Live 2022: Chicago

Marquis Miller is the City of Chicago’s first Chief Diversity Officer. He works with Candace Moore, Chief Equity Officer, in the Office of Equity and Racial Justice (OERJ) to support and undergird the City’s strategic human capital activities, diverse vendor initiatives, the Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities, the Chicago Commission on Human Relations and the work of the OERJ in policy and systems development.

Prior to joining the City, he was managing principal of The Business Mosaic LLC, and held vice president and business leadership roles at the NMSDC, SBLI USA Mutual Life Insurance Company, Inc., Chicago State University, the Chicago Urban League, the UNCF, and The Ohio State University. A thought leader in the fields of organizational leadership, diversity and durability, Marquis is a Certified Diversity Professional (CDP), as recognized by the National Diversity Council.

Dr. Tara Leweling is a collaborative and entrepreneurial leader with over 25 years of global public policy, strategy, communications, sustainability and social impact experience spanning the private sector, White House and U.S. military. As vice president in Corporate Brand, she leads Allstate’s
corporate communications, financial & ESG communications and thought leadership agenda. This includes amplifying Allstate’s voice in national dialogues about the role of business in society.

Partnering with the CEO, vice chair, executive leadership team and leaders of eight diverse businesses, including three technology startups, Tara helps Allstate build enduring, interactive relationships with its stakeholders, with particular emphasis on advancing inclusive prosperity and helping individuals and civic groups reach across difference in their communities. She is an executive co-sponsor of Allstate’s employee resource group for veterans, military members and their families, and from 2019 to 2022, she chaired Allstate's Sustainability Council.

Prior to Allstate, Tara served as Executive Director, International Policy and Programs at JPMorgan Chase, where she led the firm’s global political analysis function and coordinated all facets of the J.P. Morgan International Council, an advisory body of former prime ministers, Cabinet officials and global CEOs. This followed Tara’s nearly 22 years of active duty service in the U.S. Air Force, where she served in several key command, strategy, operational and policy roles. Assignments included Senior Policy Advisor to the U.S. Ambassador to NATO, Speechwriter to the Secretary of the Air Force, a command tour and several deployments in support of NATO operations. Her final assignment was Acting Senior Director for European Affairs and Director for NATO and Western Europe at the White House’s National Security Council. As Acting Senior Director, she was President Obama’s principal advisor on U.S. policy toward 49 countries and three international organizations in Europe.

Tara earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and history from the University of Michigan and a
master’s degree in international relations from Troy University. She has a master’s degree in systems engineering and a doctorate in information sciences from the Naval Postgraduate School.

Corey Flournoy is the Vice President, People Development and Cultural Engagement at Aurora Tech.

Andrea Wood is the Head of Social Impact at Best Buy. In this role, she leads Best Buy’s social impact initiatives focused on helping teens from underserved areas prepare for the tech-reliant jobs of the future.

Prior to coming to Best Buy, Andrea served in a similar role on the Community Relations team at Target. She has also served in various corporate communications leadership roles at Target and Travelers Insurance and has more than a decade of experience in program management and fundraising for local Twin Cities nonprofit organizations.

Andrea holds a Master’s Degree in Public Policy and Nonprofit Management from the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs, and a B.A. in English Literature from Kalamazoo College. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for The Clubhouse Network in Boston, the YWCA in Minneapolis, and the Advisory Board for the Humphrey School of Public Affairs.

A native of Washington, D.C., Andrea has lived in Minneapolis for the past 25 years. She has two children and a husband who loves to take adventurous vacations. For fun, she teaches group fitness classes at Lifetime Fitness and enjoys outings with her all-women’s Cycle and Ski Club.

Christine Doucet joined the Ace Foundation team in 2012 to manage and grow all retailer fundraising initiatives related to Ace’s two national charitable partners, Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals and the American Red Cross. Since then she has held various roles in the Foundation and currently serves as the director, overseeing all corporate, vendor and retailer fundraising as well as the Ace Helpful Fund, Ace’s employee emergency assistance fund. In early 2019, Christine also took on Employee Engagement for Ace Hardware and is leading the engagement strategy for the organization as well as the annual engagement survey.

Prior to joining Ace, Christine worked at Elmhurst Memorial Healthcare on both the PR and foundation teams, managing all events for the health system and serving as a media spokesperson.

Christine holds a bachelor of arts degree in journalism from the University of Iowa.

Melina Barona (she/her/hers) took part in the Great Resignation of 2021 and joined Conagra Brands’ D&I leadership team. Along with her role at Conagra Brands, she has held progressive leadership roles in the DEIB and talent acquisition space for over 20 years. Melina began her career in broadcast journalism, working with Frontline News in London and an ABC affiliate in the US. During the early years of her career, she was based in the Czech Republic and Ukraine. Melina has held leadership roles at Northwestern University, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, on KPMG’s national diversity recruiting team, and in the tech industry.

