Antonio Henry is the Vice President of Global Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for UnitedHealth Group. In this role, Antonio focuses on creating and supporting the most diverse, equitable and inclusive workforce and environment through data-driven solutions and a highly engaged employee population.

After 12 years in banking and finance, leading large business operations teams, Antonio came to UnitedHealth Group and served in a variety of leadership roles in the Marketing and Customer Experience Office for Optum focused on driving business impact and improving the consumer experience.

He holds a Master of Business Administration from Concordia University, St. Paul. In his personal time, he enjoys working out, teaching fitness classes, traveling, and trying new cuisine. Antonio has an amazing partner, Luke, who is a Partner at Fox Rothschild Attorneys at Law and together they have two dogs, Pippa, and Bryn.

Leadership philosophy: I’ve dedicated my career to making my work about people; now and forever. I have found that my greatest passion in life is helping others achieve both personal and professional success. I believe great leadership unlocks the full potential of others, seen and unseen

Jessica Nordell is an author, science writer, and speaker known for blending rigorous science with compassionate humanity. Her first book, The End of Bias: A Beginning, explores how people become measurably more just, fair, and humane. The culmination of fifteen years of reporting and writing for publications including the New York Times, the Atlantic, and the New Republic, The End of Bias won the Nautilus Award and was shortlisted for the 2022 Columbia Journalism/Lukas Prize for Excellence in Nonfiction, the NYPL Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism, the Royal Society Science Book Prize, among many others. Nordell speaks around the country and the world about creating cultures beyond bias. She lives in Minneapolis.

Philomena serves as Director of Diversity Equity & Inclusion and External Strategic Partnerships.  She joined Land O’Lakes June 2017, bringing more than 30 years of human resource experience in diversity and inclusion, community relations, work life and wellbeing. Before joining Land O’Lakes, she worked at Wells Fargo & Company.   Her previous roles included VP of Organizational Effectiveness Development, Diversity and Inclusion; Community Outreach Consultant; and Senior HR Consultant.

Philomena has extensive experience in developing and implementing diversity strategies, including internal initiatives and community-focused pipelines. Previously, Philomena participated in a Middle East Fellows project, in partnership with Hamline University and the U.S. State Department and traveled to the Middle East as a part of the peace and economic development project.

Philomena joined the Board of Directors for the Cookie Cart organization and leads the Governance Committee. Philomena serves on the Agriculture D and I Consortium (Together We Grow), the Dairy Girl Network Diversity Coalition, Minnesota Business Racial Equity Coalition (MBCRE) and co-chairs the Twin Cities DEI Roundtable. She is co leading the Equity Team for the 2022 Women’s NCAA Basketball Tourney.

Philomena previously served on Leadership Advisory Board for SHIFT and the Board of SHIFT (nonprofit focused on people in midlife) for 8 years.  Minnesota Workforce Citizen Commission on Aging, Minneapolis Workforce Council, the Executive Leadership Council for Honoring Women Worldwide, the Goodwill Easter Seals, Comunidades Latinas Unidas En Servicio (CLUES), Lifeworks, HIRED and Resource Inc. Advisory Boards. She also co led the 2020 Women on Boards initiative for Minnesota.

Philomena has received numerous awards, including AARP/Pollen 50 over 50, the Minneapolis Business Journal’s Woman Change Maker and Minority Advocate, Minnesota Business The (Real) Power 50 Award and the University of Phoenix Diversity Leadership Award. Philomena has an MA in Organizational Leadership from St. Catherine University and a BA in Public Administration and Political Science from the University of Wisconsin LaCrosse.  Philomena is an Adjunct Professor at the University of St Catherine in the Master of Organizational Leadership Graduate Program.

Art Howard is the Vice President, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at Wiley.

Sofia Terzic is an Assistant Vice President and Community Affairs Manager at U.S. Bank. Sofia leads philanthropic and community engagement efforts for the state of MN, including grantmaking, volunteerism, and community sponsorships. Sofia has been with U.S. Bank since 2018, previously leading employee community engagement efforts.

