Santiago Jaramillo

A nationally recognized expert and keynote speaker on employee engagement, Santiago Jaramillo is the co-author of Agile Engagement, an Amazon best-selling book that provides employers with a framework for measuring employee engagement. As the CEO and co-founder of Emplify, Santiago leads a team of engagement experts in their mission to provide more reliable employee engagement insights for better decision making. Santiago has spoken to and trained thousands of CEOs and HR leaders across small, mid-market, and Fortune 500 companies on the importance and business value of employee engagement. In 2013, Santiago was named to Inc. magazine’s “30 Under 30” list and was also invited to the White House for recognition of his entrepreneurial contributions through the Champions of Change program. More recently, he received the award for Indiana Latino Businessman of the Year in 2016.

Lydia Dishman

Lydia Dishman is a business journalist who writes about the intersection of tech, leadership, commerce, and innovation. She is a regular contributor to Fast Company and has written for CBS Moneywatch, Fortune, The Guardian, Popular Science, and the New York Times, among others. She is coauthor of the book Survive to Thrive. Over the course of her career, she’s interviewed a variety of well-known executives including Diane Von Furstenberg, Gregg Steinhafel, former CEO of Target, Mickey Drexler, former CEO of J.Crew, Christopher Bailey of Burberry, Mary Barra of General Motors, Scott Borchetta of Big Machine Records, Alexis Ohanian of Reddit, Tony Hsieh of Zappos, and other luminaries such as Adrian Grenier, Romany Malco, and Tom Brokaw.

Kate Zimberg

Kate Zimberg, PhD, has spent her career as an HR professional within the technology and telecommunications industries.  She has intentionally varied her career, moving between roles within HR centers of excellence – where she’s been instrumental in creating new programs, tools, and methods – and roles working directly with employees and business leaders – where she’s focused on the pragmatic application of HR practices, coaching and consulting to help drive business success.

Most recently, Kate joined F5 in March 2019 as the VP of Talent and Organizational Capability.  In this capacity, Kate works closely with other members of HR and with business leaders to drive Leadership Development, Performance Management, Talent Management, Recognition, Employee Listening, Culture, the F5 Giving Programs, and Organizational Design.

Prior to F5, Kate worked at T-Mobile as the HR leader for the Product & Technology organization where she led a team which provided coaching, change management, talent management, leader and employee development, recruiting, and HR consulting.  Kate also led the T-Mobile enterprise-wide community of leadership development consultants.  Before T-Mobile, Kate worked held multiple HR leadership roles at Microsoft, including HR business partner, talent mobility, talent management, and leading employee engagement and onboarding programs. Kate began her HR career in the telecommunications industry as an I/O Psychologist, focused on selection assessments and methods at both AT&T and Lucent Technologies. She earned both her masters and doctorate from Purdue University.

Outside of work, Kate has a passion for working with girls as a troop leader with the Girl Scouts of Western Washington.

Lydia Martinez

Lydia Martinez joined Long & Foster with more than 20 years of experience in the development and implementation of human resources strategic management, talent development and employee relations. With a diverse career history of building strategic partnerships, both internal and external to an organization, as well as building relationships with staff at all levels, Martinez brings the human capital leadership necessary to lead Long & Foster’s teams to the next level of excellence.

Prior to joining Long & Foster, Martinez led the George Washington University equal employment opportunity efforts after a successful career as vice president at Thompson Hospitality, the ninth largest minority-owned company in the United States. She also served as executive director of Institutional Equity and Labor Relations at the Community College of Baltimore County.

Martinez has had multiple speaking engagements with national organizations, including speaking about the value of diversity with the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities and discussing wrongful discrimination with the National Association of College and University Attorneys. She is committed to transforming the human resources function to further strengthen the company’s ability to support and guide its business partners and support consistent and fair labor practices across the organization. Her strategic leadership style and commitment to measurable success, as well as her in-depth experience in many areas of employee relations, further solidifies Long & Foster’s efforts toward becoming an employer of choice.

Originally from Puerto Rico, Martinez earned her undergraduate bachelor’s and double master’s degrees from the Inter-American University and University of Puerto Rico, respectively. She also holds a juris doctor degree from American University’s Washington College of Law and was admitted to the District of Columbia Bar in 2002.

Willie Jackson

Willie Jackson is a Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion (DEI) speaker, consultant and facilitator. A technologist by trade, Willie now makes waves at the intersection of event production, behavior change, and leadership development. He’s the founder of an online magazine for black men called Abernathy, and an advisor to authors, startups, and executives across a range of industries. Prior to his current work, Willie served as Technical Lead of Seth Godin’s altMBA program, an intensive, 4-week online workshop for high-performing individuals who want to level up and lead. In his spare time, he enjoys producing and hosting events and dinners.