Michael S. Cohen

Michael S. Cohen is a partner in Duane Morris’ Employment, Labor, Benefits and Immigration Practice Group. Michael concentrates his practice in the areas of employment law training and counseling. He has trained and counseled employers throughout the country on subjects including harassment prevention; diversity, equity and inclusion; combatting implicit bias; performance management; discipline and discharge; hiring and recruiting practices; performance evaluations; FMLA, ADA and FLSA compliance; leave of absence policies; LGBTQ+ issues in the workplace; substance abuse testing; workplace violence; records retention; conducting background checks; and more. Michael also has conducted investigations into claims of harassment and discrimination and has drafted employee handbooks, employment agreements, non-compete agreements and post-termination agreements. Michael regularly conducts in excess of 200 trainings each year. He has represented clients throughout the country in EEO and other administrative proceedings.

Michael has been cited as a national authority on employment issues by The New York Times, The Associated Press, USA Today, MSNBC.com, HR Magazine, SHRM On-Line, Employment Law 360, Inside Counsel Magazine, as well as many other publications. Michael serves as an Advisory Board Member of GenHERation and as a Board Member of Serve, Inc.

Michael has a passion for education and for taking on a challenge. Both of these traits likely were sparked by his mother, a former high school teacher who, after being fired from teaching due to her being pregnant with Michael, challenged a mandatory maternity leave policy all the way up to the United States Supreme Court where she won a victory for all working women, in a case captioned Cohen v. School Board of Chesterfield County Virginia. Michael is a proud husband to Jamie and father to Maddie and Mia, a travel softball coach for the Philadelphia Phillies Urban Youth Academy and a fanatical Philadelphia and University of Michigan sports fan.

Blair Corcoran de Castillo

As Opportunity@Work’s Vice President of Policy, Blair leads the organization’s partnerships with the public sector, guiding the strategy to support policy shifts to enable STAR mobility nationally and in regions across the U.S. In her time at the organization, she has helped guide the strategy and execution of numerous projects across different departments, including the design of STARsight, the STARs Community, and the STARs Public Sector Hub.

Over the course of the last 15 years+, Blair has worked at the intersection of strategy and economic mobility in the public sector and mission-oriented organizations. She has taught and led participatory design engagements that resulted in innovative solutions in affordable housing, public service delivery, and federal hiring. She has also worked with states, local governments, non-profits, and training institutions to explore, develop, and implement new approaches to family economic security and wellbeing.

Danny Goldberg

Workplace Culture Expert, acclaimed speaker, and award-winning entrepreneur Danny Goldberg helps organizations navigate today’s most urgent workplace challenges. With a focus on building future-proof teams that are resilient, adaptable, and free from burnout, Danny empowers leaders to create cultures of engagement, innovation, and connection.

By the age of 24, Danny built a multimillion-dollar business with care as its foundation. After losing both of his parents to cancer by 25, Danny’s personal journey deepened his resolve to ensure workplaces center on human connection and support. This personal loss became the catalyst for his commitment to creating workplaces where care is at the core, ensuring that no one disengages due to a lack of support.

For nearly a decade, Danny has researched the most effective leadership strategies that equip leaders to foster psychological safety, deep connection, and loyalty. His Culture of Care Framework provides a transformative approach to building teams that thrive across generations, functions, and unpredictable futures, cultivating a culture so caring that employees feel compelled to care in return.

As a trusted voice in leadership, Danny Goldberg is the go-to expert for organizations seeking to unlock their teams’ full potential and drive lasting change through care-driven leadership

Diane Hart, SHRM-SCP, DDI

A versatile “hands on” HR professional accountable for up to 45,000 employees with broad experience leading organizational development and human resources initiatives in complex matrix environments that support strategic business results and link human capital to business outcomes. A critical thinker and collaborative business partner who anticipates organizational needs and implements innovative solutions. Signature strengths are building and growing the HR function, and creating “engaged work force” environments. Proactive leader who brings credibility to the function through personal integrity, leadership, and professional expertise

Kelly Jones

For over 25 years, Kelly Jones has held several progressive and strategic human resource and operations assignments. His career has spanned several industries, including financial services, aerospace and hospitality. Throughout his career, Kelly has been recognized as a collaborative leader with a proven track record of developing teams, coaching leaders and connecting human resource strategies to tangible business outcomes. Kelly earned his bachelor’s degree in business administration from Temple University and his master’s degree from Rutgers University.