Sofia has a bachelor’s degree in Marketing and International Business from the University of Minnesota – Carlson School of Management and an MBA from the same institution. She serves on the Latino Economic Development Center’s Hispanic Scholarship Fund Committee and enjoys volunteering with organizations that promote economic development and cultural opportunities for diverse communities.

Joffrey Wilson is the Vice President of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at Mortenson. 

Laura Lorenz is the Vice President, Human Resources, Transportation & Electronics Business Group at 3M.

Srilata (Sri) Zaheer became the 12th dean of the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota on March 8, 2012.

During her tenure as dean of the Carlson School, Sri launched a Military Veterans Initiative to help servicemen and women transition from military to business careers, resulting in the Carlson School being named the number one Military Friendly business school in the nation. Sri has increased the business community’s engagement with the school, resulting in a wealth of new experiential learning opportunities for students, and has overseen the introduction of new degrees in business analytics, supply chain management, finance, and new programs in partnership with Tsinghua University in Beijing and Tongji University in Shanghai, as well as online degrees and certificates.

Sri holds the Elmer L. Andersen Chair in Global Corporate Social Responsibility and her research focus is on international business — a topic on which she has published extensively. She is a Fellow of the Academy of International Business, and a former Consulting Editor of the Journal of International Business Studies. In 2018, Zaheer received the PwC Strategy& Eminent Scholar Award, for lifetime achievement in scholarship from the International Management Division of the Academy of Management.

Prior to academia, Zaheer worked for multinationals such as Tata Consultancy Services and Sandoz (India) Ltd. She also reported on politics and business from India and Nigeria for Business International. These experiences have provided the foundation for her research in international business, as well as leading the Carlson School’s engagement with the corporate community.

Sri serves on the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, where she is currently serving as chair. She previously served on the boards of the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC), Greater Twin Cities United Way, the Guthrie Theater, and the Destination Medical Center Economic Development Agency of Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN.

In 2021, the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal honored Sri’s professional achievements, leadership qualities, and contributions to the broader Twin Cities community with its Women in Business Career Achievement Award. In 2020, for her service on the Board of Directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, Sri was named an Outstanding Director by Twin Cities Business (TCB). In 2019, Sri was recognized as part of the publication's TCB 100: The 100 People to Know in 2020. Also in 2019, Sri was inducted into the Junior Achievement of the Upper Midwest Business Hall of Fame and honored as a Woman of Distinction by the Girl Scouts of Minnesota and Wisconsin River Valleys. In 2013, Sri was recognized as a Women in Business award winner by the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal. 

Mahogany Ellis-Crutchfield is the Strategic Diversity Equity & Inclusion Projects Lead at Cargill. 

Scott joined Schwan’s Company in December 2008 as executive vice president and chief human resources officer and leads the privately held company’s human resources, travel, facilities and government affairs functions. Prior to Schwan’s, he held human resources leadership roles with some of the leading consumer brands companies in the United States, including Pillsbury and Sleep Number.

An active member of the Minnesota business and non-profit communities, Scott serves as chair of the board of directors of the Minnesota Wild Foundation, and formerly served on the Itasca Project, a volunteer-led executive team that is focused on social/economic issues from a cross-sector employer perspective.

He earned his bachelor’s degree in liberal arts from Marquette University of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and a master’s degree in industrial relations from the University of Minnesota.

Stephanie Sisco, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor at the University of Minnesota in the Department of Organizational Leadership, Policy, and Development. Her areas of interest include diversity management, social and participatory learning, and race-conscious equity and social justice.

Dr. Sisco explores these topics through qualitative methods to identify and understand how social issues appear at work and influence the learning, development, and advancement of Black, Indigenous, and other Professionals of Color. Dr. Sisco also teaches courses and develops curricula for Business & Marketing Education, Human Resource Development, and Adult Education programs at the University of Minnesota.

Julie Kline is the Chief Human Resources Officer at North Memorial Health. 

Jess serves as a partner to the most innovative employers in the world, working to create equitable and accessible opportunities for their employees to find care.

Dannette Hanson is the Vice President of Talent Acquisition for Nielsen. Nielsen is a global leader in audience insights, data and analytics employing more than 14,000 associates across 57 countries. In this role, Dannette is responsible for formulating recruitment strategy plans across all disciplines of hiring within the Americas region. In addition to leading a team of leaders and recruiters, she is the head of Global Talent Acquisition Operations and University Recruitment. 

