Bio Described as having “something approaching rock star status” in her field by The New York Times Magazine and as a “global thought leader on diversity” by Kédar Iyer, GapJumpers CEO, Joan C. Williams is a Sullivan Professor of Law and Founding Director of the Center for WorkLife Law at the University of California, Hastings…

Prepare to be inspired by Leesa Askew, an award-winning speaker, author, and transformational coach. Leesa’s passion for cultivating healthy workplace cultures that are both compliant and psychologically safe is unwavering. As an Enterprise Account Executive for Emtrain, Leesa finds profound alignment between her role and her life’s purpose. With two decades of frontline experience spanning…

Alice is an operational leader with 25+ years of technology industry experience. A high-energy senior operational executive with extensive experience developing and driving strategies for aggressive revenue growth, building and leading large multifunctional teams, and implementing discipline and scalable operations during periods of transformation and scale. Alice has experience managing 2.5B+ P&L and leading M&A…

Kristen is a tenured HR and finance professional with over 15 years of experience. Her work history includes servicing 25+ corporate clients including several Fortune 500 companies during her tenure with Charles Schwab. Most recently, she was a member of the HR Finance team at Eaton Corporation focusing in the benefits space. She has a…

Currently the Senior Director Global Employment Law (JAPAC Lead) at Salesforce, responsible for establishing legally compliant and globally consistent employee practices with a focus on equality. She is also on the national board of ACC (Association of Corporate Counsel) Australia, and serves as the NSW president for the Australian chapter. Lori was also awarded the…

Jacob Halabe is a marketing intern at Emtrain who regularly writes for the Emtrain blog and contributes to the resource center. He loves storytelling, and hopes to continue writing long into the future. He believes effective communication is one of the most important parts of building a better world. Jacob is currently a student at…

As StockX’s chief people officer, Tracy Coté leads the company’s global human resources team, which encompasses its training and leadership development, engagement, total rewards, and talent recruitment functions. Tracy previously served as chief people officer and subsequently as an advisor at Zenefits, where she co-authored the best selling book, People Operations. Throughout her more than…

As CHRO for Instacart, Christina Hall oversees all functions related to the employee experience from recruiting, onboarding and people development, to Total Rewards, Diversity, Equity and Belonging, Security and Workplace to Culture and People Operations. As a leader of a team of HR and talent professionals, one of her favorite parts of her job is…

Allison collaborates with Emtrain’s founder/CEO Janine Yancey and content team to draft lessons and programs for online HR compliance courses. Research employment laws in all 50 states, Canada, India, South Korea, and Europe to update classes. Write scripts for vignettes. Answer “Ask the Expert” questions from course participants. Allison is currently an employment counsel at…

Sierra is a recent college graduate with a major in media, journalism, and digital arts. Although new to the workplace, she is eager to apply what she has learned and she is extremely excited to be exploring her career as a marketing intern at Emtrain. She has prior experience with digital marketing working for a…

Scott C. Taylor currently serves as a director of J2 Global, Piper Sandler Companies, and Western Technology Investment, and previously served as a director of DigiCert, VirnetX and VeriSign Japan K.K. Scott has more than 20 years of experience in the technology industry (13 of which were in cybersecurity), and more than 10 years of…

Dr. Leann Kang Pereira is an organizational psychologist and Senior Director of People and Learning Sciences at Emtrain. Leann is responsible for advancing the development and application of Emtrain’s Workplace Social Indicator™ model and skills-based learning architecture. She incorporates research and scholarship from positive and social psychology to reveal employees’ emotional, psychological, and social experiences…

Odessa Jenkins is the Founder of the Women’s National Football Conference (WNFC), and sought-after executive leader. She most recently served as the Head of Business Develop for Parity, and VP of Support/Ops at YourCause. An in-demand national speaker, Jenkins is also the founder of multiple nonprofits. She is a recognized market leader in CSR, DE&I,…

Kimberlee Johnson has held technical staffing, generalist, talent acquisition director and executive director roles within primarily the higher education and human services industries. With an M.A. in HR and three years of SaaS sales focused in the OFCCP diversity recruitment compliance product arena, she is passionate about DEI initiatives!

