Louis R. Lessig, Esquire, SHRM-SCP, SPHR is a Partner at the law firm of Brown & Connery, LLP in Westmont, NJ in their labor and employment group.  He regularly counsels clients, conducts training sessions and represents clients in federal and state court as well as before administrative agencies. Also known as The Employment Law Translator®, Mr. Lessig speaks across the country and regularly writes articles that appear in publications nationwide including XpertHR.  In 2018 he won the Delaware Valley HR Consultant of the Year Award. He is a member of the National Speakers Association (NSA) and a Past President of the Philadelphia chapter.  Mr. Lessig is an active volunteer for The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) as the Northeast Membership Advisory Council (MAC) Representative.

Former U.S. Department of Justice attorney Michael Johnson has trained thousands of people on skills for detecting signs of deception and truthfulness, including presenting at dozens of conferences for human resource professionals and other busines executives.  

He has spoken at numerous conferences around the world for HR, legal, law enforcement, and other professionals.  He has provided numerous client-specific sessions for international organizations such as the United Nations (in New York, Congo, and Sierra Leone) and the World Bank, government agencies such as the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and Social Security Administration, and dozens of Fortune 500 companies such as Google and Northrup Grumman.

 As an attorney with the US Department of Justice, Michael was the lead attorney on one of DOJ’s first “pattern or practice” sexual harassment cases.  Michael has served as an expert witness in cases challenging the adequacy of employer’s investigation procedures. 

He is a graduate of Duke University and Harvard Law School.

Rue Dooley has been an HR Knowledge Advisor for the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) for over 16 years and has over 25 years of HR experience.

In college, as an accounting major, Rue interned with major corporations and worked his way through school from fast food, to dorm RA, to payroll assistant with a state agency. After receiving his B.S., he worked as an accountant, a budget analyst, a meeting planner, payroll specialist, benefits coordinator, and an HR Generalist…mostly all at the same company! 

After managing the HR function for a growing government contractor (from 13 to 100+ employees while he was there), Rue went on to hire school teachers at a major school district. In his current position as an HR Knowledge Advisor for SHRM, Rue has daily direct contact with HR professionals around the world, helping them to create solutions, to improve systems, and to find and use resources that improve the delivery of the HR function. 

Rue has authored and co-authored numerous articles; Designed systems and policies; Created practical tools (including forms, letters, toolkits, and other resources); Conducted webcasts and videos; and has been quoted in various media outlets on a number of HR topics. Rue is SHRM-SCP certified.

Rue Dooley has been an HR Knowledge Advisor for the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) for over 16 years and has over 25 years of HR experience.

In college, as an accounting major, Rue interned with major corporations and worked his way through school from fast food, to dorm RA, to payroll assistant with a state agency. After receiving his B.S., he worked as an accountant, a budget analyst, a meeting planner, payroll specialist, benefits coordinator, and an HR Generalist…mostly all at the same company! 

After managing the HR function for a growing government contractor (from 13 to 100+ employees while he was there), Rue went on to hire school teachers at a major school district. In his current position as an HR Knowledge Advisor for SHRM, Rue has daily direct contact with HR professionals around the world, helping them to create solutions, to improve systems, and to find and use resources that improve the delivery of the HR function. 

Rue has authored and co-authored numerous articles; Designed systems and policies; Created practical tools (including forms, letters, toolkits, and other resources); Conducted webcasts and videos; and has been quoted in various media outlets on a number of HR topics. Rue is SHRM-SCP certified.

As SHRM’s Director of Certification and Veteran Affairs Andrew Morton works with the military and veterans' organizations to develop workforce readiness pathways for veterans and military-families. As part of SHRM’s Speaker’s Bureau Andrew informs and empowers organizations in their inclusion-hiring efforts across many populations including Veterans, individuals with disabilities, and Returning Citizens as part of SHRM’s Getting Talent Back to Work Initiative.  He is the contributing author to Justin Constantine’s SHRM published book “From We Will to At Will- A Handbook for Veteran Hiring, Transitioning and Thriving in Today’s Workplace.” 

