a certified coaching professional.

Hanson currently serves on the board of directors for The Food Trust, a nonprofit organization based in Philadelphia that works to improve the health of children and adults through providing better nutrition.

Jamaal Sebastian-Barnes is an accomplished senior leader with a diverse background
spanning academia, corporate talent management, and AI research ethics. His career
reflects a deep commitment to excellence and innovation in human and organizational
development.

Having held key roles at Harvard University, McKinsey & Company, Google, and
Novartis, Jamaal currently serves BMS as Vice President of Talent and Culture. Widely
recognized as an influential leader in human capital management, Jamaal has twice
been named a Global HR Icon (2021, 2023), awarded Google’s Superhero honor, held
two fellowships at Harvard University, and most recently received the 2024 BMS Values
award for Inclusion.

Jamaal holds a bachelor's degree in philosophy from St. John’s College, a master’s
degree in Prevention Science from Harvard University and is pursuing his Doctorate in
Business at Drexel University.

Magda joined Saint-Gobain in 2006 as a Customer Service Assistant. She has held roles of increasing responsibility in the Sales, Human Resources, Communications, and Customer Experience functions in the United Kingdom before joining Saint-Gobain North America in early 2019. Here in North America, she served as Vice President of Customer Experience and Vice President of Strategic Enablement. Today, as Senior Vice President of Human Resources and Communication for Saint-Gobain North America, Magda is responsible for leading workforce development strategy and corporate reputation in the region. Her function strives to design and implement an employee-centric culture by deeply understanding our employees’ journey and working to build the best teams in a diverse and inclusive workplace. Magda holds a bachelor’s degree in Business and Management, Marketing, and Related Support Services; and an MBA and master’s degree in Human Resources Management from the University of Social Sciences (Lodz, Poland). She also earned a Master of Science in Professional Communication from Clark University (Boston, MA).

Cora Claus is the Vice President, Human Resources at Burlington Stores, Inc.

Tonia C. McMillan is currently the Vice President of HR Strategy and Shared Services for Amtrak. She is an experienced professional “change agent” and lean six sigma greenbelt practitioner. Her professional experience is in finance, healthcare, compliance, risk management, and transportation. Tonia began her professional career working in the banking industry for the nation’s largest credit card company where she held carious fiscal management roles. Tonia obtained her Bachelor of Science in Behavioral Science with a minor in Human Resources Management from Wilmington University and a Master of Science in Criminal Justice and Safety Studies from South University. Tonia then transitioned into the behavioral health field working with those who suffered from substance abuse and mental health disorders. She held positions ranging from clinical to administrator. She then moved into the transportation industry starting her career at Amtrak, specializing in drug and alcohol regulatory compliance. In her current role at Amtrak, she is responsible for developing human resource operational strategy. Tonia resides in Elkton, Maryland with her husband and two teenage children.

Alex is a highly experienced employee engagement consultant, trainer and speaker. For over 15 years she has helped HR and business leaders implement strategies that drive true culture change.  Her wealth of knowledge comes from coaching and training thousands of managers from a wide range of industries across the globe. Alex focuses on providing organizations with proven practices that drive results for varied leadership styles and the multiple generations in the modern workforce. Her presentation will leave you motivated and better equipped to lead your organization on a path to a more engaged workforce, making the world a better place to work.

Professor Stephanie J. Creary is an organizational behavior scholar and an Assistant Professor of Management at The Wharton School. Professor Creary’s research is focused on understanding how to create more effective work relationships and improve diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace. Her work uncovers the power and emotional dynamics that can either facilitate or impede these outcomes. She has published her research in leading academic journals, including the Academy of Management Review, Organization Science, American Psychologist, and Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion. She has received a Best Student Paper Award, the Dorothy Harlow/McGraw Hill Best Paper Award, and the Phillips and Nadkarni Outstanding Paper Award from the Academy of Management for her research contributions.

Hannah is a senior Talent Leader with over 20 years of experience in the private, VC/PE and public sectors. After over a decade of consulting to a variety of global organizations, she joined Achievers as their Chief People and Culture Officer. Her mandate is to empower employee success through all facets of employee engagement, organizational effectiveness, organization development, and talent strategy. She is keen to make the world a better place through irresistible employee experiences and leading-edge people and product development.

