Paul J. LeBlanc

Dr. Paul J. LeBlanc is President of Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU). Under the 13 years of Paul’s direction, SNHU has more grown from 2800 students to nearly 100,000 and is one of the second largest non-profit provider of online higher education in the country, and the first to have a full competency-based degree program untethered to the credit hour or classes approved by a regional accreditor and the US Department of Education.

In 2012 the university was #12 on Fast Company magazine’s “World’s Fifty Most Innovative Companies” list and was the only university included. Paul won a New England Higher Education Excellence Award in 2012, the 2015 NH Entrepreneur of the Year Award, and has repeatedly been named one of “New Hampshire’s Most Influential People” by New Hampshire Business Review. Forbes Magazine has listed him as one of its 15 “Classroom Revolutionaries” and one of the “most influential people in higher education” for 2016. He was featured on Bloomberg TV’s “Innovators” series, Fast Company included him in its “1000 Most Creative People” List, and Washington Monthly named him one of America’s ten most innovative university presidents.

Among the innovations created with Paul’s leadership include:

The first degree program in e-commerce (1998); The SNHU Advantage Program, which cuts the cost of a degree by 40% (2006); College for America, the first direct assessment competency-based degree

program approved by an accreditor and the US Department of Education (2013); Expansion of SNHU’s Degree-in-Three undergraduate program (2014); Successful roll out of online CBE for refugees in the Kiziba Refugee Camp in

Rwanda (2015); Approval for Title IV dual enrollment and participation in RISE High, the XQ

Super School Prize winner, focusing on the education of homeless youth and those who have timed out of foster care in LA County (2016).

Current projects include rethinking engineering education, social finance bonds, and expansion of the refugee camp work.

He most recently served as Senior Policy Advisor to Under Secretary Ted Mitchell at the US Department of Education, working on competency-based education, new accreditation pathways, and innovation. He also serves on the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI) and on the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine’s Board on Higher Education and Workforce (and served on its Committee on Quality in Undergraduate Education).

Paul immigrated to the United States as a child, was the first person in his extended family to attend college, and is a graduate of Framingham State University (BA), Boston College (MA), and the University of Massachusetts (PhD). From 1993 to 1996 he directed a technology start up for Houghton Mifflin Publishing Company, was President of Marlboro College (VT) from 1996 to 2003, and became President of SNHU in 2003. His wife Patricia is an attorney and their daughters Emma and Hannah are doctoral students. Annie, their black Labrador Retriever, studies sleeping on the couch and ways to steal food from the counter tops.

Kim Dukes

Kim has over 25 years of experience in business development and operations management, and more than 17 years of experience in recruiting, hiring, and training diverse and non-diverse candidates. Kim collaborates with both candidates and client companies to align individual leadership capabilities and broad-based organizational capabilities to drive retention, inclusion, performance, profitability, and growth. She possesses a passion for helping clients develop customized recruitment strategies to address their diversity and inclusion needs. Kim is a member of the Society for Human Resources Management, (SHRM) and the New England Human Resources Association (NEHRA), where she is a member of the Diversity Advisory Committee and previously served as co-chair of the Diversity and Inclusion Community Forum. In 2010 Kim received her certification in Diversity Management from Cornell University earning the designation of Cornell Certified Diversity Professional/ Advanced Practitioner (CCDP/AP).

Kim was a 2016 Ad Club ROSOFF 20/20 Awards nominee, honoring an individual’s vision for diversity & inclusion, and has been featured in publications such as the Forbes, U.S. News & World Report, and the Boston Business Journal. She was named NEHRA’s 2014 Volunteer of the Year and is a past recipient of Strong Women Strong Girls’ Spark Award. She also received an individual award for Leaders in Diversity by the Boston Business Journal for her dedication, commitment and outstanding contribution to promoting diversity, inclusion, and equity within organizations.

Specialties: Strategic Diversity Recruitment and Retention, Diversity Talent Pipeline Development, Workforce Strategies, Diversity Recruitment Training and Executive Search (contingency and retained) Specific interest in middle management to executive level positions.

Tina Sharby, Chief Human Resources Officer, SHRM-CP, PHR

Tina M Sharby, is the Chief Human Resources Officer with Easter Seals New Hampshire, Inc. She is an experienced professional with multi-state experience working as a strategic partner in all aspects of Human Resources Management.

Tina has a Bachelor of Science Degree from Keene State College in Business Management, minoring in Human Resources and Safety Management. She obtained her Professional Human Resources Certification in 2002. She obtained her SHRM-CP certification in 2014.

Tina has over twenty five years’ experience in the Human Resources Management field. She has acquired strong analytical, organizational, and strategic management skills. She is a current member:

• Manchester Area Human Resources Association Board of Directors, serving as their President

• NH Human Resources State Council Board member• Society for Human Resource Management• Member of the Manchester Immigrant Integration Initiative• Member of the BIA, Human Resources Committee• Member of Leadership Manchester, Class of 2016• Founding member and Chair Elect of the Diversity Workforce Coalition • Business and Industry Association Health Care & Workforce Development

Committee.

Tina lives in Goffstown, New Hampshire. When not working, Tina enjoys hiking, cooking, reading and spending time with her family.

