Jennifer Currence is a Senior Partner of HR Soul consultancy firm in Tampa, Florida, where she delivers results through strategic HR solutions, customized training, and coaching programs for organizational and HR leaders. She is the creator of The SOTO Approach to Leadership and the content architect for the Society for Human Resource Management’s (SHRM) international People Manager Qualification (PMQ).

Jennifer is regularly published and featured in industry magazines, webinars, and podcasts, and is the author of three HR books on behavioral business competencies.

Jennifer was named one of the top 100 Influential HR professionals in Leadership and Development in 2023 and Tampa Bay’s HR Consultant of the Year in 2017.  She is a faculty member for SHRM and a former management professor at the University of Tampa.

As a Labor & Employment Attorney at Southwest Airlines Co., Kevin Minchey represents Southwest in labor arbitrations and before governmental agencies. He also provides counsel regarding employment law compliance, labor issues, and internal investigations. In addition, Minchey oversees Southwest’s unemployment program and immigration law matters. Minchey received his J.D. from Thomas Jefferson Law School and his B.A. in Spanish from Utah State University. Minchey began his legal career as a law clerk for The Honorable David M. Lawson, a United States District Court Judge in Detroit. Prior to joining Southwest, Minchey was an attorney with Meagher & Geer, PLLP.

Robert Austin has been in the unemployment industry since 1987 and joined Equifax Workforce Solutions via the TALX Corporation acquisition in 2007. His experience in the industry has been mainly in operations with a concentration on the day-to-day delivery of claim and appellate services to all of Equifax Unemployment Cost clients. Austin has also been a member of the management team for the past 23 years. Currently his main focus is on the end-to-end service delivery of the unemployment service and a direct role in the development of strategic plans to minimize Equifax clients’ unemployment tax costs.

Prior to joining CCL, Henry worked as a trainer and facilitator for several nationally recognized experiential training programs specializing in organizational development. Having started his career with Outward Bound, an internationally recognized human potential/personal growth organization, Henry was asked in 2002 to take on the role of Executive Director and lead one of the chartered entities through a very difficult transition. After three years of work, he returned to the consulting arena with a newfound respect for the senior executive position.

As an expert in individual, group, and organizational performance development, Henry focuses on assisting individuals to improve their impact in leadership roles and processes, developing high performance management and project teams, and working with the Senior Executive Team leading organizational change. As a process-oriented consultant and educator, Henry designs, delivers, and facilitates training programs that accent diversity, team learning, and whole- systems thinking. He focuses his practice on understanding group dynamics in teams, team leadership, and leadership excellence.

Sharon Podstupka is a Vice President in the New York office of Pearl Meyer & Partners. She is a key member of the firm’s Thought Leadership team and is focused on executive and broad-based employee pay communication consulting. She works closely with her clients in a wide range of industries to develop internal communications that educate and engage people in their pay programs. Ms. Podstupka also has extensive experience in developing critical shareholder communications (CD&As) that clearly explain pay-for-performance in the context of today’s challenging say on pay environment. Her key areas of expertise are communication strategy, stakeholder management and content development.

Ms. Podstupka is a popular conference panelist at The Conference Board and Corporate Board Member (NYSE Corporate Governance) events. She has also contributed to several publications including WorldatWork’s Workspan, Executive Pay Matters, Bloomberg BNA and Corporate Board Member. Ms. Podstupka joined PM&P in 2013 after 17 years at Towers (Perrin) Watson, where she served as a Director in the Talent & Rewards segment. In her most recent role there, she led the Executive Compensation Communications Services team for the Americas. Prior to that, she was a compensation and benefits administrator and communication specialist at EMI-Capitol Music Group.

Mary Faulkner is a talent strategist and business leader with 15 years' experience in helping organizations achieve their goals. After working on the Operations side of start-ups and small companies, Mary landed in HR by way of learning and development, with extensive experience in leadership and organizational development, coaching, key talent planning, talent acquisition, performance management, business partnering, HRIS, process and policy creation, and instructional design.

In addition to her work within companies, Mary authors a leadership development blog (survivingleadership.blog) to continue the dialogue around the challenges of leadership - both being a leader AND being led. 

Mary is also the co-chair of the Denver chapter of DisruptHR - a new way to network and think about people and work.

Shaun McGill is a Senior Policy Advisor for the Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) at the US Department of Labor. He is a member of the Employer Policy Team, where he works to examine and effectuate policy solutions for the issues and barriers facing employers as they seek to hire accommodate and advance employees with disabilities.  Prior to joining ODEP Shaun served five (5) years as the executive director for an NGO located in the suburbs of Maryland, providing employment services to individuals with developmental and intellectual disabilities. He has over 18 years of on-the-ground experience providing employment support to individuals with disabilities in varying capacities from direct support, vocational rehabilitation counselor, to senior-level management.

Colet Mitchell is the Lead Policy Analyst on the Employer Team in the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP).  Colet is an educator and has worked for the Veteran’s Employment and Training Service, and the U.S. Departments of Housing and Urban Development and Education, the U.S. House of Representatives, the Pentagon Education Center and the Rochester, New York School District. She holds a B.S. in History and M.S. in Education from the State University of New York.

 Evelyn R. Campos Diaz (BA, JD, SPHR, CEBS) has worked in the employment law/human resources arena for over twenty five (25) years with an emphasis on the health care, transportation and utilities industries.  As an HR innovator in health care industry, she is currently focused on organizational leadership and learning (the subject of her current MBA research) as a tool for transforming individual workforces.   Winner of the 2014 HRLA Leadership Award and a five-time winner of the AWE Workforce Excellence awards, Evelyn is passionate about incorporating human resources into the fabric of every organization as an integral first step to achieving a truly world-class work force which, in turn, supports and serves its local community. 

Ryan is the Founder and CEO of ApplicantPro, a hiring software company founded in 2006. Ryan and his team have grown the small startup into a leading provider of hiring software for over 7,000 companies around the nation. Ryan's mission is to help companies, managers, and HR teams improve their hiring results. To do this, he and his team strive to create educational content, tools, integrations, and software to help businesses drive their hiring results. In addition, he is an HRCI and SHRM-CP Approved Provider and conducts weekly, free webinars and presents at SHRM events around the country.