Along with volunteer service on the Illinois Diversity Council, Melina is a founding member of Las Tinas, a Chicago-based Latinx improv group. Las Tinas performs improvised telenovelas, and has performed at The Second City, The Laugh Factory, The Annoyance, The Comedy Clubhouse, and other comedy venues. The mission of Las Tinas is to create space for Latinx women in comedy while providing much-needed humor to people of all communities. Originally from Medellin, Colombia, Melina grew up in the rural Midwest. For the past 14 years, she has made the Rogers Park neighborhood in Chicago her home.

Melina is a Certified Professional in Human Resources (PHR), holds an M.Ed. from Vanderbilt University, a certificate in HR from Northwestern University, and is a Fulbright Scholar. She is also a graduate of The Second City Conservatory Program.

Pam Pujo is a Diversity Advocate for Affirmity.  She has nearly a decade of experience developing and leading successful diversity strategies and innovative D&I programs. Her expertise spans diversity, inclusion, equity, and accessibility, with an emphasis on data, metrics, and benchmarking. Ms. Pujo has managed and led diversity awareness education programs across functional and departmental lines, including talent management, professional development, and business development.

In her role at Affirmity, she helps clients optimize their diversity and inclusion programs through deployment of its diversity benchmarking and reporting tools.

Ms. Pujo holds a Master’s in Humanities and Communications. She currently serves on the Greater Dallas Advisory Board to the Texas Diversity Council.

Chuck is an accomplished and adaptive leader with over 25 years of proven experience leading transformation in organizations, ecosystems, and teams. He brings to LCW broad global leadership experience in Culture and Inclusion, Learning and Development, Talent Acquisition, HR Operations, and Legal Compliance. He leverages strong interpersonal and communication skills to build authentic and productive relationships with clients.

His experiences are informed by a career spent in business both as a consumer of Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) services and as a practitioner of internal and external D&I interventions. He also has deep experience de-biasing talent systems and processes throughout the talent lifecycle. Chuck is known as a calm and thoughtful problem solver.

Prior to joining LCW, Chuck successfully led global teams in Talent Development, Talent Acquisition, HR Operations, and Legal and Compliance at Aon, Hewitt Associates, and Tellabs. At Hewitt he was also responsible for designing and delivering D&I programs for external clients like McKesson, Baxter, Boston Scientific, and others.

Chuck has designed and delivered programs domestically and across Canada, Germany, India, Poland, and the UK. Chuck has 25 years’ experience in community, education and corporate Diversity and Inclusion programs. He has a B.A. in American History and a M.S. in Instructional Technology and Communications from Western Illinois University.

Sarah began her career in Human Resources at companies like SiriusXM, Coach, and Gilt Groupe before transitioning to the role of Head of Sales at Gilt City—the company’s luxury lifestyle experiences arm. In this role, Sarah ran a 65-person sales team, managed $60 million in yearly revenue, and expanded the brand to top cities across the U.S. It was there that she identified the direct correlation between culture and the bottom line—when employees failed to address their issues with colleagues and managers, revenue suffered.

Before co-founding Bravely, Sarah launched an EdTech company (accepted into the acclaimed 500 Startups accelerator) that helped educate kids on the importance of environmental and wildlife conservation.
Sarah’s experience in HR, team management, and tech—combined with an ongoing obsession with helping people gain the confidence they need to find meaning in their work—inspired her to co-found Bravely in 2017.

Zoraida Sambolin is an American television journalist.

April King has more than 25 years’ experience designing and delivering strategic leadership development initiatives internationally, to support organizations in developing high-potential leaders at multiple levels.

She has consulted with senior executives to create and manage succession planning and performance management processes through the identification of success profiles and competency modeling in order to develop a pipeline of future leaders. April also has significant experience in coaching senior leaders and high-potential executives on their personal development opportunities and action plans.

April joined DDI as a senior consultant in our Hong Kong office, and lived and worked in Asia for nine years, supporting various global and local clients across Asia. She currently lives in Fargo, North Dakota.

After a 25-year career in corporate finance and capital markets, Gianna Bern joined the Mendoza College of Business faculty at the University of Notre Dame. She is in her second term as the Academic Director, Master of Science in Finance program (MSF) and is a Teaching Professor of Finance. She teaches in the MSF program, the undergraduate finance program, the MBA program and the EMBA program. Gianna Bern is a founding principal of the former Brookshire Advisory and Research, Inc. a Chicago-based research and consulting firm focused on the energy sector. Brookshire was a consultant to global corporate clients and investors. Gianna Bern is a former Senior Director, Fitch Ratings' Corporate Finance Latin America group focused on Oil, Gas, and Utilities.