Dana Valentine is the Vice President of Human Resources at Comcast Corporation. Valentine was appointed to her current role in 2021 and most recently served as Senior Vice President of Talent and Learning at Eaton Corporation. She joined Eaton from Johnson Controls, where she served as the Vice President of Human Resources. Prior to Johnson Controls, Valentine was Chief Human Resources Officer for Safeway Group. She also held Human Resources leadership roles with Veolia Environment, PricewaterhouseCoopers and GE Company. She holds a Bachelor's degree in English Literature and an MS in Human Resources Management from Villanova University.

Jason Radisson  is a serial unicorn breeder with over 20 years of experience in strategy, operations, and growth. He has scaled multiple tech unicorns that provide work and improved standards for millions of workers. Jason is the CEO and Founder of Movo, the Human Capital Management (HCM) platform that automates the process of hiring, engaging, and retaining today’s frontline workforce. Movo is helping solve the frontline worker problem globally, with more than 700,000 users in retail, logistics, manufacturing, engineering, and most recently, healthcare. 

Jason started his career at McKinsey & Company, where he worked with the Firm’s top clients in Spain, Germany, and Latin America on high-profile, M&A, organizational design, and workforce projects. As a Regional General Manager at Uber, he launched and grew cities in the western US. He was then hired to run Brazil’s 99-Taxis, where as COO he grew the business 10x on $50M in invested capital, and sold it to Didi Chuxing for $1B, making it the most capital-efficient scale-up recorded by a gig marketplace. He is also a member of the Rappi-Mafia, where he was an early investor and helped the Rappi founders scale their Operations and Growth teams efficiently across Latin America. Today, more than 20 venture-backed CEOs are alumni of his earlier teams.

Jason is passionate about using mobile technology and algorithms to empower and uplift the frontline workforce, which he believes is the foundation of the economy and society. He founded Movo to address the challenges and opportunities of digitizing this workforce, which is overlooked and underserved by the horizontal technology incumbents. Jason holds a BA from the College of the Holy Cross, where he graduated with highest honors. He was also a Fulbright Scholar in Germany and attended Harvard University and Stanford GSB as a graduate student in Applied Math and Microeconomics. He is fluent in German, Spanish, and English. He spends his time outside of work with his spouse and their children. He’s also a lifelong outdoorsman, distance runner, cyclist and skier.

As Director of Alumni and Employer Partnerships for General Assembly, I help companies accelerate and diversify their tech talent hiring at scale. We have the largest bootcamp community of alumni who we leverage for events, hiring, and more, and are amazing candidates for tech roles at all levels.

With over 20 years of HR experience in various domains, Carla has a passion for improving how organizations' work gets done by integrating technology into business processes and leveraging data to drive decisions and actions. She enjoys helping clients transform their HR function and create a more seamless and data-driven experience for their employees.

Nicole Boyko, Ph.D.  is a Senior Workforce Transformation Consultant with Perceptyx, guiding customers across industries in their journey to create an exceptional employee experience. Nicole brings more than 10 years’ experience to her role, and possesses deep expertise in survey design, measurement, and analysis, with a specific focus on generating actionable outcomes and insights for customers.

Prior to Perceptyx, Nicole was a Director in Liberty Mutual’s Global Employee Experience Analytics team where she developed and executed Liberty’s enterprise-wide listening strategy, supporting strategic initiatives driven
by employee sentiment.

Nicole earned her Ph.D. in Industrial Organizational Psychology from the University of Connecticut and holds a B.A. in Psychology from Quinnipiac University. She is an active member of the Society of Industrial Organizational Psychology (SIOP) and a frequent speaker at the SIOP annual conference.

Kate Feather is an employee experience leader and passionate believer in the powerful connection between a company’s culture, people, and performance. As head of Employee Experience and Talent Development at Lincoln Financial Group, Kate is responsible for leading an enterprise-wide approach to creating a work environment where all employees are motivated to give their best every day, believe Lincoln is a great place to grow their careers, feel they belong, and are heard and recognized for their contributions. Kate believes in being intentional about designing and delivering meaningful employee and customer experiences and in the application of human- centered design principles to get there. She is a global, research professional having held leadership positions in market and organizational research and
consulting firms in both the U.K. and the U.S. Over her career, Kate has led Sales, Marketing, Consulting and Client Success teams. She has consulted with numerous Fortune 500 companies to achieve their Culture, Employee Engagement, Strategic Communication, Leadership Effectiveness, Change Management, and Experience Strategy and Design goals. Since joining Lincoln Financial in 2019, Kate has established Feedback Fridays - a regular event used to capture the voice of the employee to drive timely decision-making and topical communications. This proved particularly valuable as the
company navigated the challenges of the pandemic, racial injustice, and the future hybrid work experience.