Sharon Anolik is President and Founder of Privacy Panacea LLC, a boutique firm providing strategic data privacy and compliance solutions and advice. A member of the Department of Homeland Security’s Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee, and a seasoned privacy and compliance executive, Sharon is a recognized industry leader, bringing expertise culled from two decades…

Ty is a graduate of St. John’s College (Annapolis, MD campus) and a serial entrepreneur. He credits the background of his family’s varying commercial enterprises and liberal arts education for his diverse commercial interest and abilities. Ty has seeded and profitably grown businesses in specialty contracting and light manufacturing. After many years of serving as…

Bill is an experienced product leader and works with teams to scale and deliver innovative hardware, service, and software products. He lives in Sebastopol, CA where he enjoys time with his family, cooking, hiking, and exploring Northern California.

Chris began his career in management consulting, specializing in financial planning, capital allocation, and performance evaluation, after which he worked in venture capital, investing in the technology and education sectors. Chris then led Finance and Strategic Finance at two SaaS startups, the most recent of which was successfully acquired. Chris holds a B.S. in Finance…

Nikki is an award winning B2B Revenue Growth Leader and Sales Culture Subject Matter Expert. She was recently recognized as a 2020 LinkedIn Top Voice and is a luminary among her peers.She’s hosted and appeared on hundreds of industry webinars, podcasts and blogs around improving culture at world class companies. She is dedicated to turning…

As a history major in college, Susan focused her academic work on race, gender, and the law in 18th and 19th century America. This focus on racial and gender equity helped shaped the direction of Susan’s career and community work. Her early career included teaching fourth grade and running a nonprofit that provided after school…

Nancy Douyon is a global design ethicist and product philosopher. She is a trailblazer in human experience design with over 15 years of industry experience building scalable user research platforms and revitalizing user interfaces at leading companies such as Uber, Google, IBM, Cisco, and Intel. Throughout her career, Nancy has gained a reputation for delivering…

Laraine is an advisor to Emtrain, and an unconscious bias expert. Laraine is a passionate supporter of diversity in the workplace; she focuses on blending behavioral science (managing unconscious bias, organizational behavior), big data and practical implementations to transform workplace cultures. Laraine has led high-performance customer success and sales teams at BlackRock and Barclays Global…

Professional coach, attorney, mediator, speaker, and facilitator with deep expertise in labor and employment law, professional coaching, and conflict management. In her latest venture, Co.lab Coaching & Legal Services, Elizabeth applies knowledge, experience, skills and accumulated wisdom to transform lives and workplaces through coaching (professional, team, and conflict coaching). She collaborates with individuals and teams…

David is the Director of Security Architecture & Engineering at Juniper Networks. He leverages his vast expertise in information security to help organizations around the globe maximize their investments, online security, and foster a business environment with robust risk mitigation capabilities. David’s insight—along with over 25 years of experience in enterprise architecture planning, security, operations,…

Amii Barnard-Bahn, JD, CCEP, CCEP-I, PCC has been recognized by Forbes as “one of the top coaches for legal and compliance executives.” Clients include Adobe, Gap, Chegg, Lyft, Bank of the West, and Boehringer Ingelheim. Amii brings over 20 years of executive experience from McKesson, Allianz, and the California Dental Association, serving in multiple executive…

Long before #MeToo, Emtrain’s Founder and CEO Janine Yancey conducted live training to educate employees and build their skills on respect, empathy and making good decisions to proactively prevent workplace conflict. Doing that work, she saw the need for a scalable solution for larger workforces, as well as a solution that could be used quarterly…

Kristy Grant-Hart is an expert at making compliance officers in-demand business assets. She’s been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Compliance Week, Corporate Financier, and on the cover of Compliance and Ethics Professional Magazine. She’s the author of several highly-acclaimed books, including the best-selling book, “How to Be a Wildly Effective Compliance Officer.” She’s the…