Prior to that, she managed a $2.1 billion commercial lease portfolio for a large commercial lessor. She has held managerial positions at BP Plc and Amoco Oil in energy economics, market analytics, and risk management. She began her career at Continental Bank (now part of Bank of America). In 2011, Gianna Bern authored the business textbook, Investing in Energy: A Primer on the Economics of the Energy Industry (Wiley/ Bloomberg Financial Series). Gianna Bern is an occasional commentator on global energy markets on Bloomberg Television, BBC Radio, PBS, and quoted in the Wall Street Journal. She is the recipient of the 2018 and 2020 Outstanding MSF Professor of the Year award. In 2020, Gianna was named by Poets & Quants as a Favorite Executive MBA Business Professor.

Melissa is a passionate people leader, leveraging her superpower of creating synergy to cultivate inspirational, inclusive environments where high-performing teams thrive.

Committed to unlocking the boundless potential of others, Melissa has several coaching designations; she is an ICF Associate Certified Coach (ACC) Certified Executive Leadership Coach (CELC), Executive Emotional Intelligence Coach (CEIC), Gallup-Certified Strengths Coach, and Hogan-Certified Coach.  She also acts as an advisory council member to enhance and promote learning and mentoring for the George Washington Women in Leadership Program.

Since joining Zurich North America  in 2011, Melissa has held various roles.  Her dedication to creating collaborative, inclusive cultures and developing others led her to her current role as VP, Head of Leadership Development.  Over her career she has developed high performing teams and partnered with leaders, providing coaching, consulting and perspective, to deepen their leadership skills and management practices.

Karen Weigert was named the new director of the Baumhart Center for Social Enterprise and Responsibility, effective March 1, 2022. She is a transformational leader with a strong track record within all sectors—government, business, and nonprofit—and an unwavering commitment to driving social change through cross-sectoral collaboration and skill building.

“Under her leadership, we will continue to build the Baumhart Center’s nationwide impact and strengthen the incredible Baumhart Scholars MBA program,” says Maciek Nowak, interim dean of Loyola University Chicago’s Quinlan School of Business, which houses the Baumhart Center.

In all of her work, Weigert has focused on the practical ways we all can play a part in building the communities, organizations, and cities we need.

Among her past roles are serving as the first-ever chief sustainability officer for the City of Chicago, a strategy consultant at McKinsey, a documentary film writer and producer of Carbon Nation, and an executive leader at Slipstream, which is a nonprofit dedicated to accelerating climate solutions for everyone. She also is a founding board member of ecountabl, a B Corp that connects consumers to brands that share their values, and a board member of the U.S. Green Building Council, which promotes sustainability through its LEED building certification.

Weigert also has higher education experience. She served as the sustainability executive in residence at the University of Chicago’s Rustandy Center for Social Sector Innovation and an adjunct professor for sustainability strategy in organizations for Northwestern University’s McCormick School of Engineering.

Her thought leadership has been featured by CBS This Morning, Chicago Tonight, the Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune, and Crain’s Chicago Business. She is also the regular sustainability contributor for WBEZ’s flagship show, Reset.

Weigert succeeds former Baumhart Center Director Seth Green and Interim Director Emily Nordquist.

Bridget Gainer is the Global Head of Public Affairs & Policy at Aon.

Michelle Relerford is the Weekday Morning Co-Anchor for NBC 5 News Today.

Vijay Swaminathan is the Co-Founder & CEO of Draup, an AI-Driven Reskilling and Talent Intelligence Platform. Vijay has extensive experience in the areas of Product Ideation, Concept to Productization, and Platform enablement. He brings a wealth of expertise in the areas of Data Analytics, Operations Research, and Strategic Management. He has developed numerous quantitative models and heuristics related to global talent, business analytics, and strategic business initiatives.

Vijay is also the co-founder of Zinnov (a leading research & advisory firm) and TalentNeuron (acquired by CEB a Gartner Company (NYSE:IT)). Prior to co-founding Zinnov and TalentNeuron, Vijay held senior positions at Hewitt Associates and KPMG Consulting. He is passionate about translating business ideas into tangible Intellectual Property.

Ed Richardson is a Treaty Reinsurance Broker at Aon. He began his career as a part of Aon’s inaugural U.S Apprenticeship cohort. Ed gained extensive training during his apprenticeship in reinsurance holding roles in Client Services and Treaty Broking. He also gained valuable experience in public speaking and leadership.

