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.

Cyn Worden Lee is the President and Founder of her third startup, Performance.net, launched in 2010. After developing custom performance management software for 8 years Cyn’s company created a suite of software for companies of all sizes and hosts it online at www.Performance.net.

Cyn’s mission is twofold:

• to build a company full of people who love what they do and clients who love to work with them, and
• to provide performance management that inspires creativity and manages results.

Dr. Karen Stephenson, hailed in Business 2.0 as “The Organization Woman”, is a corporate anthropologist and lauded as a pioneer and "leader in the growing field of social-network business consultants." In 2007, she was awarded the Star Award by the International Interior Design Association (IIDA) for her contributions to the workplace. She was also one of only four females recognized from a distinguished short list of 55 in Random House’s 2007 Guide to the Management Gurus. In 2006, she was awarded the first Houghton Hepburn Fellow at Bryn Mawr College for her groundbreaking contributions to civic engagement. In 2001, her consulting firm Netform was recognized as one of the top 100 leading innovation companies by CIO. Her prominence catapulted in 2000 when she was featured in a New Yorker article by Malcolm Gladwell, regarding the social dynamics of office spaces. Even before these accolades, Stephenson had earned praises for innovatively solving a variety of complex problems which have been featured in The Economist, Forbes, The Guardian, The Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, Fast Company and Wired. Drawing upon her prolific experience and 400 member database, Dr. Stephenson consistently delivers that “aha’ moment to her clients and audiences.

• Informal networks are not what you think they are.

• Knowledge networks are more powerful at any one point in time than your hierarchy

• Networks are key to building trust and sustaining collaboration over time

• Networks enable a group of organizations to act as one yet retain their uniqueness

• Netform analysis (the tool) can help you regarding

o Succession planning

o Leadership development

o Retention and Retraining strategies

A global nomad, she has been sighted at the Rotterdam School of Management at Erasmus University where she currently lectures. This was preceded by 5 years at the Harvard School of Design and 10 years at the UCLA Anderson Graduate School of Management.

She received her Ph.D. in Anthropology at Harvard University, an M.A. in Anthropology at the University of Utah, and B.A. in Art & Chemistry at Austin College, TX. You can read about her at

www.drkaren.us and her company at www.netform.com.