Simone effectively spearheads and collaborates with external and internal teams to identify and deliver solutions to clients concerning employment law issues. As a civil litigator with more than 20 years of experience, she has managed the defense of lawsuits involving a range of federal and local laws, including lawsuits alleging claims of discrimination, retaliation, and harassment.…

Steve Cadigan is a highly sought-after talent advisor to leaders and organizations across the globe.  As Founder of his own Silicon Valley-based firm, Cadigan Talent Ventures, Steve advises a wide range of domestic and international companies that include Twitter, Google, GoPro, The Royal Bank of Scotland, and the BBC. He is also regularly retained by…

As an expert in corporate governance and white collar criminal matters, Tim regularly advises corporate boards and executives on topics such as: insider trading, securities violations, accounting fraud, and other corporate crimes. As a former Chief of the Securities Fraud Section of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Francisco, Tim was the lead prosecutor in…

An international employment law expert and a partner at DLA Piper, Ute focuses on providing multinational companies with solutions to the challenges presented in managing a global workforce. Her experience includes advising both emerging growth companies and Fortune 500 companies across a wide spectrum of industries and jurisdictions across the globe, including technology/software, fashion/retail, pharmaceuticals,…

Allison West has a simple approach to employment practices: be proactive. An employment attorney by background, Allison uses her legal skills coupled with sound human resources practices, to help create safe and respectful work environments. Allison is a top-rated speaker at HR, industry, and diversity conferences around the country, including the 2018 and 2019 Society…

For the past 18 years, Charles Krugel has run his own management-side labor and employment law practice based in Chicago. Charles’ clients are worldwide across all industries. One-third of his practice is HR counseling on day-to-day micro issues; another third of his practice is transactional law (e.g., contracts, agreements & negotiations); & the final third…

Jarod Bona is an antitrust attorney and the founder of Bona Law PC, an antitrust boutique law firm. He also writes for a blog he founded called The Antitrust Attorney Blog (www.TheAntitrustAttorney.com). Before starting Bona Law, he spent a dozen years as an attorney with the large international law firms DLA Piper and Gibson Dunn.…

Shana French is a leading Canadian lawyer whose sophisticated expertise includes the representation of employers in several areas of employment and labour law, with particular emphasis on multinational entrance into Canada, compliance and risk management, policy globalization, executive and non-executive compensation, human rights and accommodation, workplace investigations, and wrongful and constructive dismissal. Prior to joining…

Peter Campbell is the Founder and Managing Partner of Education Growth Partners, a private equity firm dedicated to helping scale mission-oriented companies in the Education and Human Development sectors. Peter has over 25 years of experience successfully investing in and working with these high-growth firms, helping them manage the challenge of maintaining mission and quality…

Sonja Lutz serves as the Chief Marketing Officer at Emtrain, overseeing and leading all marketing and sales development initiatives. She brings multi-lingual and international brand marketing and e-commerce experience in tech, women’s health and luxury industries to Emtrain. Sonja is a storyteller by heart with the passion for scaling meaningful businesses. She drives and develops Emtrain’s…

Brian is a consultant to technology companies on sales, GTM, operations and leadership. He is part of the leadership team at Principles, Ray Dalio’s technology start and an adviser for Procure Technologies, Flexport, Blue Jeans Network, Reali, and DocuSign.

Frits is the CEO of PicMonkey, an online photo editing and design service that can be accessed from a web browser, or through the PicMonkey mobile app. Prior to PicMonkey, Frits was the CTO and head of product for Lynda.com, which was acquired by Linkedin in 2015. Previously, Frits was the Vice President of core…

Don Loeb fosters relationships between corporations and startups at Techstars. Don has over 15 years of operational experience—developing, scaling, mentoring, acquiring, and selling technology companies. Prior to Techstars Don was the head of business development at Typekit (acquired by Adobe). Don also worked at Google where he was a product manager for iGoogle and other…

Chris MacDonald is President of the non-profit Journal Review Foundation. An ethics professor, Chris is the author of the popular Business Ethics Blog—a blog he created in 2005 and which is now featured on the Canadian Business Magazine website. Chris has been named as one of the “Top 100 Thought Leaders in Trustworthy Business Behavior”…