She has also worked to democratize employee feedback putting insights in the hands of managers deep in the organization who are able to act on the information in relevant and timely ways. To support shifts in the way we work at Lincoln, Kate stood up an enterprise-wide recognition platform to drive new behaviors and mindsets required for Lincoln’s future success. To ensure the organization is building the skills and competencies of the future, Kate recently led an initiative to roll out an enterprise-wide learning experience platform that encourages learning in the flow of work and
upskilling at the speed of business.

Chelsie Rae’s life purpose is to help people feel seen and loved so they have the courage to become the fullest version of themselves. She’s the founder of two different employee recognition companies, Knowwn and Caroo, and has worked to revamp employee recognition for some of the most recognizable and innovative workplaces around the world. She lives in San Francisco with her silly golden retriever Freddie Furcury.

Scott Thompson is a seasoned fintech leader with over 25 years of experience driving innovation to enhance financial well-being for everyday Americans. As the CEO of Tuition.io. Scott is addressing the dual challenges of escalating higher education costs and the widespread labor shortage across diverse sectors, including Healthcare, Education, Retail, Hospitality, and Food Service. Before joining Tuition.io in 2016, Scott held prominent roles as CEO of ShopRunner, CEO of Yahoo, and President of PayPal.

Russ Freyman is a VP of Business Development at Progyny. He spent almost 25 years in media and technology before joining the leader in family building and women’s health benefits.  Russ started his career as a reporter, before earning an MBA and then on to sales and business development leadership roles at The New York Times and Google.  A few years ago, he decided to focus more on his passion for equity and inclusion programs, and joined Progyny, where he leads employer relationships across the Northeast.  Russ lives in New Jersey with his wife and three children.

Melissa Winkelman is SVP of HR for NFI Industries, a fully-integrated North American supply-chain solutions provider headquartered in Camden, NJ. Privately held by the Brown family since 1932, the company generates more than $3.5 billion in annual revenue and employs over 17,300 associates. In her role at NFI, Wikelman focuses on operations, compensation and attracting, retaining and developing talent. Previously, she served in management roles at Snappy, FMC, and BioLab. She earned a BS in marine sciences at the University of South Carolina and studied HR at the Cornell University ILR School.

Lizzy McLellan Ravitch is The Philadelphia Inquirer’s business desk workplace reporter where she covers emerging, evolving and interesting jobs, what workers are fighting for, and how employers are addressing those needs.

Recently, Ravitch was an investigative reporter at Billy Penn at WHYY. She was a reporter, business of law editor and senior reporter and business of law senior editor at ALM Media LLC.

She was a general business reporter at The Daily Record and a general assignment reporter at The Frederick News-Post.

Ravitch has a B.A. from the University of Maryland and a M.S. from Arizona State University.

Ximena Conde is a Reporter at The Philadelphia Inquirer. 

Brie Harvey is a talent management leader and digital strategist who writes and speaks about trends within Human Capital Management and the future of work.

Having served in a variety of leadership roles for HR Technology companies over the last decade, she brings expert level knowledge of Total Rewards, L&D, talent acquisition, and how to cultivate workplace cultures that transform employee engagement and the Employee Value Proposition.

Passionate about the intersection between behavioral science, managerial effectiveness and technology, Brie has partnered with some of the world’s largest, most complex organizations to build high performance cultures centered around authentic appreciation, trust and inclusion.

In her role as an Employee Engagement Evangelist, Brie works with the research arm of Achievers, the Workforce Institute, to share data-based insights about how to enhance employee engagement and recognition strategies for a pandemic-era workplace.

Stefanie Christmas serves as the Global Head of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) at Inizio, where she is responsible for developing and implementing an organization-wide DEI strategy and working with individual Business Unit leaders to deliver operational alignment and accountability, as part of Inizio’s commitment to DEI.

She joined the Inizio executive team from Vynamic (an Inizio Advisory company), where she founded and led Vynamic’s internal Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion efforts and co-led the creation of Vynamic’s DEI Service to help clients establish a healthy culture of inclusion.

