Dr. Shirley Davis
President and CEO, SDS Global Enterprises, Inc.

Dr. Shirley Davis is an accomplished corporate executive, global workforce management expert, a certified leadership coach, and a master of reinvention. She brings a high-energy, high-content and high-value message to audiences all around the world. She has over 25 years of business experience in a variety of senior and executive leadership roles with Fortune 100 companies and served as the Vice President of Global Diversity and Inclusion and Workplace Strategies for the world’s largest HR membership association, the Society for Human Resource Management. She is the President of SDS Global Enterprises, which is a full-service consulting firm that specializes in providing solutions and strategies for achieving leadership excellence and in building high performing and inclusive workplace cultures where all talent can thrive.

Dr. Davis has also been a featured expert on NBC’s The Today Show, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, CBS News, HR Magazine, Profiles in Diversity Journal, CNN.com, and Inclusion Magazine. She is also a popular author of several LinkedIn Learning leadership and diversity & inclusion courses. She is the author of several bestselling books, “Reinvent Yourself: Strategies for Achieving Success in Every Area of Your Life,” “The Seat: How to Get Invited to the Table When You are Over-Performing and Undervalued,” “Living Beyond ‘What If?’” and the newest title, “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for Dummies.”

Julie Tarney

Speaker, Trainer, Coach, Author

Julie was born and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and now lives in Brooklyn. She received her B.A. in Liberal Arts from the University of Wisconsin. After a successful career building the largest PR firm in her hometown city, working for clients like Coca-Cola, McDonald’s and Harley-Davidson, Julie applied her expertise to a leadership development consultancy. As a successful businesswoman, representing big corporations in diverse markets, Julie realized a common thread of confusion and misunderstandings regarding gender identity.

Julie published My Son Wears Heels, an outspoken memoir where she shared what she learned about gender identity, gender expression and self-acceptance from her only child, Harry. Julie is aware that leaders often lack knowledge about the LGBTQ population and are therefore missing out on recruiting a large segment of their potential talent pool. Today she helps them better build their employer brand by creating LGBTQ-inclusive, welcoming, and supportive workplaces.

Shannon Morales

CEO, Tribaja

Shannon Morales is a proud Afro Latina, mother of 3, and social entrepreneur. She started her first company, Tribaja, after experiencing bias in the workplace and set out to create a space for professionals to find more fulfilling careers. Tribaja is a talent marketplace and community that connects under supported tech talent to growth stage startups and mission driven enterprises.

By combining "tribe" and trabaja, the Spanish word for "work", Tribaja is a name that reflects the business' shift into a "community" of people with an interest in tech and startup careers, including an active Slack group. Shannon realized that other recruiting platforms are built exclusively upon acquiring clients. Instead, she focused on Tribaja's ability to develop and upskill the community before all else.

Shannon has successfully scaled Tribaja to a global tech talent network that propels the growth of companies such as Lyft, Microsoft, Comcast, and many more. Her most notable accomplishments to date include being named Hispanic Business of the Year in Philadelphia, making Forbes Next 1000 small businesses list, and expanding to her second sales office in Richmond.

Michael Thorne-Begland

Vice President & Chief Inclusion, Diversity & Equity Officer, Altria Client Services LLC

Michael Thorne-Begland is Vice President & Chief Inclusion, Diversity & Equity Officer for Altria Client Services. In his role, Michael has responsibility for the inclusion, diversity and equity work that is central to how Altria will achieve its Vision of responsibly leading the transition of adult smokers to a smoke-free future.

In 2018, Michael became Altria's first Chief Transformation Officer and helped drive and facilitate the cultural and business changes necessary to win in the future. For nearly ten years prior to assuming the Transformation role, Michael led Altria's Brand & Trade Channel Integrity department, which is responsible for helping Altria's companies protect the integrity of their brands and the legitimate trade channels through which they are distributed and sold. Michael began his career with Altria in 2004 as an attorney in the Law Department advising on counterfeit and contraband tobacco issues. In 2014, Michael helped found Mosaic, Altria's employee resource group for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) employees, which he led for three years. Find out more about Michael.

Aimee Broadhurst

Founder and CEO, Inclusive Space

Aimee Broadhurst is an ERG expert, highly sought- after speaker/presenter and panelist. She has significant experience/tenure in creating and implementing strategic and tactical plans for successfully leading Employee Resource Groups (ERGs).

Having been in ERG leadership for over seven years, Aimee understands the needs of ERG leaders at all levels. Aimee serves as the of Vice-Chair of the ERG Leadership Alliance (ELA) Advisory Board. The work of ELA is to empower ERG “boots on the ground” leadership to create the greatest impacts through access to expertise, resources/tools and a collaborative community.

Aimee has consulted with 30+ companies (aviation, entertainment, financial services, tech, investment, insurance, production, etc.) on creating global and local ally programs. She has created and implemented strategic and tactical plans for successfully leading employee resource groups.

Elizabeth Green, OTR/L

Occupational Therapist, Owner, Link OT, LLC

Liz Green, OTR/L has 20 years of experience as an occupational therapist (OT) in a variety of clinical settings. Her passion is to empower neurodistinct individuals in meeting self-directed goals that promote meaningful participation in work, school and life. She also has a certificate in DEI for HR through Cornell University. By combining advanced expertise as an OT with an HR concentration in DEI, Liz has created the first ever neurodiversity consultancy that gets inside of the psychology of what it means to think, process, interact, and self-regulate differently. In turn, Liz and her Link OT team (linktalent.org) are educating global companies on the intersection between disclosure and psychological safety and company culture and retention.

She has spoken at regional and national conferences, including Occupational Therapy Association of Colorado (OTAC) and College Autism Network (CAN). She also is actively presenting to companies and universities in the private and public sector, including General Assembly, TSA Colorado, Google, vmware, Kimberly-Clark, One Medical, First Advantage, Tradeweb, Goldman Sachs, TSA, Children’s Hospital Colorado, and Colorado School of Mines.

The Practice of Psychological Safety

Michael Thorne Begland

Liz Green