Speakers

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  Sean Grace Communications Specialist, Grace Media Works
  

  Sean Grace

  Communications Specialist, Grace Media Works

  Sean Grace is a communications specialist with over 25 years of experience helping brands, organizations and teams become better communicators. His own creative brand of communications training is forged from his long career as an executive in the advertising, publishing, and entertainment industries.

  Sean’s leadership development philosophy is based on the art and science of empathic communications – listening to understand, objective self-awareness, and clear, concise communication built around mutual trust.

  Specializing in high-performance learning and leadership development from early-in-career to senior management, Sean’s workshops develop skills in presentation, public speaking, storytelling, persuasion & influence, critical thinking, and innovation.

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  Tamara Perry Marketing and Sales Manager, Labtopia
  

  Tamara Perry

  Marketing and Sales Manager, Labtopia

  Tamara’s diverse background spans creativity and analytical talents combined with business acumen. She has built her career in a variety of top leadership roles both within the companies she has worked for, as well as within her community and the organizations she volunteers with. Her vast marketing, financial & technical skillset, combined with relationship building and community engagement, has allowed her to successfully engage decision-makers and devise winning strategies and solutions. One of Tamara’s passions is building success-driven teams. She understands the necessity of connecting at all levels within an organization and she encourages her team leaders to make it a priority to lead by coaching, demonstrating, developing the skills of each team member, and giving credit to others for success.

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  Greg Bowen Director of the Integrated Genomics Cores, UNC-Chapel Hill
  

  Greg Bowen

  Director of the Integrated Genomics Cores, UNC-Chapel Hill

  Greg is currently the Director of the Integrated Genomics Cores at UNC-Chapel Hill where he manages the Universities Next Generation Sequencing labs, staff, and projects. A career lab management professional, Greg has experience leading complex chemistry, biology, engineering, and life sciences research teams, lab facilities, and programs. Prior to that Greg worked for Battelle Memorial Institute in Columbus OH in a variety of leadership and lab management roles. This included: Director of Battelle’s Biomedical Research Center; Director of numerous forensic analytical chemistry laboratory facilities in multiple locations across the US and internationally; and positions as research scientist, project manager, and line manager at many levels. A native of Buffalo NY, Greg was previously a US Army Chemical Corps Officer and has a BS in Chemistry from Syracuse University and an MS in Environmental Science from The Ohio State University.

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  Lori Todd Senior Partner, Geek Leadership
  

  Lori Todd

  Senior Partner, Geek Leadership

  Dr. Lori Todd has 20 years of experience as a Professor of Engineering at UNC Chapel Hill and an Industrial Hygienist. Lori received the NSF Presidential Faculty Fellows award and was a finalist for Discover Magazine’s Technological Innovation award. For 20 years, Lori has been an international leadership coach and trainer. She earned a BS from Antioch College, an MS from Cornell University, and a PhD from UNC Chapel Hill.

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  Bill Spreitzer Senior Partner, Geek Leadership
  

  Bill Spreitzer

  Senior Partner, Geek Leadership

  Bill Spreitzer has worked for over 26 years in Corporate America in global supply chain, business development, sales and marketing, global account management, and human resources. For the past 16 years, Bill has focused his energy in the areas of leadership, team development and employee engagement for corporations and individuals. Bill holds a B.A. degree in business from Michigan State University.

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  Rob Katz Senior Partner, Geek Leadership
  

  Rob Katz

  Senior Partner, Geek Leadership

  Dr. Rob Katz has 12 years of experience as an entrepreneur in the high-tech industry. Over the past 25 years, Rob has led transformational and leadership programs and has worked with 30,000 professionals globally. Rob maneuvers easily between technical and non-technical worlds having earned an BSEE degree from MIT and a PhD in Computer Science at UNC Chapel Hill.