Andrew, a retired Infantry-Officer, served in several leadership roles during multiple overseas and combat tours (Iraq, Bosnia, Macedonia and Egypt) in his 21-year Army career. He also served as the Chief of Marketing and Advertising for the Army Reserve.   Prior to his arrival at SHRM in 2014 Andrew previously served as public relations director for a PR firm in Alexandria. 

Andrew is passionate about awareness and resources in support of mental health within our workforce and society at large and is currently completely his Masters in Mental Health Counseling at the College of William and Mary.       

Jim is a Sr. Vice President at HUB International, with responsibility for employee benefit consulting services for employers around the Gulf South region.  Jim’s 30+ years of HR experience includes Hotel Dieu Hospital as the VP of HR and Regional HR Director for Glaxo SmithKline/Quest Diagnostics.  He is the past-President of GNOSHHRA (Health Care) association and was an active Board member for many years.  Jim has served on the Board of HRMA for 8 years, 4 as our Treasurer/Finance Committee, as President-Elect, President and is currently the Chairperson for the Sponsorships Committee.  He has an undergraduate degree from UNO in Management where he started his HR career as a student intern.  Jim also has an MBA from Loyola University.  In his spare time Jim enjoys fishing, duck hunting and outdoor activities.  Additionally, he is an active high school wrestling official for 33 years and has coached a local USA Wrestling club for the past 25 years.  

Steve Browne, SHRM-SCP is the Chief People Officer for LaRosa's, Inc., a regional Pizzeria chain. He has 35+ years working as an HR professional in a variety of industries. He has a globally recognized HR blog and author of three books, HR on Purpose !!, HR Rising !! and HR Unleashed !! He is a past member of the SHRM Board of Directors. Steve also runs a global HR network called the HR Net which reaches 15,000+ HR and business professionals weekly.

Erin N. Sullivan, SHRM-CP, is the Program Manager for Conferences at SHRM. Erin has been with SHRM since March 2013. As Program Manager, she manages and programs one fall and one spring conference, as well as certain aspects of the Annual Conference. She is also responsible for the delivery of both the SHRM Conferences and Annual Conference mobile apps. Prior to joining the Meetings & Conferences team, Erin was an Instructional Designer for SHRM Seminars.

Prior to joining SHRM, Erin was an Instructional Designer for GP Strategies Corporation. 

She earned a BA from Muskingum University.  

Follow Erin on Twitter @SHRMErin.

Alexander Alonso, PhD, SHRM-SCP is the Society for Human Resource Management's (SHRM's) Chief Data & Insights Officer leading operations for SHRM's Certified Professional and Senior Certified Professional certifications, research functions, and the SHRM Knowledge Advisor service. He is responsible for all research activities, including the development of the SHRM Competency Model and SHRM credentials.

During his career, he has worked with numerous subject matter experts worldwide with the aim of identifying performance standards, developing competency models, designing organizational assessments, and conducting job analyses. He was also responsible for working on contract task orders involving the development of measurement tools for content areas such as job knowledge (like teacher knowledge of instructional processes) and organizational climates (like organizational climate forecasting in military health care).

Dr. Alonso received his doctorate in Industrial-Organizational Psychology from Florida International University in 2003. His works have been recognized for their contribution to real-world issues. They include being recognized by the Society for Industrial Organizational Psychology (Division 14 of the APA; SIOP) with the 2007 M. Scott Myers Award for Applied Research in the Workplace for the development of the federal standard for medical team training, TeamSTEPPS; being awarded a 2009 Presidential Citation for Innovative Practice by the American Psychological Association for supporting the development of competency model for team triage in emergency medicine; and receiving the 2013 SIOP Distinguished Early Career Contributions for Practice Award.

Throughout his career, he has published works in peer-reviewed journals such as Industrial and Organizational Psychology: Perspectives on Science and Practice, Journal of Applied Psychology, International Journal of Selection and Assessment, People and Strategy, Personality and Individual Differences, Quality and Safety in Health Care, and Human Resources Management Review. He has also authored several chapters on community-based change initiatives in workforce readiness, as well as co-authoring Defining HR Success: A Guide to the SHRM Competency Model in Practice.

Dr. Alonso also served as a columnist analyzing major trends in the workforce for The Industrial Psychologist and HR Magazine. In addition, he has served on several professional society boards including the SIOP and the Personnel Testing Council of Metropolitan Washington.