IndySHRM Diversity Conference
Thursday, April 16, 2009
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Breakout Session I: “Change is Here; Are You Ready?” Highpoints of legal changes affecting HR Professionals” by Mitzi Martin, Baker and Daniels LLP

About the Session:
In this 1.5 hour breakout session, Mitzi H. Martin will highlight diverse newly enacted and proposed employment legislation and the actual and potential impact on human resources professionals' duties and responsibilities.

Mitzi will focus on:

• The new "FMLA" that became effective January 16, 2009, and give a brief overview of:
  • The new and nuanced FMLA regulations;
  • The practical implications for managing ever-complex leave requests;
  • The new military-related leave – including defining a "qualifying exigency" and explaining how to run the new servicemember care leave calendar along side your "regular" FMLA calendar.
• The Americans With Disabilities Act Amendment Act (the ADAAA or the ADA3 ) and how employers respond to expanded rights while awaiting the EEOC's regulations.
• The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which allows the clock on pay claims to begin running with each new paycheck, effectively subjecting employers to liability years after a pay practice that allegedly violates the law was first implemented.
• The Employee Free Choice Act, which would eliminate secret ballot elections and replace them with a card check arrangement and result in an employer's automatically becoming the recognized bargaining agent if a union obtains more than 50% of authorization cards.
  

About Mitzi Martin: Mitzi Martin is a Partner with Baker & Daniels LLP. She concentrates her practice in counseling and defending management in all aspects of employment law. She creatively counsels employers in managing their diverse work forces. Mitzi partners with management and human resources professionals to develop and implement policies and strategies to achieve a productive, satisfied work force, directly improving the bottom line. Her preventive maintenance initiatives include developing policies related to injured/ill employees, equal employment opportunity compliance, substance use and abuse, workplace violence, wage hour obligations, and labor relations. Mitzi also assists clients in developing strategies for effectively investigating alleged wrongdoing and restructuring their workforces so as
to avoid legal liability. Mitzi also counsels social service agencies and public employers on state and federal compliance challenges unique to those entities. When employers' decisions are challenged, she litigates in state and federal forums.

Breakout Session I: “Why Can’t They just Get Over It?” by Quay Kester, PhD Evoke Communications

About the Session:
Why Don’t They Just Get Over It?

We’ve heard the question, probably have felt and perhaps have asked it from time to time. It is a natural question when we’re trying to move ahead and meet a seemingly repeated resistance. Maybe we’ve been asked to manage an interpersonal conflict situation at work. Or a group seems to have an on-going issue that tries our understanding. Maybe you’ve noticed particular work-related demographic trends that are perplexing. Or maybe you’ve been asked to review or make new policies and procedures and you want to ensure fairness. In any case, the answer has been elusive. Until now.

This session addresses “Why Don’t They Just Get Over It?” from the perspective of a Ghanaian phrase, “Unless you know your history, you argue blindly.” First, we recognize that we bring our cultural heritages to the workplace, that they are a part of us. Our cultural backgrounds shape how we perceive the world, our environment, our relationships and expectations of self and others. And, the workplace has a cultural history of its own. So how do we manage all those variables? We reconsider a shared history, with a new perspective: that of US laws, events and policies that have influenced each of us in differing ways. This session looks at a timeline from 1619 until the present, using facts and stats (in a fun way) that shed new light “getting over it” and how that impacts the workplace. We will look at “dominant” cultural norms related to US history and how various cultural groups have benefited or struggled as a result of “institutionalized” norms. We will explore and dismantle well-intentioned myths that can perpetuate “not getting over it,” and discuss strategies to move forward with historical insight. We will use common definitions related to culture in new ways, use real life examples and factual information in a compelling way. So, that within the workplace, opportunities are well-balanced and available. So, you will be better able to see how history is present and affects people in the present. And, you will be better able to make more informed decisions, based on a shared understanding.

*This session approaches the question of “Why Don’t They Just Get Over It?” from a cultural perspective, not a therapeutic one.

About Quay Kester, PhD: Quay Kester's diverse career has spanned the globe in fields of educational design, media messages, marketing, health care, medical illustration/photography, cultural competency and leadership education. She views the common thread for this work from an artist's perspective. She brings diverse elements together to create a dynamic product, and often uses traditional artist's processes to do so (contemporary realism in oils, watercolors and photography).
Ms. Kester has led learning experiences for health care administrators and professionals, clinical educators, socials service professionals, management teams, university students and faculty, not-for-profit organizations, and the "kids next door." She has presented at numerous national meetings. Her experience has taken her to Guatemala, Sierra Leone, the Philippines, St. Croix, Ghana, West Africa, and most recently, Kenya and Tanzania. Her doctorate from Indiana University is in Instructional Systems Technology. She has recently been certified to administer an ethics awareness inventory, is a certified EMT and certified Medical Illustrator. In addition, Ms. Kester is a master practitioner of NLP (neurolinguistic programming.)