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  Tarshae Drummond Research Technician/Lab Manager, Department of Biological and Forensics Science, Fayetteville State University
  

  Tarshae Drummond

  Research Technician/Lab Manager, Department of Biological and Forensics Science, Fayetteville State University

  Tarshae Drummond is the Research Technician/Lab Manager in the Department of Biological and Forensics science at Fayetteville State university. She has been in the academia sector for over 12 years and worked in industry as a senior technologist, hospital test clerk, and accessioner at LabCorp for over 11 years. She earned her BS in Biology with a Chemistry minor at Campbell University and MA in Management and Leadership at Liberty University. Tarshae enjoys family, softball, church, and continuously learning new things. She aims to be a part of solutions to make the world a better place by serving, learning, and bringing joy to others.

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  Rhonda Harrison Biopharma Relationships Consultant, STEM Education Speaker, Mentor and Activist
  

  Rhonda Harrison

  Biopharma Relationships Consultant, STEM Education Speaker, Mentor and Activist

  Dr. Harrison holds a B.S. from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst In Computer Graphics, an M.S. in Biomedical Engineering, and a PhD in Bioinformatics, both from Boston University. She completed her post doc at Harvard Medical School. Her past work in basic and applied research and her current work in biopharma relations at Biopharmix span each point in the drug discovery process. Although her research was computational and she currently works on the business side of science, she has always collaborated closely with wet bench scientists.

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  Sim Sitkin Director of the Behavioral Science and Policy Center, Professor , Duke University
  

  Sim Sitkin

  Director of the Behavioral Science and Policy Center, Professor , Duke University

  Sim B. Sitkin is Duke University’s Michael W. Krzyzewski University Distinguished Professor of Leadership, Professor of Management and Public Policy; Faculty Director, Fuqua/Coach K Center on Leadership & Ethics; and Director of the Behavioral Science and Policy Center. In addition to serving in a number of administrative leadership roles at Duke, he has also been Academic Director at Duke Corporate Education and on the faculty of the University of Texas at Austin and the Free University of Amsterdam. He has been elected a Fellow of Academy of Management, International Network for Trust Research, Society for Organizational Behavior, the Society for Organizational Learning, and the Center for Evidence-based Management.

  He is the Editor of Behavioral Science and Policy, Consulting Editor of Science You Can Use, Advisory Board Member of the Journal of Trust Research, having previously served as Editor-in-Chief of the Academy of Management Annals, Senior Editor of Organization Science, and as Associate Editor of the Journal of Organizational Behavior.

  Professor Sitkin’s research focuses on leadership and control systems and their influence on how organizations and their members become more or less capable of change and innovation. He is widely known for his research on the effect of formal and informal organizational control systems and leadership on risk taking, accountability, trust, learning, courage, M&A processes, and innovation. His most recent books are Organizational Control (2010), The Six Domains of Leadership (2016) and Routledge Companion to Trust (2017).

  He has served on a number of boards of directors (including Academy of Management, Society of Organizational Learning, Hope for the Warriors, and Center for the Public Domain) and academic advisory boards (Behavioural Insights Team, Center for Evidence-based Management, McKinsey Implementation Practice). He currently serves as President of the Behavioral Science and Policy Association and Deputy Dean of the Academy of Management Fellows. He has worked as a consultant and executive educator with many large and small corporations, non-profit and government organizations worldwide.

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  Ivonne Chirino-Klevans Clinical Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior, Kenan-Flager Business School UNC
  

  Ivonne Chirino-Klevans

  Clinical Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior, Kenan-Flager Business School UNC

  Dr. Ivonne Chirino-Klevans is Clinical Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior at the
  Kenan-Flager Business School at the University of North Carolina. She teaches courses on leading and managing and diversity, equity and inclusion at UNC Kenan-Flagler. She also is a coordinating faculty member for the MBA@UNC program.

  Dr. Chirino-Klevans’ academic work is widely published, and she is the author of several books on cross-cultural leadership, including “Cases on Global Leadership in the Contemporary Economy.” She is the principal investigator of award-winning virtual reality simulations that develop leadership skills across cultures. She is an executive coach and has consulted extensively with global organizations on topics related to global leadership and diversity and inclusion. She is a consultant for NASCAR.