Kari Heistad

Kari Heistad's work as CEO of Culture Coach International (CCI) focuses on helping organizations to solve the teamwork issues that arise from diverse and multicultural teams. Intent upon helping companies to understand the bottom line impact of cultural and diversity issues, the work of CCI is both practical and strategic in nature. In her work, Kari draws upon her travels and experiences living and working overseas to help clients understand the impact that culture has upon business interactions.  She has worked across a wide variety of industries and she has served as a media resource for outlet such as NEHRA, Boston Business Journal and the Wall Street Journal.  She has turned her years of experience into a wide range of diversity products to help managers and teams drive cultural change including eight Pocket Guides on topics such as Working on Diverse/Global Teams and Leading and Managing Diverse Teams and her team meeting Team Sparks cards.

Linda Johnson, Esquire, McLane Middleton, Professional Association, DWC Board Member

Linda Johnson is a director with McLane Middleton Professional Association which has offices in New Hampshire and Massachusetts.  She has over 30 years of experience litigating cases in state and federal agencies and courts, and in representing the interests of management and independent schools in all aspects of labor and employment, and private school law. Linda co-chairs the firm’s education practice group and is also chair of the firm’s Diversity Committee.   Linda is a former President of the Manchester Area Human and serves of the Board of the NH Diversity Workforce Coalition.  She is AV rated by Martindale Hubbell which is the highest rating for legal ethics and services.  She is listed in Woodward's Best Lawyers in America for both employment and education law, in New England SuperLawyers, and in Chambers USA America's Leading Lawyers in Business.

Tracie Sponenberg

Tracie Sponenberg is the Senior Vice President, Human Resources for The Granite Group, a full-service wholesale distributor of plumbing, heating, cooling and propane supplies based in Concord, New Hampsire. She is responsible for leading all human resource functions throughout the company, which has 34 locations, and nearly 500 employees, throughout New England.   

With expertise in strategic business development, employee engagement and wellness, employment branding, culture development and turnaround, leadership and team development, organizational and strategy development, along with legal compliance, she has gained a broad generalist background across a wide range of industries in her more than 20 years in human resources, with much of her career focused on working with CEO’s to develop people strategies to help the organizations grow. She began her career in HR while in college, interning with a global public transportation company, and advanced through the organization over the next five years. She found her HR home in smaller, private companies, where she could have the most impact on the business. She’s led the HR function at an award-winning multi-state professional services firm; a pulitzer-prize winning newspaper and publishing company, and a national wellness distribution company.

Tracie has a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from The College of The Holy Cross, and a Master’s Degree in Human Resource Administration from Framingham State

University. She is SPHR and SHRM-SCP certified. She is a member of SHRM, MAHRA, HRA-GC, on the Board of Directors of the Concord Food Co-op, and sits on the Anthem-NH Customer Advisory Board. Tracie lives in Concord, New Hampshire with her family.

Karen Young

Karen Young serves as VP & Chief Inclusion Officer of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, a regional health services company serving members throughout Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine. As VP & Chief Inclusion Officer she is responsible to catalyze and advance Harvard Pilgrim’s company-wide commitment to put inclusion in the forefront of everything we do.   Reporting directly to Harvard Pilgrim’s President & CEO, she leads the Center for Inclusion Initiatives and provides direction for six tracks intended to deliver business results: Marketplace, Workplace, Supplier/Vendor, Health Care Equity, Community and Enterprise Leadership. Prior to this role, Karen held the position of Director, Learning, Development and Inclusion and was responsible for value creation through organization development, learning, development and inclusion for business and workplace outcomes.  Her previous experience includes consulting to businesses in the areas of organizational change and learning strategies. Ms. Young holds an MSW from Boston University and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Education from Barrington College.  She has also completed a Certificate Program in Photography from the New Hampshire Institute of Art.  Ms. Young is the recipient of the 2016 Carl Sciortino Ally award from the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition and has received the Compassion, Courage and Professionalism Award from the Northeast Human Resources Association for her practice of human resource management.  Ms. Young currently serves on the Board of Directors of Boston Alliance of Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Youth (BAGLY) and is a Member of the Perkins School for the Blind Corporation.

Terri Tedeshi

Terri Tedeschi is a Business Relations Consultant for New Hampshire Vocational Rehabilitation. Vocational Rehabilitation is a nationwide federally funded program that is tasked with working with businesses to help create a more diverse workforce as well as assisting individuals with disabilities in obtaining and retaining competitive, integrated employment. Terri has been working in the field of Workforce Development since 2001 when she worked with TANF recipients to assist them in becoming more employable and successful in maintaining employment. Terri has worked for Vocational Rehabilitation for over 6 years. She has a BS in Special Education as well as a Graduate Certificate in Job Development and Placement from George Washington University. Terri, who herself has a disability, is passionate about educating others and lifting the stigma often placed on people with disabilities and helping businesses to experience the many benefits associated with employing them

Loretta Brady

Loretta L.C. Brady, Ph.D., APA- CP is a professor of psychology at Saint Anselm College and the founder od BDS Insight, a culture, crisis, and conflict management consulting firm. She is a past Fulbright Fellow and columnist on diversity and inclusion for the New Hampshire Business Review. Her research on adult development, trauma informed service delivery, and serving marginalized populations has been published and presented internationally