Prior to Vynamic, Stefanie was a consultant with Accenture focusing on leadership engagement and organizational transformations. In her time as a consultant, Stefanie has proven success delivering transformational initiatives to embed Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in organizations, amplify leadership engagement, heighten organizational efficiency, and improve process consistency. Stefanie started her career in education as a high-school teacher with Teach for America and worked in District of Columbia Public Schools Central Office helping families and teachers navigate the central office and school system.
 
She holds her MBA from the Wharton School and a BA from the University of Pennsylvania. Additionally, Stefanie serves on the Board for LEADERSHIP Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Prison Society, and Maternity Care Coalition. 

Ariella Cohen is an Assistant Managing Editor at the The Philadelphia Inquirer. 

Earl Hopkins is an award-winning reporter for The Philadelphia Inquirer, covering the region’s arts, culture, and entertainment scene. He’s also a freelance writer who has contributed music reviews, op-eds, and profile stories for Billboard, GRAMMY.com, Complex, MTV News, Stereogum, UPROXX, SPIN Magazine, and other outlets.

A native of Columbus, Ohio, Earl graduated from Ohio University’s E.W. Scripps School of Journalism in May 2019. After graduating from OU, he worked as an education and family issues reporter for the Evansville Courier & Press in Southwest Indiana before transitioning to arts and entertainment coverage.

Before landing at The Inquirer, Earl was an arts and culture reporter for the Austin American-Statesman and The Columbus Dispatch, covering music, fashion, food, and film in Central Ohio and Texas.

He has interviewed the likes of Shaquille O’Neal, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Jason Kelce, Tracy Morgan, Chelsea Handler, Jill Scott, and other big-name celebrities throughout his career.

Earl is an active member of the National Association of Black Journalists, the Society of Professional Journalists, and NABJ Philadelphia. He’s also a noted public speaker who has addressed the state of the freelance economy and the future of entertainment journalism at higher-ed institutions across the country.

His upcoming book, [Working title]: “How J. Cole and Kendrick Lamar Saved Hip-Hop,” will chronicle the evolution of socially conscious rap and focus on the role Cole and Lamar have played in the subgenre’s salvation. The book is slated for a Fall 2026 release under Rowman & Littlefield, a Bloomsbury Publishing (US) imprint.

Steve is a Co-Founder at Contemporary Leadership Advisors (CLA) and author of The End of Leadership as We Know It (Wiley, 2023). His award-winning consulting work helps clients build more adaptive, higher-impact organizations. Prior to CLA, Steve helped build AlixPartner’s Leadership and Organizational Effectiveness Practice and developed SYNAPP, an HR platform for mapping informal networks. With an MBA from UVA and an Ed.D. from N.C. State, Steve's expertise focuses on how networks affect learning, change and innovation. He serves on several boards and enjoys spending time with his family, pop culture, and mountain biking.

Kristen Howe is the Vice President, Enterprise Products, SHRM Enterprise Solutions, where she oversees Product Management and Product Development. She has over 20 years of experience building and leading businesses in the leadership and development space, with a focus on leadership development, sales, coaching and facilitation.

Kristen is passionate about building products that foster inclusive behavior, positive corporate performance and business outcomes. She strives to create products that help global organizations develop key segments of their business, in both live settings and through digital platforms. She empowers teams by developing smart and efficient processes designed to utilize the individual skills of every team member, all while optimizing overall performance.

Kristen is a highly sought-after leadership consultant and speaker, with a deep expertise in Advancing Women Leaders and Inclusive Leadership. She has delivered programs and keynotes to thousands of leaders globally at organizations such as the Chief HR Officer Exchange, The Chief Learning Officer Exchange, Constellation Brands, The Tata Group, Western Union, and Texas Instruments, among others. She has served as an emcee at Linkage’s Women in Leadership Institute™, an immersive experience which attracts more than 3,000 women leaders across the globe each year.

Prior to joining Linkage, Kristen spent the last decade growing businesses within Corporate Executive Board (CEB), now Gartner. During her time there, she led multiple teams across the Talent Solutions business, focusing on conceptualizing, building, selling and delivering talent solutions based on CEB data. She also ran CEB’s Leadership Academies business, which developed more than 30,000 professionals at 2,100 companies throughout 50 countries; Kristen was consistently recognized as one of the top managers and coaches across the entire firm.

Kristen previously served in a variety of roles including global facilitator, consultant and engineer. She has a Master of Business Administration from the Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX, and an undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering from North Carolina State University.