Breakout Session II: Economic Outlook by Michael Hicks, Director of Center for Business and Economic Research, Ball State University

About Michael Hicks: Nationally known for his research on energy markets and the economic impact of Wal-Mart, Michael Hicks joins Ball State’s Center for Business and Economic Research from the Air Force Institute of Technology’s Graduate School of Engineering and Management at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, where he served as an associate professor of economics, and from the Mackinac Center for Public Policy where he was an adjunct scholar. Previously, Hicks was a tenured research professor at Marshall University. He also holds the rank of lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army, serving since 1984 in North Africa, Southwest Asia, Korea, and Japan. Hicks earned doctoral and master’s degrees in economics from the University of Tennessee and a bachelor’s degree in economics from Virginia Military Institute. He has authored two books and more than 60 scholarly works focusing on state and local public policy, including an emphasis on tax and expenditure policy, environmental regulation, alternative and traditional energy, and the economic impact of Wal-Mart on local economies.

Breakout Session II: “Diversity is Here to Stay: Enhancing Cultural Competence” by Ken Durgans, Assistant Chancellor for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at IUPUI

About the Session:
WHAT IS CULTURAL COMPETENCE?
Cultural competence is a skill that practitioners can develop at both individual and organizational levels in order to work effectively with children, adolescents, and parents from diverse racial, ethnic, sexual, religious, and socioeconomic backgrounds.

Cultural competence is not composed of merely attitudes or sensibilities; cultural competence is defined by actions and altered behaviors that accompany respectful understanding.

Developing cultural competence is a long-term process. Accordingly, cultural competence cannot necessarily be achieved through compartmentalized instruction sessions or interventions it must be honed through perpetual individual and institutional efforts in order to be effectively employed.

THE PURPOSE IS TO:

• Understand and appreciate cultural diversity, especially as it relates to your work as a professional;
• To increase your sensitivity to diverse and complex relationships ;
• To enhance your ability to communicate with people from other cultures
  

About Ken Durgans: Assistant Chancellor for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). A native of Springfield, Ohio, he graduated from Yellow Springs High School, received his B.A. in History and Political Science from Baldwin Wallace College, M.A. in College Student Personnel from Kent State University, M.S. in School Counseling from the University of Dayton and Ed.D. in Counseling Psychology from Western Michigan University: he also completed the acclaimed Harvard University Management Development Program. Dr. Durgans' professional appointments have varied from such notable institutions as the University of Notre Dame, Wittenberg University, Olivet College, Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine, Xavier University (Cincinnati), and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. His academic and professional expertise are focused on cross-cultural communication and diversity issues. He continues to actively serve as campus advisor to student organizations and on an array of community service organizations boards. Dr. Durgans and his wife Tara especially enjoy engaging with their dynamic children.

Keynote Presentation: “The Business Case: Why Diversity and Inclusion are Good for Business” by Dr. Shirley Davis, SHRM

About the Session:
If HR and Diversity professionals want to get their organizations behind diversity and inclusion initiatives, they need to be skilled at making a strong business case for them. It’s not enough to use the typical response of, “it’s the right thing to do.” We must show how these efforts will drive organizational success, sustainability, profitability, and competitive advantage. In this presentation, learn how to leverage the internal processes, programs, policies, and practices within your organization as well as the external environment to build a solid Diversity and Inclusion business case. While highlighting four key steps, the presenter will outline how these steps fit into a more comprehensive model, called the SHRM Strategic Diversity Management Plan®, recently developed by SHRM’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion.

About Dr. Shirley Davis: As Director of Diversity and Inclusion Initiatives, Shirley acts as the SHRM “thought leader” on global diversity issues and will be working to position SHRM as the leader in the diversity and inclusion field. She designs and implements innovative diversity strategies to further both the ATP (Advance the Profession) and STP (Serve the Professional) portions of SHRM’s overall strategy. Shirley also acts as the staff leader to the Diversity Special Expertise Panel; the liaison to SHRM’s Diversity Advisory Council, the SHRM Diversity Conference; and the representative of SHRM’s Diversity Initiative to the public. She travels across the country and internationally speaking on the critical challenges and complexities associated with managing diversity in a global workforce and marketplace. She provides HR and diversity professionals practical strategies and solutions that enable them to effectively develop, implement and sustain their diversity and inclusion initiatives. Shirley has more than 15 years of experience in Human Resources, Organizational & Leadership Development and Diversity Management. She has led such functions Training & Education, Leadership Development, Performance Management, Recruiting, Change Management, Strategic Planning and Global Diversity. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Pre-Law, a Master’s Degree in Human Resources Management, and a Ph.D. in Business and Organization Management.

This conference has been approved for 3 recertification credit hours toward PHR, SPHR and GPHR recertification through the HR Certification Institute (HRCI). The use of this seal is not an endorsement by the HR Certification Institute of the quality of the program. It means that this program has met the HR Certification Institute’s criteria to be pre-approved for recertification credit.For more information about certification or recertification, please visit the HRCI homepage at www.hrci.org.

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