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Faith Alejandro

Shareholder
Sands Anderson

 

Faith partners with leaders to foster inclusive and productive workplaces.

 

A trusted partner, Faith offers effective and prompt solutions for a broad spectrum of HR management issues. With a deep understanding of regulations and case law, she provides thorough legal analysis to support her clients’ success. She attentively aligns her services with your organization’s unique legal needs and objectives, helping you achieve your desired outcomes. Her goal is to enable businesses, local governments, and nonprofits to focus on their core mission, while she provides robust legal strategies tailored to their specific needs.

 

With a strong background in mediation and dispute resolution, Faith excels in negotiating settlements and achieving favorable outcomes. As a leader of the Sands Anderson Diversity and Inclusion Committee, she brings a unique perspective to fostering inclusive and equitable workplace environments.

 

Faith joined Sands Anderson in 2011 and quickly established herself as a trusted advisor and defender for employers. Fluent in essential employment laws like Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, Fair Labor Standards Act, Family and Medical Leave Act, she skillfully navigates claims involving discrimination, harassment, employment agreements, non-competes, whistleblowers, and beyond.

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Stephanie Beck, MHRM, SHRM-CP

Diversity & Inclusion Manager
CarMax

 

Stephanie Beck's experience in HR spans over 7 years, with over 6 years specializing in D&I. She currently serves as the D&I Manager at CarMax where she is responsible for developing, launching, and maintaining CarMax D&I Programs. Her role includes overseeing the D&I Education Program, creating D&I resources and activities for all associates, and managing all D&I observance content. Prior to CarMax, Stephanie worked at Dominion Energy, where she served as a Sr. D&I Specialist, and at Genworth where she served as a D&I Specialist. She has been instrumental in supporting D&I strategies, Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), and D&I education content development. Stephanie holds a bachelor's degree in Communication Studies from Montclair State University and a master's degree in Human Resource Management from the University of Richmond. She is also a SHRM-CP and is certified in D&I for HR by Cornell University. Stephanie has served on both the RADR and D&I Symposium planning committees for Richmond SHRM and was a participant in the SHRM Certification study group offered by the chapter. Beyond work, Stephanie is a mother of two, a veteran, a proud Latina, and first-generation American. She is passionate about creating inclusive and equitable work environments for all.

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Austin Farrell

Manager of Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity
Altria

 

Austin Farrell is the Manager of Inclusion, Diversity and Equity at Altria. In this role she serves as a consultant for Altria’s extensive resource group and Functional IDE Council community and leads strategic initiatives focused on accelerating Altria’s culture and business to help realize our Vision. Austin joined Altria over 10 years ago and has held various roles in Sales, Sales Management, Learning and Development, and Consumer Experience. She’s served in various leadership positions within Spring - Altria’s young professional ERG - and was instrumental in expanding our ERG programming to Altria’s sales force and remote employees.

She earned an MBA from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and a Bachelor of Arts in Government and International Politics from George Mason University. Austin is a Richmond native and can be found most weekends seeking nature or live music with her husband, baby and dogs.

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Matthew Freeman

Founder
Dialectix Consulting

 

Matthew’s passion for racial equity and social justice has led him across the United States and overseas, helping people connect across difference and begin to address the challenges that divide them. Matthew has worked with members of Congress, the Federal Reserve system, as well as organizations of all sizes, from Fortune 500’s to small non-profits. With degrees in the sciences and in the humanities, Matthew appreciates the opportunities to bring that diverse educational background to bear on topics like unconscious bias- exploring what we know about how the brain functions and how that impacts our human interactions. He is the author of the book Overcoming Bias: Building Authentic Relationships Across Differences.

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Tishania M. Gist

Vice President, Manager of DEIB & Culture Engagement
Atlantic Union Bank

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Candace Nicolls

Director
Envoy

 

Candace guides leaders in understanding the pulse of their organizations and how to influence the performance of their staffs in alignment with the goals and style of the executive. A former Chief People Officer for fast growth technology companies, her focus is on ensuring our executive clients can negotiate the best performance from their talent by finding mutually agreed goals, incentives, and accountability metrics.

 

A natural mediator, Candace leads engagements focused on understanding organizational dynamics and collaboratively finding pathways to resolution and higher performance. As part of this practice, she leads Envoy’s research collaborations on building social connection within high performing teams and addressing executive loneliness. Candace heads Envoy’s executive coaching work, matching high-potential and executive clients with the right blend of experts from Envoy’s team. She is a graduate of the College of William and Mary and has held SPHR and SHRM-SCP certification.

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Nichelle Wash

Director, Advisory
Seramount

 

Nichelle Wash is a Director on the Advisory team at Seramount. She is a results-focused DEI leader who specializes in supporting key areas of DEI strategy. She has been the chair of DEI councils and quasi-government boards, building support for the senior leadership team to integrate DEI throughout their lines of business. This work resulted in culture and change management for employees across the enterprise that was focused on sustainability and scale. She has also overseen diversity recruitment and outreach efforts for organizations, providing real solutions to attract and retain employees with a focus on diverse hiring strategies. Nichelle is a sought-after facilitator who has delivered workshops around DEI for over a decade. She was recently recognized as Woman of the Year for her role in designing and delivering DEI education; hosting a precollege camp to increase the number of girls interested in coding and entrepreneurship; and she sourced projects to address homelessness and support pathways to housing security across her home state of Indiana.

 

Nichelle is an alumna of Indiana University Bloomington, where she started her career in health care and biomedical research before pivoting to a career in higher education.

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Ebony Wilkins, SHRM-SCP

Human Resources Business Partner and DEIB Leader
HHHunt

 

Born and raised in Richmond, Virginia, Ebony Wilkins is a graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University. She is the Owner and Principal Conversationalist of The Power of One Consulting and a Human Resources Business Partner and Belonging Lead for HHHunt, Inc. Ebony is a Senior Certified Professional (SCP), an Instructor with the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM), holds the Inclusive Workplace Culture credential through SHRM, is a certified Diversity and Inclusion Practitioner through Cornell and is a certified Mental Health First Aider. Ebony is an active member of the Richmond chapter of SHRM, where she sits on the board as the Director of Diversity & Inclusion, RADR. Ebony is passionate about creating safe and equitable workplaces where every team member knows they belong and where mental well-being is a cultural tenet.

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Alex Zea

Senior Principal, HR Digital Transformation
Mercer

 

Alex Zea is a people strategist, technology lover and data advocate and has spent the last 10+ years helping organizations reimagine how they deliver meaningful digital HR services at scale. As an early member of the Leapgen team, she has had the opportunity to develop the Digital HR Strategy practice at Mercer Leapgen and as well as to lead successful digital HR transformations at several large multinational enterprises.