Betty Larson

Betty Larson joined the company in April 2024 as the executive vice president and chief human resources officer. She is responsible for global human resources and diversity, equity and inclusion for the company.

She has extensive domain expertise with more than two decades in the health care industry. She most recently served as chief people officer of GE HealthCare, a leading global medical technology, pharmaceutical diagnostics and digital solutions innovator. She provided strategy and leadership for GE HealthCare’s human resources and corporate marketing and communications teams.

Betty also served as executive vice president and chief human resources officer of BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company) from 2018 to 2022, a global medical technology company, where work responsibilities also included strategy and leadership for communications and social investing. Betty joined BD through the acquisition of C.R. Bard Inc., a medtech company focused on vascular, urology and surgical specialty products. She served as C.R. Bard’s chief human resources officer responsible for human resources and communications from 2014 until the acquisition in 2017.

Betty spent the first 16 years of her career at Baxter International, a global medtech company. She was in human resources leadership roles of increasing responsibility in their pharmaceuticals, renal therapies, vaccines, bio pharmaceuticals and hospital products businesses.

She is on the board of directors for Baxter Credit Union. She has served on the board of Fortrea, contributing as a member of the nominating, corporate governance and compliance committee. Betty also served on the board for the Overlook Foundation, a non-profit organization that raises funds to support the New Jersey-based Overlook Medical Center in its mission to provide high-quality care to patients. She earned a bachelor’s and master’s degree from the University of Illinois, and a master’s degree in business administration from Northwestern University.

Charlene Li

Charlene Li is a Bestselling Author, CEO, Harvard Alumnus and Expert in Disruption, Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Work

At the forefront of some of Society’s Biggest Transformations

From the emergence of the Internet to the rise of artificial intelligence, Charlene has been at the forefront of some of society’s biggest transformations. For the past three decades, she’s worked as an author, analyst, and entrepreneur, exploring and explaining the new world being created right before our eyes by these new technologies.

That’s what Charlene does. But what she lives and works for is creating the “big gulp” moment.

That moment is what happens when you move from a place of confusion, where something is happening to you, to a place of understanding, where you have agency over your situation. Helping leaders take that first step toward a sense of empowerment and optimism, tempered by the knowledge of the journey ahead, is what drives her.

At the Heart of Disruption

After earning an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and an A.B. degree magna cum laude from Harvard College, Charlene has spent the past three decades helping people see the future and thrive through disruption. She has advised executives and boards to recognize the vital truth that companies can’t simply innovate in order to stay competitive. They must transform.

As a sought-after expert on disruptive transformation, leadership, customer experience, and the future of work, Charlene has worked with hundreds of organizations—ranging from Adobe to Southwest Airlines and 14 of the Dow Jones Industrial 30 companies—to provide her insights to support a winning strategy for disruptive growth and a plan to identify and seize an opportunity no one else has the audacity or confidence to reach for.

Throughout her career, Charlene has been at the edge of disruption. She worked in newspapers in the early 1990s and helped them navigate the shift from print to online. As a Principal Analyst at Forrester Research, she covered interactive advertising, search marketing, and the rise of social media. In 2008, she founded Altimeter Group, a disruptive competitor that challenged analyst firm incumbents such as Gartner, Forrester, and IDC, which was acquired by Prophet. Charlene went on to serve as the Chief Research Officer at PA Consulting, where she led the company’s thought leadership program. She currently leads her own firm, Quantum Networks Group.

Accolades

  • Named One of the Most Creative People in Business and Most Influential Women in Technology by Fast Company
  • Named by Inc Magazine as One of the Top 50 Leadership Innovators
  • Named by Adage as One of its Top 40 Women to Watch
  • Named by LinkedIn as One of the Top 10 Marketing Influencers
  • Named by NowPublic as One of the 50 Most Influential People in Silicon Valley
  • Named by Thinkers 360 as a B2B Marketing Leaders to Follow

Books:

  • Winning with Generative AI: The 90-Day Blueprint for Success – Being Released Soon!
  • The Disruption Mindset – 2019
  • The Engaged Leader: A Strategy for Your Digital Transformation – 2015
  • The Seven Success Factors of Social Business Strategy – 2013
  • Open Leadership – 2010
  • Marketing in the Groundswell – 2009
  • Groundswell – 2008

Keynote Topic:

Leadership in the Digital Age

Digital technologies have revolutionized relationships, and leadership is no exception. To be truly engaged, effective leaders must harness and master the power of digital communications and branding, especially with the challenges of leading a distributed team.