After graduating from Harold Washington College and completing his apprenticeship, Ed started his career full-time with Aon in January 2019 and enrolled at DePaul University in Fall 2019.

Jim is the Senior Managing Director of Accenture’s Chicago Office. He is responsible for sales and revenue growth across all industries, in addition to developing and enhancing experience and engagement for 6500 people. In addition to his management role for Chicago, Jim leads Accenture’s customer experience and growth practice across North America.

Previously, Jim led the Products North American Digital Business where he leveraged his 25-plus years of marketing and sales experience to help frame Accenture’s offerings and drive our largest sales initiatives. With extensive experience in customer- and consumer-facing processes in the manufacturing and retail industries, Jim’s career spans a wide range of strategic marketing, channel, and merchandising and large-scale implementations of business strategies. including the deployment of enterprise- and functional-specific software solutions.

Jim earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering from Purdue University and participated in Accenture’s Leadership Development Program at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management. A native Chicagoan, Jim is passionate about his support of all things Chicago, from civic and community leadership to serving as an advocate for inclusion and diversity and economic empowerment.

He serves on the boards of the Executives’ Club of Chicago, the Civic Committee, World Business Chicago and Covenant House. Among his contributions, he is most proud of his work as a co-founder of the Chicago Apprentice Network, creating more than 1,250 apprenticeships at more than 70 companies in the Chicagoland area, providing career pathways for people from community colleges and non-profit organizations.

Jim and his wife live in Glenview, just north of Chicago. Outside of work, he enjoys spending time with family, running, snow skiing and real estate investing.

Danica Lohja is an Associate Manager, Ecosystem Supplier Management, for Accenture. With nearly six years of experience at the company, Danica has had increasing levels of responsibility within the global technology group. She began her career as an apprentice and was part of the first cohort upon graduation from Wilbur Wright College, one of the City Colleges of Chicago, with a degree in Computer Science.

Danica also serves in a leadership role for the apprentice program at Accenture, conducting mentorship, coaching, and training.

Outside of Accenture, Danica supports job seekers at Wright College’s All Campus Career Fair. She lives with her family in Chicago.

Lisa is responsible for all matters related to human capital within the company. She is a guiding force in shaping the culture of the organization and the human resources strategy, partnering with the executive leadership team to advance the function while supporting the business.

Lisa excels at developing and employing people practices to help companies scale and build employee experiences that drive inclusion, engagement, and retention. Most recently, Lisa operated as the Chief People Officer for Farmer’s Fridge, helping with their geographic expansion and launch of their direct-to-consumer channel. Prior to Farmer’s Fridge, she built and led the HR function at Home Chef as the company was scaling rapidly and helped position the company for a successful exit. Additionally, Lisa has led the HR function for several companies, including the Pampered Chef, Meritas, and Aramark’s Senior Living Services Division.

Lisa earned her MBA in HR from DePaul University and holds a BBA in Marketing from the University of Iowa. She serves on the Board of HRMAC (Human Resource Management Association of Chicago, now part of the Executive Club of Chicago), as the Board President of Elite, as a Founding Member of Chief, and is the former Board President of Life Span. She is a Chicago native who loves dogs and is passionate about leveling the playing field and helping others.

Colette Gregory has over a decade of experience working in administration for several of the country’s foremost theatres. She is also an educator for a leading collegiate theatre program and an independent diversity and inclusion consultant. Colette holds her Masters of Education in Counseling Psychology from Columbia University - New York.

Andy is an improviser, speaker, learning designer and ideation junkie who has created learning and development programs for hundreds of corporations. He helps individuals and teams to be more connected and innovative through disruptive change, and has created programs in leadership development, equity and inclusion, storytelling and presentation skills, sales acumen and collaboration. Andy is certified in the FourSight Thinking Preferences Assessment and was one of the chief architects of a methodology for combining improvisation with qualitative consumer research to help brands connect with employees and consumers. Andy was the Head of the Writing Program for the Second City Training Center from 2011 to 2016 and holds an MA in Playwriting from Miami University. He continues to perform, write and improvise in his home town of LA where he is currently finishing a musical about lobsters and a book on solo improvisation.

Antoine Andrews is Chief Diversity & Social Impact officer at Momentive (formerly SurveyMonkey). Previously, he was chief diversity, equity, and inclusion officer at Year Up—a nonprofit that helps young adults gain the skills to reach their potential. He also held DEI leadership roles at Gap Inc., Symantec, and Nike, where he built multi-year DEI strategies and held leadership accountable for systemic change. He has expertise in talent development, executive coaching, cultural learning, and social impact and diversity. Antoine is a native of Newark, New Jersey, and a Rutgers-Newark graduate.