Dannette has over 20 years of experience in Human Resources and has dedicated much of her career to the recruiting space. She is passionate about connecting people to companies and ultimately to job opportunities that create a pathway for professional success. That passion drove her career into TA leadership. Today her time is focused on motivating recruiting teams to accomplish the same. Dannette's career has spanned many industries including Financial Services, Media, and HR Services. She holds an Associate Degree in Business Management from Rasmussen College. 

Patty Healy Janssen has been the Executive Director at Jeremiah Program’s Minneapolis campus since 2020. For the prior six years, Patty was the Director of Development for JP Minneapolis and JP St. Paul, after having been a volunteer with JP for 12 years. Working in mission-based, non-profit organizations for nearly 30 years, Patty brings her leadership experience, commitment to the JP mission serving families, management of complex teams and systems, fundraising experience, and high-level stakeholder engagement to her current role.

Before joining the JP team, Patty worked at Visitation School for 20 years, serving in executive leadership roles in enrollment, development, communications, media relations, public relations, leadership development, and organization-wide strategic development. Patty earned both her Bachelor of Arts and Master of Business Administration from the University of St. Thomas.

Toni Newborn (she/her/hers) serves as the Director of Human Resources. In this role,  Toni and her team act as strategic leaders and partners supporting departments to attract, develop, and retain a diverse workforce and to foster an inclusive workplace culture that supports equity and innovation.


Prior to her current position, Toni served as the City of Saint Paul’s first Chief Equity Officer. In this role, Toni provided support and guidance in integrating racial equity into the City’s services, engagement, policies, and practices with the mission to eliminate disparities across the city. Toni worked in partnership with Departments to develop educational opportunities for City staff and residents to advance citywide equity initiatives. She worked alongside her colleagues in building a workforce that reflects the people that we serve, partnering with the city's operating departments to foster an inclusive work environment, and work to engage with the community of Saint Paul to build and support a Saint Paul that works for all of us. 


Toni’s educational background commenced in Birmingham, Alabama, her hometown, where she graduated from Birmingham-Southern College in 2003 with a B.A in Political Science.  In 2007, she obtained a Juris Doctorate degree from William Mitchell College of Law in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Shortly thereafter, Toni became a licensed attorney for the State of Minnesota in 2008.


In 2017, Toni was tapped to serve on the transition team for incoming mayor Melvin Carter III, in which she led the first community-based hiring process for the City of Saint Paul's department directors. In 2018, Toni was appointed to serve as a hiring director on the transition team for the newly elected State of Minnesota Governor- elect Tim Walz and Lieutenant Governor-elect Peggy Flanagan.

Ryan Faircloth is a reporter at the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Megan Thompson is an award-winning television producer and special correspondent for PBS News Weekend. She spent thirteen years at WNET, New York City's PBS station, where she served as a substitute anchor, on-air reporter, editor and videographer for a variety of national news and documentary programs. She has reported on a wide range of issues - from health care and climate change to poverty and criminal justice - across the U.S. and from 20 countries around the world. Her work has earned her three Emmy nominations, four Headliner Awards, three Gracies and a Student Academy Award. Megan holds a BA from Wellesley College and an MA in Journalism from New York University. She lives in Minneapolis with her family.

Evan Ramstad is a Business Columnist at Star Tribune.

Hannah is a senior Talent Leader with over 20 years of experience in the private, VC/PE and public sectors. After over a decade of consulting to a variety of global organizations, she joined Achievers as their Chief People and Culture Officer. Her mandate is to empower employee success through all facets of employee engagement, organizational effectiveness, organization development, and talent strategy. She is keen to make the world a better place through irresistible employee experiences and leading-edge people and product development.

Avenica CEO Scott Dettman is a dynamic leader with a strong track record of driving growth through transformation and innovation in the human capital arena.

Scott joined Avenica in 2019 following a six-year stint with ManpowerGroup that included progressive leadership roles spanning analytics and transformation to general management and business development.

Scott has a master’s degree and Ph.D. (ABD) from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and most recently completed an Executive Leadership program at Harvard Business School.

