Susan Kosman, RN, BSN, MS, is the Chief Nursing Officer for Aetna Inc.  In this role, she is responsible for Aetna’s nursing strategy, which includes establishing a formal nursing presence in national healthcare and nursing communities; stewardship and strategy development for internal nursing roles and the business roles that support them; and workforce planning and leadership development.

In addition, Mrs. Kosman has oversight for the following core functions for Aetna’s National Care Management: clinical training; compliance; quality review and auditing; systems and reporting; and innovation, program design and management.  National Care Management provides clinical policy and operations support to all of Aetna’s segments.

Previously, Mrs. Kosman was the head of NCM Medical Management Services.  In this role, she was the liaison between National Accounts and National Care Management, representing National Accounts needs on strategic and operational medical management to the shared services.  She also oversaw the successful expansion and operation of the Dedicated Patient Management Units.  These seven units, located in Albany, New York; Allentown, Pennsylvania; Blue Bell, Pennsylvania; Highpoint, North Carolina; New Albany, Ohio Richfield, Ohio; and San Antonio, Texas; provide coordination of care and case management services to some of the largest National Accounts Plan Sponsors.  During her tenure and because of the unique services this area provided, the demand for customized Care Management programs grew; and membership increased from 600,000 in 2002 to 3.1 million in 2012.

Mrs. Kosman began her career with Aetna in 1995 as manager of Government Programs for the Northeast Region. Later, she assumed responsibility for case and disease management. In 1998, Susan joined Core Health Delivery Operations as manager for Quality and Audit. She returned to the Northeast region from 1999 to 2002 as director of Patient Management.  Prior to joining Aetna, Susan spent 10 years in the home health industry in various roles.

Susan is a Board member of the Aetna Foundation; Qualidigm, a healthcare consulting and research firm; and the American Heart Association, Greater Hartford chapter.  She represents Aetna externally on the Champion Nursing Coalition, and the American Organization of Nurse Executives Committee on Health Care Reform.

She holds a BS in Nursing from SUNY Downstate and an MS in Organizational Leadership from Quinnipiac College.

Based in Geneva, Switzerland

For over 20 years, Allison West has used her employment law background in delivering customized workplace training, conducting investigations, coaching executives/managers, serving as an expert witness, and specializing in conflict resolution and facilitated discussions to create more collaborative work environments. 

Allison is a top-rated speaker at the SHRM Annual Conference as well as other HR/diversity conferences, and is a national expert on harassment, discrimination and investigations. She has appeared on PBS, CBS This Morning and in O Magazine discussing workplace harassment issues. 

She is a member of the State Bar of California and holds her SHRM-SCP certification and AWI-CH (investigation) certificate.

Toni Pilzner is an attorney with more than 15 years' experience in advising employers on creating and administering employee welfare and retirement benefit plans. Having worked as a certified public accountant and as an in-house corporate tax analyst dealing with employee benefit plan matters before becoming an attorney, she also understands the financial and practical aspects of employee benefit plan administration. Toni has shared her expertise with SHRM members by presenting concurrent sessions on employee benefits topics at a number of SHRM conferences in addition to writing SHRM Legal Alerts and contributing to SHRM Online articles on employee benefit matters. She also served on the SHRM Total Rewards Special Expertise Panel and its predecessor, the SHRM Compensation and Benefits Committee, as well as serving a three-year term on the U.S. Department of Labor's ERISA Advisory Council.

James J. McDonald, Jr. is a partner in the Irvine, California and Tampa, Florida offices of Fisher & Phillips LLP, where he is a litigator, trial lawyer and strategic advisor to employers regarding labor and employment law matters.  He is author of the SHRM-published book, California Employment Law: An Employer’s Guide, and he is a frequent speaker on employment law issues.  He is a cum laude law graduate of Georgetown University and a member of the California and Florida Bars, and he holds the SHRM-SCP certification.

Clint Swindall is the president and CEO of Verbalocity, Inc., a personal development company with a focus on leadership enhancement. These solutions include leadership development programs, training, speaking and general consulting.

As a professional speaker, Clint Swindall travels the world delivering high-content speeches and training in an entertaining and inspirational style to Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, and trade associations.

Clint enjoys the challenge of enhancing employee engagement for his clients by delivering programs based on his book entitled Engaged Leadership: Building a Culture to Overcome Employee Disengagement (John Wiley & Sons, 2007). He recognizes that a culture of employee engagement is a two-way road, and that true engagement comes when leaders and employees are both doing their part. In addition to working with leaders to build a culture to overcome employee disengagement, Clint addresses the employee’s role in his follow-up book entitled Living for the Weekday: What Every Employee and Boss Needs to Know about Enjoying Work and Life (John Wiley & Sons, 2010).

Follow Clint on Twitter @ClintSwindall.

Based in Lanseria, South Africa