In this speech, Charlene explains that the key is understanding how your leadership style can be extended and scaled through digital techniques to achieve your most important goals. You’ll learn the art and science of how to listen, share, and engage with employees and customers in the digital era. We’ll also discuss common objections and concerns of leaders and how to address them.

Key Takeaways:

  • Master a new way of developing relationships, which begins by stepping out of traditional hierarchies.
  • Listen at scale, share to shape, and engage to transform.
  • Shift to a digital mindset.
  • Apply the right digital tools to meet strategic goals.

Shane L. Lloyd

As the Chief Diversity Officer, Shane leads the firmwide diversity, inclusion, and belonging strategy and advises executive leadership at Baker Tilly. Prior to joining the top 10 professional services firm based in the United States, he worked at Amazon within their Worldwide Consumer and Global DEI teams. Additionally, he’s held positions at Brown and Yale University, two of the nation’s leading academic institutions. He also worked at Cook Ross, one of the world’s leading diversity and inclusion consulting firms as a consultant. In 2022, Shane was named to the Washington Business Journal’s 40 under 40 List. Shane’s work and insights have been featured in Insider, Thomson Reuters, Bloomberg and a Netflix documentary.

Shane holds a Master of Public Health degree from Brown University and a Bachelor’s in Behavioral Neuroscience from Northeastern University. Outside of work, Shane sits on the Racial Equity and Social Justice Advisory Committee for Montgomery County of Maryland.

Audrey Michahail

Audrey Mickahail is Senior Vice President, Private Sector & Membership Experience, at Opportunity@Work. In this role, she is responsible for the organization’s Private Sector business as well as the team that ensures a high quality and consistent customer experience with Opportuniy@Work through its service offerings to help employers, philanthropies, regional consortia, and the public sector enable economic mobility for workers who are Skilled through Alternative Routes (STARs).

Before joining Opportunity@Work, Audrey built a corporate solutions practice at JFF focused on equitable talent practices and social impact strategies. She was previously a senior director at Gartner, a research and consulting firm, where she played many roles during her 20+ years at the company, including working with multiple research teams to develop insights that she presented to clients globally at executive retreats and Gartner events; leading an advisory team; and leading research teams at CEB and Meta Group, both of which were acquired by Gartner.

Kristie Pappal

Kristie Pappal joined the Philadelphia Eagles in 2007 and currently serves as the Vice President of Human Resources. In this role she provides comprehensive human resources leadership including developing and leading HR strategy and policy, cultivating a positive and productive work environment, talent acquisition, employee relations, benefits and wellness, compensation and organizational development. Proud to serve as a confidant and consultant to the senior leadership team. Kristie is also involved in the team’s environmental initiatives through its Go Green! Program.

Kristie came to the Eagles from Town Sports International (TSI), parent company of New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and Washington Sports Clubs where she was the Director of Human Resources. Prior to working with TSI, Kristie was the Human Resources Representative for Iron Mountain.

She holds a Master of Science in Human Resource Management from Fox School of Business at Temple University and a Bachelor of Science in Labor & Industrial Relations and a minor in Psychology from Penn State University. She is SPHR and SHRM-SCP certified. Kristie is a Co-Chair of The Penn State University, School of Labor and Employment Relations Affiliated Alumni Program Group and a Chair for the Philadelphia CHRO Leadership Summit. In addition, Kristie is a member of the Senior HR Advisory Group for the Fox School of Business at Temple University as well as a Board Member of POWER, The Power of Professional Women. Kristie serves as a student mentor with the College of Liberal Arts. She was the 2015 recipient of the Penn State University College of Liberal Arts Outstanding Young Alumni Award and 2018 recipient of the Distinguished Alumni from the School of Labor and Employment Relations.