Caitlin started her career in journalism and is still passionate about bringing the right information to the
right people at the right time. As content manager and data analyst, Caitlin oversees Achievers
Workforce Institute’s primary research program, investigating the latest workforce trends to bring
actionable best practices to HR and business leaders. Caitlin has a BA in Psychology and a post-graduate diploma in journalism and has spent the last decade of her career specializing in HR content and data. She grew up in New Zealand but has lived in Toronto since 2011.

Megan Galloway is on a mission to make our workplace a more authentic and human place for current and future generations to thrive. She works with Campfire to help managers be the best versions of themselves through innovative, community-based learning. She's spent over a decade building learning and development programs from the ground up for companies that have never had them before, including one recognized as a top global learning program.

Stacey Smida is the Senior Manager of Global Employee and Community Engagement at Cargill. 

Jeni Mayorskaya is the founder and CEO of Stork Club, a next-generation benefits provider that helps enterprises attract diverse top talent, drive better clinical outcomes and reduce their largest area of healthcare cost — maternity care. Stork Club has raised over $32M and is backed by leading healthcare investors, including General Catalyst, Bowery Capital and Slow Ventures. Before founding Stork Club, Jeni co-founded Bookmate, an award-winning cross-platform e-library, and served in several strategic marketing and consulting roles. Jeni brings more than 15 years of strategic leadership experience to the Stork Club team and is inspired by her personal connection to the cause: early in her career, she was diagnosed with reproductive health disorders that carried a risk of infertility. After hearing this same story from hundreds of other women, Jeni started Stork Club with the mission to enable people to take control of their reproductive health and be empowered to build a family on their own terms.

Kymme helps lead the dynamic E4E Relief customer experience team as  AVP of Customer Experience.   One of her top priorities is advising her clients on critical account metrics to ensure their funds are sustainable, especially in times of need.   Kymme’s long-term client partnerships are also fueled by her compassion and desire to support her clients and their most critical asset – their people.

She also loves spending time with family and close friends.  Kymme’s motto is:  If you live by the Golden Rule, you will not go wrong.

Julie Caldwell’s superpower is connecting the dots: she builds relationships, creates opportunities for engagement and fosters value-driven communication every chance she gets.  Julie has played an integral role in E4E Relief’s client growth, helping them scale from serving a few hundred thousand employees to more than five million around the world. After six years in business development, she spent the last two years leading marketing, communications, and partnerships, with the goal of building awareness for the field of employee relief. She has recently returned to a business development role, working with large corporations to design and establish their relief programs.

Hailing from the Midwest, Julie graduated with a Communications degree from DePauw University. 

Kari started her career in athletics and sports and leisure and transitioning to Human Resources 10 years ago. Her degrees are both in Sports Management: St. Cloud State University, BA (2003) and The Ohio State University, MA (2005). She worked in collegiate athletics before moving into golf. Then, Kari detoured into pharmaceutical sales, before finding her home in HR and benefits. She worked at Bluestem Brands and Mystic Lake Casino and Hotel before arriving at Sleep Number. Currently, Kari lives in Apple Valley, MN with her husband, Josh, twin boys Blake and Tate, and rescue dog, Tippy. 

Laura Clark is vastly experienced in building client relationships and passionate about representing talent solutions that allow individuals, within the clients Laura partners with, to thrive and drive success within their respective companies. Laura leads enterprise sales in the US and Canada with AIHR - Academy to Innovate HR, where we train your HR team to become even better than they are today.

Rebecca brings her years of experience in the HR and People space to SkillCycle as the first official employee and Co-Founder. Throughout her 10 years in HR, she developed programs that optimized talent acquisition, employee retention, upskilling/reskilling, employee engagement, employee experience, succession planning, and more. She used this expertise to build People strategies that made her companies successful and protected their most valuable asset – the people. At SkillCycle, she works cross-functionally to deliver solutions and experiences that push learners beyond their perceived limitations to unlock their potential. She aligns with key stakeholders to ensure they see ROI and continue making learning more accessible within their organizations. Her goal is to empower people to invest in themselves and their teams, to increase employee engagement, retention, and performance.

Britt Bartolini is the Senior Enterprise Account Executive at Blueboard.