  Dr. Chirino-Klevans has served in many academic leadership positions, including as assistant dean of executive education at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and founding member of Duke Corporate Education. She is a resilience coach for the Carolina Collaborative for Resilience in partnership with the Office of the Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost, the University Office of Diversity and Inclusion and Undergraduate Admissions. The Mexican Consulate awarded her with the 2022 Distinguished Mexican Award for her work using virtual reality and artificial intelligence to develop simulations for conflict management across cultures. She also was recognized for her positive impact by mentoring elementary school Latinx students and providing resilience coaching to college students. Dr, Chirino-Klevan is a volunteer with LÍDER, collaboration between the UNC Kenan-Flagler DEI Office and the Carolina Latinx Center to offer a year-long, highly interactive leadership development program for Latinx undergraduate students throughout the state of North Carolina.

  She is a former Pan American games medalist in gymnastics, All-American and student athlete. Dr. Chirino-Klevans is bilingual in English and Spanish, and has working knowledge of French and Portuguese. She received her PhD in psychology from Iberoamericana University, her MBA from Universidad de las Américas, and her master’s and BS in psychology from Georgia College and State University.

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  Marie Mitchell Professor of Organizational Behavior, Kenan-Flagler Business School UNC-Chapel Hill
  

  Marie Mitchell

  Professor of Organizational Behavior, Kenan-Flagler Business School UNC-Chapel Hill

  Marie Mitchell is the Edward M. O’Herron Scholar and Professor of Organizational
  Behavior at the Kenan-Flagler Business School at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Mitchell recently joined the UNC faculty in 2022 from the Terry College of Business at the University of Georgia, where she was the I. W. Cousins Professor of Business Ethics. Her research studies behavioral ethics in the workplace, inclusion and exclusion dynamics at work, and destructive and conflictive work behavior and relationships. Her extensive body of research has been published in top journals, including research has appeared in journals such as the Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Applied Psychology, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, and Personnel Psychology, among others.

  Dr. Mitchell sits on the editorial boards of the Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, and Personnel Psychology, and is a former Associate Editor of Personnel Psychology.

  Dr. Mitchell teaches courses in ethics, leadership, inclusion, negotiation, and other
  relevant topics for organizations, and at all levels of curriculum (undergraduate, MBA, and
  doctorate). Prior to entering higher education, Dr. Mitchell worked in human resource
  management and consulting. She earned her PhD from the University of Central Florida, her MA in human resource management from Rollins College, and her BA in political science from George Mason University.

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  Patrick Condreay Safety Manager, Human Vaccine Institute Duke University School of Medicine
  

  Patrick Condreay

  Safety Manager, Human Vaccine Institute Duke University School of Medicine

  Patrick Condreay PhD, RBP(ABSA), manages the safety program at the Human Vaccine Institute in the Duke University School of Medicine. The Vaccine Institute includes the Duke Regional Biocontainment Laboratory that houses BSL3 and ABSL3 laboratories. Prior to joining Duke, he was a biological safety consultant providing program management and training solutions for clients in academia, government, and industry. Before pursuing biological safety full-time, Pat had a 28-year career as a pharmaceutical R&D scientist with GlaxoSmithKline working with a variety of pathogenic viruses and recombinant viral vector systems. Pat has been involved in training and education efforts in biological safety for over 20 years, including development and delivery of ABSA International’s Principles and Practices of Biosafety course. He is a Past President of ABSA International.

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  Christopher Toomey Manager, Laboratory Operations, Enanta Pharmaceuticals
  

  Christopher Toomey

  Manager, Laboratory Operations, Enanta Pharmaceuticals

  After completing a B.Sc in Biochemistry, Christopher Toomey embarked on a rewarding six-year tenure as a bench researcher in synthetic biology and genetic engineering. Concurrently, he pursued a Master’s degree in Biotechnology, fully immersing himself in both academic and professional environments of biotechnology. This experience provided invaluable insights into lab operations and the structured dynamics of the biotech industry, igniting a passion for continuous improvement and agile project management principles. Recently, he has transitioned into pharmaceutical lab operations, where he is dedicated to refining processes, enhancing operational efficiency, and enabling cutting-edge science. This journey has most recently led to his attainment of a Project Management Professional certification, and he is looking forward to applying these new skillsets to further enhance operations.

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  Ian Klevans Research Specialist, UNC Chapel Hill
  

  Ian Klevans

  Research Specialist, UNC Chapel Hill