Who is Jane Tight? Jane Tight is a multifaceted individual with experience in corporate training that focuses on enabling teams and individuals to use their varying strengths a weaknesses to develop cohesive, empathetic, and productive work flows. Her experience in facilitating team building trainings for a wide variety of companies has informed her unique approach…

Phyllis W. Cheng is an employment law expert and expert mediator for high profile cases that provides investigation and expert witness services in Los Angeles. She is on the mediation panels of the U.S. District Court, Central District of California, and California Court of Appeal, Second Appellate District. Phyllis was the Director of the California…

Sally March is an ethics and compliance expert and regular columnist for the Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics. As the former Global Compliance Director for Nortel Networks, the Head of Risk Advisory for BBC Worldwide, and Board Member for the Association of Corporate Counsel Europe, Sally has navigated a broad spectrum of situations, which…

Tracy Cote currently serves as Chief People Officer for StockX, where she leads the global human resources team, which encompasses training and leadership development, engagement, total rewards, and talent recruitment functions. Tracy Coté previously served as chief people officer and subsequently as an advisor at Zenefits. She relentlessly focuses on improving the employee experience, builds strong…

Cynthia Overton is Director of Tech Workplace Initiatives at the Kapor Center, where she builds community and provides learning opportunities for professionals advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion in the tech industry. This includes leading Diversity Advocates, a professional learning community dedicated to creating a diverse and inclusive workforce throughout the tech industry. She also spearheads…

Claire is the Founder and CEO of AllVoices, a platform that enables anyone to anonymously report sexual harassment and workplace issues directly to company leadership. Before founding AllVoices, Claire served as Vice President of Technology and Innovation at 20th Century Fox. In 2010 she helped found and lead Thorn: Digital Defenders of Children, a nonprofit…

Chris Powers is a guest author for the Emtrain workplace culture blog. View his LinkedIn Profile to learn more about Chris!

Tanal is a diversity advocate helping organizations build equitable people practices. As a founding member of her current organization and a mentor to start-ups, Tanal is known for connecting the talent strategy to business priorities while cultivating inclusivity and team engagement.

Susan Lovegren most recently led the People and Culture team at Medallia and was an integral part of the team that led the Initial Public Offering in 2019. Susan previously served in Chief People Officer roles at AppDynamics, (acquired by Cisco) prior to their IPO, Juniper Networks and Plantronics. She also held Human Resources roles…

Julie is also the CEO and Chair of How Women Lead, a robust network of over 13,000 women dedicated to promoting diverse women’s voices and propelling women’s leadership forward. Since 2017, Julie has chaired and How Women Lead has managed the 2020 Women on Boards Bay Area effort, helping to spearhead the national effort to…

Jessie Wusthoff is the HR/Culture, Inclusion, & Diversity Director at Bay Area healthcare technology company Clover Health. With a background in organizational behavior and learning and development, and an MBA with a focus in Organizational Behavior, she focuses on creating safe space dialogues to increase comfort around difficult workplace conversations. Jessie has had the pleasure…

Janet Miller Evans is the founder & CEO of Entevos, a coaching and consulting company using evidence-based research and neuroscience assessments in the areas of emotional intelligence, trust, resilience, leadership, and team engagement for clients such as AT&T, the State Bar of California, UNICEF, World Food Program, and the City of Berkeley, California. Janet began…

Elizabeth A. Morrison is the Chief Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging Officer at Levi Strauss & Co. She builds Corporate Value and ROI through Inclusion, Engagement & Talent Optimization, Communications, Collaboration, and Multiculturalism. A passionate and naturally energetic diversity, inclusion, and communications professional with more than 17 years of success in engaging internal and external audiences…

Michelle Nichols is an experienced, passionate leader in the Ethics and Compliance space. She has spent the last 20 years as both an in house practitioner for two large organizations as well as a trusted consultant for a number of Fortune 500 companies. In these roles, she has built programs from the ground up as…